Raf’s Blog

Search & You WILL Find

I can remember the first time I came across my favourite comic book buying haunt. It was a truly magical moment, and one that I doubt I will ever forget.

It happened on a Saturday.

I was walking down the street wondering why the audio book I had downloaded had switched to a recording of a woman talking about the benefits of hair loss treatments (my fault for not checking what I was downloading properly…) when I bumped into a More

Cutting Edge

I’ve written a few posts on why the murder mystery genre is overlooked, but if I am not mistaken I have NEVER written one about how to write a cutting-edge murder mystery. I thought I should probably do that. I wouldn’t want to disappoint my thousands of avid followers now, would I?

1) Be original: the whole point of being cutting-edge is NOT thinking of old things and taking ideas from them. Sure, you can use old murder mystery TV More

How MM Changed Things

Back in the day, before CGI, bad acting and directorial “efforts” by M. Night. Shyamalan butchered cinema in a way that could never be forgiven by any sane person, murder mysteries became a staple of all things British, and made Great Britain really worth something — made it cutting edge and better than anyone. Murder mysteries back then cropped up in some way in virtually every film or TV show at some point – from the Carry On series to More

How Writing Murder Mysteries Helps Skill-Build

Sadly, most people know more about how DNA Tests work than how to write a murder mystery. It’s a tragic world we live in when very few people watch murder mysteries on TV, let alone bother to take it upon themselves to write them themselves.

Which is why I am doing just that; my aim? To revolutionise murder mystery writing, of course. I’ll be like that Che Guevara character – if that’s the right spelling – and after my stuff More

Escapism Explained

Lots of people mock me for wanting to write murder mysteries, you know (including my friend who works for Life coach SW london , who really should know better than to intentionally knock my confidence, again). That might come as a big surprise to you if you’re a fellow murder-mystery writer – no sarcasm, honest! – but I don’t let it get to me. And what I mean by that is that I really don’t allow it to affect me. More

Mysteries Are Hard

Right, I have no choice but to admit it now: murder-mysteries are hard to write. Why? Because there are so MANY things that need to be in the right place at the right time. I don’t know if you’re interested, but read on to discover the many tribulations you may face when trying to write just one good murder mystery.

1) Coming up with a good main character: this is akin to Fine art , believe me. It’s so damn More