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I can clearly remember the simple life. It was back in 2010, when I hadn’t dreamt of writing a book or imagined that I would have my own website. I spent less than 15 minutes a day on social media. Over fifteen years later, only the last statement is true. A quick check shows that I have over 50 books on Amazon, I’m signed with a publisher, and my website has undergone a complete overhaul in the past year.  Yet I receive around ten emails each day, offering to help sell my books, fix errors on my website, and address other urgent issues, such as my Google Cloud account, which has

Why do so many people enjoy cosy mysteries? Faith Martin. L J Ross and J R Ellis have excelled in this category (and many others). I’ve decided to have a go. I hope to bring you a six-book series in 2026/27, with a main character, Pansy Paget, who is a bookshop owner in a small market town called Sham. In the first book, ‘The Bitter Truth’, a well-known author dies at a book signing event. His new book promised to reveal secrets from the town’s past. There are no front cover images for the series yet, but it won’t come as a surprise that Sham is a thinly-disguised Melksham, the place I’ve called

I’ve finished writing another title and passed it to Vinci Books for their approval. I hadn’t written anything longer than a newsletter since March 2023, and despite insisting I wasn’t suffering from writer’s block,  it was clear something was holding me back from doing what I’d loved for a decade. When you’ve written that final page, read through the manuscript for the hundredth time, you get an indescribable feeling. A mixture of euphoria, relief, satisfaction, and fear. Fear that it’s not as good as what came before. I thought The Freeman Files needed a prequel —perhaps even deserved one — so readers would understand why Gus Freeman came out of

If you’ve followed me from the beginning, you know I was fiercely independent for the first decade. There was no way I was interested in going cap in hand to a traditional publisher to get my books published. Of course, I made mistakes. My early efforts received the reviews they deserved, but occasionally, some readers appreciated the characters and storylines without cringing at the punctuation and grammar. As the original titles were corrected, and later books got a more thorough edit before publication, my band of readers grew, and the reviews became less critical. With practice, I became a better writer. At the very least, I’d like to think so.

The #TheyKnew campaign is seeking funding to investigate and bring legal action against those who failed to act in the face of widespread child sexual abuse and exploitation across the UK. The money raised will be used to gather and review evidence to establish where the most substantial evidence to allow a private prosecution lies. They will also consider civil claims, judicial reviews and other legal actions where appropriate. Where private prosecutions are applicable, this would effectively see them pursue individuals or public bodies for their failings. If they secure a conviction, the same sentencing options would apply as they do in public prosecutions brought by the CPS following a police investigation,

Three little words can be so important, can’t they?   My wife, Lynne, has been recovering slowly after an operation. The tumour removed from her kidney five weeks ago was cancerous, as suspected, but the surgeon was confident he’d got it all and told her last week that ‘no further action’ was necessary. Lynne will need to have periodic check-ups, but that’s far better news than we feared.   It’s high time for news on book-related items:    Gold, Silver & Bombs – #2 in the Phoenix Series is on sale from March 13th. Sit back and enjoy listening to Marston York’s excellent narration –   The action is intense,

Every series needs a solid foundation, and Vinci’s designers have delivered the goods. Your first chance to see the super A+ Content for the opening title in The Phoenix Series – The changes keep coming for the remaining 11 titles in the series: And another thing: What always surprises me is how many famous authors appear in books bought by my readers. Agatha Christie; Ann Cleeves; Clive Cussler; ; David Baldacci; Dick Francis Harlan Coben; James Patterson; John Grisham; Karin Slaughter Kathy Reichs; Lisa Regan; Lynda La Plante; Mark Billingham P D James; Patricia Cornwell; Sophie Hannah; Val McDermid Heaven knows how many million books they’ve sold between them, but even if those

Here are the fabulous new covers for The Phoenix Series. What do you think? Many thanks to the amazing Stuart Bache at Vinci Books. These covers should appear on Amazon in the next few days, together with the re-branding Vinci decides is right for the Product Pages. The new images are striking and represent the series and each book’s content better than my existing covers. The initial impact is impressive, and they compare favourably with others in the genre. Watch out for another post soon. These updates are coming thick and fast. Ted Tayler