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…