Blog
Where gemstones lie scattered on the ground
I have been in Spain since early January and missed the worst of the UK floods and storms. While there I experimented with my first free Kindle Select promotion and saw more than 2,000 downloads of my...
Read MoreCOUNTDOWN to pocket thriller 'One False Move' giveaway days
Pass the word around. On February 5 & 6 my new 'pocket' thriller, 'One False Move' will be free on Amazon Kindle. Click on the image for the link. So, what's the story? Ex US assassin, ex Hong Kong Po...
Read MoreFree short story promotion – 'One False Move'
Do free book promotions really work? I have resisted taking part in Amazon's KDP Select programme, whereby an author makes a book exclusive to Amazon for a period when it is available in the Kindle le...
Read MoreWhat is the collective noun for literary agents? Let me know.
Recently, I attended the Festival of Writing in York, UK. It was only the second writers conference I had ever been to. I am far, far from antisocial but have found as I get older that I am not comfor...
Read MoreShall I kill her or not? You decide
I plan to slit her throat. The fact that she's a nun and a bride of Christ makes little difference. Or rather, I plan to have my nasty, twisted, weird creation Oswald Dante (who keeps his long dead mo...
Read MoreWriters conferences – are they worth it?
I've just signed up for the weekend writing fest that is the Festival Of Writing at York University in a few month's time. I have been to one other event like this, at Winchester a few years ago and a...
Read MoreSo what exactly is reality? Maybe the angels know.
I came across a new book by the sceptic scientist Richard Dawkins dealing with 'reality'. I haven't read it so I cannot comment on the content. It put me in mind of that annoying phrase used by everyo...
Read MoreWas there life before the Internet & social networking
I was listening to the radio and the interviewer spoke to two girls who had been born in the mid-nineties. It was a programme about how buying and enjoying music had changed and how with tracks were n...
Read MoreLiterary agents – a true story
Literary agents inhabit a rarified position within the publishing business. Writers need them and it is often more difficult to get one to represent you than find a publisher. Even self-published auth...
Read MoreShe's leaving home, bye, bye!
My youngest daughter hated the idea of us selling the house. She had grown up there all her life. All those memories. Christmas Day with the family, arguing with her elder brother, confiding in her el...
Read MoreWhat makes a 'good' girl turn bad?
I have received hundreds of emails, tweets and reviews (not to mention sales) for 'The Immortality Plot' and my character Mike Delaney, ex US assassin, ex Hong Kong Police and ex esoteric monk, I real...
Read MoreLooking for firearms/sniper expertise (research only)
No, I don't want to issue a contract on someone's life. I've just finished the first draft of my new Mike Delaney thriller, a follow up in series to 'The Immortality Plot'. I'm calling it (at the mome...
Read MoreWhat makes grown men cry?
There he is people. Lantern jaw, hair ironed to his scalp (except for the flick of a kiss curl), chest hair removed by some painful method leaving gleaming pecs and John Travolta hips. Our hero. Or ra...
Read MoreHuman embryo or dripping vampire fangs – you choose
I had an interesting comment from someone recently about the cover of my thriller 'The Immortality Plot'. I had been thinking it was pretty cool, summed up the underlying theme of the story and was a...
Read MoreWhat makes Mike Delaney tick – life or death?
A space opens between life and death as the final breath is drawn. It is infinitesimal yet limitless. Mike Delaney hovered in that space experiencing only the constant now. What had gone before and wh...
Read MoreFront page news: It's time to get personal with Facebook
Is it just me that finds Facebook confusing? To tell you the truth, I'm not that interested in sharing the trivia of my life with hosts of friends, and friends of friends, and friends of ghosts in the...
Read MoreI've got to get a message to you – about staying alive
When someone like Robin Gibb dies you realise that someone who (in part ) has written the soundtrack of your life along with his brother BeeGees has left a profound echo behind - a vibration that does...
Read MoreWhen Angela's Ashes came into focus
If you haven't read Frank McCourt's 'Angela's Ashes' then you are missing out on a literary tour-de-force. It conjures up a time in Limerick, Ireland, when poverty was rife and the workhouse was full....
Read MoreHow to create an immortal action hero, and don't forget the feminine side
When I sat down to write 'The Immortality Plot' I was determined to create a thriller hero with a difference. The original title of the book was 'Old Habits Die Hard' and I am still attached to that t...
Read MoreI'm not being humble - I just love all my readers
I owe everyone who hits on this site a debt of gratitude. As an indie author I need you more than you need me. That's not a squirmy attempt at being humble, it's a genuine respect and immense liking f...
Read More