I recently rewrote, revised and edited my first novel, The Sheriff, in preparation for its launch in Spring of this year.

Rewriting is a satisfying place to be for two reasons. Firstly, the hard work is done - now it is time to polish. Secondly, you can share your work with  test readers and finally can hear some feedback.

Here are my Top Five Tips for rewriting.

1. Once you have finished the first draft, leave it well alone. Take a month to celebrate and clear your head.

2. Return to your first draft and read it aloud. You will spot plenty of clunky sentences. Fix them.

3. Do several laps of your manuscript, fixing one thing at a time. Do a dialogue lap. Then a narrative lap. Then a spelling lap and a punctuation lap and so on.

4. When it is in a decent shape, share your manuscript with test readers. More on test readers here. As Stephen King says, "Write with the door closed. Rewrite with the door open." Let those test readers in. They are very welcome.

5. Filter the feedback. You should not accept every suggestion and criticism. As Chuck Wendig says, "Two opinions enter, one opinion leaves."

"I have an idea for a story which will contain all the other stories in the world," says one character in Andrew Killeen's debut Arabian detective novel, The Father of Locks. 

In many ways, this is exactly what Killeen himself has achieved. The Father of Locks is fundamentally a detective story but this primary plot is often put on hold whilst a character tells another story to provide back-story or history or religious fable. In this respect, it shares much with the Middle-Eastern fairy tales of One Thousand and One Nights, which ultimately makes for a rich reading experience and adds great variety and depth to Killeen's novel.

The foremost plot involves Abu Nawas, the titular Father of Locks, and his new protege, Ismail, investigating a series of child abductions in the great city of Baghdad at the request of the Wazir. Abu Nawas and Ismail soon form a Sherlock and Watson relationship: bonding, bickering and saving each other's lives as they encounter numerous adversaries along the way.

Those not interested in historical fiction set in ancient Arabia may hesitate to approach such a novel. However, this is ancient Arabia as directed by Tarantino, containing all the sex, violence and bad language of an episode of The Sopranos. If you like George R R Martin's fantasy novels then you will love Killeen's historical fiction. The comparison is particularly fitting as The Father of Locks boasts an equally vast cast of characters as A Game of Thrones, all fully-realised, three-dimensional and a joy to read about.

The frequent poetic verse is also a welcome addition to the narrative. After all, Abu Nawas is one of the most revered poets of his time so the inclusion of poetry is to be expected. Killeen's delivery of verse is every bit as accomplished as his prose and this talent, along with his extensive research into this period of history, helps the Birmingham author stand out from his contemporaries.

Abu Nawas himself is a superbly layered character - poet, scoundrel, genius, drunk, fighter, bisexual, detective - and deserves his own franchise. Happily, Killeen has already written a follow-up starring Abu Nawas which I will soon be adding to my Kobo. You should too.

I heartily recommend this novel, available for Kindle and Kobo. It is an Arabian delight. 

In Other Hands is a novel about five characters living in Birmingham who cross each other’s paths in a series of unlikely coincidences. The story is written by local author, Iain Grant, and published by Pigeon Park Press.

The five-perspective approach with such a rich ensemble keeps the story fresh and makes for a page-turning reading experience. A lesser writer might struggle with such breadth (and depth) of characters but Grant slips between them effortlessly.

Readers will be divided over which character is their favourite: homeless Templeton, fox researcher Karen, amateur sleuth Nadia or terminal psychiatrist Jane. Many will rightly favour Danny, the reformed paedophile who regularly escapes into the fantasy of online gaming. Danny is a particularly difficult character to make sympathetic but Grant appears to relish the challenge. The scene where Danny is holding a little boy’s hand is a tense, uncomfortable and brilliant piece of writing.

As ever, Grant’s talent for witty dialogue exchanges is correct and present. One feels it is only a matter of time before he tries his hand at a screenplay. Perhaps his collaborative comic novel Clovenhoof will get a much-deserved BBC3 adaptation in the near future.

The sixth character in this modern day masterpiece is the setting. Joyce had Dublin, Dickens had London and now Grant has Birmingham. The city is realised in all of its timeless, charming Midlands glory with plenty of shout-outs to locations both in and out of the city. It will provide an extra frisson of joy to any Brummie or Birmingham graduate turning the pages and is worth buying for this reason alone. As Grant himself writes in the Dedication: “You might be able to imagine a story like this being set somewhere else. I can’t.”

If a criticism can be levelled at this masterful work, then it is this: Grant should have called the novel Five Ways, after Birmingham’s infamous roundabout. Then again, the film adaptation can resolve that problem.

In Other Hands is available for Kindle download on Amazon, currently priced at £1.94.