From Crime to Comedy (and crime)…

In my last post, I alluded to the work I was doing on the next Giles novel, The Court of Obsessions. Since that post, a few things have changed for me and I think the time is now right for me to update you on the changes you can expect to see.

Some of you may have noticed a few subtle changes on my site. Most noticeably, the site is no longer called The Dark Corrupts Us All… and, instead, is simply called Nick R B Tingley – simple and to the point, I feel. There are a couple of reasons for this change, but before I go into the details, I feel that I should explain why these changes are coming about.

I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember. I’ve spent most of my life writing thrillers, crime dramas – pretty much anything dark and gloomy. And then I started my career as a ghost writer and discovered a lot of my clients thought my particular style was perfect for their comedic stories.

As time went on, I began to realise that my dark and gloomy earlier work was – well – depressing really. And if I, as a writer, was becoming depressed by it, that really wasn’t a good sign.

So now, after lots of advice from the people around me, I’m taking my (alleged) ability to create humour on the page and  branching out into comedy writing. I think testing comedy is essential, so I will be using this site to test out my work in its early stages – warts and all. Some of it may be funny, some of it may miss the mark – but it is all an integral part of the process.

Think of this site in the same way you would think of a comedian testing his work out at small comedy clubs before going out on tour.

That isn’t to say that I’m giving up on the crime fiction – far from it. When my head is the right place, I fully intend to return to DS Giles and finish what I started (and I also have a few other projects that I’d love to complete as well). But, in the meantime, I will be branching out into comedy, and I hope you find as much pleasure in this more light-hearted work than my previous novels.

SO – this is where we get to the exciting part.

I am delighted to announce that I am in the process of writing my first comedy novella and, as you might expect, I haven’t dropped the crime fiction aspect. I will be releasing chapters on this site over the next month or so, and would welcome any and all comments.

So, without further ado, I give you my first comedy crime story  – The Brief Case Affair.

Stay tuned for the first few chapters coming soon!