A Facebook group of which I am a member saw someone recently asking if humour is important in crime fiction? I replied saying that the answer is yes, it is, but here are my more detailed thoughts.

For a start, how do you get it right, particularly since there’s an old saying that if you are not a humorous person, don’t try to write humour?

Well, it is only part-true. It is certainly the case that a straight-laced, humourless person might well struggle to write side-splitting…

Looking forward to taking part in this event, which is part of the first Kirkcudbright Book Week

Wednesday March 4 2020

In Conversation With…. Crime Writers Jackie Baldwin and Ian Patrick. Chaired by crime writer John Dean.

7.30pm The Restaurant Selkirk Arms High Street Free event but please book in advance, details to be found at…

I am delighted to be one of the organisers of the first ever Kirkcudbright Book Week, which will run between Monday March 2 and Friday March 6, 2020, and includes World Book Day, which is aimed at younger writers and readers.

The week is designed to showcase the developing literary scene in Kirkcudbright and the wider Dumfries and Galloway area…

Sixty two reviews and counting, Dead Hill (The Book Folks), the book where it all started for DCI Jack Harris, remains at four stars. Thank you to all those who gave it positive reviews. You can read them at…

Characters are our major tools as writers. They drive narratives and reveal things to the reader and what particularly fascinates me is the way that they assume lives of their own.

Take the DCI Jack Harris novel on which I am working (33,000 words and counting). It has been progressing ‘OK’, good plot, strong characters etc and I have mapped out where the story is going but I could not help feeling that something was missing and the story was losing momentum and direction as a result.…

Further to my previous blogs which have touched on the theme of conflict (it’s a key part of a creative writing course I am running at the moment), I thought a few lines on writing arguments might be useful: They shouldn’t have repetitive elements - Unlike real arguments which go in circles for ages, fictionalised ones are short and sharp

They shouldn’t be boring - Arguments are there to forward the plot along. They should reveal something about a relationship between two people or…

I am always interested in what triggers a new character for a writer. When and how do they burst in to life? I am thinking of this because I am working on a new Jack Harris novel and, although some of my regulars appear, I need some new ones.

Characters come in all forms from all types of inspiration. Maybe the prompt for a new character for a…

I am delighted to have featured in Paula Williams’ latest excellent blog, chatting about some of my inspirations as a writer. You can read the full interview at

https://paulawilliamswriter.wordpress.com/2019/11/02/where-does-crime-writer-john-dean-get-his-ideas-from/

I will deliver two free talks in Dumfries and Galloway to celebrate Book Week Scotland in November, both of them looking at the conversation between writer and reader. The theme of Book Week Scotland this year is Blether and I will look at how you can’t always trust the writer to tell the truth!

What do I mean by that? Well, convention dictates…

Time and time again in my writing, I come back to the theme of conflict., It is what makes fiction work.

But why is it important? Because stories need things to happen and that usually comes out of conflict - characters argue, fight, feud etc. It is through seeing characters in conflict that we see them at their truest, when their guard is…

The Long Dead (The Book Folks), a DCI Blizzard mystery set in the world of archaeologists and wartime  memories, has now topped 60 reviews on Amazon and it's held steady at four stars. You can find out more at…

What makes for good writing? Well, I think that good writing works because it triggers responses in its readers. The best writers get into the head of their readers (it is the theme of a creative writing course I am due to deliver in Kirkudbright, starting in a few days, and a ghost fiction workshop I am due to deliver in a haunted Scottish castle on Halloween).

I think writing works best when readers say ‘I have been in that situation, ‘I know someone like that’, ‘what a terrible…

Following on from my previous blogs on creating characters, a word about minor characters and the care you need to take when creating them.

But why, you may ask, spend unnecessary time on insignificant characters? Some may have roles so negligible that they won’t even warrant names: the servant who brought the drinks; the hotel maid who cleaned the room, the police officer who drove the car and so on.

They deserve attention, though, because, although the reader isn’t supposed to…

The latest DCI John Blizzard mystery, the seventh in the series published by The Book Folks, is up to 42 in the British Detective Stories section of Amazon Kindle.

In A Flicker in the Night, a spate of murderous arson attacks evokes bitter memories for stalwart detective John Blizzard.

It was a defining moment in DCI John Blizzard’s…

I am writing the latest DCI Jack Harris crime novel and, although I plotted it pretty carefully in advance, the characters are doing a lot of the work for me as I write, throwing up questions and hinting at secrets.

It reminded me how important secrets are to a crime writer. It is crucial that your characters are hiding things. They may reveal their secrets to the reader but it can be a very effective storytelling tool if the investigators are in the dark until the story comes to its…

I am delighted that the dates for the next creative writing course at Kirkudbright Galleries have been announced.

Writing Course with Author John Dean - October 18-December 6

Kirkudbright Galleries, Kirkudbright, Dumfries and Galloway

The course will examine ways in which prose writers, be it those creating short stories or…

Bookings are starting to come from authors after Buittle Castle and best-selling novelist John Dean teamed up to run a workshop on how to write…

I often tell my creative writing students to listen to the characters they create, to be alive to what they are saying.

To illustrate the point, I refer to the story of a crime writer who I taught a few years ago and who created a brilliantly-drawn character. When she had finished reading out the chapter in which this new character featured, she revealed that it was only a minor character and that the girl would never appear again.

I argued that the character had so grabbed her…

I am currently working on the latest DCI Jack Harris novel and already, 11,000 words in, I am creating scenes full of raw emotion and human passions ranging from rage to grief.

Now, I have not experienced all the situations I depict but I’ve gone through a lot of scenarios that were similar. For me, the line between real life and fiction is an…