It's one of those things you most look forward to when you're unpublished - your first publication day. In actual fact, the launch of a book is never quite that clear cut - I remember walking into a bookshop two weeks before the launch of my first book and finding half a dozen copies on the shelf. I was so shocked that I asked the staff what they were doing there and they thought I was complaining and offered to remove them!

Then as time goes on and you publish more books, the…

I was intrigued by Daniel's forum post about cutting and editing work and the various routines writers employ so I thought I'd write a little here about my own routine.

The first thing is, I never outline. I'll make some notes of character names, minor details, occasionally pieces of dialogue that I may or may not use, but that's it. That's not to say I don't plan. For months before starting on a book I'll think it through, inhabiting the story until it's become completely mine. If…

As a few people have asked about the books I realized my bio might be missing some of the key information you'd expect to find on Crimespace, so I've decided to say a little here about my writing.

My new book, Who is Conrad Hirst?, comes out in November 2007 through Simon & Schuster in the US. This is the last of my hitman triptych (a term coined by my film agent because the books all explore aspects of the hitman's existence but aren't a series and only share a…