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...
‘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...
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...
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...
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....
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...
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...
‘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...
I Love the Sound of Rainfall in the Morning – Linda StratmannOne question writers are often asked is whether they listen to music when they are writing, and if so what are their favourite tracks. Some say they just listen for pleasure, others find actual inspir...
Watching TV these days, you’d think that something odd is happening to the form of the story. Instead of watching a series, we’ve now started to devour whole boxed sets of Broadchurch or The Bridge. I...
I was never an investigative journalist – not in any proper sense – but on several occasions I wrote about investigations into murders. They taught me a few stark lessons which have stayed...
These days a lot of people look blank when you say the name Nicholas Freeling. Hum the first few bars of “Eye Level” by the Simon Park Orchestra, the theme tune to the Van der Valk TV series, and you...
William Shaw is our Featured Author for August. When the flamboyant Channel 4 conspiracy series Utopia wove the 1979 murder of MP Airey into its plot last month there was some outrage. Neave’s son Pa...
Giveaway: Martin EdwardsWe have 5 copies of The Coffin Trail by Martin Edwards to giveaway. The Rules Entry for this prize will end at 12am GMT on 24th August. The winner of the prize will be notified by email within...
The Frozen ShroudThe Frozen Shroud has just been published in paperback by Allison & Busby, a pleasing boost to morale as I work on its successor, which will be the seventh Lake District Mystery. The story s is a...
Forgotten Book – Martin EdwardsThe CWA resident archivist Martin Edwards focuses on some of the great books you never knew in our feature – The Forgotten Book. Today he looks at “In Whose Dim Shadow” by J.J Connin...
Quentin Bates was our Featured Author for June. We hope you enjoyed his posts and join us in thanking him for his contributions. But we haven’t finished with the arm twisting just yet and before...
Where Do You Find Your Ideas? – Martin EdwardsOne of the questions writers are asked most often is: “Where do you find your ideas?” In fact, I gave this title to a short story I wrote years ago, about a not very successful novelist wh...
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