Authors A to Z

Last week I mentioned the Autumn Chickens blog blitz, and I was lucky enough to have more than one contribution accepted. This was something I wrote a while ago, but I think it’s still relevant today. A to Z for Authors Alcohol: Necessary for drowning sorrows and very occasionally for celebrations. Book Blogger: Invaluable people …

Indie Author week

I’ve been rather bogged down in organising a book festival which is why I didn’t get round to posting last week. Apologies. It also brought to light the fact my publishing blog has been sorely neglected, and needed updating. If I grovel enough, will you pop over and have a look? 😀 https://quirkyunicornbooks.wordpress.com/2023/06/11/beckenham-book-festival-2023/. Let’s do …

Simply Spooky

I’m delighted to announce the release of my latest book ‘Simply Spooky,’ which is available now on Amazon in both eBook and paperback format. Links are at the bottom of the page for reasons I'll explain during the post. I’d been having problems with writing the follow up to ‘Story of a Country Boy,’ and …

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 …