I was thinking this week about time. When we’re young it seems interminable, as if the awaited birthday or Christmas will never arrive. Then as we get older the days and weeks whizz past, and we can’t believe another month has gone already. It was also confusing when I signed up for a course based …
Pantsers, Psyche and garden paths.
I believe I started this blog in February around 6 years ago because ‘that’s what authors did.’ The intention was it would be a showcase for my books as they were published, and everyone would immediately rush out and buy them. It would make me rich and famous, and I could spend my life writing …
Country Boys and Singers
I was always an Elvis fan but remember sitting up with my dad to watch the Tom Jones programmes after Mum had gone to bed. I know he has a reputation as a womaniser, but being with the same woman for such a long time I believe he truly loved his wife and she was …
Not a Country girl
Having lived all my life either in, or close to, London, England I’m not exactly what you might call a ‘Country girl.’ I do remember coming home from school with a snake in a box having agreed to look after it for the long summer holidays. How was I to know my mother was petrified …
Queen for a day
A short story in tribute to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth. If by any chance she sees it, I hope she enjoys it. I did wonder about using the royal coat of arms in the blog post, but I understand you need permission and I’m quite attached to my head. ‘You’ve got to be there, Gran. …
Marketing and ABC Destiny
First of all, thank you to everyone who responded to my questions last week, including the members of the Facebook online writing group during the blog posting day. You’ve probably heard me say it before but I love writing and hate marketing. I know all the theory and how things should be done, and that …
Author anniversary and Amazon Categories
When my first book was released, I assumed authors wrote a book then sat back while royalties flooded in from everyone who had bought it, and the publishers did everything else. Expecting to sell millions of copies under my pen name (because all proper authors use a pen name, don’t they?) it was quite an …
Workmen and book reviews.
A fellow author on Facebook posted a snippet of conversation between two ladies which angered her, but I found rather sad. The gist of it was they would not read any book which had less than 1,000 reviews. It was also a dig at Indie or self-published authors and the smaller publishers. The lady who …
I got flowers today.
Shall we have a short story for a change? I got flowers today. It wasn't my birthday or any other special day. We had just had our first argument. He said a lot of cruel things that really hurt me. I know he was sorry and didn't mean the things he said, because I got …
The Making of ‘Weird and Peculiar Tales.’
This was originally intended as a Facebook post but for various reasons has ended up as a blog post instead. Here is a little of the background to how Weird and Peculiar Tales came about. I first ‘met’ my co-author Paula around six years ago through an online writing site. We seemed to be pretty …
Voinks 