Morse has his opera. Banks has a wider repertoire of taste: everything from Miles Davis to classical, to the Grateful Dead. Is music important in a novel? As a musician myself (I’m a drummer – hey, no drummer jokes, OK? 🙂 ), I was a little surprised recently when I realised that music isn’t strongly represented in the … Read more …
Imagine the scene – build the tension … So, here’s a short bit from the novel in progress, ‘Silent as the Dead’. An armed gunman is stalking a young girl in an underground car park. Outer doors are locked. Two cops outside. Backup (ARU) running late. What do they do? DC Bola Odunsi was a … Read more …
I suffer from that annoying condition called bruxism – where your teeth clench involuntarily during the night, rather like the Clashing Rocks (The Symplegades or Planctae?) which tried to crush Jason and his merry bunch of Argonauts during their quest for The Golden Fleece. Sometimes my tongue fills in for Jason and his crew and blood is spilled. It’s annoying to … Read more …
I find myself returning to favourite books I’ve read – sometimes often – and which I therefore know very well. It’s not that I want to relive the story necessarily, although that might be part of it. No, the main reason is that I want to spend time with the characters. I want to renew old acquaintances, … Read more …
The announcement in 2012 of the new UK Protected Persons Service, a National Crime Agency initiative designed to replace the old Witness Protection Program was greeted with a predictable raising of eyebrows and shaking of heads. The idea, as I understand it, was to introduce a more consistent approach to witness protection across the various UK constabularies. Over the summer a … Read more …
The next project is just that – a Gothic ghost story. The novella concerns a young woman living in Ireland in the dark days following the Great War. I’ve made a start and here is the opening paragraph. It unnerved me so much I had to stop writing. When I close my eyes I can … Read more …
They’re crammed into a huge glass cube. They can’t move a muscle; ten million others press against them, all fighting for room, all shouting the same thing – it’s hard to hear exactly what because the noise is deafening. Outside the glass, fast-moving shapes zoom in, take a quick look, and zoom away again. This … Read more …
I don’t know what it is that fascinates me about the First World War – particularly the Western Front and the carnage of the battle which has become known simply by the name of the nondescript river near which it was fought – The Somme. I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s because my … Read more …
OK, so it’s been a while. But every so often a man needs to diversify a little to placate the bank manager, if you know what I mean. No? Not to worry, on with the news: Firstly, the fabulous Catherine O’Brien has completed audio narration of ‘The Ley Lines of Lushbury’ – available NOW from … Read more …
This is one of many blog posts which will run for four days from 15th-19th August, 2013, celebrating Roman historical fiction… …and there’s a prize for the most interesting comment! My novel, ‘The Serpent & The Slave‘, is set in Britannia, in 367AD, a turbulent time of invasion which hinted at Rome’s loosening grip on … Read more …