Authors Electric

   Authors Electric are grateful to Die Booth for stepping in at the last minute, when the guest blogger booked for today failed to provide a post, despite being reminded several times. (Something we do not appreciate.)         So, with thanks, we hand over to Die...           It’s that time of year again - the Resolutions time. The time when writers everywhere - regardless of experience - start to make those bullet-pointed to-do lists for the new year. I’m making mine now (right here, in this blog post!) so let me share it with you.           Things I learned in 2012 Re-Vamp           2012 was another steep learning curve for me as a fairly new, self-publishing writer. I spent 2011 writing for and co-editing the Re-Vamp project with fellow author LC Hu.        ...

Do authors dream of electric books? Yes, they most certainly do. At least in this day and age, where the e-book has the potential to revolutionise the literary industry. For me the e-book signifies power to the people. A small-timer like me can write their e-book and make it available for all the world to download – either by using a publisher or by doing it themselves.  The problem then becomes, not how do I get an agent or publisher, but how do I attract readers? How do I compete with the other five million books on Amazon and Kobo? I don’t claim to have the answer to this question. Social media can help with promotion. Online reviews as well as reviews in traditional media such as newspapers, magazines, radio and television all contribute as do word of mouth and literary prizes.  When I view the statistics for my website, I see that the vast majority of the people who have come to the site have found me via Facebook. I’m not into Twitter and I don’t use Facebo...

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas. I am an unashamed romantic and make no apologies for loving this time of year, the decorating, even the baking and other preparations - but as always it was over in a flash. Where does the time go?  It seems like only a couple of months since I was in this same position last year - the great thing about posting at the end of the month is that in December it gives me the chance to reflect on the year that's gone, and wish  everyone a Happy New Year. OK, I know there are a few days left in the old year still but it'll be nearer Valentine's Day than New Year the next time my blogging post rolls round! It's been something of a roller coaster year, with ups and a few downs. My dear on-line author friend Sharon Donovan, who was blind and suffered with diabetes was admitted for a second heart surgery. Sadly. there were complications and she passed away in April, a month before I was due  to fly to Pennsylvania to meet her an...

Perfect December weather - I love it - freezing temperatures, spectacular sunsets, strangely wonderful skies, and darkness at four, twinkled by all the Christmas lights in my north London suburb. But the other, symbolic aspect of win ter can also be old age and dying. My husband, David, had a mini-stroke four weeks ago, and was (happily) whipped into hospital and operated on within a few days. During his convalescence, the partner of a very close friend died, so my attention, this month, has been somewhat focussed on a combination of death and dying, along with the irrelevance of constructing some kind of Christmas. The tree is our first ever fake one. It came from Tesco, and contained IKEA-like instructions for setting it up, which were, unexpectedly, a perfect distraction from what was going on in our lives. We built it. We covered it with our decades-old baubles. Forget the plastic tree - the baubles look fantastic. All that was missing were the dropped needles and that wonde...

Monocle Magazine hit the headlines a few months ago by putting Britain number one in its “soft power” league, claiming we were the “most powerful nation in the world in terms of cultural influence”. Admittedly that was in the wake of the Olympic/Jubilee euphoria, but even if you discount the hyperbole, British writers should still be feeling pretty cheerful about the future. If we cast our minds back to Danny Boyle’s Olympic opening ceremony, a huge part of the show referenced characters who originated in the minds of British writers – Messrs Potter and Bond obviously, Mary Poppins, Captain Hook, Cruella de Vil – all now cliched images certainly, but our cliches none the less. Looking back over my ghostwriting client list of the last few years I am struck by how many of them are international – India, Nigeria, China, America, Uganda, Switzerland, Greece, Cyprus, Monaco, Bermuda, Brazil, the Netherlands, Australia, the United Arab Emirates …. This seems to have come about ...

 I hope you realise that I am opening myself up to severe embarrassment by posting this blog. And all for the sake of a few laughs (I hope). But there we go. Would the eleven-year-old Rosalie (or Sheila, as she called herself in those days and still does, among friends) have apppreciated this somewhat belated publicity? Who knows - maybe she would. She was clearly something of an entrepreneur, even back then... Four Girls and a Test made it to Chapter 4 and then fizzled out, as Sheila's books were inclined to do. But not before she had invested serious effort and lashings of Winsor & Newton watercolours in a cover depicting the said four girls, be-ribboned, ankle-socked, and with the tiniest of tiny feet that would have appealed to a Chinese emperor. The eldest girl looks somewhat haggard (as well she might) and boasts a superb Cathy McGowan fringe (shame on you if you're too young to remember Cathy).  The writing style (a sample is given below, if you're feeli...

              A Merry Christmas  and a Prosperous New Year  to all our readers!           But it's Christmas Day and you want something a little different from the usual blog.           So I offer you this wintery tale...Or, at least, its first chapter.  ******************************************************** ******************************************* Ghost Dance Or, The Czar's Black Angel 'Are you cold, my children? Are you cold?' Chapter 1       In a place far distant from where you are now grows an oak tree by a lake.         Round the oak's trunk is a chain of golden links.         Tethered to the chain is a learned cat, and this most learned of all cats ...