I have just completed my latest Jack Harris novel and have been casting around for an idea for the next John Blizzard book, which got me thinking once again about where ideas come from.

For some writers, stories always start with a place, somewhere that strikes them so forcibly that the story unfolds around it.

Other writers start with…

The Crime Writers’ Association launches National Crime Reading Month (NCRM) this June – a major initiative designed to celebrate the genre and get the nation reading.

Running in collaboration with national reading charity, The Reading Agency, bestselling authors have been appointed as regional ambassadors of NCRM across the…

Unfortunately, due to low ticket sales, the organisers of the crime writers event at Dalry Town Hall on Friday night (June 24) have had to cancel the event.

The village of Dalry, in Dumfries and Galloway, is to support National Crime Reading Month in June by staging an In Conversation With… event…

A writing group of which I am a member is currently involved in an exercise in which we have been challenged to write pieces of humour and this turned my thoughts to its importance in fiction, including crime.

Humour is vital to creating good fiction. Even if you are not writing an out-and-out comic piece, it has a role to perform.

For…

I have written in my blogs before about the way that characters can assume a life of their own and that the author has to recognise those occasions when the story is writing itself through the organic evolution of its characters.

That has happened with the latest DCI Jack Harris novel which I am writing for my publisher The Book Folks. I found myself approaching the end of the first draft still unsure who the murderer was – indeed, I had changed my mind half a dozen times!

It’s…

A reminder that I have announced a series of weekend workshops to be held specifically for writing groups in 2022 at my home in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland.

The courses will be based on sense of place and be delivered at my 19^th Century hillside home between Castle Douglas and Kirkcudbright.

The workshop for groups of no…

My house, like all authors’ homes, I suspect, is full of scraps of paper that contain scribbled notes which I will add to whichever novel I am working on, the next time I fire up the laptop.

However, it’s usually not the big things that I scrawl notes about. No, it’s much more likely to be small details that add colour to the book.

The…

I am working on the latest DCI Jack Harris novel for my publisher The Book Folks but, with 27,000 words having been written, I had run into a brick wall.

I had the plot mapped out in pretty decent detail in advance (for me, that’s crucial as I start on a novel) but, as usual, there were still gaps to fill and questions to be answered as I…

This is a subject I come back to from time to time in my blogs because, however experienced the writer, it is useful that I/they keep reminding myself/themselves about the golden rules. Get them right and everything else falls into place.

Every writer will have their own versions. Mine are:

Do not write for yourself, always write for the reader. Provide them with what they need to understand the narrative (but hold things back for later in the story).

Be disciplined -…

 A quick reminder that DCI John Blizzard is back in The Vengeance Man, the latest of my crime novels to be published by The Book Folks.

In the novel, a teenager gets the fright of his life when he sneaks into a graveyard for a crafty smoke and is chased away by a man dressed in black, screaming dire threats.

Rumours of such a local…

The recently-published 100 Ways to Write a Book, which comprises author interviews about the craft of creating stories, is now available on Kindle, having previously been in paperback only.

The book started life as a small lockdown project with editor Alex Pearl asking authors for interviews and the project rapidly developed into what is a…

I am delighted to have had a piece accepted for a new book that celebrates the way that Kirkcudbright in Dumfries and Galloway inspires writers.

Kirkcudbright Encounters started life as a fightback against the dismal days of Covid and features local writers.

It is published by The Stewartry Writers and Friends, who include members of…

One of the challenges with writing a series of novels is the need to keep them fresh so that the readers do not become bored.

There are various ways to do that, including developing facets of the recurring main characters and continually coming up with inventive storylines, but also important is the creation of new characters, either to appear regularly or as one-offs.

I am always interested in what triggers a new character for a writer. When and how do they burst into life? I…

I am delighted to be one of the authors to be featured in a new book that examines the craft of writing.

Titled 100 Ways to Write a Book, the publication  comprises author interviews initiated by Alex Pearl during the Covid epidemic and which started life as a small lockdown project. Before long, Alex’s requests for interviews elicited an…

I have always been interested in the way that characters evolve during the writing process. For me, it proves that a story is alive and I am experiencing that sensation the more I write of the latest DCI Jack Harris novel.

Central characters tend to fall into two categories – rounded (also known as changing or dynamic) who change throughout the…

DCI John Blizzard is back as The Vengeance Man becomes the latest of my crime novels to be published by The Book Folks.

In the novel, a teenager gets the fright of his life when he sneaks into a local graveyard for a crafty smoke and is chased away by a man dressed in black, screaming dire threats.

Rumours of such a local…

My publisher Erik Empson, at The Book Folks,has recently been writing profiles of some of his stable of authors and I am flattered to be among the latest subjects. Should you be interested, you can read the article at…

I have just started work on the latest DCI Jack Harris novel and my thoughts are dominated by emotion.

Why? Because you can be the best technical writer in the world, with perfect use of grammar and immaculate sentence construction, but if your stories do not engage your readers on an emotional level, you are in trouble.

The reason I am…

I thoroughly enjoyed doing an interview for Alex Pearl’s excellent website featuring chats with a range of authors.

You can see the result as we delve into my life as a writer, everything from childhood influences to plotting, at…

I am pleased to say that Last Man Alive, the latest book in the series featuring Detective Chief Inspector Jack Harris, is climbing the Amazon sales charts again, having attracted positive reviews and ratings following its publication by The Book Folks in the summer.

In the book,  my 21^st crime novel to appear, Harris is on the trail…