Blog

Win a Ben Hope Themed Escape Room {Closed}

To celebrate the upcoming release of bestselling author Scott Mariani’s latest novel, House of War, HarperCollins, Tesco, and Espionage Missions have collaborated to give you the chance to win an exclusive Ben Hope themed escape room! Fans of the Ben Hope series… Read More

It’s #DVPit Day!

We’re taking part in #DVPit on Twitter today! #DVPit is a Twitter-focused pitch day for writers, particularly diverse voices, to pitch their novels and ideas to a large group of editors actively looking for new writing. How to take part To take part, simply write a short pitch for your… Read More

Caroline Corcoran’s #Bookshelfie!

We asked our debut author Caroline Corcoran to share a #bookshelfie with us and answer some questions on how she organises her books at home. Take a look… 1. How do you organise your bookshelves? This is a controversial one, isn’t it? Much to the horror of certain fellow book-loving… Read More

Where I Write with Sue Moorcroft

Where do you write most often and why? I’m lucky enough to have my own space to write – my study. It’s small and looks out over my back garden. Although it’s not exactly tidy, I know where everything is … or, at least, that everything’s in there somewhere. It gets… Read More

Finding The Love Solution

Today is publication day for The Love Solution, a fun rom-com with a difference, which has been published under my pen-name, name Ashley Croft. This is a… Read More

A Wonderfully Magical Wildflower Park

As a child I spent many happy hours engrossed in books and many more lost in my own imaginary world. Stories like The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett and Enid Blyton’s Secret Island captured my imagination and transported me to somewhere magical. I got that same sensation when… Read More

Balancing Fact and Fiction

Using Real-Life Experiences in My Novels The Missing Wife is my fourth psychological suspense novel and as its publication day fast approaches I’ve been thinking about what ‘goes in’ to my novels: where the ideas come from, how the characters are developed, how I choose their traits and back stories,… Read More

How characters move a story along in unexpected ways

Authors sometimes talk about how characters can come alive on the pages as they write. Sometimes these people we create take on a life all of their own and it can feel as if they, and not us as writers, are the ones putting words down on a page. In… Read More

A Fling in the Scottish Highlands

20th May 2019 sees the release of my fourth book, Secret Things and Highland Flings. Unlike the previous three books, the theme of this book is more along the lines of ‘crime comedy caper’ with a twist of romance, rather than a traditional ‘rom-com’ formula. I’ve taken a bit of… Read More

A Perfect Cornish Festival

The light was mellow, the sun drowsily warm as we drove down the hill towards the sleepy little Cornish fishing village of Porthleven. We planned on a stroll round the famous double harbour, maybe a drink in the pub if we could find one open late on a Sunday afternoon… Read More

The Good and Bad in us all

As I get ready to publish my thirteenth crime novel, which is the second book in the DS Grace Allendale series, Tick Tock, I’m already wondering what my readers will think of it. I always like to find the light within the darkness, even though I write crime thrillers. I’m… Read More

Puzzles and Plots

Some intuitive writers sit down at their desks with no more than the wisp of an idea in their heads, and let the story unfold as they write. That’s never been me. I don’t write a word of my books until I have worked up a clear outline of the… Read More

In Search of Nelson’s Bar

I love sunshine, I love the sea and I love my job as an author. These three things came together beautifully when I took a research trip to the north Norfolk coast in a heatwave last summer to decide where to place the tiny village in A Summer to Remember. Read More

New Beginnings

New beginnings can be scary. The main reason being that it normally follows an ending. In my forty-something years, I have had a few new beginnings, and with each new beginning – whether it was when I moved to Singapore, or decided to concentrate all my efforts into becoming a… Read More

Motherhood, crime writing and hypocrisy

Most of the time, my career as a writer perfectly complements being a mother of three. I’m extremely fortunate. I take my children to school and pick them up. I never miss a parents’ evening or sports game, and I’m always around to help with homework or to run an… Read More

The Best World War Two Films and TV series for Complete Obsessives

For a World War Two obsessive there’s no greater event for me than finding a wonderful new novel set in this period or a history podcast I can devour. But if I want a real feast for the senses—a real visual indulgence in WW2 nostalgia, I delve into the wonder… Read More