Blog posts
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Amid all the many tributes to best-selling-author Jeffrey Archer following his death on the eve of publication of Adam and Eve (HarperCollins), which he said would be his ‘last novel,’ one phrase has cropped up time and time again. Many people have said that the 86-year-old author, who sold more than 320 million books worldwide…
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For the first time in years, I am creating a new series of crime novels. No, I am not killing off John Blizzard and Jack Harris (the next books in both series are with my publisher and at different stages of the editing process), and there will be more to come. I already have a…
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I have always been a big supporter of libraries, I am the Crime Writers’ Association Libraries Champion in Scotland, my daughter works in a library and my father was a chief county librarian. So, I am delighted that my publisher Joffe Books is spearheading a drive to get its authors on library shelves. It’s an…
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The reviews for The Informer, the latest DCI Blizzard novel published by the Book Folks, a Joffe Books imprint, on Amazon and the like have been overwhelmingly positive, which is gratifying. What is particularly gratifying is that the novel has made readers think. Let me say at the outset that I know that not every…
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I am deeply saddened to hear of the death at the age of 74 of best-selling Scottish crime writer Peter May. The author, who championed quality description of landscape when it seemed to be going out of fashion, was best known for stories set in Scotland’s Highlands and Islands. Peter died at his home in…
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The Society of Authors has announced that a prize encouraging greater positive representation of disability in literature has re-opened for submissions. The Authors with Disabilities and Chronic Illnesses (ADCI) Literary Prize is open to authors with a disability and/or chronic illness. Submissions must contain a disabled or chronically ill character or characters and the overall…
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The Society of Authors has issued advice to help authors protect themselves against scammers. It says that it has have received numerous reports recently of authors being sent scam emails, either pretending to be from the Society of Authors, or from other organisations promising marketing, festivals and much more. To try to minimise the risk,…
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I am delighted to say that the hardcover and paperback editions of The Informer, the latest Blizzard crime novel (The Book Folks, a Joffe Books imprint), are now out on Amazon.
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The Society of Authors has launched a toolkit to help writers when they take in school visits. The toolkit created by the Society’s Children’s Writers and Illustrators Group (CWIG) contains advice both for authors undertaking in-person school visits, and school librarians and other staff responsible for organising these visits. Authors Aloud UK has also provided…
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Picture: The North Pennines (setting for my DCI Jack Harris crime novels) by Frances Griss I am sensing an interesting, and hugely encouraging, change in the way many publishers react to their readers when it comes to the way description of place is used. Sense of Place is important to me, as a writer, because…
