Blog posts
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People who read my posts will know that I am fascinated by the mixture of planning and organic development that goes into writing What do I mean by organic development? Take a character in my latest DCI Jack Harris novel, which has just passed the 35,000 word mark. He was very much planned – I…
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The eagerly-awaited longlists for the crime-writing world’s premier awards have been announced. There are thirteen Dagger prizes organised by the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA), honouring everything from the best novel and non-fiction work to best newcomer. I have a particular interest in the Dagger in the Library award because in my role as CWA libraries…
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Exciting news – the recently-published jack Harris boxset (The Book Folks, a Joffe Books imprint) has hit number one in several Amazon best-seller charts overnight, including British detective stories, organised crime and noir crime. Featuring the first nine Harris novels in kindle format for just 99p, the boxset of novels featuring the north Pennines investigator…
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Reviewer Lars Walker, of Brandywine Books, who some of you may be aware hasrecently been working his way through the DCI Jack Harris crime novels), has turned his attention to Thou Shalt Kill (The Book Folks, a Joffe Books imprint) What particularly interests Lars about the novel is the way that it deals with the…
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The Detective Chief Inspector Jack Harris series (The Book Folks, a Joffe Books company) The first nine novels in John Dean’s Detective Chief Inspector Jack Harris series have been published in a special Kindle e-book boxset for just 99p – you can’t get a better offer than that and it’s already a best-seller. Published by…
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I have started a Handy Hints section on the Golden Rules of Writing, accessed on the left hand side of the home page, including some from crime writer Elemore Leonard (pictured here), novelist George Orwell, children’s writer Mike Watson and myself. They are not the only golden rule out there, of course, and I would…
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A major report into the global book trade has revealed that fiction revenues continued to increase in 2024. The results of research conducted for the report released each year by GfK Entertainment and NielsenIQ BookData suggest that the rising cost of books means that, although some territories have seen sales fall, the financial effect on…
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I recently chaired a ‘meet-the-authors’ event at the excellent Kirkcudbright Book Week, which took place in the south-west Scotland town near which I live. It featured crime writers May Rinaldi and David Haigh and finished with a question and answer session in which we were asked if we had to give one piece of advice…
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As I move into the second half of writing a novel – as has happened with my latest in the Jack Harris series – my mindset changes. Up to now, I have worked steadily – some would say slowly – writing, rewriting, editing, re-editing – but now that I am 27,000 words in, or 23,000…
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The boxset of my first seven DCI John Blizzard crime novels to be published by The Book Folks continues to ride high in the Amazon bestseller charts sixteen months after it was launched, particularly those charts that feature anthologies. That’s hardly surprising; you’ll not get much better offers than the one represented by the boxset,…
