Blog posts
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Best-selling crime writer John Dean has posted another article to help aspiring writers and offer insights for readers, this one focusing on injecting emotions into flat passages. I, as you may know from recent posts, am in the final weeks of editing the next DCI Blizzard novel to send to my publisher The Book Folks,…
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The latest book in the DCI Jack Harris series of crime fiction novels (published by the Book Folks, a Joffe Books imprint) continues to attract encouraging reviews, which is gratifying. More gratifying than usual, actually, because I deliberately set out to do things differently in Murder on the Pennines, including giving the main character’s back…
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Best-selling crime writer John Dean has posted his latest blog, which is aimed both at helping emerging writers learning their craft and giving readers an insight into the way an author balances writing for fans of a series with the needs of new readers. You can read the article here and it is also on…
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Best-selling crime writer John Dean has considered the challenges in writing Point of View in his latest article to help aspiring writers. You can read it here or drop into the Handy Hints sections of this website which has many such pieces. This article has also been added to Handy Hints – Characters where it…
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The winners of the Channel 4 Writing for TV Awards 2025 have been revealed at an event at Tyneside Cinema in Newcastle. The awards provide emerging television writers in the North of England with unique professional opportunities to propel their careers. All four winners will each receive mentoring, a £3,000 cash bursary and a long-term…
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Crime Writers spend much of their time dealing with dark themes but also important is their capacity to create lighter sections – crime novels need light and dark and each needs the other to succeed. To that end, crime writer John Dean has written an article examining authors’ use of humour as part of the…
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As you might expect, my crime novels receive a lot of reviews on Amazon and I find myself increasingly impressed by the way the reviewers approach the task. That is not just because they are mainly positive – they are, thank goodness – but because they tend to be honest and balanced. I have always…
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Are you an unpublished crime novelist looking for that big break? Are you working on a crime novel as we speak? Then why not enter the Crime Writers’ Association’s Emerging Author Dagger award? The prize is £500 plus a year’s membership in the Crime Writers’ Association, and the winner and shortlisted entries are forwarded to…
