Any writer worth their salt knows how to flesh out a protagonist. A crime-solving hero (or anti-hero) must be a three-dimensional creature with strengths and flaws, quirks and history. If you talked a...
CWA Margery Allingham Short Story CompetitionThe CWA Margery Allingham Short Story competition was set up in 2013 to celebrate the short story and Margery Allingham’s contribution to crime writing. Supported by the Margery Allingham Society we a...
I like to think of myself as an eclectic reader but, in truth, I return to the same things again and again. I’m a sucker for historical mysteries – from Paul Doherty’s The Mask of...
‘Tis the Season: Writing with the Weather – Rosie ClavertonIt’s always raining in Wales. This is, of course, a fallacy. It only rains on about half the days of the year in Wales, less so in Cardiff. However, I feel a particular sense of homecoming when...
CWA Dagger in the Library announcedThe winner of the CWA’s Dagger in the Library award was n announced at an event at Waterstones Piccadilly. Unlike most other literary prizes, the Dagger in the Library honours an author’s body of work...
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, I have always loved crime fiction. And so when, a few years ago, I started writing I was sure my first book would be a mystery or whodunnit. Ho...
There’s no way round it, writing is about us writers applying the seats of our trousers, or skirts, to the seat of our computer chairs. However, sometimes moving away from the keyboard is as imp...
CSI Portsmouth 2014 – Maggots, drug busting and intelligence gatheringOver 100 people packed The Princess Royal Gallery at the National Museum of the Royal Navy in the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard on Saturday 8 November 2014 to hear two panel debates on crime fiction ve...
Kingsley Amis once famously said, “The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of one’s trousers to the seat of one’s chair.” In other words, a writer has to be practica...
Going, going… GoneMarianne Wheelaghan The lesser developed Republic of Kiribati is a necklace of 33 small islands and atolls, slap bang in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. According to the World Tourism Organization (U...
The need to vanquish the forces of evil is much in the news at the moment as Presidents and Prime Ministers grapple with an intractable situation in the Middle East and in particular the rise of Isil....
PD Viner GiveawayPrize 1: Signed paperback of The Last Winter of Dani Lancing plus an exclusive Summer of Ghosts badge Prize 2: Signed hardback of Summer of Ghosts plus an exclusive Summer of Ghosts badge We ad...
I read about new technology in the newspapers, I try to keep up. I have a phone that is so smart I have no real idea of what it can do. I have a car that talks. In the last couple of months I’ve dippe...
John MalcolmA month or two ago I managed to get a letter published in The Times. The bicentenary of the battle of Waterloo is coming up next year and the paper had been addressing itself towards various celebrati...
Our latest giveaway is thanks to the folk at Noirwich and is to win all of these fab SIGNED books. One lucky winner will receive t...
I’ve been a writer for nearly thirty years, that’s what it says on my tax returns, so going back to square one, becoming the new kid again, the ingénue, is a bit of a challenge. But I’m a debut crime...
Wandering and Wondering – Alex ShawTwenty seven years ago I saw Alan Bennett sitting on a wall in the Yorkshire village of Heckmondwikestaring at passers-by and taking notes. When my father and I, two southerners passed by he made note...
‘I wonder if I have annoyed Linda recently?’ said a friend sitting down to dinner at my house after looking at my collection of true crime books. Crime and cooking have both been great interests of mi...
Split Screens – Linda StratmannMulti-tasking is an essential ability for a writer. Hands and mind can work simultaneously and independently, and there can be one issue engaging the forefront of the mind while another is still worki...
Recently I was asked to describe a typical working day as a writer. Years ago when I worked in an office I knew exactly what a typical day was – I went to the same place five days a week, and did the...
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