Helen Hollick and Harold the King's Big 25

Celebrating any anniversary is an excuse for joy, bubbly and dancing. Celebrating a special anniversary for a book warms the heart of the author to sun-like temperature. I experienced this for INCEPTIO’s 10th in March 2023 and published a special edition hardback.

So imagine how Helen Hollick is feeling celebrating the 25th silver anniversary […]

Rosemary Hayes – Spying in the early 19th century

I’m delighted to welcome Rosemary Hayes to my writing blog today as part of her book tour organised by the Coffee Pot Book Club. She’s written over fifty books for children and young adults. She writes in different genres from edgy teenage fiction, historical fiction, middle grade fantasy to chapter books for early readers and […]

Unpicking a legend by a legendary writer

Writing friend Helen Hollick is no stranger to this blog, nor to publishing. This week, she’s celebrating not only her 70th birthday, but also her 30th year of publishing books. (And I thought I was doing well with my 10th year!)

First accepted for traditional publication in 1993, Helen became a USA Today […]

Villains and writers –The author is *not* the character

Conflict is the lifeblood of any fiction whether it’s between characters, between a character and their conscience, between the character and their environment. Obstacles abound, fate seems inexorable, bad characters never seem to give up.

Character is shown via actions and dialogue which shine a light on their values and motivations. Caius Tellus in my […]

Helen Hollick: How NOT to fall into the pitfalls of writing an (unintended) series

I’m delighted to welcome Helen Hollick back to the blog to celebrate the release of the latest Captain Jesamiah Acorne adventure. And what breath-robbing story it is! More later… 😉

First accepted for traditional publication in 1993, Helen became a USA Today Bestseller with her historical novel, The Forever Queen (titled A Hollow […]