Blog

You Never Can Tell Many years ago, I learned the lyrics of this song. Chuck Berry had a way with words that was so different from the standard pop song lyrics. They were complicated and a devil to learn. That seems to sum up everything facing me at present. You never can tell what will happen next.    Stick or Twist? You can’t stand still in this game. Even when you believe you have all your ducks in a row there’s a new gimmick other authors are trying, or a tried-and-trusted system is no longer available. When I see a chance to get to grips with that next book something crops

A Lifetime’s Passion Music is that passion, and recently, a DJ from a club we played at regularly reminded me it was 50 years to the day since we supported Genesis at the Granary Club in Bristol. Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, and the others were on the brink of stardom and were already at the venue when we arrived in our Ford Transit, and our roadies unloaded the gear. I watched from the centre of the hall as Peter Gabriel set up a bass drum and a microphone for their performance. Phil Collins came to join me and said hello. I asked him how he felt about Peter adding extra

Sowing The Seeds Five weeks ago, I was heading to Ibiza for a holiday in the sun. I took plenty of reading material, plus paper and pens, to start Sowing The Seeds for the new series. I had a great time… and apart from a few random thoughts I scribbled on the homeward flight, I admit to achieving very little. Almost as soon as I arrived home, a horde of window fitters, swiftly followed by a team of painters/decorators, invaded my quiet retirement. Have you ever tried writing under those conditions? It’s not easy. However, I’ve completed the research for six titles in The Freeman Files and can share my

The Phoenix: A Necessary Evil? One book grabbed my attention a few weeks ago. It was ‘Closure’ written by Randall Wood. ‘Closure’ was #1 in his Jack Randall novels and published in December 2009. Even though my review would be lost among the hundreds posted in the intervening period, I needed to record my thoughts and the impression the book made. There was a lot to like in the way the story was written.  The descriptive passages were superbly handled for sure, but it was a little ‘quirk’ at the start of each chapter that encouraged me to write this piece. Before moving to chapter two, I knew there were