G'day - I'm Jack Harmer
I write quirky shorter mystery-suspense and thriller fiction novels as my retirement activity.
Some have a bit of the paranormal or the arcane in them. Often they include a romance where the spicy bits are never on the page.
So your Mum and Gran can read them too.Why do I write novels like this?Cos I like them.Along with articles that aim to help us all to think a bit about why we are who we are. To think a bit more before we might act in haste.Bottom Line:
I write things that might help you and others to have something to talk about.When you are meeting face to face.Cos talking to people makes life better.
Jack's Blog Central
This is where I post articles and stuff about the stories I write.And about how we can all learn different ways to be able to chat to each other in person and not keep hiding behind our phones and tablets.Because chatting to each other in person is how we can best share what we are really feeling and experiencing.The good, the bad and the things that make us happy or sad.That's what communication between us humans is all about.You can like or dislike what you read here. That's all good.What matters is that you can add a comment so we all get to learn what different people all think.Just keep it nice though. Or it will get deleted.
My Books
MY BOOKS
I write short quirky, maybe droll or even funny sometimes, thrillers and mystery-suspense novelettes. For a couple of reasons.For me because I can write them quickly and get a lot more published.For you because we are all busy and often can't spend hours lost in reading a book the way I did way back when I was much younger.In today's world we often find that the best time we have for reading is on those boring train and bus rides getting to and from where we work.Or when we get a space in our schedules that's long enough to stop for a coffee or a green tea. And our friends are off doing something else.My stories are perfect for filling in those otherwise boring periods.My stories are published as ebooks since reading them on phones and tablets is how today's work works these days.They're also published as paperbacks in case you prefer to hold a physical book in your hands.You can find my books distributed through all the main book stores.
About Me
Who is Jack Harmer and why should you care?Great questions both.I'm an octogenarian. Meaning that I am very old but still prepared to step up and offer my bit to help others enjoy a quiet read.And also to offer some suggestions based on my experiences that I gained as I made my way through my own life.One of the big things I've learned is that there is nothing new under the sun. As famous artist Claude Monet found when he painted all those different versions of his lily pond, every day, even each hour made things look different. But his lily pond was still his same lily pond.Our lives are like that. When I was a boy, finding any books to read was hard. In the years just after WW2 ended, books didn't exist in the quantities and types we have today. Today we can carry dozens of books with us on our phones and tablets.But often we don't read because we don't have time. Our time and minds are being overloaded with data and knowledge that we can't find time to process. So we spend a lot of time in our heads trying to catch up.But that's the wrong way to do things. Most of the time we don't need reams of facts and opinions, we only need to understand the basics. To learn about the opinions of those that matter to us.Which is why I take the time to write stories that entertain while sometimes describing places that you've never been to. About times and events that you haven't experienced yet.Sure, we can whip out a text message to the guy sitting close by. But does that tell us how we are or they are feeling, or why? No it doesn't.We humans need personal contact so we can observe for ourselves what we and others are feeling, We need to know that there others somewhere that are experiencing their own versions of what we are. That need all the other human needs and emotions.They are all communicated by using our senses. hearing, seeing, tasting, smelling and the like. Without using these innate senses, we can't behave like normal people.This is a not so good side effect of our use of the technology we rely on today. But we can't afford to let our natural thinking, our innate skills wither and die. Our lives depend on us possessing them and using them every day.So I write about how I have used my innate and learned skills every day during my long life. Not because I'm better or worse than you. Because I'm not. I'm just one old bloke that cares enough to step up and offer some suggestions that you can take or leave.Although I hope you take them and occasionally leave your phone or tablet on the table and start a chat with someone.IF YOU NEED TO CONTACT ME:
Find me on Substack. My handle is:Jack Harmer the wrinkly writerMy Substack Newsletter is: Nobody Told Me
Gallery of Books
Here is where I feature the basic details of the fiction novels I write. My books are, or will be readily available from several different outlets .Details of where to find my books is clearly shown. They are, or will be, ready for you to buy and read in several different formats.Please enjoy my stories.
Col Drummond has nothing left to lose.
The Queensland detective who once ran
the state's toughest homicide
investigations is posted to the outback
town of Longreach — to recover from a
loss that cannot be recovered from.
He is not supposed to be investigating
anything. He is supposed to be healing.
Beneath the red dirt of western
Queensland lies the Great Artesian Basin —
the vast underground river that keeps
inland Australia alive. Someone wants to
know its secrets. Col Drummond is about
to find out why.NOW AVAILABLE ON AMAZON
Kindle & Paperback
I Use AI. So What.G'day. Jack here. 2 Sept 2026I use AI to help me write my books. Specifically Claude, made by Anthropic. And before you get your knickers in a twist about that, let me tell you what that actually means.It doesn't mean AI writes my books. It doesn't. Every plot, every character, every twist and every decision about where the story goes — that's me. Col Drummond, my Detective Inspector, turned up in my head after a mate asked me a casual question about outback fiction. He hasn't left since. When my Nandini McIntosh series appears, she'll bring her own idioms and idiosyncrasies that nobody could invent for me. And if I write romantic suspense, you'll see a completely different style again. AI can't decide any of that. That part is entirely mine.I think of myself as a Transformation Architect when I craft my books. I don't build them brick by brick from a detailed blueprint. I start with a character, a landscape, a situation — and then I transform what's there into something that surprises even me. The story finds its own shape. My job is to follow it honestly and get out of its way when it knows better than I do.Which is, when I think about it, pure wabi-sabi. The Japanese idea that things which are imperfect, unplanned, and shaped by the process of making them are more honest and more alive than things that were perfect from the start. My books are like that. They don't arrive finished. They arrive rough and find their own form along the way.What I use AI for is editing. Talking through plot problems. Finding the right words when I know what needs to happen but can't quite get there. Tightening things up when my prose goes baggy.In other words — exactly what a human editor does.Authors use editors, agents, publishers. Nobody calls that cheating. I use Claude to work out how to do those things myself, keeping a tight rein on what I spend to get my books published. I'm on a fixed income and I watch every dollar the way accountants do — carefully, and with both eyes open.Is that cheating? Not in my world.The stories are mine. The voice is mine. The life that fills every page — 83 years of it, most of it Australian, some of it very colourful — that's absolutely mine.I might think of something at 7pm that can't wait until tomorrow because I'll have forgotten it by then. That's when Claude earns its keep. No fixed hours. No appointments. I've had enough of those to last several lifetimes.There's a debate going on about whether using AI is cheating. Somewhere out there, purists are having feelings about it.Good luck to them. I've got books to write.You'll find them on Amazon under J E Harmer. Red Dirt is first. More are coming.Come and read one. That's what they're there for.