Authors Electric

 A Scottish hero is celebrating his 20th anniversary of appearing in print this year. He has hunted for lost princes, skirmished at Stirling, and joined a clan gathering, driving himself there in his Whirry-Bang. He doesn't travel alone. He has his English friend, Rupert...     His rather posh looking lady friend, Jeannie...          And his young friend, Angus...     Off they go to Skye, and the Falkirk Wheel. They visit the great Scottish capital, Edinburgh, of course, and also the second city, Glasgow. At Glamis they meet a ghost, or think they do -- and what Scottish hero could fail to hunt for the Loch Ness Monster?  Hamish is, in fact, a haggis, his full name being Hamish McHaggis. We all know that haggisses really roam wild and free throughout the Highlands, only caught by the most  skilled of Highland trackers. I confess to a shameless plug here, because Hamish was created by my good friend, Linda Strachan, working in ...

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman "3 million copies sold" boasts the cover of this book, which makes me wonder why I've taken so long to read it, considering it was first published in 2017 and comes with a glowing collection of positive reviews. Well, I confess I have  come across a few of those reviews over the years, and for some unknown reason formed the opinion that it's a Young Adult (YA) issues title, which as a fantasy/historical fan I don't normally enjoy. That's partly why I am doing this year of reading at Authors Electric, allowing different types of books to cross my path and sampling authors and genres more widely than I used to, in the hope I'll discover a new author and/or genre to enjoy. Within a few pages, I was rooting for the heroine. Eleanor Oliphant (not her real name - she has grown up in care) has an office job in accounts that she seems to be good at, lives alone in a small flat, runs her life to a strict routine ...

  Image Credit:  Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. I didn’t start out writing in the short fiction forms. I began by seeing if I could write a novel. I did. It went through numerous rewrites, had professional editing twice, and was longlisted in a Debut Novel competition. It remains unpublished. I became tired of the rejections  so I turned my attention to the shorter fiction forms.  It took a long time for my stories to become publishable but I wasn’t surprised. I’d been reading plenty of sensible writing advice and still do. You are warned learning to get your work up to publication standard does take time. I saw this as fair game (and again still do). I did find quickly one advantage to writing short stories was I could get far more written in the time it took me to write my novel, edited, reworked, edited again etc. I was also able to get feedback on the short stories which I used to help me improve.  That eventually led to my first story in...

  So last month I wrote about extreme cold, when the temperature in Finland was -34.5⁰. Last week I went to the Gambia, where it was over 40⁰. I am sitting here in Surrey writing this covered with insect bites, and really feeling the cold even though it isn’t cold at all. It’s just the contrast. Contrast is so important when you’re writing. When you shift from one setting to another you have to think about all the senses that make it come alive, and how things differ from your previous location. Visually: bright or dull? Busy or quiet? Sound: Voices? Traffic? Birdsong? Music? Silence? Smell: Foliage, flowers, cooking, wet dogs, drains? Taste: bland or exotic? Sweet or savoury? Familiar or unfamiliar? And finally, touch. That’s when you really notice the heat. Can you walk across a tiled floor by a swimming pool without burning your feet? Does picking up a glass of cold beer/Coke/Wonjo juice feel like heaven? Are you just as hot as night? What do you wear, and how well do you sleep?...

  One way or another, all writers must solve one great challenge: tracking and pacing the flow of their work and timing the release of essential information. Fiction or nonfiction, mystery or history, hack work or high art...All afford plenty of room for writers to bring their singular talents to bear. Tell a tale in reverse or jump cut back and forth from the present to the past. Interweave philosophy with a gripping narrative as in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.  The sky's the limit, baby. But know this when starting out:  Timing is still everything. And no matter how many chapters you have, the book's structure must be solid and efficient. The release of clues or key insights must be impeccably timed. And, ultimately, your work should have its own symmetry. I'm in trouble if my book has three distinctive parts, but the opening movement runs for 150 pages, while the middle runs for 90 and the ending stops short at 50. Just as bad, I doomed if I give the book...

  When my mum was in her nineties and becoming increasingly frail, she decided that she would move into sheltered accommodation. Her house was becoming a constant source of worry and although she had support from the family and friends there were times when she admitted she felt very lonely. In the past my sister and I had discussed the possibility of her coming to live with either one of us. We had the space, I even had the garage converted into what could be a granny bedsit, but somehow the plan never came to fruition. This was partly due to Mum’s reluctance to move away from the place she knew and her very full social life, which at the time we all thought was a good reason for her to stay where she was and we would visit whenever we could. Once I’d retired those visits became more frequent but there was always the lurking feeling that it wasn’t enough, plus the worry of what might happen if we weren’t there. This in spite of my daughter being a swift twenty minute drive awa...

In the riveting collection, Periscope City: Where the Lonely Go to Live Alone , debut author Benjamin Talbot introduces readers to a fictional city full of complex characters navigating isolation, desire, and disconnection. In this exclusive interview, Ben opens up about the origins of the collection, the surprising characters that emerged, and how his own experiences helped shape this strange, eerie world. If you’ve ever felt alone in a crowded room—or sought solitude in a noisy one—this interview might speak to you. Start off with the book trailer, which will provide you the general Periscope City feel:   Dianne Pearce (Dianne):  Hey Ben, I really appreciate you taking the time to let me quiz you about your book. I loved the book the minute I read the first story, which for me, was a story about a very strange ice cream shop. I have a similar one near my house, very unusual flavors, so it intrigued me. And I admit to being very surprised by where it went. The book has so muc...

  It was late in the evening and we were still sitting round the kitchen table in Yorkshire, finishing our red wine, knowing we should have gone to bed but relishing the time with our youngest son Archie and his wife Steph. We’d come up from Essex to this small West Riding town watch Archie’s pupils perform Mary Poppins . Steph had met us earlier with our granddaughter Ada, now sweetly asleep upstairs. It had been a lovely day away. Then my phone rang. It was Bertie, our son who lives as our ‘next door neighbour’ at home. This means a small separate building in the same space - 'the shed'. He and his dogs had unexpectedly left home that day, to visit a friend in distress. An unplanned absence.. He’d just returned, seen upstairs lights left on, discovered the back door open and our bedroom in chaos. Understandably he was shocked and upset. No, not normal mess ‘Call the police,’ we said. ‘You have to call the police.’ He did so and was told he mustn’t touch anything, mustn...