Helen Hollick: Writing the past

What happens when a historical fiction writer turns to crime? No, I’m not talked about me and the Mélisende crime thrillers, but Helen Hollick who has just published her third cozy crime. But she can’t shake off the historical fiction writer’s magic cloak. Her 1970s set series feature heroine Jan is the result.

Over […]

Enfin française!

Receiving my certificates and livret de famille from the Préfète des Deux-Sèvres, Emmanuelle Dubée

In November 2019, I applied for French nationality.

On 14 April 2022, I had an official email informing me I had achieved it.

Last week, on 1 February 2023, I participated in an official ceremony and handed a sheaf […]

10 years of indie publishing – why?

When I set out in 2010 to find out what to do with the 90,000 words I’d bashed out in 90 days, I didn’t have a clue about the publishing world. A business friend, Denise Barnes, also a novel writing beginner, guided me towards the Romantic Novelists’ Association who has a mentoring scheme for new […]

How to get through the fog of 2022 into 2023

Let’s face it – 2022 has been a weird year.

Coming out of the strict Covid regulations and try to recover a ‘normal’ (ha-ha!) book life, I planned a busy year. And so it turned out:

On 3 January, I published my husband’s fantastic book File of Facts about using personal organisers. (He is […]

Books I've read in 2022

As in 2021, reading books has given me enormous pleasure. This year, I published a historical fiction story, JULIA PRIMA, set in AD 370, the first foundation story to my Roma Nova thriller series, but in this post I’m writing as a reader.

This is not a beauty contest or a selection. The list […]