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 …
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 …
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 …
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, …
Vive la difference! I’m at a really interesting point in the novel I’m writing. And I know that because it’s making me uncomfortable. It’s not violence or sex or swearing; no, it’s more subtle than that. It’s about religion and culture. More specifically, religion and culture that aren’t mine. I’ve recently had some brilliant email conversations …
Now you see me. When it comes to books, the word ‘ownership’ can mean different things at different times. Who owns an idea? Nobody. Try copyrighting an idea and be prepared for laughter and disdain. Who owns a completed manuscript? Unless you’ve been paid to ghostwrite a novel, ownership rests with the author. The laws …
Well, it’s that time of the year again – a cross between the End Times and that moment when you’re waiting for your train / plane to be announced for a trip you’ve been looking forward to. Or else it’s another day before you have to remember to change the year when you date anything.I …
Even before I became an emerging author (that middle ground between no longer debut and nowhere near established!) I thought it sensible to turn a well-worn adage, ‘write about what you know’, on its head. Far better, in my opinion, to say: ‘know what you’re writing about’. That usually means one of two things: 1. …
Only writers know how it feels…– To submit a piece to a magazine, have it summarily rejected and then find that said magazine has added you to its email list. And then proceeds to email you every week about its other content.– To get feedback from an editor, pointing out all the plot holes and …
Light at the end of a celestial tunnel. I know; why a ‘new’ novel and not simply a novel? Well…it’s different. Not better or worse, just a changed experience – like my parents must have felt with a second child. You feel you know the ropes a bit more and you swear that you won’t make the …
