RNA Conference pictures

Although it seems ages ago, the Romantic Novelists’ Association Conference was only a couple of weeks ago! It took place at the Harper Adams University, a renowned agricultural college near Telford, Shropshire – a beautiful setting, plus a light whiff from the animal areas! Needless to say, our meals had the shortest food mileage ever […]

Debbie Young - marketing superstar

Today, I’m delighted to welcome Debbie Young as my guest. Author, journalist and blogger, she’s especially keen on short-form writing, such as flash fiction, short stories and blog posts. Commissioning editor of the Alliance of Independent Authors’ (ALLi’s) blog of self-publishing advice at www.selfpublishingadvice.org, she has co-authored ALLi’s groundbreaking new book, “Opening Up To Indie […]

Collaborating authors

ALLI authors meet up at the London Book Fair April 2014

Writing is a solitary thing – it’s you, the writing medium and hard graft alone together. Your imagination/brain/mind/muse and the pen or keyboard are it. Perhaps you have a writing buddy, known sometimes as a critique partner, or belong to a writers’ […]

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 […]

Shortlisted for the 2014 Self-Published Book of the Year Award

Several months ago, I entered INCEPTIO and PERFIDITAS for the Writing Magazine self-published book award. With all the work finalising SUCCESSIO, I almost forgot about it. Imagine my pleasure when I came home after the SUCCESSIO launch trip, browsed the July issue of Writing Magazine and found that both books had been shortlisted for the […]