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Help me… and win a limited edition hardback copy of my novel, Snowflake

Can you help me and have the chance of winning a hardback limited edition signed copy of my novel Snowflake? I’m looking for ideas for a piece of flash fiction. Not sure what that is? Well, read on…

“I have always held the old-fashioned opinion that the primary object of work of fiction should be to tell a story.”

So said Wilkie Collins the 19th Century writer of stories such as The Woman in White and The Moonstone. Many people think that The Moonstone was the forerunner of what is now the modern detective novel.

What most of us probably don’t realise is that Collins was a short story writer too. Short stories became popular in the mid to late 1800s and have remained so. 2018 saw a real upsurge in readers wanting a quick fix of writing and I love short stories. But can I write them?

The problem with short stories is that they take different forms. How long should they be? When do they stop being ‘short’? Should they be 20,000 words long or 2,500 or even shorter?

I’m lucky enough to be able to pick up and speak different languages, and for my money one of the best short stories I’ve read is Le Horla by the 19th Century French writer Guy de Maupassant.

However, it is nearly 8,000 words long. Is that a short story? It certainly has the essence of what is needed in a short story – characterisation, setting, plot, conflict and theme.

Simply put it tells the story of a man who descends into madness. When I first read it, it scared me. When I read it a second time I could feel Maupassant’s own madness and not long after writing it he died believing his brain was being eaten by flies. He died at the age of 43.

His life itself was a short story.

The fabulous American writer, Lawrence Block, is a master of many things including the writing of short stories. Edgar Allen Poe was another great short story teller.

Nowadays the short story has taken on an even shorter style. Flash fiction abounds where a story is told in 250 words or less.

Capturing a story in fewer words is a skill and when done well is a delight to read. I write crime novels in the genre of a good thriller or a crime caper. But can I write short stories? I don’t know, but maybe you can help me?

I’ve a limited edition hardback copy of my novel Snowflake as a gift to someone who can suggest an idea for a piece of flash fiction which I can turn into a story of no more than 250 words. You can send me an idea for a character, a theme, a plot or anything else that takes your fancy. I’ll try and choose the best, write a story and send a signed copy of Snowflake to the winner. Maybe ask your friends to have a go too by getting them to read this blog? Send me your ideas by the end of October by filling in the form below. Thanks and good luck.

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Win with music and words

Do you want to win a signed copy of a limited edition of my crime thriller, Snowflake? Read on or click here to find out how you can get your hands on a copy.

A couple of years ago the Mann Booker prize winner and American writer George Saunders interviewed the Grammy Award winner, Jason Isbell. Literature meets music.

Listening to the interview, I was struck by the fact that both talked about trying to find the right word to convey their message whether in the written word or in a song.

Saunders is better known for his short stories. I love short stories and already have a number written. I’ll come back to them in another blog though.

I also have a varied taste in music. Last year I saw Isbell play with his band the 400 Unit at Black Deer Festival in Kent, UK @blackdeerfest. His music is of that genre known as Americana. More than country, it incorporates R&B, bluegrass and folk at times. Every song I listened to, whether Jason Isbell’s or another artist’s, told a story.

So I’m going back to the festival this year at the end of this week to see how Americana can tell a story in a short space of time. Maybe we will bump into each other there, and if we do quote the last line of the first chapter of my book, Snowflake, to me and I will send a signed copy of a limited edition copy of it to the first 10 people who get it right. The whole of the first chapter is found here.

In the meantime, enjoy the Black Deer Festival. And if you think Americana isn’t your thing, take a breath find a playlist, crank up the volume and you never know. You might just find a story in a song that you had not expected to find.

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Do you know what a snowflake tastes like?

What is the inspiration for Snowflake, my first novel?

“If you start with a bang, you won’t end with a whimper.” T.S. Eliot

Some years ago I was travelling to Latvia. In those days you flew from London to Copenhagen or Stockholm and changed for the flight to Riga. And one day, on the side of a plane I saw the words “Do you know what a snowflake tastes like?” Those words stayed with me and became the start of my story of revenge, fear and crime.

I have worked for many years running and developing global technology companies. This experience often brought me into contact with trading floors and dealing rooms and I am still fascinated by the development of algorithms to determine financial performance of investments or debt and how such knowledge could be used to make money.

I’ve also been fascinated by why people may embark on criminal activity and what leads them to behave differently from most other people. Inherently it does not seem right that anyone should profit from crime, especially financial crime, though money is a motivator for many people. That money brings power and control over other people and it is this which is the backdrop to my story. More often than not the person with the power and control is never challenged, as is the case with Harry Callum in Snowflake.

I’ve always loved boxing too. It’s the ultimate challenge where two people put everything on the line and where it is acceptable to inflict pain on another human being. It brings the protagonists of my story together in a brutal finale.

These three themes – financial gain, crime and boxing – all came together in my head because I didn’t know what a snowflake tastes like.