Over the last few months I’ve read and reviewed a fair number of books, and while most of them were enjoyable (good story, interesting characters etc), I kept coming across one particular issue. Now while this issue doesn’t cause me to chuck the book out the damn window, it’s quite irksome and constantly distracts me…
How to Tweet Nice
One of the things I love about the online writing community, is how supportive everyone is, promoting each other’s books, blogs and anything else that needs a bit of publicity. However, this bonhomie doesn’t extend to everyone and there are a few writers whose work I regularly re-tweet or otherwise endorse, who rarely (if ever)…
‘Dead Dogs and Splintered Hearts’ by Tom Ward
Dead Dogs and Splintered Hearts In this collection of 24 short stories, writer Tom Ward drops us into a world of love, death and dancing. Though held together by the book’s general theme (pooches and broken hearts), the subject matter ranges from Parisian cabaret and a house disturbed by the ghostly presence of Norman Mailer,…
‘Betrayal’ by Sharon Brownlie
Betrayal Caught in an endless spiral of rejection and abuse, Helen King is lured into a life of drugs and prostitution. Struggling to relinquish her addiction, she happens upon a former teacher, an encounter that opens up old wounds and sparks a new challenge – retribution. Trailing the teacher to Scotland, Helen sets out to…
‘Deadly Secrets’ by Gordon Bickerstaff
Deadly Secrets When biochemist Gavin Shawlens agrees to work on a new food additive, he becomes embroiled in network of intrigue and corruption. Discovering he’ll be working with former girlfriend Emma, he makes up his mind to walk away from the project rather than face seeing her every day. However, unknown forces quickly land him…
How Songs Saved My Characters…
Writing dialogue is often a bit of a sticking points for authors and finding ways to get past it to free up our creative juices can be frustrating to say the least. These days I find dialogue quite straightforward, but a few years ago, a couple of female characters had me tearing my hair out…
‘Who Killed Little Johnny Gill?’ by Kathryn McMaster
Who Killed Little Johnny Gill? A Victorian True Crime Murder Mystery Bradford, late December 1888. Young Johnny Gill leaves his loving family to help milkman William Barrett on his daily round. As his mother Mary Ann bids the lad goodbye, she has no idea she’ll never see her son alive again. When the boy fails…
5 Things I Learned from Writing
I always assumed my writing would improve as time went on, though I have to say I wasn’t sure how that would happen. With 13 titles out in the world now, it got me thinking about what I’d learned from each of my books and how that affected subsequent creations. I’ve only included my middle-grade…
‘Run Girl’ by Eva Hudson
Run Girl FBI agent Ingrid Skyberg is in London for a conference, but when a young American woman goes missing in the City, Ingrid is recruited to help find her. The cover and the title drew me to this one and as I didn’t lose interest on the first page (which is always a positive…
‘No Good Deed’ by MP McDonald
No Good Deed: A Psychological Thriller When photographer Mark Taylor finds a camera that takes unusual photos, he realises he can stop bad things happening – but there’s one disaster he’s unable to change: 9/11. Taken into custody, Taylor is not charged with any crime and doesn’t get the chance to have his day in…
Colin Garrow 