Get energised by spring, get help, get published – extracts from March newsletter
March 2023. Spring is on its way. I'm still laid up in bed with that broken leg I mentioned last time. In fact it turned out to be not just a broken leg, but also torn ligaments on both sides of the knee. So a long recuperation. However I'm trying to work around this....
Top ten books to get you in the mood for spring
It's March and here in Scotland the weather can go either way. Right now my cherry tree is in blossom and I'm considering getting the garden furniture out. But in March 2018, Edinburgh was buried in snow thanks to the 'beast from the east'. Thankfully books are not...
Keeping going in adversity – extracts from February newsletter
February newsletter - keeping going in adversity. Last month I bounced in with lots of resolutions and urged you to join me too, right? Well the first obstacle hit me rather hard - a broken leg and knee while skiing in January. Ouch. People tried to cheer me up by...
Top Ten Crime and Thriller Series
As avid readers, is there anything better than discovering a new series of books to devour? Crime and thriller books seem to lend themselves particularly well to series, presumably because early on the writer can establish the main character - the professional or...
Let’s get things done! Reading and writing smarter and faster. – extracts from January newsletter
A Happy New Year to you all. This year, I'm all about chucking off the sluggishness of the Covid years to Make Things Happen. And I hope to drag you all along with me. I'm a firm believer that stating your intentions for the year does help, so that's what I'm...
Top Twenty Books of 2022.
Welcome to my review of books read in 2022. I read over eighty books and it's always fun to look back over the year and spot trends. I discovered many brilliant UK YA books compared to 2021 when the market seemed dominated by the US. MG writing is also still amazing...
Ideas for Christmas presents – extracts from November newsletter
My blog this month is another in the series about crime fiction. This time it's about unusual narratives, which is more interesting than it sounds! Yes it's a bit niche, but whether you're a writer or a reader, I think you'll enjoy seeing the many different ways...
Top Ten Weird and Wonderful Crime Novels – unusual narratives.
As part of a series of blogs about crime and thriller novels, September's blog focused on the top ten locations. This month I take a look at unusual narrative forms. While we probably all recognise the groundbreaking work of those writers from the Golden Age of...
Writing Spooky. Extracts from October’s newsletter.
I've had a productive few weeks which has resulted in me sending four completed projects to my agent - with profuse apologies, but she said something interesting. She said this time of year was often a 'finishing off and unloading' time of year for her clients, and I...
Top Ten Scariest Novels of all Time
Halloween is fast approaching, so why not get yourself in the mood by reading your way through my list of the scariest novels of all time? A few of these are supernatural, but not all; instead they are the kinds of books you just can't put down and which are...