Authors Electric

  Pseudonyms. That’s the question I’ve been wrestling with over the past few weeks. I’ve been writing crime fiction for many years now, and in a parallel vein (pun intended), horror, for even longer. I understand the conventions of the genres, and my books and stories are generally well received. However, starting about four years ago, I started writing Young Adult fiction as well. Not quite crime, and not quite horror (although there are elements of both in there), and with a generous helping of adventure and grounded fantasy. I now have two books completed, with a third plotted out (and ideas for a further two after that). I also have a couple of books that sit in the metaphorical bottom drawer, as neither of them are suitable for publication – I see them as my coursework in learning the craft of writing for young adults. I may revisit them, at some point, but equally, I quite like the fact they’re sitting there as an indication of how I’ve improved. And it is dif...

Happy April Fool's Day, all!   Worksheets - completed before breakfast, of course.  Somehow I don’t think there’ll be a lot of pranks played today, at least not in the media. Maybe in households up and down the land cries of ‘Worksheets? What worksh- oh those. Yeah, all downloaded and done before breakfast,’ will strike joy into the hearts of parents – before they discover they’ve been had. But no one will be combing the national press for stories about spaghetti trees or  straight bananas,  Looks straight to me. and it seems that Google has actually cancelled this year’s April Fools’ jokes, judging that no one will be in the mood. (Though given this example of the best techie prank of 2019  -         Spotify… put together a "Discocover Weekly" playlist that is largely disco covers of non-disco songs.    -  I am tempted to wonder,  à  la Dorothy Parker, if anyone will be able to tell.)...