Inspector Kirby and Harold Longcoat - A Northumbrian Mystery

Launching today!

Inspector Kirby and Harold Longcoat - A Northumbrian Mystery.

Here’s the link: http://smarturl.it/inspectorkirby1

A pair of shoes - how weird can that be?

Inspector Jonah Kirby ends up with the cases other officers don’t like to handle, the weird ones. When a young girl is reported missing all he has to go on is the pair of shoes. To Kirby it doesn’t feel right and in his experience things not feeling right often lead to things not being right. Little does he realise that his weirdness scale – weird, very weird and extremely weird – will soon need extending.

Meet Inspector Kirby

Inspector Kirby, Jonah to his friends and 'old school' to his junior colleagues, wandered out of the cottage.  He crossed the road and headed down the lane, with thorny hedge rows either side, that led to the sea.  He’d put this off for days, wondering how it would make him feel.  Still there was nothing quite like a walk along the coast with its prevailing North East breeze and the smell of salt and rotting seaweed in the air to clear the mind.  And let’s face it there was a lot to clear.

To meet Inspector Kirby follow this link

Getting into your characters - Inspector Kirby and Harold Longcoat

My latest project, Inspector Kirby and Harold Longcoat, due to be launched in a few week’s time, was great fun to write.  Possibly, because it’s a change from my normal diet of science fiction, set as it is in the present day, more-or-less.  It’s a detective, mystery story, again something new for me, although not quite that straightforward.  If you’ve read some of my short stories you’ll understand.  It’s also allowed me to play with the humour in my writing.  However, I think one of the keys to getting that part of it right was developing sympathetic characters who would play off each other.

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What I've learnt from 4 years of blogging

Recently a site, The Digital Reader (morning coffee – 1 September 2017) picked up on a blog I wrote in 2014, 7 key things I’ve learnt from a year  of blogging.  To my pleasant surprise this has created a lot of traffic, so I assume people are interested which is great.  That got me thinking, three years on do I come to the same conclusions, what else have I learnt:

1) The first thing listed was:  Blogging does not sell books

I still hold with that, mostly.  I think this to be the case with most blogs.  However, it is possible to tailor at least some of your blogs to help promote your work.  You can discuss the subject of your work, the locations, what makes your characters interesting etc.  At least then the reader will get to know a little more about what makes you and your writing tick.  Make it interesting and If they like what you’re saying they may then take the time to look at your books.  I don’t do it all the time, I think this would get boring and there are other things I want to discuss.

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Indie authors - relish cross genre fiction

I enjoy my science fiction and my fantasy.  When I pick up a book (or these days download) in one of these genres I guess I know what I’m getting, I’m on safe ground.  Also, as a writer if I stick to a genre I know where I’m going with my books.  I know where they will “fit”.  This is very much the case with the Bleak books and Project Noah.  They are very firmly in the science fiction camp.  There’s nothing wrong with that.  I enjoyed writing them and from the feedback I’ve had people enjoy reading them.

The first book I published and whose sequels are written and waiting to be finalised (they occasionally nag at me to be published) is a little different.  While still very much science fiction it has an element of fantasy in that I give a “scientific” reason for the existence of Fairies (you’ll understand if you read it).

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FREE - collection of sci-fi and fantasy short stories

To get your FREE copy just click on the image and follow the link.

Short stories - great for both writer and reader

I remember not long after my life-long addiction to science fiction and fantasy began I bought an Isaac Asimov book without realising it was a collection of short stories.  At first I felt a little cheated.  I was, after all, looking forward to losing myself in a full length novel by my favourite author.  But hey, I was young, didn’t have a lot of money and I’d bought it hadn’t I?’  So with a little reluctance I sat down and opened it.  How wrong could I be?  This was an incredible, diverse blast of imagination.  It was like he’d had all these ideas for stories that wouldn’t make books backed up in his mind and had let rip.  There was science fiction, fantasy and the just plain weird.  Much as I enjoyed his full length scifi this demonstrated to me what a great story teller he really was.  If anything it hooked me even more into his work and I sought out more of his short stories as well as the novels.

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FREE! Dancing with the Devil.  A collection of thirteen short stories of the weird and wonderful. Just follow the link on this page or visit my blog.