At a recent author event, an audience member asked me how I keep upbeat when most of my writing revolves around troubled souls who get into trouble.  The most obvious answers come to mind. I have a husband who pulls me away from the computer. I have kids to attend to. I have a great group of friends to have fun with. The most honest answer, however, comes from deep within. Simply put: I don't think delving into darkness is a bad thing.

Have you ever met someone who you know…

I'm delighted that Blood on the Sand, the fifth in the DI Andy Horton series of marine mystery police procedural crime novels set on the South Coast of England is to be published in Large Print by Severn House on 31 December. It is currently available in hardcover, trade paperback, mass market paperback, as an e book and an…

The seventh in the DI Horton series of Marine Mystery crime novels A Killing Coast is to be published in hardcover by Severn House in the UK on 26 January 2012 and in the USA in May 2012.



Here are some photographs taken from the locations featured in A Killing Coast a British police procedural.The novel…

Reared in the county of Devon in England, my earliest memory is of the Exeter blitz in 1942. I married an Exeter man in 1960, and we reared our three children in Cornwall. We built our own sailing boats and sailed the English Channel visiting many ports on the French coast on our holidays. We moved to the warmer climes of Perth in Western Australia in 1981, and took up…

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Conducted by Libby Fischer Hellmann…

Through my research and academic studies, I have found many interesting aspects about serial killers that may or may not be generally known.  I’ve incorporated a few aspects about serial killers from my list below to help keep my crime fiction heroine…

This is a good question.  It’s a solid, straight to the point question about writing.   It’s a question I’ve been asked quite a bit lately. 

How long does it take to write a novel? 

I’ve heard answers from it takes a lifetime to however long it takes you to read a book times a five hundred.  These responses make me laugh and are honest, but…

Here are some of the things I have learnt whilst writing a crime novel -

Anyone can fit inside a pop our cake. Most of these cakes aren't cakes after all. They may have frosting on the outside, but the rest is usually cardboard. This is a bit disappointing when you want your character to eat their way out of the cake.

 …

We delayed a little on this to give the hardcover some time to sell, but I'm happy to say that my most recent novel (an April 2011 release) is now also available at the very modest price of $ 4.99.

The hope is, of course,  that Kindle sales will bring me new readers.  I have always believed that Kindle book purchases are made by a slightly…