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 …

Summer Changes background

Despite indications to the contrary, it is actually summer here in the UK. Spring saw summer heatwaves, then a quick trip into winter with absolutely torrential rain before reverting back to autumn with strong winds, sunshine and everything in between. What has this to do with books? When my first book ‘Changes’ was released, I …

Changes and More Changes

Being an author involves wearing many different hats, and with future changes afoot I started thinking back to how it all began. Perhaps it was no coincidence my first book was called ‘Changes.’ As a total newcomer to the publishing world, I assumed every author used a pen-name, so a family nickname became my new …

The history behind ‘Alderslay.’

I started writing this story about seven or eight years ago, and it was intended to be the follow-up to my first book ‘Changes.’ Although Changes was a romance, (since republished as ‘Summer Changes, Winter Tears,’) I wanted to try a darker genre and ‘Murder of Changes,’ as it was originally known, is more of …

Never stop learning

When I was about 10, I received my first writers’ rejection letter. Every week my father would buy a teen magazine for me and ‘Woman’ magazine for my mother. As soon as she finished reading it, I would devour every page and unknown to my parents, submitted a short story for their regular feature. I …

Where does the time go?

When I first started writing seriously, I was under the impression you wrote a book, publishers published it, and you sat back with a smile on your face while everyone bought it and left glowing reviews. Even with my traditionally published books I had no idea you were expected to do your own marketing; I'm …

Behind the writer

Have you ever wondered about the person behind the book or magazine articles you are reading? Last week I touched briefly on the reasons authors began writing, and their objectives when setting pen to paper. At one time, having a book published involved years of approaching the big five publishers, possibly paying an agent, having little …

Advice for authors

I’ve always loved reading, but my writing career only took off when life threw me a curved-ball, and having my first book published stopped me going stir crazy. That was some seven or eight years ago, and although by no means an expert, I thought it might be interesting to share my experiences for anyone …

Book bloggers and ‘Story of a Country Boy.’

As a change from my usual short story, I thought I’d make this week’s blog post about all things authorish. I love writing, get easily inspired with new ideas, and fortunately never suffer from the dreaded writer’s block. My only problem is juggling marketing, writing and keeping up with the outside world (which is my excuse …

The defeating of ABC gremlins

My first two books were traditional published, but over the past few years I’ve learnt a lot about what actually goes into producing a book. Obviously, I now know everything there is to know, Right? Wrong! It 'seemed a good idea at the time’ to self-publish, and although I’m not particularly ‘techie,’ I was determined, …