I was asked in an interview the other day for my golden rules for new writers. I replied: “Write something every day because you cannot be a writer if you do not write – it may not always be brilliant but at least you’ve done it.” It's advice that my good friend the children's writer Mike Watson lives by. I suspect that many authors do the same.

I also said that they should not write for themselves. Always write for the reader. Think what the reader needs to understand your…

As I have said in previous blogs, you can create the most remarkable writing but you cannot make your stories live unless you have vivid characters. And that includes being prepared to let minor characters develop into someone more important.

That is happening to me (and not for the first time) as I write the latest DCI Jack Harris crime novel for those good people at The Book Folks.

The character in question did not even figure in my planning of the novel nor, as I reached…

Delighted to say that the latest in the DCI John Blizzard series published by The Book Folks is attracting some encouraging reviews on Amazon. I am very grateful.

In The Latch Man, Doris Hornsby, the bed-bound matriarch of a notorious criminal family, calls in the police after she sees an intruder in her room. Blizzard attends in person,…

The use of words is something dear to all our hearts as writers. They are the tools of our trade and we wield them with care.

That means that every word should earn the right to be on the page and that authors should be forensic in the examination of what they write, even if it means that some words slip from our usage or at least appear much less frequently. For example, I became aware some years ago that there were some words I used too often in my writing - ‘murmured’ and…

I am pleased to say that I have been running a number of online creative writing courses during lockdown and continuing into the more relaxed situation, both for individuals and groups, some focusing on crime fiction, others looking at more general fiction, both short stories and novels.

Some exciting work is being produced by those taking part,…

As a writer, I have always been interested in triggers, the images, concepts, places, people, utterances that evoke reactions in your reader.

That reaction will often be based on something the reader has actually experienced, or maybe something that they dread ever having to experience. It is why crime, horror and ghost stories work so well.

I am thinking about this because, in writing the latest Harris novel, I found myself stuck at the start of what felt like it should be an…