As you may know, I work with my daughter Laura to help aspiring writers who are developing crime novels in the hope that a publisher will pick them up.

One of the things we do is help the writers to target the most appropriate publisher for their work.

It’s not a simple question of researching who publishes ‘crime fiction’. There are…

One of the key things that I tell my students on my online crime fiction course is that the opening lines of their stories are crucial. Why? Because harassed publishers, overworked agents and readers with a mass of choice need grabbing within moments of picking up the book/short story/manuscript.

This all comes to mind because I have just…

Author Anne Micklethwaite  has published a collection of poetry.

A Cup of  Tea and a Poem reflects the way that Anne’s work often echoes the legendary Japanese female poets who identified with the cycles of nature in order to deal with loss. This is clearly shown in “Wave Lullaby”, where she consoles all of us who have loved and…

I am delighted that the latest novel by Alex Pearl has been published.

In the murder mystery A Brand to Die for, it’s 1983 and an advertising copywriter teams up with a senior colleague in an advertising agency to investigate a baffling murder.

They are an unlikely duo, but their mischievous and sardonic take…

Since I run an online crime fiction course, I thought it would be useful to look at some of the topics which I explore with the writers, either through their existing works or material that is produced in response to exercises set during the course.

The themes covered on the course comprise the basic elements that make for good storytelling in…

DCI Jack Harris is back! In The Girl in the Meadow, the latest book in John Dean’s series of crime novels published by The Book Folks, Harris and his team find themselves involved in an investigation taking in northern England and Scotland.

In its isolated spot on the slopes of a windswept hill, Meadowview House has been vacant for decades.…

As you may know, I run online creative writing courses, including crime fiction ones, and one of the themes I explore with the writers I teach is the way that ideas seek out authors.

As part of my ongoing research into the theme, I came across a quote from American crime writer Patricia Highsmith, who when asked where her ideas came from said:…

As you may know from my previous blog, I am working on the new DCI John Blizzard crime novel, with the idea sparked by a new character, the creation of which is always exciting.

This allows me to reiterate the vexed theme of back story. Vexed? Why? Surely, the reader needs to know about the new character’s background? Yes, of course, they do but, as authors, we need to be careful how we use the information.

Why? Because, back story, by definition, takes the story backwards. It…

With the latest DCI Jack Harris book due to come out very soon, I have started work on the new DCI John Blizzard crime novel.

As I have mentioned before in blogs, one of the challenges with writing a series is the need to keep them fresh so that the readers do not become bored. I, as the writer, also need to be engaged. If I’m not, the reader…

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…