Travel broadens the writer’s mind

Flying from Paris to MontrĆ©al (pronounced in the Francophone world as ā€˜Mon_roy_al’) was full of brain-fodder for me as a writer! Over the seven hours, my other half and I watched films, ate slightly strange food and thought about the next few weeks of our Big Trip. But best of all was chatting to two […]

Do we really need to be bribed to read a book?

This may possibly be classified as a rant …

On the brink of publishing my fourth book in my Roma Nova thriller series, I am marshalling my PR/marketing campaign: arranging blog appearances, organising reviews, showing off the AURELIA cover and book trailer video. I’m also writing a daily series of ‘blogettes’ about Roma Nova, books, […]

9 March - The morning after the night before

Yesterday was International Women’s Day – on balance, a good thing to remind us of women’s concerns, status and aspirations. And there were celebrations, affirmation and renewed determination – all good stuff. But it’s a bit like your birthday – all cake, champagne, greetings, celebrations – but today it’s about washing up, wiping up the […]

What the readers say... The survey report

Readers never cease to surprise me – that’s the chief finding of the survey I ran over three weeks at the end of January/ beginning of February. I wanted to know how readers found the books they read and how they interacted with authors. It was pure curiosity combined with a sincere wish to give […]

Stopped by the forces of law and order

Driving along the main road, I’m happy there are only 11 kilometres to home. I slow down to pass through a village of older cream stone grey-slated houses, interspersed with Roman tile roofed single-storey homes. Halfway through, I reach the open area to the side, not even a proper village square. A blue-uniformed armed figure […]