Best-selling crime novelist and creative writing tutor John Dean, who is based in Dumfries and Galloway, is still running an…

Thinking of writing a crime novel? Then you need to consider that to write a good crime story, you need to:

* Create a strong story (even with a short story, it is worth mapping out a synopsis because crime stories are often complicated and you need to get it right).…

The McIlvanney Prize is launching a new award for 2019…

Delighted that four of my novels, including Death List, are in the best-seller Organised Crime Amazon Kindle charts - check out the full list at …

Best-selling crime novelist John Dean is returning to Darlington to stage a couple of events as part of the literary line-up during Darlington Arts Festival in May.

John, the former chair of Festival organisers Darlington for Culture, left the town after 26 years at the end of 2017 to live in South West Scotland.

The author of 17…

Looking forward to being part of the Darlington Arts Festival line-up in May!

The literary events line-up has now been announced. Details at:…

As you may know from my previous blogs, I am putting the final touches to the latest DCI Jack Harris novel. I am analysing each line to make sure that every word is doing a job and much of that process is focusing on dialogue.

I talk to many writers who say: ‘I can write but I…

The DCI Jack Harris crime novel Dead Hill (Book Folks) is up to 57 reviews on Amazon now - you can see what the readers thought of it at…

As the Crime Writers’ Association Libraries Champion in Scotland, I often find myself reminding people that libraries are about so much more than books. And one of the most important elements of the…

Writers! Fancy writing in a house on a hill? Looking to learn more about how writers draw inspiration from their surroundings? Like to find a peaceful corner of a garden to write? And all with home-cooked meals?  

Then a weekend course near Castle Douglas in Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland is for you or your writing…

Delighted to say the DCI Blizzard crime novel The Secrets Man is at number thirty three in the…

I have just read Ian Patrick’s debut crime novel Rubicon (Fahrenheit Press) and was blown away by it. It is a terrific read and I can heartily recommend it.…

It is well worth checking out the latest news and views from the world of crime fiction by becoming part of the excellent …

As a writer, one of my guiding lights is ‘why?’ Why do people behave the way they do, why do they risk imprisonment by breaking the law, why did they let events unfold the way they do?…

The brilliant best-selling crime writer Peter James recently tweeted: “I always plan the beginning, end and the first 20% of a book in detail – but after that I like events to happen spontaneously, and for the story to take on a life of its own. That way, events, and how the characters react to them, feel authentic.”…

Nice to have some good reviews for the DCI Blizzard crime novel Death List - they are much appreciated!  You can read them at …

I am editing the first draft of a new Jack Harris novel at the moment and my big preoccupation is pace.

Learning how to write a narrative with the right pace is one of the most crucial writing skills. Get it wrong and you are jeopardising your chances of success. Get…

Following the news that we are running an online crime fiction course, I thought it would be useful to look at how to create a murderer!

The key to good crime writing is to create strong characters - do not stray into cliché, make your characters come over as real.So, that means you must make the villain real and not some clichéd figure from the movies.

The best thing is for them to have appeared earlier in the story so the reader knows them, becomes engaged with their life, starts…

I am  d…