Authors Electric

                                            Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.  I love the changing colours of autumn. I get several good workouts raking up leaves outside my home too. This time of year also means curling up with hot chocolate ( Options Mint , thanks) and a good book, whether it is a paperback or something on my Kindle. The nights closing in encourages reading. Perhaps it is one of the great consolations of longer evenings.  Another consolation is preparing my Book Wish List for Christmas. One lovely thing about being a writer is it is so easy to tell your loved ones what you’d like for the festive season. I always want books, pens, notebooks etc. There is no such thing as having too many of these things and it makes me easy to buy for. Do you choose books to read to match the season? If anything, as the nig...

Image Credits:- Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. Photos of The Hayes, Swanwick were taken by me, Allison Symes.   I will still be at the Swanwick Writers’ Summer School when this goes live. This event is my big writing event of the year. It is a joy to get together with other writers, enjoy a range of workshops, and convivial company. I come back inspired, refreshed, and tired! All that creative energy takes it out of me  but in a good way.  That made me wonder about holiday reading and writing. Do you read and/or write more or less during the summer? That answer may depend I suspect on whether you have school age children or other commitments. For me, the writing dips as I take much needed time off but the blessings of being a flash fiction writer is if I only write a couple of hundred words a day, I’ve probably completed a story in that word count. I also prepare and schedule blogs in advance including this one. I love scheduling! It means I can take ...

Cotswold cosy mystery novelist Debbie Young Writing a series of seven seasonal cosy mysteries, it was a no-brainer to make the second novel, T rick or Murder? , focus on Halloween and Guy Fawkes' Night - two traditions that divide my characters (and my readers) into different camps. In Trick or Murder? , the strange new vicar makes his mark on the sleepy Cotswold parish of Wendlebury Barrow by banning the PTA Halloween Disco. Realising he may have alienated his congregation before his first service, he tries to redeem himself by inviting them to an impromptu Guy Fawkes' Night party at the vicarage. Naturally, mayhem ensues, during a fun romp that celebrates both traditions. A fun seasonal read for October Post-publication, I asked friends which occasion they prefer, and why - asking only British friends because, beyond our shores, Guy Fawkes is unknown, which I allude to in the opening chapter of the book. (I also explain what it is during the course of the story...

When I started planning the cosy mystery series I'm currently writing, I thought I had a bright idea: I'd make the seven books span the course of the year. What's not to love about writing a book for all seasons, and then some? Whatever the time of year, I'd have a topical book to tout. Summertime for Sophie Sayers Given that my Sophie Sayers Village Mysteries are set in a small (fictional) English village (no surprises there), its residents are naturally very conscious of the seasonal changes, and their social calendar dictated by the time of year. That's just how it is in the small (non-fictional) English village in which I've lived for the last 26 years. Here in my real life village, I'm so much more aware of the passage of the seasons than when I lived and worked in and around London. Working in a city centre, I was more likely to spot the season by what was in shop windows , rather than by the appearance (or disappearance) of lambs an...

Some years ago I did a significant research project into therapeutic work with traumatised children - so not a topic to be taken lightly. Before setting the whole thing up I needed to do a thorough literature review and familiarise myself with research methods. It was work to take seriously. I had a proper study, all the trappings of an academic. I had to give lectures. And then my supervisor asked me how much work I was likely to get done over the summer. 'That depends on the weather,' I said. I knew from the look on his face it was the wrong answer. He'd expected me to utilise all those days with less official work to knuckle down and get the reading done. After all, it wasn't as if I wasn't interested in it. Well, I can't admit to being interested in research methods. I've learned a lot, but goodness, how tedious most of those books are! But the rest of it was fascinating. But it was work. It belonged in the study. And when the sun shone - how ...