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The Man and Woman Who Beat Smallpox
Edward Jenner vaccinates James Phipps, 1798 Sunday, April 4, 2021 If you have a scientific bent, you have probably heard of Edward Jenner, an English surgeon and scientist who is credited with the...
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CULPRITS: Heist Was Only the Beginning
Sunday, April 18, 2021 Four years ago, an email arrived from Richard J Brewer and Gary Phillips, asking me if I would be interested in contributing a short story – of sorts – to a rather unusual...
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Going Internet Cold Turkey
Sunday, May 2, 2021 A couple of weeks ago, I went up north to do some refurbishment work to my house (the house I own but not where I live—it’s a long story). What should have been a three-day trip...
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Punctuation: In the Beginning
SUNDAY, May 16, 2021 I heard a lovely story recently about what was, supposedly, the most succinct literary correspondence ever recorded. In 1862, Victor Hugo was very anxious to know how the...
View ArticleLetter From A Reader
SUNDAY, JUNE 13, 2021 Last weekend, I received an email from a reader who said she had read my Charlie Fox series and hated it. When I read that opening line, my heart did one of those strange little...
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Cars as Character
Sunday, June 27, 2021 The kind of car driven by the main protagonist of a novel is, for me, a snapshot into the mind of that character. And for the author, it’s often a quick way to give information...
View Article10 Writers in Search of a Story
Sunday, July 11, 2021 Back in 2012, I took part in The Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, which takes place annually in Harrogate. Stuart MacBride was the Chair that year, I seem to recall,...
View ArticleTRIAL UNDER FIRE excerpt
TUESday, July 20, 2021 The Charlie Fox prequel novella, TRIAL UNDER FIRE, goes back to a time when Charlie Fox was a regular soldier in the British Army. A radio operator out with a routine night...
View ArticleCharacters Off Camera
When you write crime, mysteries, or thrillers, you need to create conflict for your characters. They tell you to put your main protagonist up a tree and throw rocks at them. After all, if everything...
View ArticleAuthor Websites—What Annoys You?
These days, just about everybody has a website. The only thing that varies is the quality. I recently came across an excellent article by Thomas Umstattd Jr on Author Media about how author websites...
View ArticleAfghanistan: the more things change…
‘The Taliban Islamic militia have come and conquered with stunning speed.’ You might think these words were used to describe the situation in Afghanistan in August 2021 as the Taliban took control of...
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Violence Against Women
Last week, a report was published that used the word ‘epidemic’—but not in relation to Covid-19. Instead, the comments came from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue...
View ArticleSetting the Scene
The location where a book is set always has a big influence on the plot. And if it doesn’t, then it probably should. After all, they reckon there are only seven basic plot themes— overcoming the...
View ArticleCHAPTERS: TITLE OR NUMBER
Back when I wrote my first novel, I think it had about twenty-five chapters, each with scene breaks, plus an epilogue to explain what happened in the aftermath. These days, I’m more likely to write the...
View ArticlePlaying With Words
It comes as no surprise to those who know me that I love playing with words. My dictionary is falling apart and decorated with Post-It notes of words that would make great titles, names, or just ones I...
View ArticleWriter’s Block
I wrote a post about writer’s block about seven years ago, but as it’s a condition that does not improve with time—or age, alas—I thought it was well worth revising and revisiting. Up until a few years...
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Series Characters
More years ago than I care to recall, I used to watch a regular TV drama called The Champions about three agents for a shadowy international law enforcement agency called Nemesis! In fairness, the...
View ArticleTricks of the Trade
When you think of tricks of the trade, it’s hard not to think of close-up magic artists and those who specialise in sleight of hand, although that wasn’t really what I was thinking of. Having said...
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Marketing Myopia
Corporate purpose: ‘Rather than merely making money, it is to create and keep a customer.’ Theodore Levitt Some years ago, I came across the work of Harvard Business School professor, Theodore Levitt....
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With All Undue Respect
“From what I’ve seen of you, Zoë, you treat people with a respect you somehow do not expect to receive yourself.” This was said to me many years ago by someone I’d known for a long time, if not...
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