The authors you love – the results!

Well, thank you! When I asked you to let me know about your favourite authors, I didn’t expect such a varied range.

Of course, picking five authors is a terrible squeeze for any reader, let alone a voracious reader. I went through similar agonies selecting eighteen books for my appearance on Amazon’s Book chat, so […]

Richard Dee: 'Write what you know,' they said.

My guest today is Richard Dee who writes science fiction and steampunk adventures, as well as chronicling the exploits of Andorra Pett, reluctant amateur detective. When he’s not writing, reviewing or blogging, he bakes bread and biscuits, cross-stitches and walks the Devon coast.

His first novel, Freefall, was published in 2013, followed by Ribbonworld in […]

Speculative heroines

Some reflections for International Women’s Day…

All fictional characters are, er, fictional. We borrow, mine, or lift characteristics from Real Life, but unless we want to get sued, the finally moulded form is a construct. We can gender mirror (I love using that expression – also made up), we can speculate, we can imagine.

Ditto […]

Applying research

Research. Yeah, I know, a sticky subject in more ways than one. Writing of any sort needs research whether it’s a modern shoes-and-shopping story, crime thriller or a historical magnum opus.

Almost every story written hinges on a set-up or a problem the writer has purposefully created, but it must be plausible. Readers will engage […]