There is one prize that I don’t want to win – awarded each year for the worst sex scene in any novel. Mills and Boon for sticky romance, El James series starting with Fifty Shades of Grey which verge on porn, are to be avoided at all costs. Yet we all know how hard it […]
How many times have I done this? Left my characters high and dry. Total neglect. Two whole months we have been apart. I’ve thought of them when driving, that open space when the brain is intent on only one thing, the mechanics of getting from A to B. Then, I have made contact, remembered where […]
Val McDermid spoke these words when interviewing a fellow author on BBC 4 Front Row recently; ‘That’s what we authors do,’ she said, ‘plunder our own lives.’ And I was thrilled to hear her say this. For that is exactly what I do. Initially I was surprised as her novels are psychological thrillers, always featuring […]
Publishers employ whole departments to market their writers’ books – though I hear they are not as proactive as in the ‘olden days’. As an indie author none of this is available; we are on our own to promote our work Marketing is a skill learnt on degree courses. A science of psychology, knowing to […]
We all know that blissful moment of receiving a good review. Written on Amazon or Goodreads, or in some other publication, it is what writers crave. Or that pleasure might come from someone coming saying; ‘I really enjoyed that last book you wrote’. And even better, though not financially so; ‘I’ve lent it to … […]
I recently saw a stage version of ‘Goodnight Mr Tom’ by Michelle Magorian with my grandson, aged eight. A favourite novel which I read when it was published in 1981 so I had remembered that some of the story is bleak, including unpleasant revelations for a child his age. However I knew that the problems were […]
The tick of approval? And, of course, that is what the sign represents. ‘I like this; I approve; well done; pat on the back’. Those are the meanings which I used to understand the tick to say. Essays marked with ticks here and there were a boost to whatever writing had been completed. A quick […]
I recently saw a production of ‘Angels in America‘ at the National Theatre. An excellent play, subject matter, script, performances, which I remembered seeing many years ago. I could visualise the image of the angel, a huge white feathered creature spotlit at, I think, the end of the play. And that was the problem. Was […]
How interesting to read that an agent, not wishing to be named, expressed the view at the London book fair last week that; ‘we really need to move on … We want something more positive, something more life affirming.’ I am so relieved that this view has been expressed. I found ‘Gone Girl’ and ‘The […]
I have been intrigued by The Guardian’s series of articles in which well-known writers explore where and when they write. Some have been reassuring – the prevarication, the sidelining, the excuse of what else needs to be done. I particularly enjoyed Sebastian Barry thinking that ‘having something else to do other than writing … creates […]