Doune Castle I revisited Doune Castle at the beginning of September. Those who are fans of the Outlander series, will know this was used for the fictional Castle Leoch, where Colum MacKenzie and his clan lived. As always I took a great many photographs, despite having done so on previous occasions. If you have watched … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 63
Chapter One I hadn’t realised until I started the opening draft of the second book in my Will Logan dystopian crime series, that I spend around a week on chapter one before moving on and writing the rest of the novel in around four weeks. It appears I like to have a solid foundation on … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 61
The Clockmaker Conspiracy I donated blood, so this is just a brief note to say again, if you can then please do. I understand not everyone is able for good reasons, but if you are fit to do so, then please think about it and give it a go. You have nothing to lose, other … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 59
Canongate 2 In part 55 I blogged about the feeling a new novel was on its way and hoping I would be able to do NaNoWriMo in September. I can report I’m all ready to go. I had an idea for a second book featuring my Edinburgh old town detective Will Logan, so I put … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 58
CODI Edinburgh Fringe 2023 On Monday I performed my show ‘Cybercrime is not just for Criminals’ as part of the Cabaret of Dangerous Ideas at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. It took place at the The Stand’s New Town Theatre in George Street and completed a run of three shows this year, the first being in … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 57
Number One The weekend of the 22nd and 23rd July saw The Kill Chain on a free promotion. I was delighted with how well the novel performed against some amazing reads. In the technothriller chart – which is right in my genre for this book – I reached number one in the UK, Canada, France … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 56
New Novel Coming Soon Although I am working on two other novels to bring them up to publication standard, I have that feeling I now recognise as the desire to get on and draft a new novel. This is probably going to see me do NaNoWriMo in September or October. I’ve written enough novels over … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 55
Fringe Preview I managed to take a couple of weeks off and now I’m back into the routine of early rises and continuing to work on The Canongate Containment and The Clockmaker Conspiracy. The final edit of Canongate is almost complete and Clockmaker is being sent off for an edit later today. More on all … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 54
Writing Update In part 45 of this series of blog posts – on Imposter Syndrome – I said I had a goal of fifty star ratings on Amazon for my novel The Kill Chain. I am pleased to report that as of ten days ago this was met. Once a book has achieved this, I’m … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 53
Is this the Digital Dark Age? I gave a talk last week called Is This The Digital Dark Age? I’ve blogged previously about public speaking, imposter syndrome and coping with nerves and I’m still going out there and giving it a go. During the hour before, my nerves were certainly jangling, but once I was … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 52
The Fiction Factory 