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If ever some days deserved some branding, it's the quartet that finds itself turkey sandwiched betwixt and between Boxing Day and New Year's Eve. And Betwixtmas works perfectly as the unifying brand name for December 27, 28, 29 and 30. (I'm not claiming the name as mine, but if this is the first time you've encountered it, I'm happy to take the credit.) These four days are days a good percentage of people take as holiday. A chance to chill with family and friends without the

Tricky things to write, blurbs. Trying to condense multi thousand word novels into a couple of hundred? That’s not easy. But I put mine up for your perusal and look forward to any criticism or complements you send my way: A BIG BLUFF AND SOME GREEN STUFF by Jon Lymon Jake Rodwell has a big problem that’s getting worse. His boss DCI Bannen has dubbed it criminal magnetism - a knack of being in the right place at the right time to witness crime. But the crimes Rodwell is witnes

Obviously, my 2025 novel Seller V tops my best books of the year list, but the judges (my conscience) have told me I can’t vote for my own writing.   So here’s a run down of the books I’ve read or that have been read to me (via Audible) in 2025, in order of preference:   BOOK OF THE YEAR 2025   1. ANY HUMAN HEART – William Boyd 2. THE KELLERBY CODE – Jonny Sweet 3. MEN IN LOVE – Irvine Welsh 4. SO MUCH LIFE LEFT OVER – Louis de Bernieres 5. AUTUMN: THE LONDON TRILOGY – D

Dark humour? Sign me up, buttercup (a link to the design of the original cover, which for me trumps the subsequent version. It was the category that attracted me to this, billed as a black comedy cum thriller.   I enjoyed it, but found following lead character Edward’s subservient role in a world of upper class, big country house, socialites Robert and Stanza who exploit Edward’s good nature to the extent that they call him Jeeves behind his back. No accident, as it inhabits

A free sample of a Christmas book this close to Christmas? What is this, Christmas come early? Here's an excerpt from The Ghost of Christmas Threeve by Jon Lymon. He flung his legs off the bed and assumed a sitting position. As he did so, he sensed the bedroom change colour from a pale grey/blue to a vivid yellow/orange like the sun making a rare December appearance. He turned back to the window to confirm no break in the slate grey sky. The source of the light was in the roo

Cards on the table – I can’t stand AI in any form in the creative industries. There’s no need for it. Develop your own talent, people. Don’t surrender your thinking and doing to useless machines that just generate slop. You’re better than that, and even if you think you’re not, you can get better than that by applying yourself. Learning to write and draw.   The stuff AI spews out is mere bile that’s been trained on the works of other writers and artists. Their works have, in

Flying Ant Day. Such a big event, they named a book after it. Or at least I did. Although my Flying Ant Day contains not a single reference to oversized winged insects within its pages.   But it’s not the purpose of this blog to wax lyrical about the most under-rated of my books. It’s to shed more light on the annual event that inspired its title.   Sex.   That’s at the heart of Flying Ant Day. The reason why male ants and new queens take to the skies is to mate. Fair play. T

Tricky things to write, blurbs. Trying to condense multi thousand word novels into a couple of hundred? That’s not easy. But I put mine up for your perusal and look forward to any criticism or complements you send my way: A DEAD CHICK AND SOME DIRTY TRICKS by Jon Lymon Jake Rodwell’s uncanny knack of being in the right place at the right time to witness crime has seen him become the force’s top thief-taker. But he wants out before his ‘skill’ for attracting criminals gets his

How to grade magic when, let’s face it, most of it is trickery, sleight of hand and distraction? Well, let’s just give these people credit. What they do is amazing, and however they do it, they should be treasured for the ability to amaze and entertain.   TOMMY COOPER As far as making magic fun and accessible, there’s none better than Tommy Cooper. As with Les Dawson’s bad piano playing, you need to be good at magic to know how to do it badly. And Tommy performed tricks delib

I've seen this several times from ebook reviewers in my (so far fruitless) search to find someone to review my books: reviewers asking that authors only send in their novels if they are truly exceptional. Did I read that and think, shit, hold on, mine's decidedly average, I'd best keep looking for a reviewer who's after a bit of run of the mill? Of course I didn't. Every author out there believes their work's the dog's testes, and we're all clogging up Kindle, hoping someone

This was my second attempt at reading Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Not sure what happened first time round, but I couldn’t get into it. But I do nothing if not persevere and second time round, lapped up Tim Robbins’ excellent reading.   If you like dystopian fiction, this is one of the premier examples of works in this category. Bradbury created a world (back in the 1950s) that chimes with the kind of planet we might be in for if the loners trying to push artificial intell

A free sample of a Christmas book this close to Christmas? What is this, Christmas come early? Here's an excerpt from The Ghost of Christmas Threeve by Jon Lymon. He flung his legs off the bed and assumed a sitting position. As he did so, he sensed the bedroom change colour from a pale grey/blue to a vivid yellow/orange like the sun making a rare December appearance. He turned back to the window to confirm no break in the slate grey sky. The source of the light was in the roo

The apocalypse caused by the World of the Powers begins with the election of a youth-led government in 2029, covered in Flying Ant Day and continues throughout the 2030s in Dead Headz (coming in 2026).

Established in my novel Flying Ant Day , I return to the crazy, apocalyptic World of the Powers in Dead Headz, coming in 2026.

Tricky things to write, blurbs. Trying to condense multi thousand word novels into a couple of hundred? That’s not easy. But I put mine up for your perusal and look forward to any criticism or complements you send my way: THE WRONGED Evil is buried deep in us all. Enter Saltonstall, and that evil will slowly rise to the surface and explode with devastating savagery. Not surprisingly, the estate agents left those details out of their description of Saltonstall Farm. So when fo

To pave the way for the release of my new novel Dead Headz in 2026, I’m duty bound to promote the book that establishes the main characters and the apocalyptic world that dominate the new book.   Flying Ant Day is the book in question. One of my favourite novels if I do say so myself, although reviews so far have been lukewarm. But you know your own mind so see if this floats your boat or sinks like a ship.   FLYING ANT DAY BLURB It’s 2030, and junior eco-warrior extremists a

I'm talking a really bad book review. Like one star out of five. Like they would have given zero stars if that option were possible. Like they've said a child could have written better. Like they’ve used words like ‘terrible’, ‘awful’, ‘don’t bother. Like even though they got the book for free, they still thought it a waste of money! As you might have gathered by now, some of my books have been on the receiving end of such  reviews. My first reaction when I read such rev

When you were a kid, or whenever you started dreaming of being a successful novelist, chances are you never dreamt of seeing your work on a mobile phone or tablet screen (probably because neither was around back then). A print copy you could hold in your hand and get others to hold in their hands was what it was all about. Seeing your name on a glossy dust jacket, your words beautifully typeset on high quality paper. Signing copies at your local bookstore in front of a queue

A free sample of a Christmas book this close to Christmas? What is this, Christmas come early? Here's an excerpt from The Ghost of Christmas Threeve by Jon Lymon. He flung his legs off the bed and assumed a sitting position. As he did so, he sensed the bedroom change colour from a pale grey/blue to a vivid yellow/orange like the sun making a rare December appearance. He turned back to the window to confirm no break in the slate grey sky. The source of the light was in the roo

Fans of this blog, and I know there's at least one of you, will no doubt be aware that I'm not averse to having a little rant. A vent. A bit of letting off steam time. And this one won't take long. It concerns changes to the spelling of words that I haven't been made aware of. I must have missed the email that said it was now OK to stop spelling these words the way I was taught to spell them, and OK to now spell them the way people used to mis-spell them. I am talking about t