Settings, settings, settings – Dresden

Dresden by night along the River Elbe Photo by Kolossos, CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Character and plot are the elements that drive a story for me, but neither can work properly without interaction with the setting in each scene. It can be weather, time of day, city, village, mountains, muddy road, […]

Why I wrote Double Stakes

Double Stakes banner Read an excerpt

Double Stakes is the third book in the Mélisende ‘Doubles’ series and has the most difficult one to write. Thrillers are my thing, both as a reader and a writer. Mel and Jeff are characters I love to share with you as I do the whole des Pittones clan, the enigmatic EIRS director Patrick […]

Debunking the 'Roman salute'

Oath of the Horatii (Jean-Louis David, 1784)

Recently, a prominent social media personality thrust his arm in the air in a straight arm salute that caused an earthquake of reaction, mostly shuddering. For many, it recalled fascists, Nazis and ultra nationalism of every kind. According to legend, this fascist gesture was based on […]