As it’s a new year – a new decade, in fact – it seems a good time to look back at the year just gone and reflect. 2019 was a momentous year for me, the one in which my first … Read More
Someone messaged me last week to say they were having an ‘Amy Blue week’ – Amy is the main character in Blue Tide Rising – adding ‘you write depression with cutting beauty and deep understanding.’ This was good to hear, … Read More
A young woman I know once read six books in a day. She read all day, every day, and combined reading with all sorts of other activities, like eating, watching telly and engaging on multiple social media channels. When I … Read More
When you pick a novel off the shelf, do you know what genre it is? Do you care? If asked to list the last five books you read by genre, could you? If you sit down to write, do you … Read More
As children we are naturally creative, but the disciplines we face as we progress through school, college and career often put constraints on that creativity. I get people coming to my groups who haven’t written since school and are surprised, … Read More
Until recently I thought ‘uplit’ meant ambient lighting, like in the picture, but last week, at a workshop called ‘The Kindness Effect’ I learnt it’s actually a genre, or a literary trend – one that has empathy at its core. … Read More
Writing a novel is a bit like having a child. You watch it develop from an embryonic thing into something beautiful (hopefully). You nurture it, you correct it, you watch with wonder as day by day it surprises you. You … Read More
I am sitting in a former tram depot and I #amwriting I sit near the balcony which gives me a view of the bar below. This place is designed a bit like a Victorian music hall, in which case I … Read More