Tag: women writers
Writing from Rejection: Inspiration to Publication
My debut novel, My Sister is Missing, was born out of rejection. The first novel I plucked up the courage to submit to agents received three full requests, but all came back with a resounding NO. One lovely agent told me that she loved my main character, but the premise of the novel got lost […]
Where Kilted Men Fell
1987 seems like aeons ago! Back then I was in my early twenties, having travelled from Australia to the UK to visit relatives and then drove north and explored Scotland. When I arrived at Inverness in the Scottish Highlands I enquired about historical points of interest. The words Culloden and battle were reverently spoken in […]
This Is Why You Need A Team To Support Your Writing
Writing is like raising a child. While you can try to ensure the kind of outcome you desire and imagine, you never how life’s twists and turns will take you in a direction you never expected. I had never held a newborn baby until the midwife put my daughter in my arms. I remember taking […]
The Science Of Writing
Like most of my writer friends, I live a double life. My writing life is a living, breathing thing that exists atop a whole other life filled with work and kids and car pool and soccer practice. In truth, some days it seems there is very little room left for my writing life. Some days […]
What Happened When I Gave Up My Day Job
It’s now been over three years since I gave up my day job to become a full-time writer. I had a high-powered busy job and I travelled extensively for work. The launch of my first novel had to be fitted in around my work travel and felt like yet another chore that I needed to […]
Life By The Books
I’ve been wondering lately if one day I’ll look back on my creative work in terms of the life chapters during which the work was done. I wrote my first book, a memoir, in my twenties. Part of it I wrote as my master’s thesis, part of it I wrote while teaching. Although I was […]
How To Write Really Interesting Blog Posts
For many writers, a part of promoting themselves and their books is writing blog posts. But many of us (say me for example) find ourselves looking at a blank page and a blinking cursor and freeze up. We might write a 90k novel with no hesitation, but the idea of writing a 900-word blog post […]
My Writing Journey — She’s Mine
‘You just think lovely wonderful thoughts,’ Peter explained, ‘and they lift you up in the air.’ Peter Pan, J M Barrie She’s Mine, my debut novel marks a milestone on my three-year journey from aspiring writer to published author. If I had to sum up my advice to new writers from what I have learnt […]
When Is It Time To Consider Yourself A “Real Writer”?
It seems a lot of us writers have a tough time coming to grips with the idea that we are, indeed, writers. It’s a touchy subject, this whole who-is-a-writer business. It’s funny, I’ve always been very comfortable calling myself a writer, because I’ve made my living as one for more than 20 years. But there’s […]
Women Adventuring in Time
Time travel novel heroines? It’s a pretty short list. Most of these characters fall into another century and fall in love. There’s nothing wrong with that reason for parting time’s folds, but a fascinating subset of time-bending heroines have other agendas. Some aim to improve the present world by changing its past, in large and […]
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