North of where?

For me, the North is the North East of England, the area that sits in between the Scottish Borders and North Yorkshire, with the North Sea crashing in on the east coast, and the M6 snaking by on the west. I was born here and, apart from two or three years in Scotland, have lived here all my life. It's also the place which is the setting for most of my creative work, so that's why I have called my blog Writer in the North.

What I intend to do with this blog, mostly, is write about the writing, also about the business of publishing and other opportunites that come along for writers. I guess I'll also be making observations about things that have happened or that I've come across that might be interesting to someone other than just me. And I'll write about Northern things, not least about the North-South divide and the continued prejudice about the North, which never fails to turn me into Victor Meldrew.

Let me tell you quickly what I'm up to writing-wise. If you would like to see what books I have available please visit my Amazon author page.

So right now I'm:

1. Promoting my most recent book, a first novel entitled 11:59 published by Wild Wolf. This is a thriller set in the North of England.

























There is a print edition and a Kindle edition. In a day or so I'll create a post on some of the things the publisher and I are doing to promote the novel.

2. Aiming to sell my recently-completed historical novel Mr Stephenson's Regret to a publisher (not Wild Wolf, as they specialise in fiction on the dark side of life). I'll tell you more about that book soon, and keep you up to date with its progress.

3. Completing the process of publishing a Kindle edition of my book of short stories We Never Had It So Good. This was published by Zymurgy in 2007, reprinted last year.



















The book has sold well, but mainly in the North East. With the Kindle edition I'm hoping to widen its reach, not least in the States, and we've priced it very cheaply as part of the promotional ploy.

4. Preparing a Kindle version for trainers of a book of ice-breakers and inclusion activities. This might seem a departure from my recent work, but it's basically a reworking in a new format of a couple of products I produced in interactive CD format back in the day when I was running my own management development business.

5. In the spaces between all this, writing a new batch of short stories based in the North East which will eventually be collected under the title The Smell of the Tyne.