Authors Electric

  I started out as as author of adult mysteries and branched into adult humorous mysteries and young adult mysteries. I am sure you are sensing a theme here. Then, I was asked to write a children's book. This came completely out of the blue and my initial thoughts were , no way on God's earth could I or am I writing a children's picture book. However, the reason was intriguing and my more rational and sensible self talked me into it. I went from no way to why not. The original Bertie book, Bertie the Buffalo , was based on the true story of a baby water buffalo who went missing from a farm in Fife in Scotland, where he proceeded to roam the countryside evading capture for 14 days. This brings me to my top ten tips. About time I hear you say. Bear with me, I was pinning my credentials to the literary mast if you may allow me to mangle a metaphor. So my tips are: 1. Find a good story, one which hasn't already been done to death and which will excite young readers. 2. Try ...

Book Signing - Beans in the Belfry, Brunswick, Maryland No, not Time Travel. That's a perfect example, right there, of why commas are important. Firstly, apologies for my lack of posts lately. This does not indicate my lack of willingness to post but my ability to lose track of time. I should post on the 16th of every month but the deadline goes whizzing past at a great rate of knots and there's another month gone. Who else feels like trying to keep track of time is like counting grains of sand in the Sahara? I'm sure there are more than a few hands up there. Maybe some of you have 2 hands up. That refers to the first part of my title - Time.  The second part - Travel - is what I am doing at the moment. I am on a book tour of the United States. I am doing book signings and speaking at conferences in several states. You'd think I would have even less time to write blogs or keep track of deadlines. You would be wrong. It appears when I travel I have a lot more...

The Book House, Summertown, soon to close. Two weeks ago I had the melancholy task of collecting a book from the Book House, Summertown, Oxford.   Before I am deluged with outrage that I could ever describe a bookshop visit as melancholy, I’ll explain that this wonderful, deceptively spacious (as estate agents love to put it) jewel of a bookshop is closing in June 2018, and they’d asked me to take back the one copy of Ante’s Inferno still on their shelves. Aladdin's Cave: the Book House, Thame A younger sibling of the glorious Aladdin’s Cave that is the Book House in Thame, the Book House, Summertown, has been a fixture of this part of Oxford for nearly 30 years. During that time the Summertown shopping centre – as so many throughout the UK – underwent a sea change in character, with traditional stores giving way to coffee and charity shops. When I arrived in the 1980s, there were 3 butchers, 3 greengrocers, 2 newsagents, 2 off licences, a toyshop, pet...

                Hi again!      There's such an atmosphere here at the launch for Three Billy Goats Gruff!      The limos are circling the blog and we'll soon be welcoming our first star!      And wait!      A limo is pulling up!           I can't see who's getting out yet....           It's sure to be someone exciting!           It's - it's -                                              Ooh, I'm thrilled! It's the Bridge! I was another bridge, further down river, but the part was written out. That's how it is in this business. ...

Many, many moons ago, I used to write fiction for women's magazines - in fact, that was how I was first published (books were going to happen quite a long time in the future). I still have copies of these stories, written on a typewriter (remember those?) and also the published versions - so unbelievably antique now. I stopped writing them, partly because I became pregnant, but also because one of my stories just wouldn't sell because it broke an important taboo. Explicit sex? No, I wouldn't have dared. What put editors off was the supernatural - my female protagonist was a second wife who became convinced that the vengeful spirit of the previous one was embodied in the family cat. It was, in fact, a very short psychological thriller, and it did have a happy ending. When I wrote it, I thought it was good. Whether I would think so now, I don't know, because the manuscript has long since vanished, but the experience put me off  writing for quite a long time. Re...

A few of years ago I wrote two picture book stories 'Where It's Always Winter' and 'The Perfect Christmas Tree.' As the titles suggest they both have a festive or seasonal link. Once I'd completed them I sent to various publishers who I believed (because I'd researched their previously published titles) might be interested in them. Again and again they were rejected, which is something you sort of get used to as a professional writer. However a couple of the publishers didn't send me the standard rejection letter. They told me they'd enjoyed the stories but were withdrawing from seasonal books so weren't in a position to take. This is where my journey into becoming a publisher started. MadMoment Media Ltd was set up and with a very limited budget we had these two picture stories (plus a few others I'd received good feedback on) into apps for the iPhone and iPad. This meant a steep learning curve and a fair few hours spent i...