Warning – More Writing Advice to Come!

This is a short blog this week. Two reasons, first, I’ve been inside working the whole time on the first draft of my next book; second, because I’m working on this novel, I don’t have much time to play with blogs! However, I thought it was only fair to let people know what I’m going … Continue reading

Additional Thoughts on Submitting Manuscripts

This post follows on from the video here. The post will make a bit more sense if you watch the video as well. I am always adding the odd comment, but as you will tell from my video, my daughter was monitoring my wittering from behind the camera. She is very efficient (apart from when … Continue reading

Who is this guy Jecks?

I today have finally got off my bottom and put in an author bio with Amazon. It’s not something I’ve intentionally put off. It’s really just inefficiency. Today, needing to work flat out, clearly in the interests of work displacement, I had to do something. And yet … I’ve never bothered to read any other … Continue reading

Videos – Update

Some months ago I warned all and sundry that I was going to be putting up some videos about my books. Back in those far-off days 15 weeks ago, all I intended was, to document all the titles in the Templar series with a view to giving people a bit of an insight into the … Continue reading

A Winter Kill – Review

One of the really great things about travelling to the US and Canada is having the chance to discover new writers I’d never usually meet. And the last trip to Canada was one of those opportunities I couldn’t miss. Although it’s not easy to carry home roughly twenty books, I did manage it. I’ve already … Continue reading

Scrivener for Authors

This is a very short comment as an add-on to my video about writing with Scrivener. I’d recommend you take a few minutes to watch the video before reading on, because it’ll make more sense! When I was talking about the way that Scrivener works for me, the main thing is, it’s entirely flexible. It … Continue reading

Quick Tips: Goals

I keep having people ask how I work: how do I get my ideas down on paper? How do I write so quickly? Well, I work one hour at a time. In 50 minutes I can type 1,000 words, and that is most of a scene, usually. Then I’ll take a ten minute break, during which I … Continue reading

Day Jobs

There is a different mindset in Britain compared with more entrepreneurial nations like America. In Britain we have always been pigeonholed at an early age. Men would learn a trade, serve an apprenticeship with a leatherworker, cordwainer, butcher or smith, or perhaps, if he was lucky, he might get a post with a bank and … Continue reading

Football’s Over – Yippee!

I know. It’s rather immature (mind you, no one’s ever accused me of maturity), but I so detest football, that I cannot help a little frisson of delight that the damn nonsense is over for a while. My poor son is a perfectly ordinary lad. He enjoys all kinds of sports: he adores cricket, swimming, … Continue reading

MPs

Lovely photo last night of our revered Members of Parliament discussing some important matters about the UK’s relationship with Europe. Seriously, if our MPs can’t be bothered to vote, why the hell should they expect us to vote for them? I am developing grumpy old git syndrome.