How to write a novel in 30 lines

Now I’ve finished the first run through of edits on Book3, I’ve finished my heroine’s story. I’ll leave her for 6-8 weeks at least until I even glance at her again.

So, Book 4. Yes, I’m acquainted with the main character and I want to tell her story. But that’s it. I need to let […]

Finis - the end of the story

I didn’t know I’d feel so bereft. Now I’ve done the first run edits on fiction Book 3, the last in the trilogy, I’ve finished my heroine’s story. No, really finished. After the relief of completing the red-pen exercise, sadness crept up on me and now has me in its grip.

I’ve lived with my […]

Military or Civilians? On becoming a knowledge resource

A lovely person who bought my non-fiction history ebook Military or Civilians? The curious anomaly of the German Women’s Auxiliary Services during the Second World War was (in her words) blown away by the resources I had collected.

Over the three years I accumulated and read every book I could find on the subject, I […]

Sobering thoughts and rebalancing

Ten days ago, my mother-in-law died. Born in 1929 in a working class family in Birkenhead, she’d lived a modest childhood, endured separation from her parents and siblings as an evacuee during wartime, returned to a bombed-out city, married, had a child at the start of the space race and witnessed the technological age from […]

Self-publishing - total confusion for a newbie writer

I’m not going to list, discuss or make any judgement about self-publishing – plenty of people have done that; blogs, conference workshops, books, newspaper articles abound. Just enter “self-publishing” in the search box on Google and wait for the flood.

I want to write about the confusion facing a fledgling writer. Me.

I’ve drafted three […]