Darlington crime novelist John Dean will be featured at Jeremiah Vokes’ book shop in Coniscliffe Road, Darlington, during the week May 12-16, when his latest novel To Honour the Dead will be available to buy. The initiative is part of the Darlington Arts Festival.

In To Honour the Dead, published by Hale in November 2012 and the third…

The Open Mic nights for authors, which are supported by Darlington for Culture, continue on Thursday May 30.The nights, which offer a forum for writers to read their material and audiences to enjoy it, run at Voodoo Café/Cantina, 84 Skinnergate, on the last Thursday of the month. Each session starts at 7pm and the cost of entry is £3 paid on the door.

More information is available at…

John Dean is running crime writing and children’s fiction masterclasses at Darlington Arts Festival in May. More at…

Creative writing tutor John Dean has announced the summer term dates for his popular courses at the Friends

’ Meeting House in Skinnergate, Darlington.

The adult learning courses deal with all aspects of creative writing, focusing primarily on prose, including short stories,…

The Open Mic nights for authors, which are supported by Darlington for Culture, continue on Thursday (March 28).

The nights, which offer a forum for writers to read their material and audiences to enjoy it, run at Voodoo Café/Cantina, 84 Skinnergate, on the last Thursday of the month. Each session starts at 7pm and the cost of entry is £3 paid on the door.

More information is available at…

I’m running two masterclasses as part of Darlington Arts Festival 2013

Crime Writing Masterclass

Crime novelist John Dean presents a day-long workshop helping you to create villains, invent detectives and murder folks!

Venue: Café Create, Parkgate

Date: Thursday May 2

Time 10am-4pm

Tickets and arrangements £25 for the day. Places can be booked in advance by contacting John Dean at…

Inscribe Media, of which I am a director, is now running the Global Short Story Competition from its website at

www.inscribemedia.co.uk. Cash prizes every month. Follow us on Facebook (search Inscribe Media) or Twitter…

The Open Mic nights for authors, which are supported by Darlington for Culture, resume on Thursday January 31. he nights, which offer a forum for writers to read their material and audiences to enjoy it, run at Voodoo Café/Cantina, 84 Skinnergate, on the last Thursday of the month. Each session starts at 7pm and the cost of entry is £3 paid on the door. More information is available at …

Click the link here to find a review of To Honour the Dead by John Dean (Hale), which came out on November 30

http://www.shotsmag.co.uk/book_reviews_view.aspx?BOOK_REVIEW_ID=668

As organiser of the monthly Open Mic nights for authors, which are supported by Darlington for Culture, I have announced that they will continue into 2013.

The nights, which offer a forum for writers to read their material and audiences to enjoy it, run at Voodoo Café/Cantina, 84 Skinnergate, Darlington, on the last Thursday of the month.

The final event of 2012 was staged on Thursday November 29 and now we have confirmed that

the events…

I have announced the Spring term 2013 dates for my popular creative writing courses at the Friends’ Meeting House in Skinnergate, Darlington.

The adult learning courses, previously staged at Darlington Arts Centre, deal with all aspects of creative writing, focusing primarily on prose, including short stories, novels and other forms of writing as well as occasional forays into the world of stage, theatre and radio.

Each course is different and deals with everything from…

The Open Mic Nights for authors, which are held monthly, offer a forum for writers to read their material and audiences to enjoy everything from prose and poetry to theatre and film scripts. They are held at Voodoo Café/Cantina, 84 Skinnergate, Darlington (01325 467555). The next Autumn Open Mic night takes place on:

• Thursday November 29, open theme.

Each session will start at 7pm and the cost of entry will be £3 paid on the door. More information at…

I will run a Writing for Beginners workshop at Age UK Darlington Bradbury House between 2.15 and 4.15 pm on Thursday October 25, where I will explain some of the basic ideas behind writing fiction. The cost is £5 paid on the day. Advance booking is recommended. More information and booking is available on 01325 463813 or …

Darlington for Culture’s monthly Open Mic nights, which offer a forum for writers to read their material and audiences to enjoy it, have restarted at Voodoo Café/Cantina, 84 Skinnergate. The next night is Thursday October 25 with an open theme. Each session starts at 7pm and the cost of entry will be £3 paid on the door. More information is available in Upcoming Events in the programme section at …

To Honour the Dead is out in November, published by Hale (it can be pre-booked online, just key it into the Google search field, it's on various sites, including Amazon).

So what happens in the novel? The unveiling of a new memorial stirs deep emotions in a remote North Pennines village as the people honour their war dead. However, pride is in short supply at the ceremony as anger spills over and deep-rooted tensions are brought to the surface.

That night, the memorial is…

As you may know, I am a big supporter of libraries at a time of public sector budget cuts which have ready led to many closures (many councils see them as soft targets). However, maybe a development in Suffolk, England, points the way ahead. From today (Aug 1), library services are transferred from Suffolk County Council to Suffolk's Libraries (IPS), an entirely new organisation.

All Suffolk’s 44 libraries and the mobile, school and prison services will come under the direct control…

I recently taught a course on challenging the rules of writing, designed to encourage new ways of thinking for the writers in the class. During the research, I came across the idea of the unreliable narrator. I had never heard of it before but, reading further, I discovered that the unreliable narrative voice involves the use of a non-credible or untrustworthy narrator. It may be employed to give the audience a deliberate sense of disbelief in the story or a level of suspicion as to what…

I have had occasion in recent weeks to experience, either in classes, reading sessions or in competition entries, some pieces of writing that have stirred deep emotions within me. Emotion is something of which some writers are wary, preferring to produce work without revealing too much of themselves or their views. However, for many other writers, there cannot be fiction without a sense of themselves. For some authors, there is always part of them peering through, their fears, their hopes,…

I am one of a group of crime writers appearing in Sheffield for National Crime Writing Month events. I will be joining Penny Grubb, Jane Finnis and Danuta Reah on a panel on Friday June 22 at 11am at Parson Cross Library, Wordsworth Avenue, Sheffield S5 8NL. Booking is advised on 0114 203 9533 and the event is free. A similar event is taking place on Wednesday July 4 at 2pm at Ecclesall Library, Ecclesall Road South, Sheffield, S11 9PL with Valerie Laws, Paul Adam and Rikki Thomas. You can…

Darlington for Culture (DfC) will stage the next in its series of open mic nights for authors and audiences at Darlington Arts Centre on Monday May 28. Run by John Dean, the events form part of the programme run at the centre by DfC, which is a Community Benefit Society, a type of co-operative.

Seven open mic nights have already been held by DfC, all on the last Monday of each month. Open mic nights are events where authors can take to the floor and read their material, anything from…