It's the first Monday of the month, so it's time to share a cover from one of the books in my collection. This US edition was published by Charles Scribner’s Sons in 1992. Jacket design and illustration

Image from Wikipedia The other day, I watched a short interview with author Barbara Taylor Bradford in which she spent some time talking about the inspiration for the protagonist in her then latest novel.

As well as being an author, I am, naturally, a reader. I’m also a collector of books. I have a particular soft spot for old books, especially those with beautiful artwork on the boards and spine, with

Harry Minch sat in his seventeen-year-old, purple Austin Allegro, the engine running and the heater on full, as he stared out across the frozen wasteland of the empty field alongside him. He had things

Character names. They are a pretty important part of the average novel, but they can be a bit of a challenge in their own right. Just how much of a challenge, I’ve been reminded of these last few weeks

Ugh, getting my writing done these last couple of weeks has become more and more difficult, though it’s been entirely of my own doing. The problem is that old chestnut plotting. I’d been having a fabulous

It's the first Monday of the month, so it's time to share a cover from one of the books in my collection. Published by TC & EC Jack in 1908, this edition is a retelling by HE Marshall of the old saga

I took part in an interesting challenge recently, an X/twitter writing competition. I had to write a story of no more than 2,200 characters in length, to be posted in a max of 8 threaded tweets. A first

At a time when we authors are being encouraged to overcome the challenge from AI by highlighting our humanity, it is interesting to look back to another time when authors were busy getting themselves

So, I’ve recently completed the initial version of The Meyer-Hoffman Affair (Alexander Templeman book two) and despatched it to the editor. That’s very definitely a good thing. However, the act of hitting

I love the whole concept around the creator economy, which is essentially about the outstanding opportunities that exist right now for creators to make a living from the things they produce. It’s easier

I do love a good hardback. There’s something extra-special about the physical experience of holding a hardback in your hands. Maybe it’s the dust jacket or the extra weight or, perhaps, it’s just that

When I chose to write the Alexander Templeman books, I realised I was going to have to spend a decent amount of time doing some research. After all, I might have a few years on the clock myself but I wasn’t

Whilst I’ve long known that Charles Dickens released his stories in serialised format before they were published as books, I’ve been surprised recently to discover how long this practice has been going

Pleased to say I was able to attend the first ever Chiltern Kills Crime Fiction Festival in Gerrards Cross in the UK at the weekend. There was a veritable horde of top-line authors in attendance discussing

I’ve recently started sharing some of my favourite covers from the books in my collection. I don’t have as many books as I once did, but there are still around two thousand, so there are plenty to choose

This edition of Alice was published by Collins Design in 2010. The cover and inner artwork, of which there is lots, is from the hand of Camille Rose Garcia. What’s not to like about this fabulous, colourful,

I was perusing some of the covers in my book collection the other day. Some of these I like so much I keep them as much for the cover as I do the written words inside. Seems fair enough to me. Anyway,

Hi, I’m Ben Westerham, a UK-based indie fiction author, writing mainly crime, mystery and thriller stories, although I also stray into sci-fi and fantasy. These words are an introduction to me and my writing