Calm down, dear, it's only a novel!

Today I’m delighted to welcome writing friend Carol Cooper to the blog. She’s an author, family doctor, and medical journalist. After a string of health books, she turned to writing fiction. Her novel Hampstead Fever featured in a prestigious front-of-store promo in WH Smith travel bookstores. Carol lives in Hampstead and Cambridge and is working […]

Selected for CrimeFest!

Super exciting news! I’ve been chosen to be a panellist at the prestigious CrimeFest in May! I’ll be on ‘The Indie Alternative’ at 9.30 Sunday 20 May with fellow Alliance of Independent Authors writing friend Debbie Young, and authors Ian Andrew and Karen Millie James, with Zoë Sharp in the chair. Do have a […]

Why do we write?

A plot in a novel gives the reader the main character’s goal; the challenges the character has to overcome to achieve the goal, what’s stopping her/him and the dire consequences if she/he doesn’t succeed.

My own goal is to produce a readable, entertaining and thought provoking book at least once a year. But every now […]

Diamond Tales - sparklers for you!

They say “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend” and “A diamond is forever” but that is just marketing. Diamonds have played a far more significant rôle in human culture, and for a much longer time.

The name “diamond” is derived from ancient Greek αδάμας (adámas), “proper”, “unalterable”, “unbreakable”, “untamed”. Stones are thought to have […]

Being realistic in historical fiction

My guest today is Antoine Vanner is author of the Dawlish Chronicles, naval fiction set in the 1870s and 1880s. His latest novel, Britannia’s Gamble, was published last month (October 2017). Royal Navy officer Nicholas Dawlish is a fascinating character, very much in the mould of Hornblower, something that attracted me to Antoine’s novels. The […]