One Hundred Thousand Words A milestone has been reached in this blog series. After publishing I always cut and paste a copy of my latest post into a word document as another backup. That word document containing all the posts from Inside the Fiction Factory to date, now amounts to a little over a hundred … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 170
2024 It’s been an odd year. I worked on a couple of novels and blogged a good deal and by the end of November I took a break from putting words down on the page. The publisher I was with shut up shop and the rights to The Kill Chain reverted back to me so … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 132
St Andrews I decided to take in part of the East Coast of Scotland and opted to begin in St Andrews before heading down the coast and around what is known here as the East Neuk. I visited St Andrews on countless occasions, but always look forward to it. There is nothing to compare with … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 131
Writing Update October 2024 Ove the last couple of months I’ve been catching up on my blogging. There was a bit of a backlog, and given the number of places I visit, it’s been a challenge keeping my blog up to date. This push to document what I’ve been up to has meant that little … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 128
Sherlock Holmes I took time out to go and see the statue of Sherlock Holmes in Picardy Place, Edinburgh. This is in tribute to the author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who was born close to this spot on the 22nd May 1859. I think it’s a fitting tribute, as a writer, not to have a … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 122
One Hundred Having reached a hundred posts in this series, I thought I would put down some thoughts to mark this milestone. It’s not my intention to give you history lessons. All I’m doing is outlining a couple of the basic facts as background to the places I visit as you can easily google them … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 100
Writing Update July 2024 I blogged last time I was writing two thousand words a day in order to complete draft one and was two weeks in. I kept up this routine and finished the first draft of the next novel in the Kill series. I also mentioned it was called The Kill Flag and … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 96
Writing Update June 2024 After a number of stops and starts with various projects including a follow-up novella to EVA, a second book featuring my yet to be published detective series set in a dystopian Edinburgh and then a new novel dealing with Artificial Intelligence, I found myself with the publisher of my cybercrime novel … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 95
The Kill Series The only constant is change and you need to be prepared to see the positive, even if initially it may appear a negative. My publisher has decided to call it a day and wind the company up. This happens. The writing world is full of it. I like to joke that you’re … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 89
Writing Update It’s been an odd couple of weeks. I’ve been doing a lot of taking stock and planning which is all part of the process, but few words have been written. This is fine, because I need a break now and again. The effort involved in outlining a new novel at the start of … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 86
The Fiction Factory 