Authors Electric

 Happy New Year! To be honest, it's a phrase I don't say with a huge amount of enthusiasm, especially after the last few years. I remember, as we ticked over into the Twenties, having a good feeling about the new year - 2020. How wrong was I! I've always been inclined to a bit of January blues but the last two have been particularly bad. So, how to beat it this year? Well, to start off with, I have a first draft of my DI Bernie Noel book four to edit. It needs quite a lot of work as well as some research. I also have a deadline of sending it to my editor at the end of February. There are lots of others things I need to do as well to get my head round self-publishing. At at the same time, there's another book idea that's brewing at the back of my mind. I see my stories visually so it sometimes helps to 'cast' my characters. James Norton is my baddie so I'm having no problems thinking about him! In another bid to banish the blues, I'm trying to set up ...

  A few years ago, I joined a writing group on Facebook run by a famous author. I often wonder if he personally runs the group or if it is a team behind him. Regardless of the group mechanics, there are days I find myself intrigued by this group. I must admit, I am not always as active as I should be, at least not active enough to have earned a star as a top contributor. But I find it interesting on the days I do join. It occurred to me a while ago that there is much to be gained from passing interest. Even in the things that seem mundane, things you don’t think you pay attention to, but you do. For example, one of the regular occurrences in this group is a random picture that can be anything anything from children to space and we are asked to write a story about the picture in SEVEN WORDS.  As someone who is yet to perfect the fine art of blogging, as someone who even struggles to articulate anything meaningful in 500 words or less, please know that I quickly skip past the ...

A most delightful primary school near Gloucester will be performing Tattybogle the Musical for their Easter show, so they invited me to spend a day with the year 1 and 2 children, reading stories and answering questions. Year 1 had prepared written questions   – very impressive for such small people!   Year 2’s were spontaneous. My favourite was ‘What’s your daddy’s name?’ One smart little girl also worked out how old I was by asking how long ago I’d written Tattybogle and how old I was then. My absolutely top part of the day was a Year 1 written question: when did you becom the Other? It set me thinking about how much of ‘the other’ we are as authors. Are we a breed apart? A series of sub-species, rather, since there are several distinct types of writer? Or, can anyone and everyone write stories? The short answer is, I suppose, yes, anyone can, but whether or not they should, and then put them out for public consumption, is another matter entirely. I’ve been thinking a ...

          A Monday morning knock at our door three weeks ago brought the surprising news that our home was in danger of “sudden and catastrophic” collapse and life as I knew it evaporated. We decamped to a nearby hotel and friends, rallying to the bar at cocktail hour, started calling me Mrs Self.           I’m not a stranger to uncertainty but the general feeling of limbo, of being away but just a short walk from a home that might topple over, takes some getting used to. Life goes on of course and I'm trying to keep my mind on the advantages: a sudden, completely unforeseen withdrawal of housework, supermarket shopping and cleaning for starters. The abundance of folded white towels, bath robes and slippers.  A gym, newspaper delivery, interesting Olympic-related lift encounters etc etc. My old Mac was too huge to unplug and lug all the way here, though I did certa...