101 GOLDEN RULES FOR WRITING FICTION
Often when I do library talks, alongside requests for signed copies of the book I am promoting, I sell a slim yellow pamphlet with over 100 golden rules for writing fiction. This has a lifetime of tips and tricks to get on the creative path to having your first book or short story published. 

I have updated the text to make it ready for the digital age. When I wrote the pamphlet it was a time before the internet when electric typewriters were the height of technology and the floppy disc wasn’t yet invented. 

It has just gone live and become available on the Kindle. If you are an aspiring writer I hope you find inspiration here.

MY WORKING DAY
Inspiration? The answer to that most-asked question is more like perspiration, constantly fighting time with six months to write one historical crime a year, excluding the research involved, meanwhile no coffee mornings for the novel’s duration, and my friends know the rules. A computer at 9 am is not my best hour but I have learned the trick of leaving a sentence uncompleted or characters with a cliff hanger. The creative juices, alas, have a limited period - what RL Stevenson (my inspiration!) called ‘the orange is squeezed dry’. By 1 pm returning to face 21st century domestic chores but never quite escaping ‘and what happens next?’ I write crime having always loved puzzles, addicted to sodoku, crosswords, jigsaws, anything to keep the little grey cells ticking over and on my daily walk in southside Edinburgh, setting of so many invented homicides, I have dialogue with my characters much to wry glances from passersby. 
Although a certain glamour surrounds being a novelist, I tell fans who regard my list of books with awe that for me, it is just a job like their own. Writing is  what I have always done, long before my first novel was published nearly fifty years ago and having a series, Inspector Faro and Rose McQuinn have become real people (also to my readers). In moments of exasperation I’ll say: ‘This is your story, you tell me what you did next.‘ But writing ‘The End’ feels like closing the door on much loved friends, wondering when we will meet again - if  ever. Then waiting until the seed of the next plot, lurking somewhere beyond  the horizon, springs into life. I don’t pursue it, I wait patiently until  it is strong enough to have dialogue, arguments and resolutions. 
One day, it’s there!  And off I go again. Next book, please.

MISS HAVISHAM’S REVENGE IS FREE FOR FIVE DAYS
My Dickens inspired novel Miss Havisham’s Revenge will be free to download on Kindle from Thursday, January 29th to Monday, February 2nd.

In ‘Great Expectations’ Charles Dickens left an unsolved mystery with few clues. Estella is forced into a loveless marriage by the eerie Miss Havisham who had raised her to ‘break men’s hearts’. She finds herself in a house of evil corruption and danger. Accused of murder, she flees from pursuit to seek safety and unravel the truth of her life built on a web of lies and secrets. 

Enjoy! 

THE MIDNIGHT VISITOR IS FREE FOR FIVE DAYS
To complete the promotion of my gothic mysteries The Midnight Visitor will be free to download to your Kindle from amazon from Thursday, January 8th to Monday, January 12th.

Crime writer Alex Gray gave it five stars: This is such a twisty, beguiling story with characters who are not what they seem to be and a brooding, haunted house with a terrible past. The writing is compelling, detailed descriptions bringing scenes to life and creating a spooky atmosphere just right for a tale involving darkness and depravity. Alanna Knight has that rare gift of capturing a reader's attention and holding it fast to the very last page.

Here’s a summary of the plot: Mort Manor is shunned by villagers. Newcomers Bel and her TV actor partner Zach, know nothing of its evil reputation. Their dream home is a house of murders. Its terrifying ghosts change the personalities of those who dare to live within its walls and are capable of bringing the past alive, dragging them back to an untimely death.

Enjoy its spooky delights!

CASTLE OF FOXES IS FREE FOR FIVE DAYS
As a late Christmas treat, another of my gothic mysteries/romances - Castle of Foxes - will be free to download on amazon from Wednesday, December 31st until the Sunday, January 4th.

This is the fourth in the series and has some of the spooky elements from the other three: Legend of the Loch, Midnight Visitor and Dead Man’s Moon (all available on Kindle).

Tanya Durris, widowed after a theatre fire in Victorian London, unexpectedly inherits Devenick Castle, her late husband’s ancestral home in the ruggedly beautiful Scottish Highlands. It comes with a price - her own life. Haunted by her dead husband’s voice, Tanya struggles against ghostly horrors, while Lord Edward, Queen Victoria’s godson, and Gavin Duthie both want her love - or is it her inheritance? And which one is trying to kill her?  

Best wishes to all my readers for 2015!

DEAD MAN’S MOON IS FREE UNTIL MONDAY
Dead Man’s Moon is free to download to your Kindle on amazon from Christmas Day until Monday, December 29th. 

It is set in my beloved Northumberland - I was born and brought up in Newcastle.

Summer 1969. Earth awaits the first moon landing while Joy Brigante, from her home near Hadrian’s Wall, sees archaeologists search for the legendary tomb of a Pictish princess and her Roman lover. Joy has reason to feel anxious for she is certain that Professor Julian Scott is the Italian officer - the escaping prisoner of war - she shot and believed she killed 25 years ago. There are many dark secrets and she is in mortal peril.

The other gothic mysteries/romances: Legend of the Loch, Midnight Visitor and Castle of Foxes are also available on Kindle.

Christmas greetings and best wishes for 2015!

LEGEND OF THE LOCH IS FREE UNTIL SUNDAY
My first novel Legend of the Loch is free to download to your Kindle on amazon from Thursday, December 18th until Sunday, December 22nd. 

It’s a dark tale of mysterious goings-on in the Scottish Highlands. Beth Ryan arrives to sell her inherited estate to find all that remains is a Victorian shooting lodge occupied by Calum MacRaven, local doctor and impoverished Laird of Glenrannoch - a whirlwind romance ensues, or so it seems. They marry but Beth has suspicions regarding a family feud, an abandoned baby and his ex-mistress Morven plus his ward Rona. Is the monster in the Loch, who allegedly drowned Calum’s first wife, on the rampage again and will Beth learn the truth too late? Her greatest problem becomes staying alive.

I have great affection for this book which launched my writing career back in 1969 when it received an award for the Best First Romantic Novel. This gave me the encouragement to go on writing, producing gothic style mysteries (three are shown below) before diverting to historical novels and then the Inspector Faro series. 60 books later I am still writing!

Dead Man’s Moon, Midnight Visitor and Castle of Foxes are also available on Kindle.