Authors Electric

I love secret histories - the sort of history that doesn't get taught in schools. About ten years ago, following a divorce and house move, I began writing a rather strange spiritual/historical novel based on a 13th-century Mongolian prose poem called  The Secret History of the Mongols . Subtitled 'The Origin of Chingis Khan', this is a fantastic account of the young Genghis Khan, his childhood sweetheart Borta, and his blood brother Jamukha. It ends when the great Khan, who throughout the story is known by his boyhood name of Temujin, takes the title 'Genghis' and becomes Khan of all "the people who live in felt tents" (in other words, yurts - or, to give them their proper Mongolian name, gers ). This makes it ideal YA material, since the characters are of the right age and most of Genghis Khan's bloodbaths and empire building are still in the future. A couple of YA publishers and agents looked at the result, suggested various changes to make it m...

It’s the holiday season! Long summer days, schools are out or almost out, and if you're like me you’re probably thinking about a beach somewhere ... I’m lucky in that I live about ten minutes' walk from one of the best sandcastle beaches in the country (according to an experiment carried out by the BBC a few years ago). Above is Preston beach - the one with all the beach huts in the English Riviera resort of Torbay. The red colour of the sand comes from the local sandstone cliffs. You can get here by train on the intercity to Plymouth, which runs along the coast from Exeter via. the recently repaired sea wall at Dawlish. Hop on to the branch line at Newton Abbot, and you'll end up at Paignton, where you can either walk past all the bucket-and-spade shops and casinos to the beach, or board the steam train to continue at a more leisurely fashion down the line to Kingswear and from there via the passenger ferry to the Naval port of Dartmouth. Travel by steam...

'Crossover' is a term sometimes used by children's publishers to refer to a book published for young readers on a children's list - usually but not always the YA (young adult) section - that crosses over into an adult readership. I am often to be found reading YA fiction, because a lot of the titles I used to find in the fantasy and science fiction section have migrated over there. In fact, I might never have read any children's fiction as an adult reader, or sent my own work to a children's publisher, without the British Science Fiction Association magazine's review of Philip Pullman's Northern Lights ( the first title of His Dark Materials trilogy ) , which I read and enjoyed back in the 1990's and always assumed was published on an adult SF list, until I discovered it was originally brought out by a children's publisher. At around the same time, Susan Price's The Sterkarm Handshake  won the Guardian Children's fiction prize. It in...

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...

If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you.. . The famous poem "If" by Rudyard Kipling needs little introduction. But did you know this poem was originally published in 1910 as a mere introduction to a chapter in a book of historical fantasy stories for children called Rewards and Fairies ? (I didn't, and I write historical fantasy for young readers myself.) Several other poems and short stories by Rudyard Kipling appeared in that collection, and yet "If" is the one most people remember today. The poem is now in the public domain, so you can read it in full by following the link below. CLICK HERE TO READ RUDYARD KIPLING'S "IF" There are obvious lessons an author can take away from "If" - not the least that a single story or poem buried in a collection might turn out to be the most important work of your entire career... so watch those contracts, people! I've been having the kind of ...