Step forward...

[John Dean]

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 will sense it and ask themselves why they should read the book.

So how do you do it? Well, I hope that the beginnings of the new Blizzard offer some insights. Key to the plot is a new character whose story has me fascinated but I am also taking advantage of the fact that a series gives the author a collection of characters to draw on, the equivalent of actors waiting in the wings in a repertory theatre company.

That means that, in addition to leading characters like Blizzard again stepping forward, so can minor ones, characters who may have in the past been bit-players but whose story may be worth exploring further. That’s what has happened here.

Now, my challenge is to let them grow naturally into the role. That willingness to let them develop at their own pace is crucial and can often surprise and intrigue the writer, and by extension, the reader. And that will, hopefully, keep the series fresh.

• Previous Blizzard novels can be found in a couple of e-anthologies on Amazon under the title the DCI Blizzard Murder Mysteries.