Authors Electric

My May offering is a children's title aimed at readers aged 9+ (or 'middle grade' as it is known in the US). As a fantasy title aimed at younger readers, this one is much closer to my own territory than the books I've reviewed so far this year. But the gorgeous cover complete with golden highlights on the paperback edition caught my adult eye, while the mermaid-themed plot subtly blends fantasy with our real world, making it accessible to readers who might struggle with completely fantasy worlds. Stormswept by Helen Dunmore The island off the coast of Cornwall where our heroine Morveren lives is connected at low tide to the mainland, where she and her twin sister Jenna and their younger brother Digory attend a normal school - no lessons in wizardry or riding broomsticks here! The fantasy happens on their island in a quiet, understated way, when they find a strange boy called Malin injured on the beach after a storm and try to help him. This is complicated because, inste...

Earlier this month, one of the earliest known books in existence was sold at auction by Christie's for more than £3m... yes, you read that right... THREE MILLION pounds! That's enough to buy a big house with a few acres in the UK. part of the Crosby-Schoyen codex The Crosby-Schoyen Codex  contains the first epistle of Peter and the Book of Jonah, making it the earliest known surviving Christian book (approx 300AD). It was written by hand in Coptic on papyrus, has 104 pages, and apparently took a single scribe 40 years to complete. Fortunately, the scribe lived in an Egyptian monastery at the time so was not trying to juggle a day job and kids as well. First editions of popular books in good condition might also buy you a house (if a slightly smaller one). First edition hardcovers of JK Rowling's debut title Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone are currently listed online for six figures (£100,000+), while first paperback editions of the same title are fetching five-...

'No Mow May' is a campaign started by the charity Plantlife  in an effort to save our pollinators such as butterflies and bees, without which we as a human race would eventually starve. The UK has lost 97% of wildflower meadows since the 1930s and there are various large-scale projects to restore some of these, but even if you only have a tiny patch of lawn you can help by not mowing until the wild flowers have had a chance to set seed... usually around the end of May, although could be earlier in some parts of the country especially with climate change. wild corner: fern, forget-me-not, primrose, herb robert I have been leaving a tiny corner of my small back lawn to do its own thing for several years now and have seen a definite increase in the number of wild flowers growing - not only in the little corner I leave wild, but also in the rest of the lawn. This year, violets have made an appearance in the shorter grass, and I've seen my first ever goldfinch feeding on dandeli...

This month, we took advantage of the National Trust's free autumn tickets to visit Agatha Christie's holiday home, Greenway on the River Dart. You can stroll down through the gardens to the boathouse where her famous detective Hercule Poirot solved one of his murder mysteries in "Dead Man's Folly", which was filmed in the grounds. You can even sit in the author's favourite chair with a panoramic view of the river and watch seals basking at low tide on the rocks opposite. There is a lot more river traffic these days, but it is still a magical place. So what else would you expect to find in her garden than writing prompts to inspire today's authors? I found this nature-inspired prompt on the path to the fountain where Agatha's much-loved pets rest in their peaceful little graves. It's one of my favourite spots in the garden and immediately brings water to mind, closely linked in my memory to the grotto further down the garden where a goddess called K...

Dear Santa, This Christmas, I would like: 1. Full fibre broadband with a secure wired router, so I have the option of working at home without being radiated by wireless technology. 2. A train with a wi-fi shielded carriage (possibly combined with the quiet carriage?) so that I can read a paperback in comfort. 3. Orange street lighting so I can see the road in the dark on my commute. Failing that, a pair of those yellow night-driving glasses, which I don't seem able to buy now we have LED street-lighting and actually need them. 4. A local cafe with NO wi-fi (free or otherwise) and a "no smartphones" sign, where I can enjoy a cup of coffee and cake without getting indigestion from everyone else's devices. 5. An off-line friend who would enjoy a chat over coffee in the "no smartphone" cafe. (Can also be an online friend, of course, provided I get 1 as well). 6. An off-grid cottage for holidays so my body and brain can recover from all the wireless...

In 1966, the Beatles famously sang about wanting to be a paperback writer. I was only four at the time so just starting to read and write, but I must have thought it sounded like a good idea because a few years later I started typing out my first science fiction 'novel' on blue and yellow paper. It was just about long enough to count as a novella, but I never sent it anywhere because the year I finished it I got a place at university to study mathematics. Probably just as well. By 1987, I was programming computers (think huge mainframes filling whole rooms with massive tape reels you had to change halfway through running a program) and writing fiction secretly in my spare time. I completed another novel - a much longer one that became a fantasy trilogy. I sent it off to a publisher, and the now legendary editor John Jarrold wrote back with a personal note explaining why it was not quite right for them. I forgot about writing for a while, escaped computers at the end of the 8...

As a fifty-something female, I'm feeling anxious about the UK's r apidly rising pension age  and have been turning my attention to other forms of income to get me through what looks to be a rather alarming financial hole (in my case seven years between 60 and 67 - though I'm not holding my breath). I've considered several options that might fill this hole. Go back to riding racehorses (I doubt I could still jump back on a fidgety youngster if I fell off in the middle of a field). Retrain for a completely different career with a proper pension scheme, like a clever friend who is doing a law degree in her fifties (might be useful for chasing publishers who default on contracts). Dust off my melodeon and try busking on the street corner (quite a decent hourly rate, actually, but my fingers get cold and I can only remember about three tunes). Sign up for the new Universal Credit (many writers do not qualify because they do not earn the 'minimum income floor' each...

This summer, I've been preparing my Echorium trilogy for the print on demand editions, following the reversion (for the third time) of print rights for the award-winning first title in the series SONG QUEST, which has been pretty much in print since its first publication in 1999. Here are the previous three editions: Element Books 1999 Chicken House 2001 Catnip 2012 Note the recurring ship-and-mermaid theme? Well, both the ship and mermaids are definitely part of the story - although I also have male 'merlee' in my books (I've always struggled with the idea of mermaids perpetuating the species without any males around... how does that work?) Three different publishers can't be wrong, so my covers would obviously need: Mermaid(s). Sea... and why not go underwater for a change? I also wanted my covers to suggest the series' epic fantasy element, and apparently that comes down to having one of three things: - sword - shield - dragon. Drag...

Today is the winter solstice - the shortest day of the year for those of us who live the northern hemisphere - a time for reflection, fire ceremonies involving holly and mistletoe, and other pagan traditions now more commonly associated with Christmas. However you celebrate this time of year, it is also when newspapers start printing their 'best of year' lists. Not to be outdone, here is my author 'best of' 2016 (which might seem small and insignificant compared to everyone else's multi-book advances from major publishers, no. 1 best-selling supermarket titles, and research trips around the world on elephant-back, but then I am only 5' 4"). Empire of the Hare 1. Inspired by Brexit, I have republished my Library of Avalon Geoffrey Ashe Prize shortlisted story about Queen Boudicca's rebellion Empire of the Hare on my signature list for older readers. The publishing process took 12 hours rather than 12 months so if you're curious to know what B...

Today is the official publication of SWORD OF LIGHT , Book 1 of my Pendragon quartet for young readers about King Arthur’s daughter, published by Templar . I’m unreasonably excited by this because:  * it’s my first new book since “I am the Great Horse” back in 2007 and  * it’s a hardcover… a beautiful, shimmery, pearly blue hardcover with artwork by the talented Scott Altmann . Unlike most other books listed here, it’s not an ebook yet (the ebook is scheduled for when the paperback edition comes out in the summer), so why am I talking about it here? Well, because I think it’s interesting to compare the publication journey of a traditional hardcover such as "Sword of Light" to that of an independently produced ebook like the others on this site. 1. TIME I started writing my Pendragon series and developing the characters back in 2009, when the TV version of Merlin was just a glimmer in the eye of BBC3. In the absence of an agent (my lovely agent Magg...