Authors Electric

Image Credits:-   Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. One photo from The Writers’ Summer School was taken by me, Allison Symes. Another two were kindly taken by Penny Blackburn at two Open Prose Mic Nights at Swanwick and used with permission. Book cover image is from Bridge House Publishing. AI images avoided. When this post goes live on 18th June 2026, my third flash fiction collection, Seeing The Other Side , should have been published by Bridge House Publishing  via their imprint, Chapeltown Books . The book has been a long time in coming and it is a joy to see it out there.  I’ve long thought what a pity it is you can’t bottle the feeling you have when your book comes out to draw on for encouragement and inspiration during the tougher times of the writing life. I’m busy preparing for launches. The book will have a physical launch, so to speak, at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick in Derbyshire in August. It has been a recent development for th...

  Times have changed. The Story of the Little Mole who Knew it was None of his Business would never have seen the light of day in the 1950s, even though it was a jolly good guide to identifying animal poo. Natural history investigation wasn’t discouraged in the 20 th century, but it was more a case of scoring points over your mates. I-Spy books were actually pretty good, but oh how the order of high and low-scoring birds has changed. Magpies were unusual, and egrets and ring-necked parakeets unknown. Yellowhammers weren’t uncommon at all. The other books I treasured were the Observer books, affordable on a couple of weeks’ pocket money at 5 shillings a go, which tackled everything from Aircraft to Moths, Freshwater Fishes, Birds Eggs and Wild Animals – British, obviously. In those days moles were the villains, who desecrated golf courses and bowling greens, and we even had books in which country types wore moleskin weskits (waistcoats). Foxhunting wasn’t frowned on in pony books...

  In Part 1, we survived the history of feuds and rivalries among writers, the literary minefield of conflicting egos and ambitions. Is it possible, we wondered, for even the strongest alliance to avoid ending in flames. Young Leverett Butts approached Richard Monaco, a Pulitzer Prize nominee, as a fan of the older author's Parsival series and entered into a creative relationship and partnership that lasted for over a decade. Today LB answers questions about the power of becoming both student and teacher. And the importance of choosing the right mentor. 1 .  First Models: All writers start with a model in mind—someone whose work deeply resonates with them. Many even attempt to emulate that writer before finding their own vision and voice. Who was your first model? When I first seriously started writing, I was greatly inspired by John Irving and Robert Penn Warren. A lot of my earlier attempts at "literary" fiction draw deeply from those two writers. As I began to write mo...

Hey there Legends~ Every June, Pride Month arrives in the USA accompanied by celebrations, parades, rainbow logos, and, inevitably, sadly, stateside, more than a few complaints that we no longer need it or never should have had it. Grrrr those irk me no end! As someone who spends much of her life around books and writers, I find myself returning to a simpler question: Whose stories get told? Publishing has changed dramatically over the past few decades. Books featuring LGBTQ+ characters and themes are easier to find than they once were. Many authors are able to write openly about experiences that previous generations were forced to hide. Readers can discover stories that would have been difficult, if not impossible, to publish in earlier eras. That progress is worth celebrating. At the same time, Pride Month serves as a reminder of how recently much of that progress occurred. Many writers still remember a publishing landscape where LGBTQ+ characters were expected to meet tragic ends, w...

Jon Snow (Wikipedia) Now defined by his dementia diagnosis?   Last Saturday I was tidying up PD’s cabin, preparing to row up the river in the rain, when I got a call from LBC. Would I go on a programme at 1330 to talk about Jon Snow’s Alzheimer diagnosis? I did a quick calculation: yes, I could be home in time. But what was this all about? ‘Jon Snow the broadcaster has written a book about his Alzheimer’s,' said the programme assistant.  Sorry, no. I haven’t read it. I can't help you.’ That was a relief. No need to worry about hold ups on the A12 or about poor internet quality for the call. I did feel worried, however, that there was some major new book about dementia that I hadn’t even heard of.  When I had got home and changed out of my wet clothes, I had a look on Amazon. No book listed. I googled ‘Jon Snow Alzheimer’s.' Ah! Channel 4 are showing a documentary  Jon Snow: the last big story on Saturday June 20 th .  It’s not all about his Alzheimer’s diagno...

  Never judge a book by its cover. At least, that’s what they say. I’ve been doing some fresh research into cover design these past few weeks, gearing up to launch the first in (hopefully) a series of Young Adult books. The book is written (and rewritten, three times), and the manuscript has been edited and proof-read until it’s as polished as I can make it. As an aside, even after three passes for typos, some still remained; my go-to method for a final pass is to print out and read the book in reverse, a paragraph at a time. It’s long-winded and not the most fun, but it does seem to catch any remaining spelling and grammar mistakes. I suspect it’s because I have to force my brain to engage, rather than going with the flow of the story. On the plus side, even after reading the book seven or eight times, I still like it. But back to my original thoughts, cover designs. I hadn’t really thought much about this, but every year, it seems like a theme emerges that almost ...