Authors Electric

Whenever I go on Facebook, which, because I am a procrastinating, distraction seeking excuse for a human being, is all too often, I come across something connecting writing with poor mental health. Back in  2012 the Karolinska institute found that writers had a higher risk of anxiety, bipolar disorder, depression, substance abuse and schizophrenia. They or rather, we, are also twice as likely as the general population to kill ourselves. I’ve often wondered whether people with these disorders are drawn to writing as a way of dealing with their disorder or if writing itself produces it .I mean it can’t be that healthy sitting alone in a solipsistic universe, killing off characters and reopening old wounds or as Ernest Hemingway would have it, opening a vein and bleeding. The job itself, with its isolation, its constant rejections, obliges the writer to believe in their own talent in spite of all evidence to the contrary. Worse, we are constantly bombarded with the evidence of ot...

‘As they rose, the sun rose with them as if they were racing for the top of the sky. Its warmth welcomed them, turning the dark skin of the fiery balloon a beautiful midnight blue. They flew straight up. Above them, the sweet, clear music of the lonely pipe, the only sound left in the whole world, drew them on until they prepared to hit the very roof-top of the sky itself. Then the smooth sky puckered into cloth-of-blue and drew aside for them, like curtains parting. The music called again, and they passed straight through.’ This is Bonnie, the heroine of my novel, Midnight Blue, passing from one world to another, leaving behind her old life. And today - launch day for Midnight Blue’s 21 st Anniversary edition - I feel much as she might have done, wondering what lies ahead, what I’ve let myself in for and why. SO WHY AN E-BOOK? Twenty-one years ago, Midnight Blue was launched into a very different world where Amstrad computers were the latest thing and e-books were little...

Susan Jane Smith           Are e-books “green”?   Are they the environmentally friendly way to go?           I have not heard of any research about this – have you?   I think it would be useful if an environmental specialist gave an opinion – do you know anyone who would be an appropriate person to ask about doing the research?           I live in the beautiful Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire and I am surrounded by trees including ancient woodland.   Any time I hear a chain saw my heart aches – I hate trees being killed – it just seems so wrong to me.   They are living creatures and many of them pre-date those of us alive today.           But, then you do also need to understand that I do hug trees – unashamedly!   Yes, I am proud to be a tree hugger.   They are mos...