Tag Archives: books

Crime fiction in a world turned upside down

Posted on by under Crime writing, Life and stuff

We now live in a world where lies are considered to be the equal of truth, cruelty is the norm and old friends are being stabbed in the back. Diplomacy now consists of shouting louder than the other guy and breaking all your promises. Malignant narcissism is in fashion.

My late wife was a historian and she was especially interested in the English Revolution (popularly known as the English Civil War). ‘The World Turned Upside Down’ was a popular ballad at the time and was also the title of her favourite book. My wife thought that it a good description of the time when a King’s power was absolute. Many thought that these powers were oppressive and groups such as the Diggers and Levellers tried to build a world where everyone had certain inalienable rights. They were, of course, hounded and oppressed by the King for daring to say such things. Many suffered greatly at the King’s hand and so chose to leave England behind and look for a land where they would be free of absolute rulers. These men and women founded the United States of America. Considering that the USA has now elected a King, I find that there is some irony in this.

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What you want and what you need

Posted on by under Life and stuff, Writing process

‘You can’t always get what you want but if you try some time, you just might find that you get what you need.‘

This is the chorus from a Rolling Stones song from the 1969 album ‘Let It Bleed’. It was one of many Stones’ songs that we covered in one of my first bands. Even though I was only in my teens, I recognised that there was some wisdom in that refrain and now, some fifty-five years later, I still think the same.

I sometimes wake up in the morning with a song going through my head and, if it’s one I like, I don’t really mind. The other day it was this song and it got me thinking about the things I’ve desperately wanted at times in my life and what I ended up getting.

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The ups and downs of self-publishing

Posted on by under Crime writing, Self publishing, Writing process

So, you’ve written your book, had it read and done the rewrites. At long last it’s time to push the ‘Publish’ button on the Amazon KDP site. So, what happens now? A huge booming silence usually. You next have to kick start your book sales by doing some marketing. I won’t go too deeply into this as what might be effective for your book might not be effective for mine and vice versa. All I’ll say is that you will need to advertise in some form so it’s important that you do your research and choose the options that best suit your book and the demographic that you’re aiming at.

Okay so your marketing is now working and you’re looking at your KDP book sales and ‘pages read’ to see what happens. Your book sales go up – Yippie! Then they go down again. Then up, down and all over the place. What’s happening? If you expected to be able to fine tune your marketing strategies by looking at your book sales, I’d forget it.

Let me explain.

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What’s in a title?

Posted on by under Writing process

Pride and prejudice coverWhat you call your book may be one of the most important decisions that an author will ever make. It will be the first thing that readers see on your book page, it will feature on your book cover and hold centre stage in all your advertising efforts. And yet you may never find out how successful or not your choice has been. Once your book is published then the title is what it is. It’s baked into the whole thing.

On the left you can see one of my favourite books, Pride and Prejudice. It’s a great title but it was originally going to be called ‘First Impressions‘. Would we love it so much if it had been called something else? Continue reading →

The trouble with book covers…

Posted on by under Crime writing, Writing process

The eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed that the cover of The Body in the Boot has recently changed, not once but twice. This is why.

This is the original cover and it was one I quite liked. It’s the first book in the series and therefore I’m anxious to advertise it as much as possible on the grounds that if a reader likes it then they might read the other eight.

I told the designer that I wanted something that suggested film noir, those lovely old crime movies from the forties and fifties and I think he did a good job. So what’s the problem then? Well, Amazon have now made it easier for me to get my books featured on the Kindle lockscreen and it’s an advertising opportunity that I felt I couldn’t miss out on. Unfortunately Amazon also have a myriad of rules around what qualifies for a lockscreen ad and 3D lettering in the title is something that they don’t like for some reason. I have the original file but it’s a Photoshop file and, as I’m not proficient on Photoshop, I decided to try making another cover. Continue reading →

Seven books now published – so what next?

Posted on by under Life and stuff, Writing process

Book coverTwo Dogs, the sixth Mac Maguire mystery, has just been published in Amazon Books. I’ve also written a book of ghost stories 13 Ghosts of Winter so that makes seven in all. So what’s next?

I started writing seriously just over three years ago as a response to my pain issues. I’d dabbled with writing before but had never been able to stick at it long enough to come up with anything decent. I found that my work as an Audience Analyst gave me some respite during the week as it took my mind off the pain. However I then needed something to do at the weekends and so I started writing. Since then I’ve averaged a book every six months or so. I’ve now got another book nearly completed, The Black Vaults Experiment, which is a paranormal thriller and something of a new departure for me. I’ve also started on Mac 7 as I call it and, although I’ve got four or five chapters written, I’ve no idea where the story is going as yet. I always find this quite exciting as it’s almost as if I’ve got to write the story first so I can see how it all ends. Continue reading →

23 Cold Cases – How come my detective is in bed for most of my latest book?

Posted on by under Crime writing, Mac Maguire

Book coverThroughout most of my latest book 23 Cold Cases the main character, retired murder specialist Mac Maguire, spends virtually all of his time in bed. Why did I write a crime book with this in the plot and what were the challenges?

When I started writing the book I must admit that I had doubts about this plot line and considered scrapping it more than once. Why? Mostly because it was difficult to come up with a sustained story that would keep readers interested and wanting to turn the next page. There’s also the fact that I had to include the details of many crimes, quite a few in some detail, and at times I began to wonder if I’d have any plot lines left for future books!

So why did Mac Maguire have to be in bed? Continue reading →