Authors Electric

Hello everyone, sorry to follow on from Reb yesterday, it's purely coincidence that Reb and I are both hanging up our AE blogging pens, but I think this will be my final blog for Authors Electric. I’ve loved reading everyone’s blogs over the years, but my writing is leading me further away from Indie writing, so it’s difficult for me to write on topics that our blog’s readers will be interested in. Happy to say I’m busy writing for reluctant readers, with about a dozen books published now with educational publisher Badger Learning. These are for teenagers with a lower reading age than their actual age. I’m also writing crime novels for Bloodhound Books; and as always magazine articles on all kinds of topics.   However, something I can write about for this blog, which ties in with Indie publishing and mainstream publishing is that the latest book accepted by Bloodhound is actually a collaboration between me and a good friend. So, two authors and one title. Coll...

Today is something of a Red Letter Day for me, as it sees the release of my first adult crime novel. It's called Kill or Die , and while it's not self published, I hope you will indulge me giving it a little mention here. It's being published by Bloodhound Books, who have been a real pleasure to work with. I think we've all had bad experiences at some time or other with some publishers, but I'm feeling really fortunate to be working with two publishers who are just brilliant. My other one is Badger Learning who I write hi-lo books for reluctant teenagers. I'm not exactly new to writing crime, as my children's books for Scholastic back in the 1990's featured murder mysteries - but murder in the best possible taste! No blood or gore. Whereas in Kill or Die there's definitely bit of the sticky red stuff! It's funny though, how it's okay to write about murder – unless it's involving animals. When I was just starting to wr...

As you know, it was the birthday and anniversary of the world's most famous writer a few weeks ago.  The 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare and of course what would have been his 452nd birthday. It's funny just how much a part of our lives he is. Most of us would have studied Shakespeare when we were at school and I wonder was it just me or did anyone else used to hate the way teachers analysed every word and phrase so that you never seemed to get to read the entire play? I don't think I really appreciated Shakespeare until quite recently, although I do vaguely remember playing the part of Oberon King of the Fairies from  A Midsummer Night's Dream in a schoo l play. However, it's all very vague – as if the brain is blocking out a bad experience! I also remember playing Mr Hardcastle from She Stoops to Conquer where our poor English teacher would probably give her eye teeth to forget the performance our group of 14 year olds p...

Most of us take for granted the fact that we can read and know what it's like to enjoy a good book. But how sad it is for those who have never known the pleasure of reading either because they are dyslexic or they struggle with reading for some other reason. It's so rewarding to a writer regardless of the genre of book they write, when they get positive feedback or a good review. Even more so when the reader is a child or teenager who admits that they don't like reading - yet they loved a particular book that you'd written. But the idea of actually writing for the market of reluctant teen readers was something of a challenge - but also a great experience, and one I hope I'll get the opportunity to do again. It's only something I've been doing for the last six months or so. I was excited to be asked by the publisher, Badger Learning if I would like to try for a series of horror books for 12-15 year olds with a reading age of around 8-9. Wh...

Happy New Year everyone!  So how was 2014 for you writing-wise? Did you achieve everything you were hoping to achieve?   If you made a new year's resolution did you stick to it? If I remember correctly my new year's resolution for 2014 was to write more and try to get more stuff published. Looking back, I haven't done too badly and it's certainly been an interesting year with magazine articles and some new books out. So I thought I'd post a few photos to illustrate some of the highlights and successful bits of 2014. I try not to harp on about the disappointments, such as being asked to try for a non fiction series with a publisher that I'm working with on some fiction books. Fab! I thought and pitched four ideas... or rather I would have pitched four ideas, had I remembered to send the email. Somehow - don't ask me how, but it ended up in my draft emails rather than being sent. And there it stayed until it was too late and the slots had all been filled. Do...

Wander around any supermarket at the moment and you'll be bumping into witch, ghost, skeleton and pumpkin costumes as Halloween approaches. And they seem to get better every year. Couldn't help but smile at a skeleton outfit I saw the other day that had a moving jaw and talked. Now that my kids are all grown up, Halloween isn't something I usually bother with, although this time last year, Rob who I work with at his Tysall's Photography Studio, was asked if he could take some family shots at the customer's house. No problem... until we got there, and the guy met us at the door, all dressed up as Dracula, and soon informed us that actually he was a real vampire. We hoped he was joking! After the photo-shoot we came away giggling like a couple of kids, and still looking over our shoulders as we headed to the car. Still, it provided a nice little scenario for a horror story should one be needed. Although I love writing stories that send shivers up t...