Criminally conferencing in Oxford

St Hilda's CFW composite image

No, not Inspector Morse, but the St Hilda’s Crime Fiction Writing Weekend with the theme of Bad Apples – Crime fiction’s enemies and anti-heroes.

In all my sixteen plus years of writing thrillers, this was my first time at this high quality and fun weekend. It’s been going for 33 years!

The original Victorian […]

What's my writing process?

(Photo: Uschi Hering)

*Falls over laughing*

It’s chaotic. No, I do not sit down at 9 am and work through to 5.30pm. But somehow it does get done.

Right I’m going to try to take this seriously (Puts on stern face)

My first main characters had been running around in my head for […]

Chapters – Entitled or just a number?

Is it better to put a title at the beginning of each chapter in your book or should you merely put a simple number? I’ve never used chapter titles when writing my own books although I’ve absorbed them when reading other books.

What do chapter titles do?

They can act as promises of what’s […]

Home or away? Choose your setting

Writing class

“Write what you know!“

There’s a statement that was hammered home at us when we were newbie writers.

Well, I half obeyed when I wrote my first book INCEPTIO. Actually, it was less than that. I knew the military bit, I’d clambered over a lot of Roman Europe and I knew […]

Summer vacuum – the time of little writing

Pergola and swimming pool in summer

Updated and republished

Summer is here; lazy days, extra wine, days out with the family and friends, a holiday away. Mmm.

Alternatively, with the recent heatwaves, we may be cowering indoors and in our basements!

As writers, we have two scenarios before us:

The first:

You have a deadline looming, your fans are waiting, your […]