Category: Contemporary Women Writers
Surviving A Book Launch As A Card-Carrying Introvert
I’ve always been a behind-the-scenes kinda gal. Maybe that was one of the reasons I was drawn to fiction – I thought it wouldn’t be “me” in the spotlight, it would be my books. That was before social media became the way of the world. I took to the writing life like a bear […]
When Public Speaking Goes Wrong
There has been a lot on social media lately about why women should accept invitations to public speaking events. As in all areas of society, it seems we are in the minority when it comes to standing on the soap box. A quick search on Google shows that there are many more male public speakers […]
From ‘The Foolish Wise Ones’ to Shingle Beaches – Inspirations for a Crime Novel
The Temptation, published in May 2018 by Accent Press, returns to the characters in my first crime book, Some Particular Evil, and to the stretch of Suffolk coast running from Dunwich, south to Orford. Aldeburgh, a small town between those two locations, is the focal point of The Temptation. Since my early twenties I’ve […]
How Food Writing Without a Recipe Inspired Me to Write Cookbooks
I spent my summers as a child making mango jam with my mother when I lived in the Philippines. There was no end to the mangoes that had to be peeled, mashed, squashed into a thick pulp. It was mom’s guidance that taught me to appreciate this tropical fruit and a love for cooking. Monica […]
Penguin European Writers: Mercè Rodoreda
Penguin European Writers is a new series of forgotten classics by European writers, with introductions by acclaimed contemporary authors. As a former student of French and Italian, I felt compelled by the current political climate to begin a new initiative to promote European literature to British readers. Translated fiction offers a unique insight into another […]
How to Write an Amazon Review
You’ve just read an amazing book, and you want to tell somebody about it. You could call a friend, of course, and I suggest you do. Word of mouth is the best marketing. But you could also write a review of the book on one of the sites that accepts reviews. This could include GoodReads, […]
My Road to Publication
My crime fiction novel The Forgotten will be published on June 13th 2018 through Crooked Cat Books and its follow up, The Departed, will be published at the end of the year. I can’t wait! But this has been a long journey for me fraught with crippling self-doubt, generalised anxiety disorder, and dyslexia. I was […]
A Different Kind Of Wonder Woman
It was an odd stocking stuffer—a five-inch Wonder Woman, with Gumby-esque limbs malleable enough to achieve super-human, joint-defying positions. I tossed my husband a baffled look. No fan of the superhero, superpower stuff, I’ve always found my power in the ordinary, the everyday, the quiet people and deeds. “But you have been a Wonder Woman, […]
Writing Rituals – Do I Have Any?
I recently read Daily Rituals, by Mason Currey. It’s a fascinating account of the creative processes of a collection of famous artists, authors, composers and choreographers. Who knew that Anthony Trollope, rose before dawn every day and wrote three thousand words before going to his job at the post office, or that Thomas Wolfe wrote standing […]
A Sense of Place
“By nightfall the headlines would be reporting devastation. It was simply that the sky, on a shadeless day, suddenly lowered itself like an awning. Purple silence petrified the limbs of trees and stood crops upright in the fields like hair on end. Whatever there was of fresh white paint sprang out from downs or dunes, […]
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