Many of you know that I draw my inspiration and ideas from the area in which I live and where my DI Andy Horton crime novelsand thriller novelsare set: Portsmouth, the Isle of Wight and generally the Solent area on the South Coast of England.

My marine mystery country is a vibrant area full of contrasts and contradictions, which…

I've just uploaded a new video interview. In this short video I am in conversation with Tony Smith, talking about my marine mystery police procedural crime novels featuring the flawed and rugged Inspector Andy Horton and my thrillers. How I research them and I'm also talking about the importance of their location, which is Portsmouth…

Footsteps on the Shore the sixth in the Inspector Andy Horton marine mystery series of crime novels set in the Solent area on the South Coast of England is being published in hardcover on 27 January 2011. I have been promising to post details about this latest crime fiction police…

Over eighty people, including the Lord Mayor of Fareham and his wife, attended the charity lunch yesterday (31 October) in aid of the NSPCC where I was guest speaker, to listen to me talking about my marine mystery police procedural crime fiction novels featuring the flawed and rugged Inspector Andy Horton and my crime fiction thrillers, set in the…

I was made very welcome at the Southern region of the Society of Women Writers and Journalists on 22 October where I gave a talk on how I write, research and market my Inspector Andy Horton marine mystery crime novels and thrillers.

What a lovely group of people and I was delighted to see popular saga author…

I'm now over half way through writing the first draft of the next Inspector Andy Horton marine mystery police procedural crime novel, the seventh in the series, as yet untitled, but that doesn't mean I'll have finished the novel by Christmas, although Christmas is my deadline for completing the first draft. Why a deadline? Is this imposed by my publisher? The answer is 'no.' I find setting…

My marine mystery crime novels featuring Inspector Andy Horton and my thrillers are set on the south coast of England, in the Solent area with Portsmouth CID being Inspector Andy Horton’s patch. After reading an article in The News, Portsmouth’s local daily newspaper, I was reminded that when I write here I should say Portsmouth, England because there…

Yesterday I gave a talk to a packed audience of the U3A group in Waterloovile, Hampshire about my crime novels and how I write my police procedural marine mystery crime novels featuring Inspector Andy Horton and my thrillers . They were a great crowd and I was delighted to answer their questions and sign so many books.

Next week I'm off to the West Midlands and will be speaking at Perry Common Library in Birmingham and…

A bright and early start on 22 September when I'll be talking to Steve Harris on the BBC Radio Solent Breakfast Show. This is scheduled for 6.45a.m.(British time) give or take a few minutes. It's always great to chat with Julian Clegg or Steve Harris and give listeners a quick up date on what is happening in the life of this crime author and my marine mystery police procedural crime and thriller novels, which are set…

I did this Q & A session recently for the Chichester Book Club web site and thought Id' post it here. It's based on the third novel in the Andy Horton marine mystery crime series, The Suffocating Sea, which is available in paperback and as an unabridged audio book and e book.

How would you describe your crime novel, The Suffocating…

Having used up tons of scraps of paper (re-cycled from having to print off reams of previous manuscripts) and having almost worn my pencil down to a stub, not to mention making my office look like a waste paper tip, I am now a great deal happier with the plot of the next Andy Horton police procedural marine mystery crime novel, which will be number seven in the series set on the south coast of England around the…

You think about the plot and sub plots. You think about the characters and their motivations. You think about the weather and the time of year the novels take place. And you think about the locations. In fact you think about everything there is to think about when writing a novel, and rather than spending my time sitting in a room and staring out of a window thinking, I prefer to do most of mine while walking. Not only does this help to keep me fit but it's a well known fact…

First published in hardcover in the UK in February 2010 and the USA in May 2010, I am pleased that Blood on the Sand is to be published in paperback by Severn House in September.

In the USA, Booklist said of Blood on the Sand, 'This is another solid entry in a consistently well written series. Like Ed McBain, Rowson works many…

One thing about writing a series (Inspector Andy Horton crime novels) is that some of the character names are already set, i.e. Inspector Horton, Sergeant Cantelli, Superintendent Uckfield. Then there is DI Dennings, DCI Lorraine Bliss and others, so no need to think up new names for them. But every novel has a new crime and a new set of characters and coming up with names for them can often be quite tricky as can be…

I've posted a new video here, on my You Tube channel and my official web site. It's an extract from my radio interview with Rob Richardson of Write-Invite, on Express FM, in which I read from my latest Inspector Andy Horton marine mystery crime novel, Blood on the Sand…

Authors differ on their approach to writing first drafts, some love it, some hate it and many are somewhere in between. Me? Well, I find writing first drafts exciting, tense and very often frustrating. Exciting because it is fresh unchartered waters and although I have a basic plot outline and character sketches I'm still not sure where the tide will take me and which shore my novel will wash up on. Tense because I am in a hurry to write it as fast as I can while my head is…

I had to re-record my interview with Rob Richardson of Express FM last week because a technical hitch unfortunately meant the original interview could not be transmitted. I didn't mind though. It's always good fun talking to Rob Richardson who also runs a very lively writing group and web site called Write Invite, which has some very exciting and rather unusual short story writing…

I'm pleased to announce that translation rights have been sold to China for two of my crime novels, Tide of Death, the first in the Inspector Andy Horton marine mystery series and In Cold Daylight, a crime thriller novel about the cover up of the mysterious deaths of firefighters killed in the line of duty.…