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I've started planning the next DI Andy Horton marine mystery crime novel , number eight in the series, which is set against the backdrop of the sea on the South Coast of England. How much planning is required when structuring a crime novel? The answer to that question varies with the author.  Some crime writers spend a very long time at the planning stage, up to a year, maybe more, others have only a rough outline before beginning the creative writing, and some will have an in depth synopsis written. When I begin a new crime novel or thriller I don't have a clue who did it or why? I start with an idea, and a body and then Andy Horton, accompanied by Sergeant Cantelli and often in conflict with his boss DCI Lorraine Bliss and the head of the Major Crime Team, Detective Superintendent Uckfield , set out to discover who killed her/him and why.  The first draft creates the characters, their motivations and personalities. It explores the relationships and determine...

This week there is to be a dramatic oil spill exercise over the sea off the Isle of Wight with a Hercules aircraft and I thought this another little gem of an idea that could be woven into either a future DI Andy Horton crime novel or a thriller .  The sound of the Hercules will also bring back memories of the time I spent living at RAF Lyneham when my husband was in the RAF. The Isle of Wight County Press reported that sightseers at Freshwater Bay are likely to see the Hercules flying over the sea where it is being deployed by Southampton and Singapore-based oil spill specialists Oil Spill Response, as part of a four-day training exercise. The Hercules will be dropping water into the sea to simulate dropping detergents into the water in the case of a major oil spill.The training exercise, which runs between today and Thursday, was delayed when the company was called to tackle the Gulf of Mexico oil spill last year.The aircraft will be taking off...

At the same time as working on the final edits on the current DI Andy Horton ( number seven in the series) I am also working on ideas and the plot outlines for Andy Horton number eight. I already have a rough outline but this little item popped into my Google Reader yesterday, courtesy of the Isle of Wight County press: Ship Grounded off the Needles . "The cargo ship grounded off The Needles has been refloated. The 90-metre vessel was grounded on a shingle bank north of The Needles yesterday afternoon (Sunday). The British registered vessel, Paula C, which is owned by Carisbrooke Shipping, was reported to Solent Coastguard as grounded at 1pm. The vessel was subsequently refloated and made its way under its own power to Saltmead off the entrance to Beaulieu River where it is currently lying at anchor. Inspectors from the company will inspect the ship before giving it the all clear to proceed to Southampton where it will be inspected for damage in dry dock." Now wouldn...

I walked over the farm behind our house at the weekend and found a new sign had been erected marking the area of one of Britain's largest  Roman Temples, which is now in the middle of a wheat field, called Touncil Field, I believe.  The dry spring has exposed the outline of the temple built around 60AD, which was excavated between 1897 and 1907 and again between 1976 and 1978.  The farmer has kindly ploughed the outline of the temple and erected additional signs allowing people to walk around the temple, just as long as they keep to the paths and don't trample all over his crop. My husband and I duly obeyed his instructions and soon on this flat landscape that gives way to the sea in Chichester Harbour I found myself standing in the doorway of the temple. It's at times like this I wish I could travel back and see what it had been like then, and then return to the present day.  How different the area must have looked with hedgerow...

I am often asked how I research my novels. I know that some writers prefer to do all their research up front before they begin writing the novel but I like to do some basic research when the idea for the novel occurs to me and while I flesh out an outline plot, and then start writing the first draft, while the research is incomplete. Why this way? Because once I have the basics of the plot, characters and research I can’t wait to start the creative writing process with an urge to complete it as quickly as possible. In fact, I often wish I could brain dump straight on to the computer without having to touch the keyboard. I then continue the research process as I write. On the first draft I often don’t know the ending or even ‘who done it’ because the whole novel doesn’t come alive until Inspector Horton starts investigating and gets into all sorts of trouble as a result. Or if it’s a thriller like In Cold Daylight or In For The Kill , until something happens to my main character, th...

I know I've covered this here before but because it's the question that people ask me most often I thought there would be no harm in covering it again, albeit in a different way and with more information. People are genuinely fascinated to learn where writers get their ideas from and many people tell me they'd never be able to come up with an idea for a book let alone enough ideas for a series of novels.  But ideas really are the easy part of writing - once you have trained your mind to openly look for them, or spot them when they miraculously occur - it is turning the ideas into a novel of 80,000-100,000 words that is the tricky bit. Ideas for novels come from a variety of sources: overheard conversations, stories relayed by others, personal experience, locations and the news, which pops up in my Google Reader: for example a Windsurfing Festival on Hayling Island could serve as a potential investigation for an Inspector Andy Horton marine myste...

It was a refreshing experience today to take part in a speed networking event for school pupils aged 14-15 years. The event was organised by the Portsmouth and South East Hampshire Education Business Partnership.There were twelve young boys present (and one teacher) from City Boys School in Portsmouth.  They were bright, polite, enthusiastic and asked intelligent questions about my novels and how I write.  The questions they asked me included: where do you get your ideas from?   How do you plan your novels? Do you ever get stuck? And here is an abbreviated version of the answers I gave: Where do you get your ideas from? Anywhere and everywhere. Locations, overheard conversations, newspaper and magazine articles, the tales people tell me. Ideas can come from anywhere and are never a problem, the hard part is turning them into plots that will last for 80,000 to 100,000 words. How do you plan your novels? I write my plot lines in pencil on r...

I’ve been wrestling with the plot of my next Inspector Horton Marine Mystery crime novel over the last few days – hence the silence on my blog, and the silence around the house. I get so absorbed in it, that I find it hard to think of anything else. I’m just over two thirds of the way through writing the first draft and I’ve got to that stage where I need to know exactly where I’m going and with whom. You’d think I would have it all worked out by now, having written nearly seventy thousand words but I haven’t. I always do this – it’s the way I work. I have an idea for the novel, I work out the basic plotline, and I do the character sketches. Then I’m ready to get cracking on the creative writing stuff. I love getting down to the actual writing as soon as I can even though I often don’t know the ending or even ‘who done it’ because the whole novel doesn’t come alive until Horton starts investigating and gets into all sorts of trouble as a result. As I write, the plot becomes mor...