Authors Electric

Image Credits:  Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. Many thanks to Gill James for taking the image of me reading from From Light to Dark and Back Again at the Bridge House Publishing Celebration event in December 2023. All good fun! What are you hoping for in this new writing/reading year? Writing wise, I would like more things in print. Reading wise, I would like to discover authors new to me. The big eye opener for me in recent years has been discovering the wonderful world of non-fiction, especially history. The start of a year is when I miss most favourite authors no longer with us. I always looked forward to the new Terry Pratchett book for example. Nearly always ended up having that as a Christmas present.  Having said that I was given A Life In Footnotes which is his biography (written by Rob Wilkins) and am loving that. (Wouldn’t surprise me now if I go on to discover more on the wonderful world of biographies!).     I look forward to book ...

I want to talk to you today about why we write. I’ve read that some writers can do nothing but write, the words pouring out of their mind onto the paper. Some only ever publish one book. For me, the reading came first. From an early age, I was allowed, once a week, after we had been grocery shopping, to pick a book. My family had emigrated to America when I was two years old, we returned when I was six. When I started my local primary school, I was already a year behind everyone else as my peers had already begun learning their three ‘Rs’ a year before me. However, my voracious appetite for reading had paid off and I could already write my name and read well above my chronological age when I started.  I think Enid Blyton’s Famous Five were my first loves! The adventures and camaraderie brought my imagination to life. The siblings and their cousin, with of course Timmy the dog, gave me something I didn’t have as an only child. I quickly progressed to the St Clare’s and Malory Towers...

A couple of months ago, I wrote a charming article about how you can help your favorite author . It was a nice little piece, and I'm very proud of it, but almost immediately after posting it, I began thinking of different ways the desire to help can backfire. Sometimes people can take their love of an author a bit too far. I'm looking at you, Fifty Shades of Grey folks out there with your handcuffs and metal beads. This can, in turn, cause an unfortunate backlash onto the work you are trying to promote (I'm looking at you, Trekkies who are overly contentious of the new movies because they are action-packed and all non-talky). And don't get me started on this abomination. Who knew the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse would be riding My Little Ponies? However, intense fan reaction, though it can seem silly and many may consider it demeaning to the original source of the fandom, ultimately helps that original source. If you're already a national author, the...