As I have mentioned in recent blogs, I am working on the next DCI John Blizzard novel and that means coming up with a villain on which so much of the story will be based.

I am not going to give away the nature of the villain in the book, to avoid ruining the surprise for those who read it, but suffice to say that a good way of making a…

The latest DCI Jack Harris crime novel continues to sell well and is riding high in a number of the bestsellers charts on Amazon.

Published by The Book Folks, The Girl in the Meadow sees Harris and his team embroiled in a challenging investigation after a skeleton is found during the refurbishment of a remote house on a windswept hill, having…

As I have said in previous blogs, writers can create the finest landscapes, devise the greatest stories and produce the most remarkable prose but they cannot make their narrative truly live unless they have devised effective characters.

This comes to mind at this specific time because I am busy creating new characters to appear alongside…

As you may know, I work with my daughter Laura to help aspiring writers who are developing crime novels in the hope that a publisher will pick them up.

One of the things we do is help the writers to target the most appropriate publisher for their work.

It’s not a simple question of researching who publishes ‘crime fiction’. There are…

One of the key things that I tell my students on my online crime fiction course is that the opening lines of their stories are crucial. Why? Because harassed publishers, overworked agents and readers with a mass of choice need grabbing within moments of picking up the book/short story/manuscript.

This all comes to mind because I have just…

Author Anne Micklethwaite  has published a collection of poetry.

A Cup of  Tea and a Poem reflects the way that Anne’s work often echoes the legendary Japanese female poets who identified with the cycles of nature in order to deal with loss. This is clearly shown in “Wave Lullaby”, where she consoles all of us who have loved and…

I am delighted that the latest novel by Alex Pearl has been published.

In the murder mystery A Brand to Die for, it’s 1983 and an advertising copywriter teams up with a senior colleague in an advertising agency to investigate a baffling murder.

They are an unlikely duo, but their mischievous and sardonic take…

Since I run an online crime fiction course, I thought it would be useful to look at some of the topics which I explore with the writers, either through their existing works or material that is produced in response to exercises set during the course.

The themes covered on the course comprise the basic elements that make for good storytelling in…

DCI Jack Harris is back! In The Girl in the Meadow, the latest book in John Dean’s series of crime novels published by The Book Folks, Harris and his team find themselves involved in an investigation taking in northern England and Scotland.

In its isolated spot on the slopes of a windswept hill, Meadowview House has been vacant for decades.…

As you may know, I run online creative writing courses, including crime fiction ones, and one of the themes I explore with the writers I teach is the way that ideas seek out authors.

As part of my ongoing research into the theme, I came across a quote from American crime writer Patricia Highsmith, who when asked where her ideas came from said:…

As you may know from my previous blog, I am working on the new DCI John Blizzard crime novel, with the idea sparked by a new character, the creation of which is always exciting.

This allows me to reiterate the vexed theme of back story. Vexed? Why? Surely, the reader needs to know about the new character’s background? Yes, of course, they do but, as authors, we need to be careful how we use the information.

Why? Because, back story, by definition, takes the story backwards. It…