shoes shoes shoes
I was waiting at Kings Cross the other day (admiring the shiny new concourse) when it suddenly occurred to me to look down for a minute.
continue reading »March 30, 2012 Leave a comment
Self-published review – New Beginnings by Johanna Nield
Winner of my March Self-Published competition – I was interested to read NEW BEGINNINGS by Johanna Nield because her tag line ‘Tasha’s in love with the wrong man at the wrong time, leading her into a minefield of moral dilemmas and social taboos’ had me wondering how this love affair would develop.
continue reading »March 24, 2012 Leave a comment
Holiday reads
I’m off on holiday shortly and very soon I shall be lying down somewhere warm, with someone else bringing me drinks (‘why yes, yes I can manage another mojito – thank you so much for asking’), under several layers of sunblock (reality intrudes on the picture) on my first holiday sponsored by Kindle.
continue reading »March 20, 2012 Leave a comment
Self-published Saturday – March’s competition
The rules of the competition are the same as last month – please leave a link to your self published book in the comments below – along with a sentence that is as appealing a pitch as you can make it!
The most enticing submission will win a free review from me – to be published on Saturday 24th March. Fiction or non-fiction – whichever you’ve written.
Previous entrants may re-enter – (but please change your pitch sentence).
March 12, 2012 Leave a comment
Cambridge Wordfest – how to do spring properly
Reading is a solitary pursuit on the whole, and so is writing. When the weather’s bad, the temptation is to curl up inside and use words to keep warm.
As the first glimmers of spring appear though – writers and readers begin to come out of hibernation and start looking around for more members of their tribe.
I’m lucky enough to live just outside Cambridge where we have the excellent Cambridge Wordfest. I went along to their launch party – and 10th Anniversary celebration – and am slavering at the various writers and events they’ve got planned.
continue reading »February 27, 2012 Leave a comment
Help! I’m living with someone I hate, and no-one else likes them either
This week’s clinic is on characters – and more specifically – how to make them the right blend of believable, likable, and entertaining.
When starting to write, a lot of authors fall into the trap of the Perfect Protagonist. They like the idea of a person who is better than them, slimmer (often), smarter, more beautiful – and whose talents make the plot easy to work. The trouble is as readers, we slightly hate characters like that. The other danger is that your villains become the heros of the piece, which may not be your intention. If that happens, you’re in good company, it’s universally recognised that Milton’s Devil was his best bit of writing.
So if your character needs to be a bit more – well – real than perfect, what about if they start becoming unpleasant? You’ll often hear editors telling writers that they need to make their characters people the reader can connect with – but does that mean the reader needs to like them?
continue reading »February 14, 2012 Leave a comment
Self-published Saturday
First Saturday of each month – come and link your ebooks here – with a sentence about why a reader might like to download your title.
I will review the most interesting title over the following week.
All comments (and plugs) will go live on Saturday 4th February so come back to see who is writing what!
UPDATE – actually – I’m going to let the comments go live now – no reason not to except to ramp up the suspense!
Any plugs received by 10am Saturday (UK time) will be entered into the competition. Review winner named by the end of Saturday.
January 30, 2012 Leave a comment
Did I say November?
The mug quotes Douglas Adams, and is particularly apt for me today. I’m sorry – my ‘write an e-book in a month and get it online’ was laughably optimistic – even before I factored in the Half Term Factor (which I’d totally forgotten).
More seriously I realised that I could probably write the book (or that Bloody Book as it’s kind of become) in the time, but I certainly couldn’t edit it, and an unedited book is an undressed salad – just not right.
So this is my confession blog post. I didn’t manage it. However I am just over 8,000 words in (about another 42,000 to go) and I’m trying for a new deadline.
continue reading »October 31, 2011 Leave a comment
Making progress, very very slowly
Today I have made huge strides.
I’ve doubled my word count (200 to 400 words).
continue reading »October 18, 2011 Leave a comment
Writing my own e-book
Never let it be said that I don’t go the extra mile for my clients…
I may have mentioned before, I’m somewhere between a Luddite and an I-Addict. I love new technology once I’ve got the hang of it, but am hugely suspicious until that happens.
I have a Kindle (birthday present from techie-geekie husband) which I am really enjoying, and it occurred to me that as I often recommend that authors try their hand at an e-book, it would be very useful to know the process myself.
continue reading »September 27, 2011 Leave a comment