Authors Electric

          The 29th day of the month, and the introduction of a new page for Authors Electric.           The 30th - and the 31st, if there is one - have always been given over to Guest Posters, and that will continue, under the very able management of Debbie Bennett. Debbie, Guest Wrangler           The 29th was, until recently, Hywela Lyn's day - but we're sad to say that Hywela has had to resign, because her other commitments make it impossible to keep up with Authors Electric. Blogging is time consuming - thinking of a new subject every month, writing it, rewriting it, finding pictures, rewriting it... (Because writers obsessively rewrite: that's what we do.)           So we well understand Hywela's reasons for leaving us, and we wish her well for the future.         ...

I'm a romance writer (albeit of the futuristic kind) so my hero is the most important character in my story, next to the heroine of course! Usually, I find heroes fairly easy to create. He needs to be charismatic, strong, smart and a perfect foil for my feisty femail protagonist.  The trouble is, heroes (and heroines) tend to take on a life of their own. In my first novel, 'Starquest', the shy, young man who was supposed to be a supporting character, and to quietly bow out two thirds of the way through, turned out to have  hidden qualities. The murder of his parents and sister and the desire for revenge had made him far stronger than his gentle, unassuming demeanour suggested. He basically took command of the plot and allied himself with the heroine to demand (in a gentle, but very insistent way) that I change my carefully crafted ending . 'Resistance was futile' to slightly mis-quote alien villains in a famous TV and film series. Eventually I was obliged to gi...

I hope you all had a very Happy Christmas and that 2012 will be good to you! Another year over and I have a confession to make.  I've had so much going on since Christmas, what with making arrangements to visit my family in Wales, which includes arranging for someone to feed my two horses , and making a last minute cake to take with us, and purchasing and wrapping gifts for my sister's Birthday on the 2nd -  not to mention trying to get two on-line interviews finished ( I know, excuses, excuses)  I almost forgot that it's my turn to post today. So - I need to make some New Year Resolutions: 1.  To be more organised, to structure my day and not leave things until the last  minute! 2.  To not check email or Facebook until I've written or revised at least 2,000 words per day. 3.  To finish the third book in my trilogy by February and to start work on my NaNo with a view to self publishing it. Only three, I hope I can keep them but No2 is going to be ver...

I apologise for my post this month going up late. I have acute Nanoitis.  The symptoms are extreme forgetfulness, manic depression, singlemindedness, mental/writers block and an  irrespressable urge to do nothing but eat chocolate. In other words I'm attempting National Novel Writing Month for the third year running.  The first year wasn't too bad, I knew pretty well where I was going, and had the story more or less mapped in my mind.  Ditto last year, and I reached the finishing line in both years with a few thousand words to spare., This year was different.I wasn't going to do it.  I have too much on, and besides, I told my long suffering husband, Dave, I haven't a clue what to write. The only thing my muse has come up with is a short story written about twenty years ago which I always intended to expand on. That was it.  "You've GOT to do it, he told me, "You have to make it three years running." Huh?  What could I say.  So I duly regis...

I spent last weekend The Festival of Romance.  This was the first time the Festival has been held, and the first time I've been to an event like this.  I haven't even been to any of the RNA conventions yet, although I hope to do so at some stage.  (I have to limit myself on 'treats' since I have two much loved horses and a dog to support and the cost of feeding and stabling doesn't get  any cheaper) Although the the Festival was actually on Friday and Saturday, we had a 'pre-Festival Panel' at Watford Library the night before.  I went along, thinking I would have a nice relaxing evening listening to other authors, and found myself on the Panel myelf, with  PamelaStrange,  Kate Allan, Annie Burrows, Lynne Connolly and Juliet Archer. I knew Kate but hadn't met the others, so it was nice to make their aquaintance and although I hadn't brought any of my books, (my novels are published in print as well as e-Books) I had at least had ...