So who's left holding the baby?!

[John Dean]

My lockdown is being spent at home with my family plus a cast of characters from the latest DCI John Blizzard crime novel that I am writing for those fine people at The Book Folks.

Indeed, the challenges of being restricted to a hillside in Scotland during these testing times have given me more opportunity to write.

What has emerged from the process is a growing appreciation of the organic nature of writing, particularly when it comes to characters.

As I have said in previous blogs, characters are our major tools as writers. They drive narratives and reveal things to the reader, and what particularly fascinates me is the way that they assume lives of their own.

What does that look like? Well, in the case of Blizzard, when I started out, I had never really thought that much about his private life. I knew he was a detective who is divorced and who loves working on the restoration of steam locomotives (I knew a real-life detective who was a train buff, which is where I got the idea).

What I did not know until the series started evolving was that Blizzard would enter a relationship with a woman much younger than he is, that they would move in together, that they would have a baby, that his approach to people would soften as a result.

It all happened naturally and I think the key for authors is to let it do so because, when that happens, it shows you that the stories have a life of their own. And that can only be good.

Stay safe, everyone.

You can buy the two boxsets featuring the first six novels in the Blizzard series published by The Book Folks at

https://www.amazon.co.uk/DCI-BLIZZARD-MURDER-MYSTERIES-Books-ebook/...

and

https://www.amazon.co.uk/DCI-BLIZZARD-MURDER-MYSTERIES-Books-ebook/...