2016 HNS Conference Oxford - a quick interim post

I’ve been away at the Historical Novel Society Conference where I was coordinating the indie table, helping with registration and problem solving, plus running a panel on indie publishing. There will be a report – I promise – but in the meantime, here are some photos…

HNS16 gala dinner. Left to right: Christina […]

What did I learn from preparing Book 2?

Last Thursday, I finished the edits on the second Roma Nova book, PERFIDITAS. SilverWood Books’ editor made some excellent recommendations and sparked off other ideas that I incorporated in the final, final edition. Good books go through many revisions and edits, but at last it was done.

So how was it for me?

1. Strange […]

The exotic Christina Courtenay ...

I’m delighted to welcome Christina Courtenay to my blog today. She’s currently Vice Chairman of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and a member of The Historical Novel Society. Her debut novel, Trade Winds, was short-listed for the RNA’s Pure Passion Award for Best Historical Fiction 2011. Her second novel, The Scarlet Kimono won Best Historical […]

Did the books you loved make you into the writer you are?

Drafting my latest query letter, I did a little exercise. No, not twenty press-ups on the floor, but one prompted by this particular agency’s submission guidelines. As part of the marketing approach, I was asked to thinking of two to three (i.e. three) comparable books. That wasn’t a problem, but it started me thinking about […]