Tag Archives: Writing process

Covid Blues? Well, yes actually but it’s all good

Posted on by under Life and stuff

Although I have to say that there were times this year when I was very blue indeed. This wasn’t just down to Covid but a number of other things that coalesced into a mountain of worry that couldn’t be ignored or gotten around. I think I became quite depressed at times which is not my usual style.

A bottleneck slide

Thankfully, things have improved but it proved to be something of a warning to me. Since retiring I’m now trying to write full-time, however, this year has proved to be a problem. The combination of the virus and some quite extreme family issues has stopped me in my tracks. To date I have been averaging two books per year but so far this year I have yet to complete one. And this got me down. The problem was that I didn’t have a Plan B. Continue reading →

Cozy, hard-boiled or somewhere in between? Crime fiction and uncertain times

Posted on by under Crime writing

Book sales have increased during this pandemic and, for some, it seems that crime fiction has boomed. This caused me to look at my own sales figures. As I’m a self-published author on Amazon, my sales figures are very easy to find. It looks as if my book sales have more or less doubled compared to last year. It is, of course, a situation that I’m very happy with, however, it did start me thinking.

I have been advertising a little more and I’ve finally got up to ten books in my crime series but I’m not sure that’s the whole story behind the increased sales. Continue reading →

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 virus, writer’s block and an operation

Posted on by under Life and stuff, Writing process

corona virus

In this era of Covid-19, I’ve found it incredibly difficult to write. I couldn’t see it at the time but, looking back, I can understand why this might have the case.

Lockdown was (and still is) an utterly strange experience. It’s a time when all the milestones that delineated the weeks and months have disappeared. We’re living in a sort of time fog with each day being much like the next. No meals out, no pubs, no family visits, no nothing.

And it is scary. Continue reading →

Editing and typos- the hardest part of a writer’s job

Posted on by under Writing process

Typo shop bannerI’ve been writing full-time now for nearly two years and I’m loving it. I especially love those moments of pure creation when new characters, situations and even worlds spring into life.

However, there is always a bit of grit in every pearl, and the grit for me is editing and especially the dastardly and eel-like typo. I published my first book four and a half years ago and I’m just realising how steep the slope of the editing learning curve actually is. This has been recently highlighted by the fact that I’ve once again re-edited my first four books and guess what? I found them littered by tortured English and infested with typos. I have come to terms with the fact that these books will still have some instances of tortured English and typos but, hopefully, a lot less than there was before. So what’s the problem? Continue reading →

The Eight Bench Walk – Things to consider when setting a book abroad

Posted on by under Mac Maguire, Writing process

book coverMy latest book The Eight Bench Walk should be ready for publication next month. This is the first Mac Maguire mystery that is more or less completely set abroad and so it presents its own set of problems. (Only part of Two Dogs was set in France and Ireland in The Chancer is definitely not ‘abroad’ as far as I’m concerned).

One of these was getting the locations right. Continue reading →

Where do a writer’s ideas come from?

Posted on by under Writing process

Light bulbI attended a local reader’s group a few weeks back. It was one that specialised in crime and murder mysteries. I was interested in what they did and it turned out that they were interested in what I did too. The first question, as always, was ‘Where do you get your ideas from?’

I couldn’t give a definitive answer as I honestly don’t know. I don’t want to investigate how my ideas are created too deeply in case it’s akin to analysing a joke. It’s never funny afterwards. For me the strangest aspect of being a writer is having to keep an open mind. I don’t mean this in the usual sense as in being intellectually open to new ideas or concepts. An analogy for that is like being in a house and looking out of the window at all the new ideas parading by and then inviting the ones you like or find interesting inside. For me as a writer an open mind is more like having your front door wide open and whatever decides to walk in, walks in. 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 →

A work in progress – The Eight Bench Walk – my first international novel

Posted on by under Crime writing, Writing process

book coverIn the tenth Mac Maguire mystery Mac goes to Cyprus. It’s been a hard winter and Mac’s back has been playing him up so his daughter Bridget has little problem in persuading him that he should go somewhere warm on holiday. Of course as soon as he arrives on the island something happens and the story kicks off!

I was in Larnaka, Cyprus for three weeks last year and spent over half the vacation wandering the streets looking for locations and trying to generate some ideas for a plot. I returned with the outline of a story in my head as well as a good visualisation for, at least, some of the settings. However, one evening towards the end of our stay, we were sitting outside a restaurant when it started raining. Of course we all rushed indoors and sat down next to a couple who were speaking Greek. She turned to us, smiled and made a comment about the English and rain in perfect English. Of course, the reason she spoke perfect English was because she was English, being born and brought up in the East Midlands. Continue reading →