Insights | Alison Morton Author

So what does SUCCESSIO mean to me?

Writing a book is hard work but a privilege. Sitting down, slogging away, oblivious to neck and shoulders becoming rigid, you ignore the blurring eyes, the headache creeping up over the crown of your head because you are lost in the imaginary country of your book’s world.

Your characters smell the pines, shiver at the […]

Tough heroines

“Boadicea Haranguing the Britons” by John Opie (1761-1807)

‘Tough’, ‘feisty’, ‘kick-ass’ – clichés, ironic or signposts? And, provocative question, would you apply them to men? Perhaps the first one and possibly the third, but I can’t remember reading about a ‘feisty hero’.

That aside, how do you recognise a tough heroine? Boudica, queen […]

Roman taxing times

As I sit down to fill in my tax return, I’m looking for any distraction. I wondered how the ancient Romans were taxed. Today we have income tax, company/corporation tax, sales taxes/VAT, excise duties (road fund licence (UK), alcohol, cigarettes), local taxation, inheritance tax, to name but a few. But how similar are our taxes […]

Meet Sue Cook

I am delighted to welcome a very special guest to my blog today, somebody who has supported Roma Nova since its earliest days. Sue Cook is one of the UK’s most experienced and popular broadcasters: You and Yours, Nationwide, Breakfast Time, Children in Need, Holiday, Crimewatch and most recently Making History and The Write Lines. […]

How to get the reader to read your book

Unless you write for the sole purpose of personal fulfilment (no bad thing in itself), you probably hope other people will read your work. When you publish a story, either as a freebie or commercially on multiple channels (Amazon, Kobo, Waterstones, iBooks, etc.) and in multiple formats (paperback, hardback, ebook, audio), you’re not only putting […]