Writing Challenge Day 9: 'Post 5 random facts about you'

Like everybody else, my life is a jumble of random facts. Selecting five is a bit like being asked to name my favourite book but here goes…

Childhood Contrary to popular belief, I was once a child. but it was a long time ago. And yes, that is a smocked frock.At the time, small children […]

Liz Harris: A diet that actually works – the research diet

Today’s guest is Liz Harris a friend from my earliest writing days. Liz was born in London. After graduating with a law degree, she moved to California for six years where she led a varied life from waitressing on Sunset Strip to working as secretary to the CEO of a large Japanese trading company to […]

Writing Challenge Day 8: What's your writing process?

(Photo: Uschi Hering)

*Falls over laughing*

Right I’m going to try to take this seriously (Puts on stern face)

My first characters had been running around in my head for years before I tapped the keyboard so they were fully formed when I started to write the Roma Nova stories. Of course, I’ve […]

Writing Challenge Day 7: Introduce your 'author friend'

On Sunday, I enjoyed a ‘writerly’ Skype with my critique partner, another novel writer, Denise Barnes (a.k.a. Molly Green), who has just sent her latest fiction work off to her editor at Avon Books. It’s the third in a series about sisters in the Second World War; they’re each ‘doing their bit’ for the war […]

Writing Challenge Day 6: How the writing all began

Ampurias mosaic

I’ve always enjoy writing, but not fiction; essays at school (often fictional), civil service papers and reports, business plans, company PR materials, insurance analyses (so exciting!); corporate documentation, brochures, military reports and fifteen years’ worth of translation and editing.

Words fascinate me, how they’re derived, how they’re used and what they […]