I’ve made no secret of the fact that Raymond Chandler’s writing is one of the inspirations for my Thomas Bladen spy thrillers, but I also owe a huge debt to cinema. It’s my great pleasure now to introduce you to a back catalogue of films that remain classics of the spy / thriller genre. Many of …
It’s time to bloom. We are all driven by deadlines, even if we don’t always meet them – Christmas presents bought before the 24th of December (preferably), birthday cards posted to arrive neither too early nor too late, get into work before the boss, and finish that novel in your bottom drawer before you die, to name …
A ghost of Christmas past. This is the second year I’ve entered the Gold Channel cracker joke competition. The fact that I’m mentioning it at all should alert you to the prospect of a happy or unhappy ending. In this case, both! The brief was for something topical and festive, perhaps with a twist on …
Sir Isaac Newton stated that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. For authors that gets translated into ‘for everyone who likes your work, someone else will hate it’. There doesn’t have to be any rhyme or reason about it; it’s just a thing. This state of affairs was brought back to …
Most authors will tell you that the fictional world of their books comes from a real world inspiration. – a news item, an overheard conversation, or perhaps a personal experience that sparks off a chain of inspiration. There is another purpose of storytelling – to memorialise a true story so that friends, family and …
I’m fortunate to know many writers, each at different stages of their craft, and I’ve yet to find one who really celebrates their talent. True, there is the social media ‘woot’ when a chapter is completed or a word count is reached, but ask them to take a bow and you can practically hear footsteps …
The hidden ingredient in every piece of writing. Ask most writers, whether they are starting out, seasoned, or overcooked, and they all tell you the same thing – they write because it’s a compulsion. It’s the nagging internal voice when you read someone else’s below par writing that whispers, “You could do better than this.” …
Are you worn down by the well-travelled path? How many times have you found yourself following a familiar working pattern, even though it no longer delivers the same level of positive results? The routine runs like clockwork – set-up, prospecting, emails, social media, yadda yadda. If you’re not paying careful attention to your business you …
You write…WHAT? There is a school of thought that business blogs equate to online marketing, and that all information should be carefully managed to ‘champion the brand’. If your eyes are rolling at this point you’re not alone. I’m all for promoting one’s business – this blog has worked well for me on that score over the …
No sense sitting on the offence. As I progress with my fifth thriller and tie myself in knots with middle class angst about some my working class characters’ attitudes, I’m quite attuned to our propensity to get things wrong. Getting it wrong doesn’t mean you’re necessarily prejudiced or bigoted. You could just be thoughtless. On the one hand, …
