For various technical reasons, two of my recent publications have taken a while to reach non-Amazon ebook retailers, but I'm happy to say that both 'A Little Too Fond of Cake' and 'Pamela Prendergast and the Fatal Accident' have now found their way on to most of the other sites. So this post is simply …
Opinions Wanted!
Because I'm trying to do some editing at the moment, naturally I would prefer to be doing almost anything else. I found myself wielding a duster for the first time for months (maybe even years) earlier today, and I've just sent out a summary of actions from a meeting in record time, which will probably …
A Long Way to Pitkirtly
As some people reading will know already, I'm working on book 25 in my Pitkirtly Mysteries series. Although I'm generally happy with the Pitkirtlyworld I've created in my previous novels, I've been wondering for a while whether I should take the characters away on holiday for a change. Book 25 isn't actually much of a …
Alternate Title(s)
Because I can see the end in sight for Pitkirtly XXIV, I've decided to procrastinate a bit by writing this post. It's not so much that I don't want it to end as that now that I think I've worked out a solution, I no longer need to go through all the steps to get …
Muddling Through
The River Ness in Inverness As mentioned in my New Year post, I've been focussing on the completion of my two unfinished novels, and I'm happy to say I've actually got to the end of both of them, more or less. Because 'The Elusive Widow' is longer and therefore will probably be harder to edit, …
Changes of Mind
This afternoon I published the latest of my Pitkirtly Mysteries to Amazon and Smashwords. As I write this, it should already be visible on the Smashwords site, which happens almost instantly, but the time it takes to appear on other sites always varies depending on the review process of the various online bookshops. It's entitled …
Another year, another NaNoWriMo
I've taken part in the November NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) every year since 2006. The first time I did it, I was on a mission to prove to myself that I could finish a novel in a month. It was a kind of signal that I would start to take my writing seriously at …
How can it be autumn already?
I am happy to report that I've just got past 20,000 words in Pitkirtly XXIII ('The Christmas Catastrophe') and the story is progressing more or less according to the very vague plan in my head. This is in spite of a recent blip when I realised I had written a pivotal chapter in a way …
The Identity Illusion
THE IDENTITY ILLUSION – Pitkirtly Mysteries 22 Pitkirtly XXII has now been published. Thanks to anyone who has already got hold of a copy. This is the 22nd novel in the Pitkirtly Mysteries series, set in a small fictitious town on the south coast of Fife which is definitely not Culross, though quite close to …
Towards the Endgame
At lunchtime today I reached the 50,000 word mark in 'Pitkirtly XXII' (still no title but don't panic - I've always managed to work something out before publishing, up to now anyway). This is significant because by this stage in a novel I almost always have a good idea of how it's going to end, …