Using your reader report

This is one for the writers, but readers might be interested in a vital part of the process that goes to producing a story. I say producing, because like a piece of pottery, a story starts as a heap of dull, wet mud. Writing the first draft is like throwing that heap on to the […]

Roman cops

Thinking about police, gendarmes and emergency services in the past few days brought me to the law enforcers of Ancient Rome. Faced with terrorist attack (or riot, revolt and rebellion), they would have been robust in their attitude and actions. So who policed Rome?

Portable Roman fire engine nozzle, Madrid Museum (Creative Commons)

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Amazon is not the only way

Readers buy books from many places; paperbacks from ‘bricks and mortar’ bookshops, airports, souvenir shops at visitor sites, at events, launches, the charity shop, from the author direct as well as online. As for ebooks, there seems no end to the number and variety of e-tailers, the dominant one being Amazon.

Sometimes we forget that […]

Writers' resolutions? Er, no...

No, I’m not making resolutions for 2015; they are easily made and easily broken. It’s a bit like dieting – it never works.

So what’s a writer to do? I have a few recommendations…

Have your vision and write your story – tap, tap, tap. Make a beautiful world or an ugly one – it […]

Summer reading - first in historical fiction series

Falling in love with a set of characters, a location and a period is a wonderful thing. Finding there is a series featuring the same three is heaven. You can plunge back into your favourite characters’ world and find out what happened next. You may want to grab a few moments’ peace during the holidays. […]