No author is thrilled to receive a bad review, and I’m no exception. Yes, I’ve occasionally gotten them, but a bad review doesn’t have to equal a meltdown. Read today’s Writers Tricks of the Trade in the Las Vegas edition of examiner.com.  LINK:…

Todays Writers Tricks of the Trade in the Los Angeles edition of Examiner.com is the second part of a three part series: CHOICES.

When used properly, dreams and delays can move a story along while keeping the…

Today’s Writers: Tricks of the trade column discusses the merits of spending hours, days and even months to craft that perfect phrase or sentence, while the novel languishes on the back burner. Lots of good advice in this one.…

LINK:Writers Tricks of the Trade: Y is for You Don't Say…

On Saturday 18 June between 10am and 4pm I will be running an interactive workshop on How to write compelling crime and thriller novels at Quay Arts Centreon the Isle of Wight.



I was asked if I would run this workshop during National Crime Writing Weekan initiative organised by The…

Potential students of the London School of Economics ought perhaps to rethink their choice of university, particularly if they plan to study international relations. After all, Muammar Qaddafi had to kill thousands of his own people before the LSE’s distinguished academics realized he might be something of a dictator.

However, if your plan is to study how to be a…

Tickets are now on sale for my event at the exciting and vibrant Isle of Wight Festival in April. You can read about my event and other events taking place over the weekend of 15-17 April at Ventnor on the Isle of Wight on the website, but below is a…

Are you getting the most out of your press releases? Harness the "power of the press" and get the word out.

 LINK TO TODAY'S WRITERS TRICKS OF THE TRADE:…

I received my author copies of the latest DI Andy Horton marine mysteryto be published as an unabridged audio book yesterday and it looks and sounds great. Dead Man’s Wharf is the fourth in the marine mystery series of crime novels featuring Inspector Andy Horton and is set in Portsmouth and the Solent area. It was chosen as the Best…

This wasn’t originally on my agenda for today’s column, but yesterday my daughter told me something my grandson said that just begged to be in a column about dialogue. Check it out:

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http://exm.nr/online-LV

Do you get frustrated looking for information? There are so many great resources online for…

LINK TO TODAY'S WRITERS TRICKS OF THE TRADE: http://exm.nr/JforJigsaw

 We have to make the pieces of our life fit as well as the pieces of our story or articles. When the tab just doesn't seem to be quite right, it's time to regroup, or make a slight adjustment. If we were…

A writer needs to enter the characters in his novel. I’ve talked about this with other writers, but also found it useful to discuss it with artists from other fields. Two movies I saw in the last week, “Black Swan” and “The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town,” illustrate just why it’s so important.

“Black Swan” revolves around the dilemma facing Natalie…

LINK: http://exm.nr/writers-rejection

Unfortunately, as writers most of us know what receving that…

Last night I watched The Book of Eli on Netflix. It was about a man who must walk across the US in a post apocalyptic period in which a great war has ravaged the world, decimating its populations. What's also apparently happened is that books were burned. Lots of them. Especially Bibles and all manners of scripture no matter their religion, since it was religion that sparked the great final conflict in the first place. Go figure.



There is only one more King James Bible left on the…

LINK: http://exm.nr/BforBalance

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TODAY'S WRITERS TRICKS OF THE TRADE - LAS VEGAS EDITION WWW.EXAMINER.COM

LINK: http://exm.nr/time-LV

One of the hardest things to do is discipline…

http://exm.nr/location-LA

This is the link to today's Writers Tricks of the trade in the Los Angeles edition of www.examiner.com. Have you ever read a book set in a location you knew well, only to discover that the author didn’t? Wrong details or atmosphere can be very offsetting to the reader. …