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.…

Sometimes, I find myself telling a writing student that they ‘have given their idea’ away, by which I mean that the idea for a story is a really good one but that it has been wasted.…

One of…

What brings hardened city gangland figures to the North Pennines and one of them to his violent death? DCI Jack Harris must find out…

Seeking inspiration for your writing? Fancy writing in a 160-year-old 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 (weather permitting!)? And all with delicious home-cooked meals?

Then this is a reminder that a weekend course at Kettle Knowe near Castle Douglas is for you. Best-selling crime novelist and creative writing tutor John Dean is offering courses for your writing group…

At the heart of every crime novel is a strong story. But how do you put it all together? Well, at the heart of any interesting story is the way characters overcome obstacles through their own skills…

I think good writing is good writing because it triggers responses in its readers. Readers say ‘I have been in that situation',  ‘I know someone like that’ or ‘what a terrible thing to be faced with, how would I react?'’ etc etc.

If readers feel like that, it means that they are being drawn into the story. They stand next to your characters, they fear for what is about to happen, they simply must know what is on the next page.

If a reader does not really care what is happening…

The latest DCI Jack Harris novel has been published by the Book Folks. Thou Shalt Kill is my seventeenth crime novel to be published.

Book details: When a man is discovered murdered by crucifixion, an evangelical religious group falls under suspicion.

A dead body nailed to a shed unsettles even hardened detective Jack Harris. Despite being told that…

I recently taught a class on horror writing, as part of a creative writing course I was running. The session threw up that old chestnut. How much gore do you use? Do you leave it to the reader's imagination or soak them in blood on every page?…

I have always said that I write fast and edit slow, by which I mean that I hurl words onto the page then spend most of the time working and reworking them, rather like a…