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As such, it was a relief when the steamer made the sanctuary of Darkilby. The harbour was quiet, with no tramp steamers or colliers present. Even the large freighter called the ‘Sleih-Marru’ – something of a fixture during my previous visits – was absent. All there was to be seen was the town’s small fishingContinue reading “Another chapter, another smidgen”

I handed her the second letter. It was very brief and had been typed all in block capitals. JACK & JOSINE FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY PLEASE LEAVE MANCHESTER IMMEDIATELY AND DO NOT COME BACK FOR SOME TIME. FROM A CONCERNED FRIEND “Well, that’s to the point,” commented Josine. * Subject to subsequent edits and changes-of-mind,Continue reading “A smidgen of Chapter One*”

On the strict understanding that this could change over coming months, here are the opening few sentences of the new novel. The latter half of 1922 was a good one for my private detective business. The unexpected arrival of Josine from the United States that June marked an upturn in my commercial fortunes, due almostContinue reading “A first peek”

So, finally I am getting down to Book 3. Here’s the Moleskin notebook that I got for Christmas and have been saving for this moment! It even came with a branded pen (which I’m less keen on; the clip makes it heavy and doesn’t actually clip on anything very well, so I can see itContinue reading “Here we go…”

July is slipping by and I’m afraid I have to report a delay to the actual writing of Book 3. The trouble with (slowly) increasing my Twitter network is that I keep seeing these really tempting short story calls for magazines and anthologies. Well, I saw one a few weeks ago that it turned outContinue reading “The best laid plans…”

Bit by bit, the story of Book 3 is continuing to take shape. I don’t know how it works for other writers, but I start off with a broad sweep of plot in my head. It has a start point and an end point, with maybe a set-piece scene or two already in mind. FromContinue reading “Thickening the plot”

Ok, I promised an actual post with some content, so here it is! It has been a busy couple of months since releasing ‘Those Under The Hill’, the second of my Jack Glennison novels. During that time, I’ve been taking a break from Darkisle. Apart from pushing the new novel (and its predecessor, ‘The GatheringContinue reading “Beer and Book 3”

So, I have it on good authority that authors should have blogs and who am I to argue? Here, then, is the start of mine. Not much of interest yet, just to let you know I’ll be using this mostly to post updates about my writing. Particularly – for the next few months – concerningContinue reading “A first blog post!”