Visit my website at www.rowmark.co.uk for details of all my crime novels

I'm a frequent traveller to the Isle of Wight where some of my novels are set, for example the thriller, In For The Kill and the DI Andy Horton crime novel, Blood on the Sand .   The DI Horton novel I have just finished writing, number seven in the series, called A Killing Coast , is also partly set on the Isle of Wight and partly in Portsmouth, Andy Horton's home patch. I travel either by Hovercraft or on the Wightlink ferry from Portsmouth to Fishbourne.  And I've also carried out two marathon book signings on the Wightlink ferry, travelling backwards and forwards over eight hours meeting travellers and signing copies of my crime and thriller novels in 2008 and in 2007. They were great fun and I'm very grateful to the Hayling Island Bookshop for organising them and to Wightlink for allowing me to do so. During these book signings I was fortunate enough to meet three Captains: Captain Medway, Captain Monk and Captain Marshall and I got to go up on the bridg...

I'll be on Angel Radio ,Isle of Wight today chatting to David Nove about my police procedural crime novels featuring the flawed and rugged DI Inspector Andy Horton and my stand alone thriller novels, In Cold Daylight and In For The Kill  between 12.00 and 1pm on 91.5 fm, or you can listen on line via the Angel Radio web site. Angel Radio  is a radio station for older people to run themselves providing entertainment and information specifically for an audience aged 60 years and over. No other radio station in Europe provides this all encompassing service for older people. It has listeners from all over the World including Europe, Australia and the USA. I hope some of you might be able to join us.

I've been asked to give a talk to the U3A Sarum, Salisbury  group on 16 November at 10am about my crime novels and thrillers.   I'm always delighted to give talks and the U3A groups (University of Third Age)are fantastic audiences. It is a hugely popular organisation both in the UK and the USA. I gave a talk to the Waterlooville U3A in the summer last year and over 100 people attended and made me feel very welcome.  I am sure the Salisbury crowd will be as warm and friendly as the people at Waterlooville were. I will be entertaining the audience with a lively talk and question and answer session on what inspired me to write my thriller novels and to create the marine mystery series of police procedural crime novels featuring the flawed and rugged DI Andy Horton . For further information or if you'd like to attend please contact pat.read1@btintenet.com  or visit their website

I'm delighted to be returning to Crimefest in May 2011 at the Bristol Royal Marriott Hotel and will be on a panel discussion on Friday 20 May at 9am.   Crimefest is a convention for people who like to read an occasional crime novel as well as for die-hard fanatics. It is now one of the most popular dates in the crime fiction calendar and draws top crime novelists, readers, editors, publishers and reviewers from around the world. It follows the format of US conventions and includes interviews, panels, a gala dinner, and one or two surprises. On Friday, 20 May between 9.00am and 9.50am I will be discussing Operation Petticoat: Jobs For The Girls? with fellow crime writers, Linda Regan, Leigh Russell, Aline Templeton and Ruth Dudley Edwards.  We'll be talking about the role of women in crime novels and as crime authors, and no doubt lots of other things 'criminal' in between. All my marine mystery crime novels and thrillers are written from the male ...

Broad Chalke, near Salisbury is a picturesque English village with a beautiful church, stunning old English Inn, a post office, village shop and a village hall where I was giving a talk last night to the Women's Institute. The only problem was I couldn't see the village because it was dark! Nevertheless the welcome I was given was warm and light hearted and I've vowed to return to Broad Chalke in broad daylight one day, which will also give me the chance to see some of the lovely sweeping Wiltshire countryside. Wiltshire is a county I am very fond of despite it being some fifty or so miles from the sea. I love the rolling downs and the pretty thatched villages and market towns and I am rather biased because I once lived and worked in Wiltshire. My husband was stationed at RAF Lyneham and I worked in Swindon and Chippenham Jobcentres many moons ago. If you have read my thriller In Cold Daylight then you'll know that my reluctant hero, Adam Green, travels to the old ...

In this latest interview, just posted on You Tube, I'm being interviewed by Tony Smith of Angel Radio about the Inspector Andy Horton marine mystery crime novels and my crime thrillers novels , in particular about researching them and the locations. I've added some photographs from where these novels are based. Hope you enjoy listening and watching the video.

A reporter from the local newspaper, The News , is coming today to interview me for an article which will appear in Friday's newspaper ahead of the Crime and the City CSI Portsmouth event in which I'm participating on Saturday 6 November along with fellow crime writers, Graham Hurley, Peter Lovesey, Simon Brett and June Hampson. On the panel we will be joined by police and forensic experts and the fingerprinting bureau will also be in attendance.  Delegates can have their fingerprints taken and pressed into a keyring to take away. A novel idea!  The event, which is broken down into two sessions (morning and afternoon) is selling extremely well, and I think the afternoon session has almost sold out. So if you want to come along you'd better book soon.  Details are on the page to the left of this blog or on my official web site . To get back to the reporter. She is also bringing a photographer, which is the worse part of the interview, it's always a dilemm...

Over eighty people, including the Lord Mayor of Fareham and his wife, attended the charity lunch yesterday (31 October) in aid of the NSPCC where I was guest speaker. Pauline Rowson, author, guest speaker at Charity Lunch in aid of the NSPCC I talked about my marine mystery police procedural crime novels featuring the flawed and rugged Inspector Andy Horton and my crime thriller novels , set in the Solent area on the South Coast of England. Pauline Rowson talking about her novels The packed audience listened intently while I entertained them with tales of how I develop my ideas into plots and how I go about writing my crime and thriller novels. There are now five in the Inspector Andy Horton series, with the sixth being published in January 2011, and two stand alone thrillers, In Cold Daylight , which was shortlisted for the World Book Day Prize in 2008 and a fast paced, action-packed thriller, In for the Kill . There was a question and answer session, followed ...

I've got a busy week next week, starting this Sunday 31 October when I'm giving a talk at a charity lunch on behalf of the NSPCC at Wallington Hall, Fareham.  It's a good cause and I hope it raises tons of money.  I'll be talking about my marine mystery crime novels featuring the rugged Inspector Andy Horton , and my crime thriller novels, In Cold Daylight and In For The Kill. Next up is a talk on Tuesday 2 November at the Koinona group meeting on my local patch of Hayling Island followed by a radio interview on Thursday 4 November when I'll be on the Sally Cronin Programme on Express FM between 1pm and 4pm.  On Friday 5 November between 4.30 and 5.30pm I'll be on Portsmouth Live TV  Then on Saturday 6 November I will be at the  Crime & the City, CSI Portsmouth  event at the John Pounds Centre in Portsmouth as part or Portsmouth Bookfest. All in all a busy week and an enjoyable one. Next up, after this, is a book signing at Wa...

I spent Sunday afternoon, all day yesterday, and today working on the copy-edits of the next Inspector Andy Horton marine mystery police procedural crime novel: Footsteps on the Shore . I'm relieved and pleased to say that I finished going through the novel at about four o'clock yesterday and then decided to read it through again to double check everything.  Today I should finish that and then it's a deep breath and press send to e mail it to my editor. The next time I will get to see Footsteps on the Shore  will be at the proofs stage and by then it will be too late to change much, if anything. That's when I get the jitters.  Could I have re-written that section to improve it?  Should I have included something else? Too late. But it's been an interesting exercise and not too painful and it's helped me with writing the current Inspector Andy Horton which follows directly on from Footsteps on the Shore . Footsteps on the Shore will be the sixth in the...

Yes, on 21 December 2010 in Newport, on the Isle of Wight, I'll be dishing out the prizes to the winners of The Wight Fair Writers Circle, A Winter Short Story Writing Competition. I'm particularly pleased to have been asked because not only do I love walking on the Isle of Wight but a couple of my crime novels are set there. Blood on the Sand , the fifth in the Inspector Andy Horton marine mystery police procedural series is set on the Isle of Wight, as is In For The Kill , one of my thriller novels. A stand alone thriller set on the Isle of Wight featuring Alex Albury There are  some great prizes to be won as well as the chance of having your story published in the County Press! There are three categories: Under 12s up to 750 words - £2 per entry Under 18s up to 750 words - £2 per entry Adults 1,500 – 2,000 words - £4 per entry And it's all for a worthy cause.  All proceeds are going to the Love Russia Charity, The Multiple Sclerosis Society and The...

It was great talking to Tony Smith, the founder of Angel Radio, which has gone from strength to strength since its first broadcast in February 1999 in Portsmouth. Now it broadcasts 24/7 on 101.1 FM in Havant and on the Internet. Angel Radio accentuates the positive aspects of being an older person. It provides a radio station for older people to run themselves and is unique in that it specialises in records made before1960, and many of them are great. Visit their web site to tune into Angel Radio , Angel Light, Isle of Wight and Australia. I was chatting to Tony about the Crime & City CSI Portsmouth event at John Pounds Centre, Portsmouth on 6 November 2010 where I will join crime writers, Simon Brett, Graham Hurley, Peter Lovesey and June Hampson and police and forensic experts in a lively discussion on fact versus fiction. You can read more about this on my official web site  or by clicking on the page to the right of this blog. There are also details on how to purchase ti...

No, I wasn't a winner, I wasn't even there, but who knows one day I might be, or an actor in the form of Inspector Andy Horton from my marine mystery crime novels , or my thriller heroes Alex Albury in In For The Kill or  Adam Greene in In Cold Daylight might very well be stepping up to the podium, who knows? In case you're wondering the CWA stands for the Crime Writers' Association of which I am proud to be a member.  And Specsavers?  Well you know who they are. You can read all the results by clicking on the link below. You might even find your favourite TV crime detective has won an award. Specsavers CWA Crime Thriller Awards RESULTS : Meanwhile congratulations to my fellow CWA members, the crime novelists who were celebrating were Belinda Bauer , taking the CWA Gold Dagger for Blacklands , her first novel. Simon Conway took the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for A Loyal Sp y, while Ryan David Jahn 's Acts of Violence won the CWA John Creasey (New Blood)...

Yes, I’m back from a very pleasant visit to two libraries in the West Midlands where I met some very interesting people and had a good chat with them about how I write my marine mystery detective crime novels and thrillers, but I have to tell you that I committed a great sin while there. No, I didn’t rum amok naked and wailing through the centre of Burton-Upon-Trent or Perry Common in Birmingham – though that might have been interesting or sad, depending on your point of view, and it might well have got me in the newspaper headlines, although I did make it into the Staffordshire and local press – but I failed to visit the Marmite factory! Yes, I know, how , as a life-long lover of Marmite could I have possibly missed out on such a wonderful opportunity? (I need to have my fix every day on toast otherwise I suffer withdrawal symptoms). So, while I was in the actual town where the wonder product is produced you’d have thought I would have spared some time to worship its hallowed gro...

Just over 100 people packed St George's Church Hall in Waterlooville, Hampshire at the U3A meeting to hear me speak about my marine mystery police procedural crime novels and thrillers , set on the South Coast of England.  Here are some photographs taken from the event.  Unfortunately there are none of me signing my novels because my photographer (my husband, Bob)  was busy answering questions and taking the money!!! Crime writer Pauline Rowson talking to a packed audience  Pauline Rowson explaining how she writes her crime novels to the U3A audience Pauline Rowson reads an extract from her thriller, In For The Kill  Crime author Pauline Rowson answering questions about her marine mystery crime novels I really enjoyed meeting so many lovely people and was delighted to sign copies of my novels. Thank you to U3A Waterlooville for making me so welcome.

So much rests on those first few lines of a novel, that first paragraph, that first page even. The reader selects the book from the book shop or library shelf, reads the blurb on the back, opens the book and reads the first page.  Even if you are buying on line you might be able to read the first few pages with Amazon's search inside facility.  Are you hooked?  Are you thinking this sounds like my kind of book, or do you replace it on the shelf?  You might give it the benefit of the doubt and find the novel starts well and then disappoints you.  That's not necessarily because it's badly written, but it's just not your cup of tea. I've done this myself many times.  As a writer I am acutely aware of this and as a writer I sweat and fret over beginnings, as I know many writers do. The beginning of my novels when published are never the same as those of the first draft.  And I'm conscious when revising of the sound advice given by o...

I was notified of an interesting new blog the other day, which is all about cop dramas and thrillers coming to UK television and radio, so if you're a fan of these programmes, as I am, (although I don't like them too grisly) this blog has to be regular reading. It's called crimetimepreview and provides comments and information on the up and coming cop shows. I would love to see my own crime novels and thrillers on screen, or hear them performed on the radio, and indeed have had interest expressed in them from both UK and USA production companies but no options yet and nothing in production, but who knows. It must be fascinating to see your work come to life and nail-biting too wondering what the production company will do with it, which actors they will choose to play your characters and whether or not they have cast the correct ones.  The US production company was interested in casting Jason Statham as my Inspector Andy Horton and I thought him a rat...

I read an interesting article on the back of the Daily Telegraph Money section on Saturday written by a journalist whose e mails regularly drop into my in box (Sarah Ewing) asking if I know any celebs she can write about.  I keep putting myself forward but I'm obviously not famous enough (yet) and clearly nowhere near rich enough if I'm compared with the man she featured, entrepreneur Felix Dennis, whose fortune stands at somewhere around £500 milion, yes, I did say million. But we do have one thing in common - the Isle of Wight.  He had a plan to make the Isle of Wight a free port with a flat rate tax of 15%, a veritable tax haven, and the Isle of Wight is where I have a static caravan holiday home, do lots of walking and is featured in my crime thriller novels and marine mysteries . OK, so I'm stretching the point, I know. While Felix Dennis owns six homes I have one, and a caravan, and while Dennis has five hundred million pounds, I've got f...

Oxfam Bookfest, a page-turning, poverty-busting, book-hugging celebration, will run from 3 - 17 July. Last year it saw 350 events across the country involving many authors and raising hundreds of thousands of pounds for the charity. This year the charity is hoping to generate "more than £500,000 additional book sales over the summer" through the festival. I will be at Oxfam Books and Music Store in Fareham, Hampshire on 3 July between 10.30am and 11.30am where I will be donating some of my marine mystery crime and thriller novels to Oxfam and will be signing books. I'll also be presenting the winner of the Short Story Competition, organised by the Fareham shop, with their gift voucher prize. A Children's Art Competition will also be featured in the shop. I'm delighted to support Oxfam by donating some of my crime novels and am thrilled to be invited to kick start Oxfam BookFest in the local area.  Hope to meet some of my readers there. www.oxfam.org.u...

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...