My Blog
Explicit violence in crime fiction: is it necessary?
Interesting piece in the Telegraph this week about the apparent increase in explicit violence in crime fiction. I read a fair sprinkling of the genre, and know that I have learned my limits in what I choose to read, and to watch. Reading words leaves less of an...
Bumps in the confidence road
Things seem to have gone a bit flat, and I'm feeling that way too. The third book is out, on schedule, in the shops and on Kindle. Now what? I'm schlepping round the libraries and WIs in Cumbria, talking about 'Fallout' and how and why I wrote it the way I did. I'm...
Swanning off to Swanage
This week has been ridiculously busy, even by my standards, and the evenings seem to have been divided between music concerts (2), football matches and cricket on TV (too many hours to contemplate) and watering the veggies. After the usual scramble and frustrations of...
Is the ‘local book’ label useful?
I searched on the bookshop shelf in a nearby market town but my books were not there. I asked at the counter. 'Oh, they're in the 'local' section,' I was told, 'in the back room'. What could I say? True, my books are set in a recogniseable area, and local people who...
What makes a good book cover?
A couple of years ago, when my first novel was in production, my 'book designer' asked me to go to a bookshop and look at covers. 'See what you like,' he said, 'and what will make people want to buy your book. Then we can give Kevin the cover designer some direction...
Can you teach writing?
'Once a teacher, always a teacher': I think that's true, and being a teacher - however long ago - makes you permanently and irredeemably critical of how information and ideas are presented. Although I've not taught school students for many years, I make part of my...