I like silence. I’m perfectly happy in a world where I can hear my own heart beat and only distant environmental sounds that waft gently...

I have always thought this statement to be part of my writer’s lexicon. A narrative tool that can move characters from inaction to...

There are times in life when the best of humanity is revealed. It’s a time when you can rely on your friends to step in and people you...

Why is it easier to disassemble than put together or more correctly put back together? Take this latest incident for example. The washing...

Music is a powerful friend to the writer. It inspires and enhances thought; encapsulates experience and enhances moments. While I don’t...

When I write I’m always conscious of setting. Landscape is essential to the telling of a story and to the development of character. Not...

January starts with a bang. I may be referring here to the fireworks fuelled celebrations that kick off in every city and town across the...

December is a complicated month with all its expectation and sense of finality. It’s all about Christmas, holidays, summer, the promise...

That is the battle with negative thoughts. You might recall that in my last blog I was setting myself the challenge of attaining a...

I spend a great deal of time in thought. I live in my head! Not just for my writing but in pursuit of being a better person. Of late I...

"Where thou art, that is home.” Emily Dickinson I’ve been thinking a great deal about the notion of ‘home’ and of what it means to feel...

An evening with friends constantly proves one thing; we are all natural born story-tellers. Get any group of people together and part of...

R-U Okay day (8 Sept) and World Suicide Prevention Day (10 Sept) You know the statistics and like me some of you will know the agony of...

The hesitation to believe, the uncertainty of possibility and the suspicion, misgivings and disbelief of those things that can’t be seen!...

I can’t help but think that endings are so very important; in life and in writing. In life the end of epic adventures, long hauls,...

I love a balancing act. Those folks who seem to be able to maintain an impossible position on one limb without teetering, wavering or...

(NB blandification is a word made up by me) Our hyper-sensitivity and 21st Century desire for ‘political correctness’ has put us at great...

As a writer of mysteries and crime fiction I’m constantly doing my homework! That is, I’m reading lots of books in this genre, watching...

I’ve been writing a lot lately and part of my process is making myself justify why I’ve described a character or scene in a particular...

In my last blog I reflected on the creation of villains and whether or not these adversarial characters should be unsympathetic,...