We’re working on the cover for Perfume Island and there are 3,592,128 fonts to choose from. However I’ve whittled them down to six – which one do you prefer? Perhaps not exactly that one but…
‘And the police?’ asked Antoine. ‘Who’s in charge? We’re deep in gendarme territory here.’ To someone not French, that might seem a little opaque. Gendarme territory? What’s that? Well, actually, it’s simple: in France, you…
They wrap around your eyes like welders’ goggles, letting in no light except what gets through the lenses, which must be half an inch thick. What you see is a murky brown blur, but that’s…
If you’ve written a book, a good tip, which I generally ignore, is to read it backwards. After all, readers can be strange, so it’s not a bad idea to check that it’s just as good…
15 keys to One Green Bottle. N° 6: The detective plaque. A novel has to be plausible. Not close to the real world, but plausible in the world of the novel. So in Harry Potter’s…
From literary agent Sydney Lushpile to Jambiani Beach in Zanzibar, April was a little hectic on the blogging front. But thanks to some advance planning, I completed the A to Z challenge, so here, as…
Number 26 in The A to Z of the Writer’s Affliction, part of the A to Z blogging challenge. The tide at Jambiani, Zanzibar, withdraws for half a mile, revealing a vast expanse of beach.…
Number 25 in The A to Z of the Writer’s Affliction, part of the A to Z blogging challenge. I’m hardly an expert in perfume, but I fully understand why the ylang-ylang is a sought…
Number 24 in The A to Z of the Writer’s Affliction, part of the A to Z blogging challenge. X, of course, is the difficult one. How many xylophones, I wonder, among the blogs of…
Number 22 in The A to Z of the Writer’s Affliction, part of the A to Z blogging challenge. Perhaps this isn’t an affliction, or not for everyone. I dare say some writers have secretaries…