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The Unsolvable Murder
Have you heard the one about the writer who couldn’t solve the murder in his first crime novel? Yeah, that was me. At the time, it was the kind of luck that seemed…
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The story that refuses to go away
When I was a teenager at school, I was hopeless at maths. (I could spell differential calculus though.) One week the homework was a tricky equation that baffled me from start to finish.…
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How reading let me down
You wouldn’t think reading could let you down. But as a young child it seemed to be at the root of most of my troubles. Please don’t think I had a terrible childhood,…
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Do you know what your book’s about?
I thought I did. There I was, at the front of the church hall, being introduced by the chairperson, looking forward to my first public event as an author. My appearance in the…
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Why I Wrote No Accident
When you set out, you never quite know how things will turn out. I wanted to create something new, something different and exciting to entertain murder mystery readers. No Accident, the first book…
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Why do I write murder mystery novels?
The easy answer would be to say I love Agatha Christie, crime dramas and complex puzzles. I was huge fan of the Famous Five by Enid Blyton when I was a child. I…
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An Accidental Detective
How do you create something familiar, but different and less formulaic? Do you go for something original and distinctive – unique even? Perhaps, but you run the risk of alienating the readers you…
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A funny thing happened on the way to publication
You’ll never believe what happened when I wrote my first murder mystery novel. That’s right, I couldn’t solve the murder. Now, I don’t want you to think I’m jinxed or far too clever…
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Exit Stage Left.
A writer’s journey Part 3 – another dream bites the dust) You know the score. You start to get the hang of something, maybe excel here and there, and suddenly you’re invincible. Your…
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A semblance of reality
(Or life, Jim, but not quite as we know it.) There’s already enough crime, violence, horror and despair in the world. Do you want me to add to it by writing grim, depressing…
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Love is up in the air
(With apologies to John Paul Young for corrupting his song.) In my Valentine’s Day email to my Readers Group, I gave them a look under the bonnet of Kent Fisher’s turbulent love life.…
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The importance of being dishonest
A Writer’s Journey Part 2 – How to survive when you don’t fit in. In Part 1 of my writing journey I talked about the role books played in my childhood, how they…
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Intense Feelings
Are you a reader who gets hot under the collar about tense? As a member of several crime fiction groups on Facebook, the question of tense crops up from time to time. Or…
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An environmental health officer solving murders?
‘Kent Fisher is a wonderful creation and unique in crime literature.‘ Susan Corcoran, wrote this on 14th April 2018 when she reviewed No Bodies, the second Kent Fisher murder mystery. While I’d never…
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Moi? A cosy mystery author?
From the moment No Accident was released by a US publisher in 2016, I’ve refuted any claim that my novels are cosy mysteries. Why would I do this, you might ask? The cosy…