A bit about me ...
God! Do I really look like that? Mind you, I have been at it a long time. I'm talking about writing.
I have been a journalist for 60 years, was a short story writer in the 1970s and had my first book published in the 1980s. And I'm still poor. All cash donations will be gratefully received. I'll even accept cheques, as long as they are not post-dated.
My first book was The Dark Apostle, published by Bantam, which won the John Creasey Award for best first crime novel in 1987. Which is a long time ago. It was - still is, in fact - an international thriller about who really killed Martin Luther King.
The man who was convicted of the assassination, the late James Earl Ray, was at that time still serving his life prison sentence, so I was excited when I received a fan letter from a resident of Hollywood who had been so impressed that he sent a copy to Ray himself. I wrote back by return of post to ask: "What did James Earl Ray say?" I mean, this could have been a validation of all that lengthy research. Sadly, it was not to be. The fan replied: "James Earl Ray said, thank you."
Ray might have been an assassin, but at least he was polite.
I have always been, and still am, a working journalist. I enjoyed a stint in Uganda on the Daily Nation in the 1960s until I was deported. Back in the UK, I worked on provincial newspapers covering courts, crime and hard news before becoming a feature writer. For the last 30 years, I have written a column for the Huddersfield Daily Examiner in Yorkshire which, as everyone knows, is God's Own County. I came, took up residence in a Pennine village, found the ale and company particularly fine, and stayed. Why would anyone want to move?
With Bantam, I wrote four international thrillers. I also wrote two British thrillers for Hodder and Stoughton. Since then, I have mainly concentrated on journalism, although I have undertaken commissions under various pseudonyms, and worked with a children's publisher. I have been translated into several languages including Japanese and Korean and once earned millions in Italy. Millions of lire, that is. Unfortunately the exchange rate was about one million lire to the pound. To date, I have had 21 novels published and have others self published as e-books and paperback on Amazon.
My book Reaper, written under the pseudonym Jon Grahame, was first published by Myrmidon in 2012. It was relaunched in March, 2014, along with the publication of Angel, book two in the series, at the same time. Book three, Redemption, was published July, 2014.
Contact me at: denis.kilcommons@yahoo.co.uk
