Meet Lorna Fergusson - winner and tutor!

Today, I’m delighted to welcome acclaimed author and HNS Conference Short Story winner Lorna Fergusson to Roma Nova. Born and brought up in Scotland, Lorna studied English at Aberdeen and Oxford Universities. She now runs Fictionfire Literary Consultancy. In addition to her own workshops, she teaches at the Winchester Writers’ Festival and for Oxford University. […]

How could I forget FOW YorK?

How very strange! I forgot to blog about the Festival of Writing at York. Actually, I didn’t forget. I’ve been so busy implementing things I learnt in the workshops, integrating wise pieces of advice I received and remembering stimulating and thoughtful conversations I enjoyed.

York was about people: authors, publishers, agents, to be sure, but […]

The Arvon experience

Lumb Bank

What magic turns sixteen anxious wannabees with doubts a hundred feet high into confident, capable producers of good writing within a week?

In February this year, I booked the Arvon Foundation course ‘Popular Fiction’ 4-9 October at Lumb Bank, Yorkshire. It was to run from 4 to 9 October, with tutors […]

Writing bootcamp at the Circle of Missé

Never having taken part in a creative writing course, I was excited, but a trifle anxious, when I was invited to join a ‘writing bootcamp’ at the Circle of Missé, a creative centre near my new home in France.

Lead by Annie Kirby, a renowned short-story writer who is also working on a full-length novel, […]

Getting Published - London Book Fair Masterclass

On gloriously sunny Sunday 17 April, my writing buddy, Denise, and I attended the pre-Fair Masterclass entitled ‘How to Get Published’. Whilst we knew some of it already, conned from amongst other places, the inestimable Carole Blake’s book From Pitch to Publication: Everything You Need to know to Get Your Novel Published, we found the […]