11 April 2019
All aboard the writer’s train of inspiration
It has been like waiting for a train when unaware that there has been a derailment further down the line. You wait in hope. At first, quite patiently, unconcerned. It will be coming soon. Gradually other emotions creep in. A slight anxiety, morphing into concern. What’s gone wrong? The train should be here by now…. Continue Reading
26 August 2018
Crime fiction fans: Bromo’s back
Bromo Perkins returns. The latest story in the ongoing investigations by Richmond’s favourite cynical sleuth will be available in paperback and to download as an e-book from next week. All the heavy lifting has been done by the wonderful team at Design For Writers and everything has been uploaded to the international websites of Ingram Spark. Ingram… Continue Reading
13 January 2018
Let’s be clear about this …
Now, I want to make myself perfectly clear … There must be no misunderstanding … Make no mistake about this … Blah, blah, blah. Such well-worn phrases. So overused. Every day, someone, somewhere is prefacing their remarks with such statements of clarity and precision. And they are usually people of great (self-)importance whose pronouncements are… Continue Reading
19 May 2017
Bromo solves murder among the family trees
Good news from Endeavour Press: Twisted Trees, my latest crime fiction novel, is now online and available to purchase from Amazon as an e-book. This is the fourth in the ongoing series of crime novels featuring reluctant sleuth Bromo Perkins. The series began way back at the start of the 2000s with Done Deal, which… Continue Reading
8 April 2017
A matter of (missing) memory – updated
Since my recent blog bemoaning the loss of memory a bit of work has been taking place on stimulating whatever part of the brain is responsible for storing and recalling past events. I’ve been doing some ghosting. In other words, visiting old haunts. No need to wrap the body in white sheets and utter some… Continue Reading
As anyone who has ever tried well knows, the first rule for writing a successful novel is that there are no rules. Or, if you like, there are dozens of rules and innumerable variations upon them. In recent days there has been further proof of this in newspaper interview revelations about their writing days with two highly… Continue Reading
28 November 2016
Fifty Shades or War and Peace … makes no difference
One of the more misleading headlines of recent times was the one that suggested, for readers, there was no difference between the trashy romance porn of Fifty Shades of Grey and such established classics as Ulysses, War and Peace or Metamorphosis. This led into a report of a research study that found that all novels… Continue Reading
6 September 2016
Lessons in writing from George Orwell
End of content
End of content
Receive my ‘Read. Write. Run. Repeat.’ newsletter
Regular updates of my reviews and commentary direct to your inbox.
18 August 2018
Memoir dilemma: knowing when to stop
Which is what makes (memoir writing) an endlessly fascinating and enjoyable field of writing endeavour Continue Reading