Authors Electric

  Becoming a published author rather unexpectedly, has opened up a whole new previously unexplored world to me. The whole publishing/marketing journey has been a steep learning curve, with a few full -blown side swipes included. There have been definite highs – like wonderful reviews, and uncomfortable lows – like the boxes of unsold books. But on the whole I’ve enjoyed the ride. There have been lots and lots of lessons learned - if I should ever do this again. It genuinely has been an enlightening and rewarding experience. This month I encountered another new experience – a real life, post lockdown, book signing – in a ACTUAL BOOK SHOP! I was excited and terrified in equal measure, not really knowing what to expect, being so grateful for the opportunity, and knowing it was something I had to do. At least once, anyway. So I thought it would be useful to record for posterity, some of the things I learned that day, and I am sharing them here in case they might be of use to any...

   Halloween seems bigger than ever, but in a secular, post-modern society, is it necessary? If so, how? What’s it  about ? Why is it thought suitable for  children ? Our ancient ancestors tamed scary things with myth and ritual. Halloween, with witches, ghosts, and the undead, is the festival of fear: of the unknown, of the different, as the long dark nights begin. If Halloween’s origins are from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain – a time to scare away ghosts and spirits – then why in a secular age has it become, and remained, so popular? So, is Halloween, with ghosts and hideous zombies or ‘the un-dead’ among the popular costumes, a festival about death? Until recently, everyone knew what death was about, because they saw it. The painter Munch (famous for  The Scream ) was deeply affected by witnessing the deaths (from TB) of his mother and his beloved sister: he painted the scene several times, trying to make sense of it. Now, worldwide, there is a ...

 'Tis the season of witches and wizards, spells and pumpkins... hopefully, everyone will be able to get out at Halloween to enjoy some trick-and-treating this year, too! The trees are turning gold, and the world does seem just a little bit more magical at this time of year. There might be a good reason for that enchanted feeling. Did you know that trees can communicate underground via their roots, and will even send help if one of their number needs nourishment or is threatened? This is known as the Wood Wide Web  and was the concept behind my 2000 novel SPELLFALL, where the trees in my parallel world of Earthaven are gigantic soultrees that bear magical fruit and seeds. Spellfall (first US edition) Their root system acts rather like the London Underground, and it's possible to travel around it in living capsules, operated by the trees themselves, known as 'organazoomers'. The soultrees and the Spell Lords who look after them can also use this root system to communicate...

  There are parts of some books I just can’t read because they have such a powerful negative effect. That bit in Wuthering Heights where Cathy’s ghost taps at the window gives me the heebie-jeebies so badly that I can hardly bear thinking about it, much less reading it. I can watch it on screen with no trouble, but Oh! Those words on the page!      There’s another book I can’t find now after so many years. I’ve buried the author and title somewhere in the depths of my brain. It’s about a young woman who introduces herself as a bastard – illegitimate rather than a nasty piece of work – who meets and falls absolutely in love with an older man who has been deserted by his wife. After he dies, she discovers a message scratched into a window with a diamond: his initials and his wife’s, intertwined, with a date. The date is relatively recent and she realises that he had never stopped loving his wife and that they had met, at least once, since. It haunted me for ages – ...

Image Credit:  Mainly via Book Brush using Pixabay photos. One image from me. I remember years ago being at a Book Fair when someone walked past, looked at my table and said loudly to their friend, “I don’t like books”.  I so wanted to say “what are you doing here then” but judged it best not to! But it did throw up an attitude problem which worried me.  Why is it, in some circles, considered a good thing to boast about not reading? What are they hoping to achieve?    I know reading has never been “cool”. I was the typical girly swot at school. Always had my head in a book but I’ve never seen that as a problem. (I always associated myself with Velma from the cartoon series Scooby Doo rather than Daphne, and with Jo March from Little Women rather than, say, Meg March. I’ve always had a soft spot for the girls with glasses and the ones who love to write. Can’t imagine why that is - possibly the fact I am still a girl, albeit an older one now, with glasses who lo...

I may as well say it straight out: I hate cities. I hate the press of people, the lack of greenery, the rubbish, the exhaust fumes, the blank faces. But you can’t travel these days (or is it those days?) without encountering our huge conurbations. It’s reckoned that for millennia the average size of human communities was one hundred and fifty people. You knew everyone, and they knew you. Outsiders stood out immediately. But now? Cities can be absolutely enormous. Granted, there is some beautiful architecture, which wouldn’t be feasible for only a few hundred people, but there’s a lot of really awful stuff too. Shanghai China was a shock. We travelled by bullet train from Xi’an (population over 8 million) to Chengdu (population over 16 million), past various other enormous cities, their modern skyscrapers clustered together like children’s building bricks. All the new cities are built to the same plan, although they all look very different as the designs are imaginative and many-colou...

What do you think? What do you see? Last Saturday was a thrilling day for me. I was off to London, by myself, to meet lots of other Christian writers. It involved getting up at an unholy hour, after getting to bed late. I was trying to sort out hubby and kids for the following day, to make sure they’d all survive. So by six in the morning, I was safely installed on a comfortable coach, on my way to London. I was too restless to listen to an audiobook, listening to music instead. I kept dozing off, but when I woke up, the landscape was intriguing. I could see faint outlines of undulating hills, shrouded in mist. You could see the mist reaching out with long fingers, wrapping itself around a treetop that had been almost visible just before. I took several pictures, knowing it wouldn’t look like anything on my phone afterwards. There would be lorries, blurry cars and the hills would not stand out. I spotted some car headlights, tucked between two hills, no road in sight. Why? Who woul...