So how do you know when you are onto something when you are writing the novel? For me, it is when it starts to write itself.

What do I mean? Well, as an example, I am working on the new Jack Harris novel and, as usual, took time before writing to plan it out – events, episodes,…

Libraries across the country are being hit hard by government cuts to local authority budgets. This online petition calls for the Government to ringfence…

Delighted to say that The Secrets Man is among seven of my novels in the Amazon Kindle top 100 British Detective Stories best-sellers chart. You can see the full chart at…

I have always believed that what differentiates good writing from less effective writing is detail, which is the theme of a creative writing class I am teaching at the moment at Kirkudbright Galleries.…

I am developing a talk that examines writers’ fascination with the way people flout convention, be it legal, ethical or moral. The talk has been inspired, in part, by my recently-published novel A Breach of Trust (Book…

I have always thought - and I know I will be shot down for this in some quarters - that writers view the world differently to a lot of people.

Talking to writers certainly bears that out, though, the way a word, a phrase, an image, an idea can create a train of thought that evolves…

I am returning to a familiar theme for this blog because it will form part of my theme for the talks I give for Book Week Scotland in late November (details to be announced).

The week’s theme is…

I am interested in the journeys that writers take to their chosen way of life.

My passion for writing stretches back to my childhood. I was fortunate in…

Dead Hill, the first DCI Jack Harris crime novel, has attracted more than 50 reviews on Amazon. The novel is set against a backdrop of illegal birds’ egg collecting in the North Pennines and you can see what the reviewers made of it at…

Delighted that the latest DCI Harris novel Thou Shalt Kill (The Book Folks) is riding high in the Amazon Kindle best-seller charts and attracting some complimentary reviews.

Telling the story of a double murder in a remote upland community, it can be bought at …

I was telling someone about my crime writing the other day and it made me sound a right ghoul, reflecting on horrible themes as I do.…

Just lately, I’ve been doing a lot of teaching, and giving a number of talks, on the idea of ideas and during my research I came across these excellent quotes:

• People always want to know: Where do I get my ideas? They're everywhere. I'm inspired by people and things around me. (Gwendolyn Brooks, American poet)
• My standard answer is "I don't know where they come from, but I know where they come to, they come to my desk." If I'm not there, they go away again, so…

This…

I have today started teaching a…

I have talked to quite a few aspiring writers lately, who although loving short stories have decided to have a crack at producing a novel as well.…

As the years have progressed, my writing has become more spare, less adjectives, more story.

I have learned the need for this approach from various sources; skilled editors at my publishers, reading good fiction (and bad, you can learn a lot from bad…

The Railway Man is on special offer at the moment. Veteran crime-solver DCI John Blizzard is confronted with his hardest case yet when a boxer and wide boy is found dead in a railway signal box.…