Tag: featured
Why I Went on the World’s Longest Book Tour
We live in a world of content overload, constant contact, and ironically, an increasing sense of disconnection. As more and more human interactions are conducted online, we lose the opportunity for the simple “hello” and “how are you” that used to add something intangible to our days. At the same time, deeper, more substantive engagement […]
Books Of My Childhood
Like it is for so many others, each book that I’ve read has found its way into the fabric of my being, has helped form whom I’ve become ~ mother, wife, daughter, sister, friend, teacher, writer – and who I’ve yet to become. Being the youngest of six didn’t allow for much alone time in […]
Whose Point of View is it Anyway?
When I started writing my debut novel, The Other Mrs Walker (Mantle, 2016) I kept getting transported back to 1944. Not literally, of course (though that would have helped with research) but through the eyes of one of my characters.Then another. Then another after that. Sometimes this would happen within the same page. Sometimes within […]
On Being Genre Fluid
My day job involves listening to other people’s stories (Spoiler alert! I’m a doctor.) Each patient who walks into my room has their own unique narrative – some deliver their ailments like slam poets, some are dramatists, others unfold like a thriller novel and a few I would even categorize as metafiction. Whatever way the […]
To Be or Not To Be a Writer
I always assumed that authors came from a very special mould. They were the kind of people who spent their childhood scribbling down stories whereas I was a bit of a geek. I had one of the first home computers, a Sinclair ZX81 so I was busy writing computer programs while those budding authors were […]
Writers and Self-Censorship
Writers should not be censored. I think everyone can agree on that. The whole idea of censorship conjures an image of stern political enforcers, combing through every line of poetry and prose with an eye to deleting or destroying anything that works against the current regime and its often hypocritical ideology. Who can create art […]
Writing About Sex (and the older woman)
Many years ago, as an experiment, and I admit a bit of a joke, I submitted the first three chapters of an erotic book to the publishers Black Lace. I read their guidelines carefully and made sure I ‘hit the ground running’; and although I must also have submitted some kind of synopsis I really […]
Unforgiven: A Conversation with Marin Thomas
What does it mean to forgive in a town so hard and dry that it’s called Unforgiven? Ruby Baxter, the protagonist of Marin Thomas’ latest novel, The Promise of Forgiveness , arrives on the bus with little more than a suitcase and her daughter’s anger. As the two find Ruby’s biological father and the handsome, […]
Fairytales
Once upon a time…how comforting is this timeless beginning, immediately sending us back to our childhoods, tucked up in bed and listening to a story. Narrative is part of the human psyche, the way we explain the world to ourselves and each other. It’s perhaps no surprise that recent research, published in the Royal Society […]
First Frost: An Interview with Sarah Addison Allen
In Sarah Addison Allen’s First Frost we return to Bascom, North Carolina, and the magical Waverly family first featured in Garden Spells. Addison Allen’s books feature a splendid use of magical realism that immerses us into the hearts and minds of her characters. We spoke about the nature of belonging, magic, and writing. What drew you back […]
Recent Comments