Rae of Light

  On a shelf in the back of a little Post Office sorting room in Didsbury sits a red and white Parcel Force bag waiting to be unpacked. Inside the bag is a variety of packages. Tucked into a corner of the bag is a little box; an ordinary box, measuring only 8cm by 7.5cm and 5cm deep. It has no unusual markings, no makers label and is made from recycled cardboard. It once housed paper clips, the ones covered in multi-coloured plastic. But they had been tipped into a little blue ashtray so that this box could rise above its station and become more than just an ordinary box.   Soon, but perhaps not soon enough, the above mentioned box will be found by a CIB officer investigating the murder of a young journalist. Once found it will be marked by the officer in a chain of evidence log. The little box will then gain the status of Exhibit C for case number M/F000925439. A neatly printed evidence label with the box's new identity will be attached to its side and it will no longe...

Originally a guest post on Rita Carla Monticelli's blog. Before settling down to writing and self-publishing I used to be a full time teacher in an inner city London school. Regardless of the country you teach in, anyone will tell you this is a challenging environment. Very quickly into my teaching practice I realised I had a knack for communicating with children with Special Needs (SEN as it’s called here in the UK). Most times when people think of Special Needs they latch onto the idea of a child with learning difficulties. Several times during my 13 year teaching stint I was reminded that while the majority of my students did indeed have these difficulties there were others whose behaviour marked them as SEN when in fact they were highly intelligent. Their lack of engagement with the average classroom content and insular or confrontational attitude masked their talent. At the very start of my teaching career, a...

Originally a guest post which featured on Murder Underground Broke the Camel's Back First of all I have to state categorically that I did not plan on writing Palindrome . I was adamant there would be no sequel to my debut novel Six Dead Men as I was already working on several other ideas. Denial is futile. This prequel insisted on being written. Its conception is due to a vivid dream I had in which a woman was remembering the day her baby was born. I woke with the realisation that it was Robert’s mother I was hearing. I grabbed a notebook and hastily jotted down the gist of what she had to say. At the time I was concentrating on other projects but several of the characters kept demanding I tell the world more about them. So Six Degrees a la Kevin Bacon style was conceived. It’s a series of 6 vignettes which focus on the back story of Six Dead Men . This little collection hints at links between characters and situations.   I thought this would mollify my nagging cha...

A Palindrome Character Interview  Originally featured as a guest post on Ian Richard's website Ideally we’d like to be interviewing Robert right now, but if you've read Six Dead Men you'll be well aware, he’s solitary, preferring the worlds tucked between the covers of a good book. So we’ll leave him be and turn instead to someone who knew him well while he was living in Haddington: Gabriel Haskey, school librarian at Knox Academy, now retired and living in Crete. Interview Mr Haskey – it wasn’t so long ago that you knew Robert fairly well. What was he like when he was at Knox Academy? Robert hasn’t changed all that much. I haven’t seen him since his 15th birthday. But he writes me long thought provoking letters. Always been a deep thinker. Likes his own company. Reads voraciously. What’s the first thing you notice about Robert? His nose is always stuck in a book. What was his relationship like with his classmates? Never quite one ...

The prequel novella to Six Dead Men is due out at the end of this month. So what’s it all about? Setting : Haddington, near Edinburgh, 1975 Main characters : Robert Deed & his burgeoning psychic abilities, Arthur & Rowena Deed and the murderer Subsidiary characters : An Italian Chef, Luisa Pearce & the police In Haddington change is a process slowed by tradition and the luxury of a certain distance from the swift progress of the rest of the world. On the cusp of adulthood, Robert Deed looks beyond a thing and sees inside it. It’s a trait shared with his all-seeing mother. No-one knows Robert’s strangeness better than his mother Rowena.   In her dreams she sees his future but knows she will not be there to see her son mature.   Pushing aside her sorrow at this knowledge, she instead focuses on giving him the tools he'll need to be a man of worth. Robert’s 13th birthday approaches. But this birthday brings more than a coming of age c...

The release of the prequel to Six Dead Men is looming (a month and a half to go) and my Writing Group has become a screeching monkey on my back. Every time I go to the group they demand even more edits. So just when I think I’m making significant headway and will be ready to send a final copy off to my Advance Reader Team, I’m back to snipping away at the novella. At this rate it’s going to be a narrative poem. But the truth of the matter is I love this interaction. Earlier this year, when I had to forego my sessions with the group due to family commitments, I went through withdrawal and began to edge towards malaise. And it wasn’t because of the lack of snacks and drinks so kindly provided by the host of the evening. This group is the perfect fit for me. They challenge me. I’ve been in groups where reviewers have oohed and aahed about my writing. As gratifying as that was, the feeling always lasted for as long as it took me to drive home. Deep down I always knew the wo...

So I’m launching another book this Easter. It’s a collection of vignettes related to characters from Six Dead Men and its prequel, Palindrome . I can’t call this a collection of short stories because in truth the pieces are really a moment in various characters’ lives. As these character snapshots link the two books in The Robert Deed series, I’ve decided to call it Six Degrees . And how exactly did this collection come about? Well, when you write a novel, peripheral characters often ask you to tell their side of the story.  At times their voices are so loud and persistent in your head that they are hard to ignore. This was indeed the case with characters from both  Six Dead Men and Palindrome . So  Six Degrees was born out of this . But it also grew out of my desire to play with the short story form while trying my hand at Flash Fiction. I’ve since sent two of the stories off to Mslexia’s annual short story competition and now have nails bitten down ...

I managed to finish ahead of time which was a small miracle to be sure So last year I foolishly set myself the challenge of reading 100 books in a year.   I wasn’t really thinking clearly and the number 100 just popped into my head when I spotted the challenge on Goodreads .    I won’t be doing that again because it was an almost impossible task and I hate setting myself up to fail.   Luckily, I didn’t fail but that was predominantly down to the help of my wonderful students. I don’t do New Year’s resolutions, but I do try to do something different or learn something new every year if at all possible. This year I’m opting to do things a little differently.  I’m giving myself a very practical challenge combined with one I know is going to be filled with fun.  So firstly I’ve decided that if I want to fulfil my ambition of eventually retiring to an Italian island I’d better improve on the smattering of Italian I currently ...

Still celebrating!   Six Dead Men is now available to buy through Amazon .  About The Book First you’ll encounter snapshots of six dead men – their lives steeped in squalor.    Six lives extinguished in mysterious circumstances.    In life they infected what they touched and in death they continue to wreak havoc.    Then you’ll meet Detective Inspector Robert Deed.    Even contemptible men deserve to have their deaths explained.    Don’t they?    So reasons our detective.    And he has a suspect in his sights – Madison Bricot. But what about Madison?   She just wants to live the normal life of a twenty-six year old.   But now her boyfriend is dead and she’s not quite sure how she feels about it.   Soon she’s about to learn some things about herself which terrify her into running.   Meanwhile Detective Inspector Deed will have to battle against his attract...

Ever since Indie (formerly known as Autharium ) closed down in February this year I’ve been trying to sort out the republication of the two books I had published through them.  I found myself hesitant and uncertain of which direction to take.  Should I once more tackle the traditional route or should I persist in my stubbornness and continue to self-publish? I took the opportunity to rework the books I’d previously published and at the same time continued working on new projects.  But I know that deep down I’ve been dithering and feeling a little unsettled about the whole process.  After all, Indie had sorted out the two things which terrified me:  formatting the text and royalties.  I would now have to tackle these on my own along with front cover design and marketing.  by Nathan Vidler I’ve been extremely lucky in the front cover stakes.  For my first novel ( Six Dead Men ) a friend’s son used an image from his unive...