I was lucky enough to be invited to facilitate a session at this weekend's Newcastle Noir Literary Crime Festival, held in the Central Library in my old home town of Newcastle. The session was entitled, 'The Men in Black' - due to the fact that the authors interviewed write novels firmly entrenched in the 'real... Continue Reading →
NOTE: THIS POST IS ORIGINALLY FROM THIS SITE'S SISTER BLOG RAGTAGMAGPIE.COM Visit RagTag for ideas around arts and crafts, bios on famous artists from all media and genres, and the projects my wife is currently working on. It's updated daily and contains a huge amount of material. Here's the post- enjoy, and if you want... Continue Reading →
Do you know an author? I don't mean you live next door to one of the big guns like James Patterson, Lee Childs or Jordan. I mean a humble, self-publishing/ small press/ indie publisher author? Do you get sick of them: a) asking you to read their stuff (preferably by buying it...which you feel obliged... Continue Reading →
Tonight at a Storytelling event at Temperance, in Leamington, I'm going to try something different. Reading my stuff out loud is pretty new to me full stop - I've only done it at a couple of events, and once on radio. Tonight's different again - for a few reasons. It's a film script. Well, in... Continue Reading →
To celebrate the fact my book You Could Make a Killing is now on special Christmas offer at a frankly ridiculously low price (see full details here), here's another Christmas bit... Many years ago, the magazine Blue Murder (RIP) set a Christmas challenge: write a short story of not more than 1,500 words for the... Continue Reading →
Given I have been so damned nice about pretty much everything and everyone I have written about on this blog so far, I think I should get a pass for one day of grumpy-middle-aged-man. So, it's a beautiful bright autumnal Sunday morning - perfect for a long countryside ramble or, if you're like me, to... Continue Reading →
In a week that's already seen one of modern history's greatest storytellers pass, in Stan Lee, another equally legendary writer in his own respective field left us today. William Goldman was, and likely always will be, my favourite screen-writer of all time. His influence on me through his films was immense: from an early age... Continue Reading →
Earlier this week I wrote about my upcoming appearance on Stratford Words - a weekly show ran and hosted by Nick Le Mesurier on Welcombe Radio: a community internet station based in, well, duh, Stratford-Upon-Avon. That's right - Stratford; home of Shakespeare and all that good stuff. And check me out - I did a... Continue Reading →
I've published two collections of short stories (did I ever mention Basement Tales and You Could Make a Killing?) to test the waters in self-publishing, Kindle and so forth but these have been, in a sense, warm ups before I start publishing novels. I have a number of novels in various stage - one fully... Continue Reading →
This afternoon, Sunday 4th November at 4pm UK time, I'm going to try something different: I'll be appearing on an internet radio show entitled Stratford Words : (http://www.welcomberadio.co.uk) I've never done a radio show about writing in general, or my writing in particular. It's going to be a one hour interview with the show's host, Nick... Continue Reading →
