It’s amazing how often my writer’s block clears the moment I’m driving a car. It’s as if a fog lifts and the words come tumbling forth, desperate to be anchored to a fixed point in my mind. Unfortunately, I’ve no means to capture them. On a train, plane or boat, I have the opportunity to […]
The word storytelling says it all. A story on its own is lost, telling it to others makes it found. As a child I loved listening to Jackanory. A TV show that was broadcast every week day for about 15 minutes. One book, split into sections and read aloud by a celebrity, usually an actor. […]
I’ve often wondered why Amazon splits Romance off as a separate entity under books. There is literature and fiction, lots of non-fiction categories, then Romance, plus Science Fiction, YA and Mystery and Suspense, all get hived off. Does that mean fiction doesn’t include them, which is odd, because it does include Erotica?! I would love […]
This post was written by my ten year old daughter, who loves writing stories and recently submitted her 500 word story to a national competition. My mum asked me to write this post on the letter Q (because she couldn’t think of anything). I am going to do it about two things: questions and […]
Thank you Wordy Rose for your nomination. I’m honour as I’m still finding my way as an author and it’s great to meet so many other writers. The Liebster Award is a way to help promote and discover new bloggers, is given to bloggers by bloggers, and has a similar concept to a chain […]
This post was going to be places, then I thought about the past, my love of history, and I vacillated. Why not both? Take the past, as a writer, it’s a fantastic starting point for ideas and inspiration. Whether I want to set a book in a real historical setting, do loads of research and […]
I wrote an outline, a rough brief for each chapter. I know where I’m going. Then, as the words start to flow, my characters lift off and take shape. The journey begins and there’s the first deviation, then another, my heroine wants me to change her name, the lead male wants a bigger role. I […]
It’s everywhere, about us, above and below. Even when I lived in a city, there were green parks, the fat pigeons, the wood lice in the grim corners, the weeds in the pavement cracks and the rain clouds puffing their way across the sky. When I want to escape I can head off into the […]
If writing is my occupation, music is my constant companion, my influential passion. It’s with me wherever I go – the car, the mp3 player, the docking station next to my PC. I even have speakers incorporated into my pillow so I can listen to music in bed…. if that’s what I need. Music is […]
My first library was situated at one end of a hut. The scout hut doubled up as the village library, providing a few bookcases, which were sealed off when the library was shut. I remember the floors echoed with footsteps, but little else. My next library was based in a medieval house with black timber […]
The Quiet Writer 