Authors Electric

While I’m not usually the most profound person (and I don’t think the Material Girl is either) there is a line from a Madonna song that goes a n unexamined life is not worth living and I have to agree with her. I think one of the best parts about being a creative person is the ability to look at your own life and imagine how it could have been different. What if you had gone out with that woman from residence instead of meeting someone online? What if you had taken that job out of town instead of playing it safe with one close by? What if vampires were real? What if you met one, would you want to be turned? Obviously some questions can go more into fantasy that just what ifs but my point is that for me writing The Newfoundland Vampire   wasn’t just an exploration of the vampire nature (along with some geeky fun, sex and plenty of action of course), it was also a journey down memory lane, with a twist. If you had the chance to make different choices, would you? For me I thin...

Or, Kindle Tutorial No. 1 My Kindle in its macintosh           Calloo callay oh frabjous day! I can now read my kindle in the bath.           The only fault I found with my Kindle was that I dared not read it in the bath – and, when feeling especially tired, I like to spend a couple of hours in hot water, with a tot of single malt, and a good book.           But now almost all my reading is done on the Kindle, I have to switch off my current book and exchange it for a paper one that will survive a bath – not ideal when you’re in the middle of something gripping.           And then I spotted this plastic bag …  To be fair, it is a bit more than a plastic bag.  It has a waterproof seal, rather like those on re-sealable food bags, but tripled.  Those triple seals fold over and are ...

For me, the "inside story" is the real truth, as opposed to the spin or interpretation put on it by the person telling the tale or writing the news report. The private persona rather than the public face. In writing, it can be the difference between telling and showing - although that's a whole different ball game and not one I'm going to play here; not in this post anyway. It's also where you find out what makes your character tick, what motivates them and why they feel this way. When I first started writing my YA fantasy Edge of Dreams , I had absolutely no idea where the story was going. I really don't recommend it as a way to write, as I've written myself into more corners than a Mueller yoghurt over the past however-many years - unfortunately it's the only way I know how to be real and immediate. If I plan more than a scene or two ahead, I lose interest in what I'm doing and it shows. In Edge of Dreams , I wrote that one of my characters w...

I’ve just finished reading Twilight and its sequels New Moon and Eclipse . For the first time. If you haven’t heard of Twilight , you’re probably that person who got left behind on Mars when the tour bus left. You’d have to have been on another planet to miss the uprising of the vampires in fiction, television, film and just about every other media outlet. Vampires aren’t new – Bram Stoker created Dracula (it’s free on kindle) and even then it’s alleged that his vampire was based on Eastern European mythology – don’t shoot me: I’ve done no research for this blog post. But Dracula was dark, the spin-off films were dark (think all the old Christopher Lee films and the more modern Van Helsing ) and this breed of vampire is a dangerous beast. Then came Stephen King with Salems Lot (James Mason has the sexiest voice in the film version), Anne Rice and her Interview With The Vampire (the film version lost credibility for me - Tom Cruise? Really?) and the occasional other vampire...