Authors Electric

                            I recently attended a book signing in Oxford from the other side of the fence, as a reader rather than an author. I now have a whole new appreciation for my readers. I thought it was a tiring day standing in front of my table talking to readers, but life on the other side of the fence is pretty  gruelling , although massively entertaining.    The signing took place in Oxford Town Hall, a grand setting, but  perhaps a  little too small for the number of readers who attended which meant that many signing authors had to be ticketed, and those that weren't still had queues.    The camaraderie that was evident amongst readers was infectious, from friends made in the registration queue outside the venue that began a couple of hours before the doors were due to open to friends made whilst bumping into each other inside. This was only the second...

However, not just big guns but little ones, antique ones, homegrown and foreign. Not just guns either, but swords, daggers and hand grenades. There is no limit to the places a crime writer will go to get a real feel for his or her book. Ensuring accuracy is crucial, or so I told myself as I found myself winding my way north to visit an armoury. I think my books are somewhat unique in that my Detective, DI Shona McKenzie, and her team run around the streets of Dundee with guns in their hands. This despite the fact the Scottish police are not armed. Never let the truth get in the way of a good story. Before you write to say I shouldn't do this, Police Scotland themselves told me I should.  So, back to the armoury. I, and several other crime writers, spent the afternoon getting to know about, and handle, weapons of all shapes and sizes. I was particularly enamoured by the hand grenade. This is not fully loaded I may add, in fact it wasn't loaded at all but it was real. In...

Until three weeks ago I had never heard of a book blog tour. I had also never looked at many book blogs. When I was raising the funding for my memoir 'Dead Babies And Seaside Towns' I had some great support from book blogger Isabel Costello at The Literary Sofa. I was also asked to write for various book blogs. But still the whole world of book blogs remained a bit of a mystery to me. Then I realised that authors now often have a book blog tour and so I thought - why shouldn't I do that as well? It turns out that basically a book blog tour is a schedule of 'visits' which a book / author makes to a number of blogs. It is rather like the traditional book tour but instead of going to physical bookshops you are 'visiting' blogs. These visits might involve a review, an author interview, books being given away or an author Q & A / interview. I asked a number of writer friends for advice. I soon realised that the problem for me is that not many book...

Three weeks ago Unbound, who are my crowd funding publishers, got in touch and asked me if I'd like to come to London for a day. They had organised a meeting room and lunch at The Globe Theatre for a group of authors, some of whom they publish and some of whom they don't, and they hoped I'd come. The reason for the meeting? They wanted to ask authors what they think about the publishing process. Yes, they did. They really did. Honestly. I stress this because, anyone who has been in the writing business for a while will be reading this with their mouth hanging open. When has a publisher ever asked an author what they want? I decided that I better cancel my plans for that day and get there. After ten years of not being asked what I want, I was gasping for the opportunity to say a few things myself - but perhaps even more interested in what other writers might say. The day was led by John Paul Flintoff, who is an Unbound writer, and also by Dan Kieran who is a wri...