Authors Electric

A group of writers came together with one vision: to build an independent consortium of experienced authors, professional editors and talented designers producing engaging and inspiring books of the highest quality for readers everywhere.  Ruth Leigh , who used to regularly write for Authors Electric, is the sort of friend who always leads me into some new adventure. First, she got me a slot here writing a monthly blog post and more recently she invited me to join Resolute Books. I’ve become a member of this consortium at just the right time, missing the zoom meetings about setting up a constitution and other more mundane stuff but arriving with perfect timing to attend a lavish book launch. Some of the Resolute authors - glasses of fizz in hand! To borrow Ruth’s words from the blog, Resolute Books was conceived at the end of 2022 when “two experienced and multi-published authors came together to talk about a collaboration. They wanted to create a group of like-minded people ...

Picture the scene. A middle aged woman sits in her brand new garden studio gazing at a blank laptop screen. It’s 1 st January 2022 and she has just become a full time writer. No more safety nets of extra income, no boss, no pension, no certainties. She is working on her third novel and is in the grip of writer’s block. One of her largest freelance clients has had an internal restructure and has stopped sending her work.   Gentle reader, that woman was me. I am still in said garden studio but I am now surrounded with the trappings of a travelling wordsmith. A new trolley sits under the window with two boxes atop it. I am the proud owner of two large glass bowls full of sweeties, three boxes of assorted merch, a light box, a pile of business cards, an illuminated sign giving potential purchasers payment options, three miniature Christmas trees, several strings of fairy lights and some book stands.   I hadn’t been a full time writer for very long before the chill wind of reali...

I’m not a great traveller. I’ve been to a few countries in my lifetime, but I don’t have a bucket list, I don’t yearn to swim with dolphins or throw myself out of a plane and I have never liked the idea of backpacking. I tend to find a country I like and return to it on a regular basis, getting to know it really well.   As a family, we go to Spain and France a fair bit. However, recently, our second son began going out with a girl from Belgium so I’ve had to expand my repertoire of European countries. Belgium is a country you tend to go through to get somewhere else, which is a bit hard on its residents. I’ve been to Bruges which is lovely and I once listened to a Plastic Bertrand song, plus I do love Hercule Poirot. So I felt I was ready for my new adventure. You may remember the game, “Famous Belgians” where you had to name as many people who hailed from the diminutive country as possible. It’s harder than it looks. Here are a few to get you going:   1.   ...

Today I’m being silly. My blog is the equivalent of an unexpected cream horn, or a Fruit Shrewsbury with a nice cup of tea, or a toasted cheese sandwich with home made chutney. Something which I trust will give you a warm glow and a bit of a chuckle in the face of increasingly worrying news on the world stage.     I can absolutely guarantee that you will not learn anything about writing technique or the Oxford Comma or marketing strategies for the self-published, or anything else about which we writers often pontificate. I am simply going to share some Funny Stuff with you.   You’re welcome. This blog is coming to you from the Palace of Creativity (see photo), my lovely writing studio in the garden. I share the Palace with an elderly armchair for visitors, a bookcase full of research volumes, whiteboards with my 'To Do' lists written upon them and two neat piles of boxes containing my books, The Diary of Isabella M Smugge and The Trials of Isabella M Smugge . Now the...

Now I don’t know about you, but I often struggle with the way I look. When I was a Young Thing, I could stay up half the night, go out dancing and perhaps even down a Fuzzy Navel or ten and still look dewy and radiant in the morning. I would wash my visage and an entire new face would emerge, wrinkle-free, to greet the day.   I am now in my mid-fifties, a difficult time. I am keeping myself up fairly well, with carefully chosen clothes and accessories, constant colouring of the hair and a cruelty-free vegan range of make up (you know the one). Still, I often catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror and think, “Who the heck is that tired-looking old girl?” However, in the last few weeks, I have suddenly become radiantly, irresistibly attractive. Really. I’m not making it up. I am a chap magnet! Men are constantly messaging me, asking me if we can meet, if I know what a beautiful woman I am and addressing me as, “Pretty lady.” Hundreds of them. Literally hundreds.   Why? Becaus...

I’ve never been a great one for trends. Probably the last time I paid attention to fashion was the Eighties. Somewhere, in a triple-locked lead-lined vault, photos of me exist proving that I wore white stilettos, jackets with padded shoulders, huge silver earrings in the shape of fish skeletons, legwarmers, hair mascara and high-waisted jeans with belts. Not all at the same time. Trends come and go in writing, fashion, interior design, food and weddings. Since I became a published novelist in February, I’ve spent a lot more time researching what’s considered “in.” And what’s the good of research if you don’t share it around? I can reveal that if you are thinking of investing in some new bathroom towels, Smoke Blue is the hue for which to plump. Kitchen cabinets painted navy blue (preferably in Farrow and Ball’s Stiffkey [1] Blue) and bathrooms with tongue and groove panelling in the same colour are smoking hot. Top shades for interiors at present from Farrow and Ball are olive green, ...

  Words. Gosh I love them. I expect you do too. We writers relish finding new ones, playing with established ones and looking back at the way our predecessors used language. I was on the school run yesterday morning when the inspiration for this blog hit me, due to the following conversation:   Son: It was so lame in English the other day. Someone told the teacher his hero was Rick Astley. When she asked why, he said he would never give him up, let him down, tell him a lie or desert him. She wasn’t impressed. Daughter: That’s funny.   Son: In lockdown, one of my Maths group nearly got chucked out of the class by the teacher.   Daughter: Why?   Son: He Rickrolled her.   Me: Rickrolled? What on earth does that mean?   Daughter (with patient sigh): You know, like when someone sends a link and it looks normal but when you click on it, you get Rick Astley singing “Never Going to Give You Up.”   Me: Oh. I didn’t know that was a thing. Hmm....