Tag: featured
Healing Through Writing
Imagine you are a woman with 8- and 10-year-old sons who is losing her husband to alcohol. He has refused all help and the financial betrayals must come to an end. You finally worked up the nerve to divorce him and today is the day he has promised to move out—but instead he shows up […]
The Dos and Don’ts of Promotional Blog Tours
When I invited my blog followers to host a guest post to publicise my forthcoming novel, I never imagined I’d be embarking on a marathon tour of twenty-five posts over five weeks. I’m not sure if that makes me someone to emulate or a narcissistic masochist but, for what it’s worth, here are some suggestions […]
From Query to Book Deal: Literary Agent Carly Watters
Here’s the story of how women’s fiction author extraordinaire Taylor Jenkins Reid and agent Carly Watters started working together. (Haven’t read her books? Try MAYBE IN ANOTHER LIFE, her most recent novel with a SLIDING DOORS twist.) In Early February 2012 I receive a query telling me the heart-breaking love story of Elsie and Ben: […]
Non-Fiction: Being Bombed Out
This is an account of what it was like to be nine years old and on the receiving end of the bombing power of a well-armed enemy. Like millions in London we were evacuated at the start of the war. My father went to Harpenden with the insurance company he worked for, two days before […]
“It’s not you, it’s me” Navigating the Waters of Rejection
Soon, I will hit the “send” button on an essay. This is the twelfth submission of this piece. After eleven rejections, my finger hovers over the “send” button– cautious, conflicted. A flood of emotions rushes over me. I am drowning here. I have put this sucker out there so many times that I am beginning […]
Why I Write
It certainly is not for the fun of sitting hour after hour in my study on the days when the ideas have dried up at source and the words are being stickily stubborn, bad-tempered and unmalleable. It is not for the times when, having made a journey to an out-of-the-way book festival, it is only […]
Q&A with Leah Ferguson
Leah Ferguson is the debut author of ALL THE DIFFERENCE published by Berkley/Penguin which tells the story, in alternating chapters, of a pregnant woman who says yes – and no! – when her boyfriend proposes marriage. You may also know Leah from her popular mommy-blog One Vignette – life on the small scale: a story […]
My Days As A White Collar Girl
With the publication of White Collar Girl, my third adult historical novel, I have to take a moment to reflect on how I got here. Looking back I can honestly say that my previous career as an advertising copywriter served as a great training ground for becoming a published author. Advertising taught me three important […]
Note to Self: What Does That Book Smell Like?
Every book is a portal to a different world. As a child, I especially loved stories about animals. One of my favorites was Charlotte’s Web, which made me long to be a girl named Fern with a pet pig named Wilbur, because of its vivid descriptions of everything from the busy farmyard to the noisy […]
Short Story: A Simple Mistake
The dome of an umbrella bobbed along the top of the fence, beneath the dripping horse chestnut branches. Pink, blue, white stripes. Childhood colours, an adult’s height. It had been raining for days, maybe weeks. Lots of umbrellas bobbed along her fence, but she recognised this one. It was him again. Cynthia wheeled herself into […]
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