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 […]

A writer's progress, or 'Do not despair'

2012 PR shot

It’s ten years since I started thrusting books on the world and I’d like to I share some expurgated diary extracts and experiences with you.

But first, a word of motivation… You know how they say it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert at something? If you take a […]

Looking at the world through a clearer lens...

Eyedrops – my life for the next six weeks

I woke up yesterday morning and could see.

No, not a divine miracle, but a result of expert surgery and it’s only one eye so far. The other one will be sorted out in a fortnight’s time. (Update 10 October: Second eye done and […]

The tyranny of word count?

Does your writing heart shrivel when you read on Facebook something along the lines of ‘Giving myself extra chocolate because I wrote 5,000 words today’? And it’s only 3pm… Praise piles on from others with the ‘Wow’ icon splattered everywhere. Then one or two brave souls, possibly including you, confess apologetically they’ve ‘only’ written […]

Anna Belfrage – Charting a course through the turbulent seas of imagination

Delighted to welcome long-standing writing friend Anna Belfrage back to the blog!

Had Anna been allowed to choose, she’d have become a time-traveller. As this was impossible, she became a financial professional with two absorbing interests: history and writing. Anna has authored the acclaimed time travelling series The Graham Saga, set in 17thcentury Scotland and […]