Writing people or writing stuff?

Talking online with some colleagues about historical and alternative historical writing, the conversation inevitably turned to research and how it was woven in or dripped into the story. We all declaimed against the dreaded info dump when the poor reader gets a JCB bucket size load of history book content poured on them. But how […]

Licensed to thrill!

I am absolutely delighted to have become an author member of the International Thriller Writers. *Happy dance around the office*

The presidents are M J Rose and Lee Child and their membership list includes James Patterson, Clive Cussler, Karin Slaughter, Peter James, Kathy Reichs, Ken Follett and many many other wonderful adrenaline-bursters like Adrian Magson […]

Win Jessica Bell’s thriller, White Lady!

To celebrate the release of her latest novel, WHITE LADY, my writing friend Jessica Bell is giving away an ebook (mobi, ePub, or PDF) to the first person to correctly guess the one in the three statements below. Two statements are false and one is true:

Jessica Bell’s first ever job in Australia was as […]

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. […]

Short story shortlistee!

Try saying that title fast!

Last year I entered a story in the Writing Magazine 2013 New Subscribers’ Short Story Competition. Not being a natural in the short story writing department, I’d given it a go anyway. Writing in a mode that’s difficult for you is excellent practice and really exercises your writing muscles. I […]