I hope anyone reading this is very well and enjoying some good crime fiction, there’s certainly plenty around at the moment. I’ve personally enjoyed a number of good books this year and looking forward to getting into some more once I’ve made my way through my current read, which has not reached the same heights. As if to put my money where my mouth is, I’m offering one of my books for free this weekend (should be available as you are reading this), so if you want to see if I’m any good or full of nonsense, why not download the eBook of Lightning Bolt and find out for yourself.
Moving onto current Work in Progress, and book 4 of the DI Christie series has reached the halfway point now. This still leaves me a fair way to go, in an ever decreasing timescale to have it out in December, being the festive story that it is. I’ve enjoyed writing this one and as we get closer to this most wonderful time of the year (the shops are certainly getting into the spirit), I hope my writing pace will increase with the motivation of the season.
Those who know me personally will be aware that I am celebrating a significant birthday this year and with such I’ve decided to do a special blog to mark the occasion. Music has been an important part of my life and I love talking to people about the bands, artists, songs and albums that have meant something to me. Taking a slice of inspiration from Nick Hornby’s 31 Songs, I’ve started to compile a list of 50 songs for turning 50 which will share, in sometimes embarrassing detail, the songs that have been important to me through my life. If Desert Island Disks is hard to narrow down to 8, then 50 is still a challenge. I know I’ll miss a few important ones along the way.
Anyway, that’s for another day and I hope you look forward to reading it. Remember to subscribe at the home page to get notified when I post some of these rambling blogs. Occasionally, they can be quite enjoyable…
Thanks again for reading my blog. The free eBook (Lightning Bolt) is available from Friday 11th through to Monday 14th via Amazon – link in the Books section of this website. If you take me up on my offer and have a read, please let me know what you think via the Reviews section of Amazon or via Goodreads. Or both if you’re really cool.
Well, I’ve managed to miss a couple of months blogs over the last couple of months for various reasons, so apologies for the delayed update. There have been a few things happening whilst I have been away, but the main reason for this blog is to get me back on track for some of my ambitions for the year.
One of my main objectives was the completion of the fourth DI Christie novel and with this one set over the festive period, I want to get this released ideally before December. Progress has been slow in recent months, mainly due to every day life factors, which has led me to change the plan slightly in terms of length.
Many authors, particularly new ones, get too caught up on word count rather than the story itself. I’ve certainly been guilty of this in the past and most of the Christie novels, as well as my debut Alive, are all around the 70k-75k length. My initial plan was for the ‘Festive Christie’ to be similar, however, I have restructured my plan and reduced this closer to 50k. Now, that could lead to a ‘is it a novel or novella?’ question, but at that length it will be a short novel rather than a novella (I’ve already written 2 novellas which are closer to 25k length, for those interested in such things). This will give me the best chance to complete it on time, ensuring that the story is not spoiled by the change.
Something else that happened recently was that I received a rejection for a short story I had submitted for publication in an anthology. Although it is naturally disappointing when the work you put into a story is not rewarded with publication, I’m trying to take the positives from the experience. The story had a number of firsts for my writing. Firstly, it had to be set in a specific location (rather than country/city which I had written for previously). Secondly, it was for an American publisher, which meant writing it in American English. Thirdly, I had to plan a murder that involved wildlife, which meant researching a specific animal’s behaviour, reading autopsy reports on animal attacks and watching a few too many YouTube videos on the subject. I was really pleased with the outcome, so I hope that it can be either published elsewhere or shared on another platform.
Of the other plans for the year, little progress has been made. I am still working out a new series that I have planned, which is actually two separate ones and I will need to get writing the first one soon. Agent planning continues, with research into who I will be querying to.
So, with that in mind, I better get back to DI Christie in the snow…
Thanks again for reading. You can access my books and contributions via the Books tab of this website.
Most of my blogs are a mixture of positive interaction about being an up and coming crime writer with a dash of music, TV or other connected nonsense. It’s not often I would write a negative blog, but if you would humour me for a moment, there’s something I would like to get off my chest, but I’ll come to that later.
Firstly, apologies to Sir Ian for the name dropping heading if this month’s blog, but it’s important to what I want to say. Those who know me, realise that he is one of my main crime writing heroes, someone whose work I devoured when I moved to Edinburgh and one of the main influences that made me pick up a pen and start to write. Over the last 12 years or so, what started as a bit of a secret hobby, has grown into something that I take more seriously each time I write.
Getting back to my question, and the title of this blog, what do I mean? Well, I’m talking about writers who come from a normal background (if you excuse the phrase), whom started writing in their bedroom, honing their craft before sending off manuscript after manuscript before finally landing that book deal. Now, that’s not the end goal and again using Sir Ian as an example, it would take 8 (EIGHT) – as they would do on the Vidiprinter (ask your dad) – Rebus novels before the series would really take off. Most writers would not have that luxury nowadays, but that is not the main crux of my current grievance.
News came out this week that a ‘TV Celebrity’ had signed a 2 book, crime novel contract with one of the large publisher firms. From what I’ve seen online, there has been an understandable backlash, particularly from up and coming authors. Although the crime writing genre has experienced this before, it’s probably not as bad as some other writing genres, especially children’s literature. Rumours are abound of many of the big selling books and novels being penned by others and the celebrity’s name just used as a marketing ploy. Is this the same in my own genre? I guess I’ll never know.
I suppose there could be an argument made that publishers need these books to keep them going and, dare I say it, support upcoming authors. I don’t have the insider knowledge to support or disagree with this, but it seems that bookshops are now flooded with celebrities’ novels. Now, autobiographical and memoirs aside, I find this sad and a recent large scale promotion of a book penned by a successful young actress was made before the name of her ghost writer was leaked. I’m sure that had little impact on the sales even if her fans found out the book was not actually written by her (even if it was only her name on the front cover).
So, will there be another Sir Ian Rankin, a crime writer that comes out of nowhere to become a global writing sensation? Novels, including crime ones, tend to go through fads and sometimes authors will jump on the currently hyped novel, although few of these have the continued success of their ‘big novel’. I suppose time will tell, but I hope that we do soon discover the new Rankin, McDermid or Cleeves and just not someone who was on the telly…
Thanks again for reading. Next blog will be back to the positive nonsense of old, but in the meantime if you fancy supporting an up and coming crime writer, you can get hold of my books via the Books tab of this website or have a read of some of my short stories in that section.
It’s been a while since I did a Top 10, so I’ve decided to share who I think are ten of the most perfectly cast actors to play a sleuth. I’ve focused on British shows to begin with as I may do a separate European/Rest of the World list in the future.
10 – Douglas Henshall – DI Jimmy Perez (Shetland).
A bit of a controversial start with this one as when he was initially cast, there were grumbles of him not being like the character in Ann Cleeves’ novels. Douglas quickly captured the emotions of the character from the very start and maintained this throughout the series.
9 – John Nettles – DCI Tom Barnaby (Midsomer Murders).
Many may scoff at Midsomer Murders, given the high number of deaths over the course of an episode or season, but these were exceptionally well written mysteries, even if at times the writer’s tongue was in cheek. John certainly created a character with a good mixture of drama and humour and much of the success was down to his portrayal of the lead character.
8 – Alan Davies – Jonathan Creek (Jonathan Creek).
I love Jonathan Creek, a simple yet unique idea for a crime drama solved by a magician’s assistant/trick creator. Very much a left field casting with this one, choosing a stand-up comic with little acting experiance to play the lead role. I think some of the charm of the series, especially the earlier episodes was down to Alan’s performance which felt genuine compared to how it may have been performed by a more known and, dare I say it, polished actor.
7 – Ken Stott – DI John Rebus (Rebus).
Many fans of Ian Rankin’s novels were disappointed with the previous adaptation and the general opinion is that Ken Stott was a much closer fit for the creation. Although the show only ran for 10 episodes, Ken’s performance was certainly what the readers wanted to see on the screen and I still think of Ken when I read the Rebus novels to this day.
6 – Jeremy Brett – Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock Holmes).
Many have played the part of one of our most famous sleuths, but Jeremy’s portrayal ranks above all others. He is probably who most visualise when you think of Sherlock and despite the success of the reboot starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Jeremy remains a perfectly cast choice.
From the moment she comes on screen, you know that you have something different with this character. Sarah’s performance is jaw dropping at times, showing the full range of emotions of the character from subtle interactions with her family to the full blown dramatic climaxes with the criminals.
4 – Joan Hickson – Miss Jane Marple (Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple).
Joan is the ultimate Miss Marple and captured the character from the first episode. Although advanced in years when she took the part, she filmed the 12 novels perfectly with a mixture of deadly dialogue and facial expressions that illustrated to the viewers exactly what she was thinking, even if it took us a while to work out how she had solved the mystery.
3 – John Thaw – Chief Inspector Morse (Inspector Morse).
John was already a highly acclaimed actor when he took on the titler role of Inspector Morse. Looking back at the many roles he performed over his career, he seemed to be perfectly cast in most of them, though he will always be fondly remembered for Morse. His character was frustrating at time, unpleasent (especially to Lewis) but always brilliant, intelligent and fascinating. It’s hard to think of anyone else who could have performed better in the role.
2 – Brenda Blethyn – DCI Vera Stan Stanhope (Vera).
The second of Ann Cleeves’ creations on this list and I believe that Ann cried when she heard Brenda had been cast in the lead role. To me, that speaks volumes and her performance is outstanding throughout the series. It’s recently been announced that the next series will be her final, though she has left us with over 50 episodes of breathtaking performances to enjoy. From the accent to the full persona of the character, Brenda plays the role to perfection.
1 – David Suchet – Hercule Poirot (Agatha Christie’s Poirot).
In the words of the famous 1980’s sci-fi classic movie – ‘There can be only one…’. David Suchet, even if initally reluctant to take the role, played it with nothing short of complete perfection. A critically acclaimed actor of stage and screen, he took the role incredibly seriously by reading every novel and short story the character appeared in before compiling his extensive dossier on the character based on Dame Agatha’s writing, often returning to these notes to ensure he played the character as she would have appreciated. It’s such a shame that we will never know if the author would approve, but millions of viewers, including myself, are pretty sure she would have.
So, that’s my list. I know I will have missed an obvious choice and feel free to reach out to me in the socials with your own suggestions. Also, who would you cast as DI Joanne Christie from my novels? I had no one in mind when I created her, but I would love to know your suggestions. Who knows, one day it may even come true…
I’m currently writing the fourth DI Christie novel, due out later this year. If you want to have a read of the other ones to consider who you would cast in a TV adaptation, you’ll find the links in the ‘Books’ tab of this website. Thanks for reading.
Being the last day of March, I wanted to put out a quick blog so that I can maintain a run of at least one blog each month this year. This month’s ramble will be to provide an update on how the year has been progressing, from a writing perspective, and how I am performing against my 2024 plan.
1 – Blog more often – So far so good. This blog will ensure my minimum monthly blog is achieved after writing four in February.
2 – Finish my novella – I’m delighted to confirm that I finished the first draft of my novella which came in at around 26k words – the same length as Breakfast at Tiffany’s. It has already received positive feedback from two test readers and I look forward to seeing where this one goes.
3 – Write and Publish DI Christie Book 4 – I’ve recently started work on this one and have already written the Prologue. I did consider if I should make this a novella rather than a full novel to take some writing pressure off myself, but as things stand I am aiming for novel length. The main thing is that it needs to be completed and published before Christmas (Ho Ho Ho).
4 – Agent Planning and Novel Structuring – A little work has begun on this, more around the novel structuring/planning. I’ve decided on the idea that I want to take forward and may consider entering the idea for a chance to pitch it at a crime writing festival.
5 – Publish at Least One More Short Story – I received confirmation that the locked room story, I had ready to go, won’t go ahead as planned as the publishers have pulled the anthology at this time. This will allow me the chance to send it for consideration elsewhere. It is currently undergoing a re-write and if not published may end up in this website for all to enjoy.
So, that’s my quick update. Thanks again for reading and keeping in touch. If you have not subscribed to the blog feed yet, please take some time to do this so you don’t miss any updates. As always, my books are available via the links in the ‘Books’ page of this website and there are a few short stories you can read for free here too.
Well, this blog brings us to the fourth and final weekly update regarding the books that I have published thus far. Lightning Bolt is the third in the current DI Jo Christie series and it was good to get back to these characters after a few years away working on other stories and a couple of WIPs that got stuck around the 25k word count mark.
I started writing this one at the beginning of 2023 and it started with an idea – what if someone was stabbing people, but not to kill them? I wrote the prologue to the novel which begins the story with the first stabbing which happens in Stockbridge, Edinburgh. The hook to the novel is that the perpetrator makes the victim get out their phone and call an ambulance immediately after they have been stabbed. There is also a cryptic saying that is stated just before the blade goes in. ‘This is for the ones who couldn’t fight back…’
Throughout the novel you get to hear from the victims, but which ones are being honest and which are hiding something? We also meet the stabber throughout the novel, someone called ‘Mac’. As well as developing the existing characters, I introduced two new ones who I fully expect to make a return in subsequent novels.
There’s something comforting about returning to the people that you have created and developed over a few novels. When I got a little stuck with the other WIPs, I thought it would be a good idea to return to the DI Christie series and the book certainly came together well (in my humble opinion). One main difference to the writing of this one, was that I knew from the start who did it and that was what made it easy to add the scenes with Mac, similar to how I handled ‘The Chain’ character previously. Fans of The Chain will be glad to hear that he makes an appearance again in this one and his story is also developing.
My writing brain has also started working on the idea for the fourth DI Christie novel and I have always fancied attempting a festive novel, so that is what I hope will happen. With my novella nearly complete, I may even have the time to write it in time for release at this year’s festive season. I might even put on a little Wham and Slade to get me in the mood…
Thanks again for reading my blog. I love writing the Christie novels, but love hearing what people think more, so let me know your thoughts by leaving a review and/or rating at Goodreads and/or Amazon. If you’ve not already read the series, you can get them from the ‘Books’ section of this website. I always keep the cost as low as possible, so if you’re an eBook reader, you can order all three for less than the price of a coffee and cake. I’m not saying they will be better, but they will certainly last longer…
Following the release of ‘Christie’s Early Cases’ (see previous blog), I now had my main characters written and developing nicely to attempt a full novel. Most of the feedback I had received from the first book was very positive, but as often the case with short stories, the readers wanted more (e.g. a novel). I had an idea in the back of my mind that was beginning to take shape when I sat down to start the next book.
2020 is a year that most people will not forget and I am no exception. The start of the year was incredibly positive on a personal level, I had just started a new job in the Public Sector and couldn’t believe the difference having spent over 20 years working in the Financial industry. ‘Work/Life Balance’ was an actual thing rather than a tag line, something that came in very handy for an author. Six and a half weeks into the role, we were all hit with the uncertainty of the first lockdown. I was one of the fortunate ones that I could continue to work from home full time, something that I can still do four years later.
Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, I used the time to work on the novel. With the amount of time spent at home, I was able to complete the full novel in under three months, an unheard of timescale in any other circumstances. The idea that I had, was that DI Joanne Christie would be called out to a murder that would have links to a historic, unresolved crime that her Detective Sergeant (Mike Lyle) was involved in at the time. I decided to set this one in West Lothian, on the outskirts of Edinburgh in the fictional village of ‘Whitebank’.
I tend not to overly plan my novels and I was a good half way through proceedings before I decided who was responsible and why. I was delighted how it turned out and proud that I created a novel with these characters I had been building over the preceding six years. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, although some readers thought it was more a DS Lyle novel than a DI Christie.
I didn’t take this as a criticism, as the two main characters go very much hand in hand and I always try and get the whole team involved in solving the crime. One of the things I notice about a lot of crime fiction/drama is the main character tends to solve it all by themselves and the supporting cast don’t do much, except suggest the wrong suspect or motive. I tend to aim for a team result, albeit led by Christie.
I’m not sure I’ll ever get the opportunity to write a novel in such a short space of time again, but it’s good to know that I can return to these characters and develop them further as the series progresses, something I hope I have achieved in the third instalment that I will discuss more in next week’s, fourth and final ‘Book Blog’
Thanks again for reading, please do subscribe to this blog/newsletter type affair on the main page of the website. Your support is much appreciated and will encourage me to upload these things more often. As always, you can grab a copy of ‘Five Against One’ via the link in the books section of this website.
It was around 2014 when the idea for DI Joanne Christie started to develop. I had been writing some short stories with the character DI James Slim, set in Glasgow, but I was worried that he would end up being a ‘Glasgow Rebus’ type character, even if they are very different. I knew that I wanted to write a story with a female lead, set in Edinburgh so started working on developing the DI Christie.
The name came first, a nod to Dame Agatha who I am a big fan of. The idea of a unisex first name stuck with me, and I chose Joanne or Jo for short which could be easily confused with the male version, Joe. Despite the idea, it has never really had any great significance in the stories thus far.
When I was writing the DI Slim short stories, I came up with the idea of using the track list of a complete album as the names for each story, taken in the order that they appear on the record. I’m not sure exactly why I chose Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours album, but there a number of things that may have led me there upon reflection. Firstly, I recall watching a documentary about the making of the album, the issues the band had, the disputes, fallouts and arguments. Despite everything that happened during the recording, they created a classic record. Secondly, the album has a strong female association through Stevie Nicks and the sadly, late, Christine McVie. Thirdly, Christie’s sidekick, DS Lyle, is a big classic rock fan and would love this album. Finally, my favourite track from the album had a perfect name for a crime story – The Chain. I love the story I had written for this one and the title character. I admit to having been a little annoyed when a novel of the same name was released in 2019, albeit, a very different story and plot to my creation.
Some of the story ideas came very easy from the title track names. The opening story ‘Second Hand News’ instantly gave me the idea of a body found in a pile of newspapers. ‘Oh Daddy’, gave me the idea of one of the character’s fathers being in trouble. Some, however, were a challenge – ‘You Make Loving Fun’ in particular. The title didn’t always marry up directly with the story, sometimes it was just a reference or comment made by a character in the story, but it was good fun to play with during the writing process.
With eleven tracks on the album, this meant the creation of 11 different stories to introduce and develop the main characters that would continue in the series, when full novels would be written later. The first 10 were all around the 5,000 mark, but I knew that I wanted to write a longer final story. ‘Gold Dust Woman’, is more at novella length and brings backs elements from ‘The Chain’ story and again was great fun to write.
With the stories completed, I just had to come up with a title. Initially, I had considered naming it after the album it was influenced by, but in the end decided to give another nod to Dame Agatha Christie, who wrote and published ‘Poirot’s Early Cases’ as a collection of short stories. I think that short stories, especially in the crime fiction genre, are an under appreciated art. It’s difficult for authors to create a crime, a motive, a list of suspects, an investigation and resolution within around 5,000 words.
And if to punish myself for my art, I did ten times for one book…
‘Christie’s Early Cases’ is the first in the DI Jo Christie book series. I will blog about the other two in the coming weeks, but if you fancy finding out more about the character and her early life as a DI in Edinburgh working for Police Scotland, you can order your copy in the ‘Books’ page of this website.
So, the plan is to write four blogs in February to tell you a bit about the creation of the four novels that I have written thus far. I have written about some of this before, but I’ll try and add some new interesting titbits if I can along the way. We start at the very beginning of my writing journey with my debut, standalone thriller – ‘Alive’.
The year was 2011 and I had been reading a number of crime fiction books and fancied writing one of my own. Before I started, I knew I wanted to come up with something different, perhaps an unusual slant on the genre. All I had at that point was the title, ‘Alive’, named after my favourite song by Pearl Jam. I quickly dismissed the idea of the usual police detective (that would come later), the private detective or, as has been done, from a murder perspective. I then arrived at my big idea, write it from the point of view of the target of the crime.
Fine, great idea (I thought), but how would I do this? Next was the thought that the target (Steve Hamilton), would receive a note stating that he was going to be killed. My next challenge was how could I write it without the reader knowing the outcome of that attack. I’m not sure where the idea came from, but I think my subconscious took me back to a book I read, and loved, as a teenager – Sue Townsend’s The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole. Perfect, I would write it in diary form. My ‘Whodunnet’ was now also a ‘Would they do it?’ and ‘Why are they doing it?’. The next big question – would I be able to write it.
Readers of my previous blogs will know all about Craig ‘Brodie’ Simpson, but in summary, I wouldn’t be a writer had I not met him. I wrote the first month (January to be completely unoriginal) and let him read it. His response was exceptionally kind and made me persevere. He now reads everything I write before anyone else. It’s an agreement, a bond, a tradition and a pleasure.
As I continued with the WIP, I had no plan, no idea what would happen, who was doing this and why. I was just enjoying the process, writing a few diary dates on the bus home from work and typing it up on my lunch hour the next day. Craig was giving me his thoughts, always on the story, never on the spelling or grammar errors – they could be sorted later. I was around three quarters through the book, when I finally decided how it was going to end. I then did something I have not done since, I jumped ahead and wrote the ending. This gave me the end goal, and the final quarter was easy to write as I filled in the gap.
Craig read the final section as we took the bus into Edinburgh City Centre and we went to our usual haunt of the Filmhouse cafe to discuss the completed book. He was most complementary, but this was just a hobby and I was just happy to have completed it. It took around 18 months to write and would stay as a printed out manuscript, occasionally being passed to other colleagues to read before I finally self published it in 2016.
Since then, many more have read it and I sometimes get asked if I should try and get it published traditionally for the chance for it to be wider read. Perhaps one day, I’ll re-visit it, bring it up to date and see if there is any interest. But, until then, it remains the starting point of my writer’s journey and a book I’m exceptionally proud of.
Thanks for reading the first of the four book blogs. Let me know what you think of ‘Alive’ if you’ve read it. If you haven’t, you can still buy the eBook for less than a decent coffee or treat yourself to the paperback. The links are at the ‘Books’ tab of this website.
I posted a blog previously of my big plans for 2023 and needless to say failed in many of the categories. Sometimes as an upcoming, independent writer (with a full time job and family commitments) the best laid plans don’t always come off. This hasn’t detracted me from setting goals for this year, and we will see how many of them actually come off.
1 – Blog more often. Between, and during writing projects, I will aim to put a blog up on this website. I will try and blog at least once a month with a mixture of writing updates, desert island series blogs, top 10s and general nonsense that I hope you may enjoy. This blog covers January and I plan to do a weekly blog in February discussing my four published novels and providing a bit of an insight to the creation of them.
2 – Finish my novella. I started a novella last year, which began as an idea on how I could highlight (and hopefully raise some money for) a charity. The story is really coming together and I’ve now passed the 15k word mark against a target of c25k words. The novella includes a detective character that I have kicked around, almost since I started writing, called James Slim. In fact, he is in the short story ‘A Strange Kind of Love’ which you can read on this website under the ‘Short Stories’ tab.
3 – Write and Publish DI Christie Book 4. When my other writing goals for last year mainly failed, I did manage to get the third DI Christie book written and published. It was enjoyable reacquainting myself with the characters and I immediately started thinking about the next one. It may be unsustainable to write and publish a Christie novel every year, but I would like to get to the point where I could do this every second year with other writing projects undertaken in-between.
4 – Agent Planning and Novel Structuring – I had suggested that I wanted to start to query agents and this is still a major goal of mine. This year, I will be celebrating a significant birthday so I want to do it during this birthday year (it’s not until October, so this goal will run from October this year until October 2025). Before approaching agents, I need to have planned and started the novel that I wish to put out for consideration. I’ve a few WIPs on the go and one big idea for what could be the start of a new series if successful, so we will see which lane I decide to go down.
5 – Publish at Least One More Short Story – I’ve a short story that has been on hold with a published for a while, so I may need to re-visit this and put it out for other consideration. The story was my first attempted at a ‘locked room mystery’, which I have always enjoyed reading, so it would be a shame if no one got to read it.
So that’s the plan for the year. If you’ve read this far, please subscribe to my blog so that you get notifications when new ones appear. I promise to do everything I can to fulfil the monthly blog promise, even if the other plans go a bit wrong…
Thanks again for reading my blog. You can support this website by purchasing one of my books under the ‘Books’ tab. A new feature of this website is the option to purchase books on my ‘Reading List’ tab. This is an Associate agreement, with any funds raised used to maintain this website. Thank you!
Ross Alexander Writer 