I am delighted to be part of this…

A newly-launched initiative designed to showcase crime writers will feature in National Crime Reading Month in June with four authors talking about their craft and the publishing industry.

Launched in January, Mug Shots is run by Tall Tales Mysteries, a leading UK murder mystery company based…

I have just finished editing my latest Jack Harris novel and am looking towards my next book, a process which always brings the idea of ideas into sharp focus.

So where do ideas come from? For some writers, stories start with a place, somewhere that strikes them so forcibly that the story unfolds around it. I tend to be like that. Hillsides,…

I’ve recently been involved in a couple of discussions in social media groups about the best way to start a crime fiction story so I thought that I would pass on some of my thoughts.

One of the key things I tell those writers that I advise is that the opening lines of their crime stories are crucial because harassed publishers, overworked…

The Crime Writers' Association has announced this year's eagerly-awaited Daggers award shortlists. Well done to all those selected. You can find out the full details at 

thecwa.co.uk

I have been editing the latest Jack Harris crime novel before sending it off to my publishers The Book Folks and I thought that an insight into the process might prove interesting.

I know that some writers dislike editing, preferring the creative process of filling a blank page, but I love it. Indeed, editing is my favourite part of the whole…

Interested in crime fiction? Then check out my good friend the excellent Bud Craig talking about his craft in the latest instalment of the free Tall Tales Mysteries Mug Shots series of films. Bud, one of the Book Folks stable of writers, talks in particular about sense of place. You can watch the interview at…

Should you so wish, you can check out my views on sense of place in an article specially produced for the excellent Trip Fiction website, at 

Talking Location With… author John Dean – the importance of place Blog |…

I am editing the first draft of the new DCI Jack Harris novel for my publisher The Book Folks and dealing, as writers always do, with the thorny issue of their characters’ past – their back story.

Back story is a common theme in my writing, my teaching and my assessment of manuscripts and a theme that I return to in my blogs on a regular…