Lastnight is done and dusted!

Lastnight - the fifth Jack Nightingale novel - is done and dusted. I signed off on the line edit yesterday which means it's now off to the printers! There was surprisingly little to do edit-wise, a few hours work at most. I'm always surprised at professional writers who have to spend weeks rewriting. I figure it's much better to get it right the first time and so I am constantly self-editing in my head as I write. I quite often delete a paragraph I've just written if I feel it wasn't right. I've never seen the point of saying that a book is finished but that it's a first draft. "And now the real work starts" is a common refrain from writers after the first draft is done, but me, I'd rather get it right the first time!


The story was fun to write - even though it has a pretty gory plot line with lots of Goths being murdered in London. And it was great to research, I spent quite a lot of time in Goth hangouts in London and have become a serious fan of a bar called Garlic and Shots in Soho. You can visit their website HERE


The cover was designed several months ago, and I like it a lot.

Lastnight is the first of my books to be edited by Oliver Johnson, who also edits John Grisham in the UK. He lives south of the river which is helpful and he spotted several errors I'd made in describing Clapham! Who knew that the windmill had gone from the Common? Well, Oliver did!  

Publication is set for January 16. I'm about to write a Jack Nightingale short story which I hope will be fun. Then I'm getting started on the new Spider Shepherd book. Busy, busy, busy!

Lastnight is already available on pre-order on Amazon - YOU CAN PRE-ORDER HERE

Lastnight is done - well the first draft, anyway!

I have just this minute written the final words of Lastnight, the fifth Jack Nightingale novel.

I'm exhausted but very happy because I think it's very, very good!

It came in at a whisker under 95,000 words, which is pretty much as I anticipated. I always knew the ending would work because I wrote that first, more than two months ago!

Like all books it's not completely done as it still has to be edited, but the plot is so tight I can't see there's much scope for changing things around. And yes, there's blood. A lot of blood....

Anyway, I'm off to celebrate with a few drinks. Then I have a Spider Shepherd book to write.

Three FREE Spider Shepherd SAS Short Stories

I'm offering the boxed set of three Spider Shepherd SAS short stories for free over the next three days.

The three short stories are Friendly Fire (where Shepherd is sent on a dangerous mission to a Taliban stronghold on the trail of the most wanted man in the world), Dead Drop (where Shepherd puts his life on the line to help a 12-year-old Afghan boy) and Kill Zone (where Shepherd pursues a murderous Taliban assassin).

I have another three Spider short stories ready to go - one set while he was on SAS selection and two set in Sierra Leone.  I'll publish those as soon as I've finished writing the fifth Jack Nightingale book - Lastnight.

You can get the boxed set in the UK by clicking HERE

And for the Kindle in the US by clicking HERE

Price cuts for Midnight and Nightmare - now just £2.99

After a great deal of prodding, my publisher has agreed to drop the price of Midnight and Nightmare - books two and three in the Jack Nightingale series - to just £2.99.

I think that's a fair price to pay for an eBook that has been professionally published. I hear readers complain all the time that it isn't fair that eBooks are more expensive than paperbacks.  It has to be said that part of the reason for the price disparity is that the Government charges VAT on eBooks but not on paperbacks, which has always seemed crazy to me.  But I think it is unreasonable to expect readers to pay more than £5 for an eBook, especially one that has been in print for a few years.

Anyway, Midnight and Nightmare are now just £2.99 in the UK.  If sales pick up I hope to persuade Hodder and Stoughton to reduce the price of more of my backlist.

YOU CAN BUY MIDNIGHT FOR £2.99 BY CLICKING HERE

And if you haven't read the Jack Nightingale series, now is a great time to start because the first book in the series - Nightfall - is just 99p!

YOU CAN BUY NIGHTFALL FOR JUST 99p BY CLICKING HERE

True Colours is a bestseller - it's official.

True Colours entered the Sunday Times bestseller list last week - debuting at Number 8!

I was so pleased to see True Colours doing so well - I think it's one of my best books.  I'm looking forward to starting the 11th Spider Shepherd novel.

A Genuine Haunted House

I've written several stories featuring Jack Nightingale, supernatural detective.  And I'm working on a story where he visits a haunted house.

Haunted houses are a staple of supernatural fiction.

But I have visited a genuine haunted house. It's not an old creepy mansion, the type you'll see at the Jack Nightingale website -  www.jacknightingale.com

It was built in 1995.  It's lovely, with superb sea views, with pristine wood floors and an Aga cooker in the kitchen.  But no one has ever lived there. And only one man ever spent a night there - he left the next day swearing that he would never return.

The house was built on the site of an old cottage and some of the original stone was used. It really is a fabulous house.  But very few tradesman would work on the house for more than a few days. They would quit and swear never to come back. Once it was built, every one who visits describes the same thing.  Rooms will suddenly go very very cold and it will feel as if there is someone there. And there is often a strong smell of a woman's perfume.  But worse than that is the intense feeling of dread, that something bad will happen.

The garden is overgrown and the front door is covered with cobwebs.  But inside there is surprisingly little dust, and the windows are clean. It was completed in 1995. And has remained empty since that day.  The owner carried out some research on the original house and discovered that three skeletons were once discovered in a well on the site. That well was covered up but is now thought to be under where the kitchen is now. The skeletons were of a man, his wife and their daughter, and were thought to have been murdered.

There is some furniture inside. But no one has ever lived there. And by all accounts no one ever will. The owner is often approached and asked if he will sell the house. He won't. He knows any sale will end in grief.

I took the above picture through a window. I do wonder about trying to spend the night there myself but I have a nagging fear that if I did, whatever spirits there are might follow me home.

Sounds like a job for Jack Nightingale!

If you prefer fictional supernatural stories, my publisher Hodder and Stoughton have cut the UK eBook price of Nightfall, the first Jack Nightingale novel, to just 99p!  You can buy it here -   http://amzn.to/12HKc3T

Lastnight - the fifth Jack Nightingale book

This week I started writing the new Jack Nightingale supernatural thriller - the fifth in the series.  I have a plot that involves a lot of Goths being murdered. And I already have a killer ending for it.  A clue? How about this? At one point Proserpine says to Nightingale - "You'll need meat, Nightingale. Don't forget the meat".

As always my publisher Hodder and Stoughton is ahead of the game and has already done the cover.

If all goes to plan it'll be on the shelves next February.  It's a tremendous show of faith on the part of my publisher - I know some writers who turn in books not knowing whether their editor will accept them or not. Hodder have enough faith in me to design a cover and organise a print run without even seeing the first chapter.  That's a lot of pressure, too, but I find that having a cover designed and a publication date set does tend to make me work harder, though it does mean I have less time to devote to Twitter and literary festivals!  Okay, enough banter, I have a novel to write!   :-)