Why our brains love stories

There are a kazillion articles online about the power of story. Whole books on the topic. There's less written about WHY stories are so powerful. Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, seems to have the answer. In his book Thinking Fast, Thinking Slow, he walks the reader through a vast amount of scientific research into …

Making writing fun (again)

How I'm putting the joy back in the writing process

I am not a psychopath

Maybe it’s a hazard of being a crime writer, but psychopaths are never far from my mind but this week has been exceptional. Psychopaths everywhere! It got me thinking about why we have so many psychopaths in public life. Reading psychological profiles is a bit like reading horoscopes, you can see a bit of yourself …

Poison and an antidote

I periodically try to wean myself off social media but world events keep sucking me back in.  Like a smoker who just can't quit, I'm in a seemingly endless cycle of giving up or cutting back then suddenly finding I'm on a pack a day again. I'm not anti social media, far from it, but I …