fiction
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The origins of fictional characters has always fascinated me, particularly the extent to which many creators draw on real people as a starting point. I talk to a lot of authors and many of them freely admit that some of their major characters are partly taken from real life. I have no problem with that…
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Here’s a salutary lesson for all those writers who, like me, would ideally prefer to use plenty of description to describe places in their writing. Think of a tree in a park. Done it? I am pretty confident that you will have and that, even though you were only asked a millisecond ago, you can…
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The Secrets Man has become the fourth in the DCI John Blizzard crime novel series written by John Dean to be given the Joffe Books relaunch treatment complete with striking new cover for the ebook. The relaunches follow Joffe Books’ acquiring of the publisher The Book Folks and the novels can be purchased in various…
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As work progresses on producing a final draft of my latest DCI Jack Harris crime novel, that means going back to the opening pages, so it’s a good time to recap on some of the rules of beginnings. One of the key things that a crime writer, indeed any writer, must bear in mind is…
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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…
John Dean - Crime Writer 