Blog posts
-
Here’s another Handy Hint for emerging writers. You need to keep something from the reader if you are writing a crime novel, preferably something big which when revealed has them understanding the clues you dropped earlier in the story and amazed that they did not pick up on them. Like what, I hear you ask?…
-
Two crime writers from Dumfries and Galloway, in South West Scotland, have signed deals for their latest novels with leading independent publisher Joffe Books. Ian Robinson, who lives in the region, has signed a contract for the first four books in a new series set in Dumfries and Galloway, which will take the total number…
-
This is another of my free gratis Handy Hints for aspiring writers. Be brutal with your editing and aim for perfection, which is why I have done a further edit of my book On Writing about creating fiction and why Mark, the book designer, has reposted it on Amazon. We didn’t actually have to do…
-
Abigail Dean is among the big winners in the Crime Writers’ Association Dagger Awards, scooping the Gold Award, with Dagger in the Library Winner Tim Sullivan among other authors celebrating. You can see the full list at http://www.thecwa.co.uk
-
These are exciting times in Kirkcudbright and the wider Dumfries and Galloway area in South West Scotland if you like your crime writing. Events, workshops, new books written by local authors being published and new books out featuring the area, it’s all happening. Instead of posting all the stories on this website, can I suggest…
-
Am absolutely delighted that Joffe Books has announced that they have signed a two-book deal with me, one book another one featuring DCI Jack Harris and the other in the DCI John Blizzard series!
-
A new website is celebrating the links between crime writing and Kirkcudbright and the wider Dumfries and Galloway area by drawing attention to events and the publication of new books. Kirkcudbright’s link with crime writing stretches back to the 1931 novel Five Red Herrings, written by best-selling crime writer Dorothy L Sayers, in which her…
-
Writing is all about learning, and re-learning, lessons, however experienced the author is, and yesterday’s lesson was the importance of listening to your characters. I knew what I wanted to achieve with the scene I had just started to write – it was part of the synopsis – but I needed a way of making…
-
Caption: Some of the 2026 winners (L-R) Sarah Hunt, Italo Ferrante, Rhianna Frances, Beth Broomby, Carlton Rose, Shazia J. Altaf, Phoebe Walker, Jodie Matthews, Nate Black, Antony Dunn, Amelia Loulli, Narimaan Shafi and Kris Johnson. Photo by Rob Irish. New Writing North announced the 27 recipients of its 2026 Northern Writers’ Awards at a ceremony…
John Dean - Crime Writer 