Thriller writer, archaeologist and traveller
Another year, another Guernsey Literary Festival. On Thursday 10th May I’ll be introducing Duncan Barrett in the Festival Hub. Duncan is the author of a number of non-fiction books including GI Brides and Sugar Girls both based on first hand interviews. His latest project is Hitler’s British Isles, for which he spent three months in... Continue Reading →
A New Year's Day tradition for me has been to start a new novel, or kick-start one that has been slumbering as a few chapters in rough draft. A couple of hundred words will do. This year I got ahead of myself. With the opening three or four chapters of 'AW' already in mind, I... Continue Reading →
January is a hectic time at Guernsey Museum, as we turn around all the temporary exhibition spaces in three weeks. For me it means checking and proofing all the wall text, and numerous press releases. New Year's Day is also when I like to pitch into the new book - NRT in the case of... Continue Reading →
So the draft NRT is back from beta-readers. The lovely things the trio said about the book were great, causing big beams of joy on my writerly face. The criticisms gave pause for thought. No, I’m not sharing – only the final version sees the light of day. What happens at beta-read stays at... Continue Reading →
Theakston Old Peculier have been sponsoring the UK's biggest crime writing festival since the dawn of time (or so their PR goes). This was my third encounter with the crime-loving crowd packed (literally) into the Old Swan Hotel in Harrogate, venue famously of Agatha Christie's mysterious flight in 1926. Lee Child's approach to writing intrigued... Continue Reading →
Okay, I admit it. My work-in-progress contains a rubber duck moment. Codename NRT, the novel has a very short timeframe. There is no chance to get to know the characters before they are plunged into the mystery on page 1. Thumbnails must suffice until enough pages have been peppered with hints and clues from their... Continue Reading →
Keen-eyed readers of my facebook page will have noticed the word count ticking upwards on my new thriller codenamed “NRT”. Draft 3 is only a few words short of the 80,000 mark and more or less done. I call Draft 3 “Animate”. By the end of Draft 2 I had a beginning, middle and an... Continue Reading →
In the paper the other week, a defence advocate explained that her client had made some 'poor decisions' in her life. We might say that committing a crime is the ultimate poor decision, so at the core of our crime novels are villains who have not just acted badly, but thought things out badly too.... Continue Reading →
How many times have I been watching a film and two-thirds the way through thought 'finish it now!'. Likewise when reading books, a point often comes where I feel the author is spinning the story out, or we are anticipating the denouement so why another red herring? Some books feel simply too long at this point. I... Continue Reading →
On New Year's day I have made a practice of starting a new book, or as in the case of 2017 picking up where I left off before party season hit. So, I'm 50,000 words into the new thriller. It's contemporary and it has no connection with archaeology; that's all the clues I'm giving. Oh... Continue Reading →