Stephen’s been an avid reader all of his life, and it’s not all been crime fiction either. The written word though, is a challenge, and he is always concerned when he sees how the English language is developing, but not in a good way,
Much of his early reading centered on Science; fact and fiction, and history. Later, his life in the police service saw a growing interest in true crime and crime fiction. He always thought that one day he would write a novel, but it was only after he retired from the police that he began to write seriously.
Over his lifetime, Stephen has been influenced by many books and many genres. And from a crime fiction point of view, a wealth of authors he may have read in the past, but can’t remember all of them. What he can say for him revolves it around such greats as Elmore Leonard, Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan-Doyle, and George Simenon
Crime fiction is the largest and constantly growing genre in commercial fiction. Trying to fit new authors in among the current crop of great CF writers, like Child, Rankin , McDermid and MacBride is a tall order. When Stephen wrote his debut novel ‘Blind Murder’ he had no idea about the ‘craft’ of writing. But what he did know is that it needed to be different. Being different though does not always get you a publishing deal or an agent.
Modern day detectives in fiction are generally larger than life characters. Sometimes dysfunctional. Most times alcoholic or close to being one, with a failed or failing marriage. And when you think about it to a certain degree the problems of one fictional detective can be a crystallising of the problems of many police officers, but not all the same time and not just one!
Stephen realises that the days in front of him are shorter than the ones behind and sometimes seems to be in a hurry to write as much as he can. But his MA slowed him down (hence having to wait so long for ‘Driving Dead’), and it has taught him that plot, character, structure, setting and point of view, are as important as just getting the story on the page.
Much of his early reading centered on Science; fact and fiction, and history. Later, his life in the police service saw a growing interest in true crime and crime fiction. He always thought that one day he would write a novel, but it was only after he retired from the police that he began to write seriously.
Over his lifetime, Stephen has been influenced by many books and many genres. And from a crime fiction point of view, a wealth of authors he may have read in the past, but can’t remember all of them. What he can say for him revolves it around such greats as Elmore Leonard, Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan-Doyle, and George Simenon
Crime fiction is the largest and constantly growing genre in commercial fiction. Trying to fit new authors in among the current crop of great CF writers, like Child, Rankin , McDermid and MacBride is a tall order. When Stephen wrote his debut novel ‘Blind Murder’ he had no idea about the ‘craft’ of writing. But what he did know is that it needed to be different. Being different though does not always get you a publishing deal or an agent.
Modern day detectives in fiction are generally larger than life characters. Sometimes dysfunctional. Most times alcoholic or close to being one, with a failed or failing marriage. And when you think about it to a certain degree the problems of one fictional detective can be a crystallising of the problems of many police officers, but not all the same time and not just one!
Stephen realises that the days in front of him are shorter than the ones behind and sometimes seems to be in a hurry to write as much as he can. But his MA slowed him down (hence having to wait so long for ‘Driving Dead’), and it has taught him that plot, character, structure, setting and point of view, are as important as just getting the story on the page.
My Favourite Genres
Month
March
How Heard
