Tag: psychological thriller author

🎙️ 8 Years of the Author Diary & Lessons on Branding | Author Diary – October 10, 2025 📚🧠

This week marks 8 years of the Author Diary podcast! I reflect on author branding, launching my J. Cronshaw pen-name for thrillers, and lessons learned from building a focused audience.

This week marks eight years since I started this podcast—back in October 2017, I recorded the first episode, and here we are in 2025, still going strong!

I reflect on the lessons I’ve learned about author branding, especially as I launch my new pen-name, J. Cronshaw, focused entirely on domestic psychological thrillers. Narrowing the audience has made everything—from messaging to marketing—so much easier.

Branding has always been a challenge for me. I’ve wrestled with how to define what I do when my books range from dark fantasy to wacky steampunk to near-future sci-fi. Maybe I should have embraced pen-names earlier… but then again, setting up a new website, newsletter, and socials has been a lot of work.

📍Location Scouting, Thriller Plans & Fantasy Progress | Author Diary – September 5, 2025 🧠🛡️

This week, I scouted Lytham for a thriller project, made big progress on The Sentinel’s Mercy, and launched Punks Versus Zombies and Dark Gambit on Amazon—though I forgot to mention that last bit in the video!

This week, I took a research trip to Lytham to scout locations for a future psychological thriller.

I’ve got two domestic thrillers planned and will be writing them as side projects under a new pen-name to keep them separate from my fantasy work.

On the fantasy side, I made solid progress on The Sentinel’s Mercy (Ravenglass Guardians). I’ve now reached 75% of the draft and hope to finish it next week.

Also—though I forgot to mention it in the video—both the Punks Versus Zombies trilogy and Dark Gambit (Ravenglass Throne: Part Six) are now live on Amazon!