The terror of writing

You stare at the stodgy sentences. You can’t think what words to write next. You are starting to bore yourself. Your characters are boring each other. Nobody will want to read this drivel.

And so it goes round and round in your head.

You’ve written ten novels or none. You’ve won prizes or you’re just […]

January 4th, 2020 | Tags: , , , , , | Category: Authors, Books, Insights, Writing life, Writing skills | 8 comments

Second-hand book stalls – author's friends?

Some authors don’t like second-hand book stalls, whether run as a businesses or for a charity fête. In fact, they hate them. The author gets no royalty nor secondary right nor anything. The books are toted around, exchanged or traded like a lump of former tree for a pound/euro/dollar or two – virtually free. I […]

December 27th, 2019 | Tags: , , , | Category: Authors, Books, Insights, Readers, Writing life | 2 comments

Octavian and Bismarck – Visionaries of Empire

Today’s cracking guest post comes from Antoine Vanner – a regular guest here. His own adventurous life, his knowledge of human nature, his passion for nineteenth-century history and his understanding of what was the cutting-edge technology of that time, make him the ideal chronicler of the life of Nicholas Dawlish R.N.in eight volumes so far. […]

December 12th, 2019 | Tags: , , , , , , | Category: Books, Guests, Research, Romans | Leave a comment

Can a song inspire a story?

Can music inspire a story? It seems so!

I’m taking part in the December StorySong short story fest organised by Discovering Diamonds Reviews’ organiser Helen Hollick.

Each day, there’s a new story and a chance to guess the song/music that inspired it. There have been some crackers so far!

Mine comes on 17 December, the […]

December 8th, 2019 | Tags: , , , , , , | Category: Authors, Books, Other people's websites/blogs, Promotion, Short stories | Leave a comment

Discovering gold - a critique writing partner and how to find one

I enjoy a ‘writerly’ Skype with another novel writer, Denise Barnes – my critique Writing Partner (CWP). We swap hints and tips, recommend and exchange books, encourage each other about courses and competitions. But the best thing is that we read each other’s work and critique it. Now you have to get on well to […]

November 5th, 2019 | Tags: , , , , | Category: Authors, Books, Getting published, Writing life, Writing skills | Leave a comment
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