Authors Electric

Suffolk journalist Catherine Larner is planning a feature about Stars to Steer By  (to be published May 8 th 2025) and suggests the question ‘what have you taken away from the experience of writing it?’ I’m assuming that she doesn’t really want to hear what a slog the endnotes were or how frustrating it is to try to get permissions from publishing houses that were active 50 years ago but have since been taken over, amalgamated, gobbled up by the big multinationals who scarcely seem to know what companies they own, let alone what books might once have been on their list. She might like to know what a privilege it has been to receive help from absolute heroines of the sailing world -- Tracy Edwards, Naomi James, Nicolette Milnes-Walker, -- and generally from everyone, female or male, who I asked about the project. In my acknowledgements I say truthfully that I have never written such a collaborative book. Even some of the yacht clubs who have historically been thoroughly stuffy (i...

Don't panic... I haven't heard any horrible new rumour that Lockdown is going last quite  that long! But it's interesting to see how science fiction writers often get things uncannily right, sometimes hundreds of years before the actual events become part of our history. So here are three classic reads - one from each of the past three centuries - which are reflected in some way by current events. If you have your own favourites, feel free to add them to the comments below. War of the Worlds by H G Wells (1897) " Yet across the gulf of space intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us..." A tale of Martian invasion that was so realistic when first broadcast over the radio it caused many people to panic, thinking aliens were indeed attacking the Earth. These 19th century Martians land in individual pods and set about building themselves giant metal fighting machines...

Since the beginning of August, I have been without incoming calls on my landline . I can call out with no problem, and the broadband is (mostly) there when I want it, but hardly anyone can actually call me. Ringing my number results in a message saying "you have dialled an incorrect number" or "invalid number" or  - rather more cryptically - three electronic beeps. The only exception to this rule seems to be when my phone provider rings to test the line or to apologize - they can get through just fine. Rather annoyingly, as it turns out, so can other call centres (so far a couple of random telemarketers and a robot survey) - although I have to admit things have been rather peaceful on the unsolicited calls front lately, so I assume most of them are getting blocked, just like my friends and family. The saga of investigations into this mysterious phenomenon could fill a whole book. Suffice to say that I have almost forgotten what my landline phone sounds like, to s...

When they wanted to impress in ancient times, people built pyramids, or planted fantastic gardens that hung from the sky. Later explorers made notes of the best places for their countrymen to visit and, well, wonder at. The Greeks ended up with a list of seven, which we now know as the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and tourism was born. You can visit all these sites today, but you'll either find ruins or - in some cases - nothing at all. So when I needed covers for the ebooks of my Seven Fabulous Wonders series based on the original Greek list, I painted the ancient Wonders as I imagine they might have looked in their full glory. The Great Pyramid of Giza  - the first pyramid to be built at Giza in Egypt, and the biggest. Great Pyramid at Giza, showing the second pyramid being built. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon , or maybe the Walls of Babylon - the list makers could not agree, so they settled for hanging the gardens from the walls in most of the pictures...

Here's a secret that most authors know, but most readers and aspiring authors apparently still don't. Having a book published does not mean you will automatically become a millionaire. It does not mean you are rich, and it does not guarantee you a living in the long, or even the short, term. I did okay for the first seven years of my career, better than okay for a couple of them (such as when I signed my seven book contract with HarperCollins), and then the publishing world changed. Everything I knew was wrong. That's where Joanna Penn's book How to Make a Living with your Writing comes in. I must admit that, although I enjoy books about creativity, I'm not really a great fan of 'How to' books, especially not the 'How to make a million dollars in six days' kind (rob a couple of banks springs to mind) or 'How to write a novel in 24 hours' (I tried this once for the World One Day Novel Cup and ended up with an embarrassing novella I del...