Plotting is all about fitting the pieces of a jigsaw together. That is certainly true of novels and the trick is not to force things. Wait for ideas to find themselves, do not shoehorn them together for the sake of it.

Take The Long Dead as an example. I had been inspired by an old wartime POW camp and had the idea of writing a story based on events in its…

The 2018 Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival takes place in Stirling in September, featuring some big names.

This year’s gala opening will take place on…

A reminder that crime novelist and creative writing tutor John Dean, who is based in Dumfries and Galloway, has launched an online Crime Fiction Course.

Chamber member John, author of 16 novels and currently published by London-based The Book Folks, and the creator of DCI John Blizzard and DCI Jack Harris, also runs Inscribe Media Ltd, which is based near…

I have been teaching writers for years and one of my best pieces of advice when they are stuck on their plot has always been ‘take the dog for a walk’. It is amazing how many plot tangles are resolved when you are out with the dog with nothing else to think about.

Ironically, I did all this without owning, or ever really liking, dogs, a legacy I think of…

My publisher The Book Folks have a number of new crime fiction titles out for Summer, including Broken Angel by Diane M Dickson.…

A treat for United Kingdom readers from The Book Folks: four murder mysteries based in the British Isles. Just £1 each this July on Kindle. Stock up for your summer reading now! Totally FREE with Kindle…

To Die Alone, one of my DCI Jack Harris mysteries, has broken into the Top 100 in the British Detectives category on Amazon Kindle.

Book description: Murder, animal cruelty, and vigilante justice drag DCI Jack Harris out of his quiet rural idyll.

The hunt for a missing man turns up a body deep in a forest in northern England, but it is…

I can heartily recommend the Crime Readers’ Association (CRA) to any fan of crime fiction, Emerging from the UK Crime Writers’ Association, of which I am a member, the CRA was set up to give…