third degree burns

I don't see a time when I'll start a blog that does not say... well it has been a busy week! The highlight of it was doing my workshop on 'The art and craft crime writing' down in Kilmarnock at the lovely Burns Monument. The workshop is informative, helpful and extremely funny - not alway intentionally so it has to be said - but great fun all the same. To show how to build tension and the role of the reversal in crime writing we do my version of the screenplay of Jaws ... in one minute... accompanied by a white shark (well it was a blue whale but it was a crime workshop not a David Attenbortough special and they all should have been creative types with good imaginations!). It went down a hoot and you can always tell when they are enjoying themselves - some smart arse at the back starts doing THAT music.....

The rest of the evening was taken up doing a double hander with Gary Moffat, he of Daisy Chain fame. Nice guy, lawyer, great writer, if you ever get the chance to see him... go! The Burns monument is a great venue for many things, including weddings, nice hall, great gardens for photographs. The lovely Louise who was in charge said, totally off the cuff... 'Yes, you and Gary are in the wedding suite tonight!' Much carry on type tittering all round.
I do wonder when listening to other writers... particulary at big conferences... at Bristol there was a lawyer, a coroner, a peadeatrician and a pathologist on the panel who are all best seling crime writers... do lawyers and medics write slightly differently because of their background? The obvious answer is yes until you look at the books... and then think... no they are actually equally violent and nasty types on paper no matter what they do for a day job!!
thanks to all who turned up, sorry to those who drove home no able to get THAT tune out of their head...
oh no, I'm at it again now...