The Man of Twists and Turns

Any writer knows that things can go wrong sometimes. Characters start to get wooden. Scenes won’t come alive. But the slipperiest dilemma of all –– because it’s the one least likely to be obvious when you’re re-reading the manuscript –– is when certain words turn out to have unintended consequences. A fine example of this [...]

Elmore Leonard has 10 rules for writing. They don’t cover most of the important points of writing. They could really be called: Ten Rules for Writing That Isn’t So Bad, Even if You’re Not Much of Writer. Still the rules have been turned into a book and are quoted with something a little more mystical [...]

Writers usually decide to be writers before they know what they might write about. In my case, a journey from teenage isolation in Britain to the violence of the Middle East led me to the elements of my fiction which could be true — not just based on reality, but in the sense that they [...]

Georges Simenon wrote “L’Affaire Saint Fiacre” (“Maigret Goes Home”) in 1932. It’s one of the first of the 103 novels involved Inspector Jules Maigret. You can tell from books like this that the writer was a bit of a bastard. And we ought to be grateful for that. The opening of “Saint Fiacre” (I’m going [...]

This is a crime fiction blog. So we ought to shoot straight. Here it is: there are lots of crappy detective novels out there. Which is why I say thank God for Arkady Renko. The hero of Martin Cruz Smith’s excellent series set in the Soviet Union and, later, Russia (with stops in Cuba, Ukraine, [...]

This is a guided meditation for writers. Sit or lie down and listen to it. Do what I suggest in the podcast, and you’ll be meditating. I’ve used meditation techniques to help my concentration and to build my creativity in writing my award-winning crime fiction and historical novels. I’ve also found it transformative in my [...]

I’ve used meditation techniques to help my concentration and to build my creativity in writing my award-winning crime fiction and historical novels. I’ve also found it transformative in my daily life. This podcast describes why that is and tells you a little about the guided meditation for writers I’ll be doing in my next podcast. [...]

Whenever a novelist’s biography tells me that he’s “working on a screenplay,” my heart falls. I feel pity for the poor fellow who’s no doubt heading for disappointment (most scripts don’t get made) and for the novel, which exerts such a lesser lure than the glamour of the movies that a perfectly good novelist will [...]

As an award-winning writer of nonfiction, crime fiction, and historical thrillers, I’ll show how to write and edit your book. This is the final episode of three titled How to Write a Book. Previously I detailed the researching, structuring and plotting of your book. Download the Podcast: (Download the MP3) Subscribe via iTunes

My wife is in labor. Though by the time you read this, she’ll probably have delivered a baby girl. In days gone by, fathers hung around in the waiting room sharing cigars with new fathers. I’m glad that’s no longer a tradition – if I wanted to suck on something long and dark, I surely [...]