Authors Electric

One of the main issues with magic is that it has to have rules, otherwise every problem can be solved with no effort and the plot has gone up in a cloud of smoke – probably very pretty smoke, with a few bangs and flashes and an intoxicating smell, but it’s removed every obstacle the hero faces. It takes time to explain these rules, though. Don’t do it all in one chunk, because info dumps are really boring. Drip feed it. In the world of The Divide , magic is real and science is a myth. Felix is from our world, and Betony is a sort of elf. Starting with a fai rly trivial demonstration can be a good way of introducing the concept.   “Can you do magic?”      “Not much,” Betony confessed. “I hate school.” “Isn’t there anything you can show me?” “I come from a family of herbalists, and that’s what I’m meant to become when I grow up. It’s really boring . I can cure bruises.” “I’ve got one on my knee,” said Felix, remembering. “Oh, right,” said Betony. She glanced r...

Leaning back in my car seat, I thought about characters in books, trying to compare myself to them. I love crime fiction and the main characters usually are overflowing with energy. They get hit over the head, shot at and threatened but they jump out of bed at 4am, ready to dash into the shower, have a coffee, grab their gun and they’re off to catch bad people. I totally relate. Well, to the need for coffee at least. The rest? No chance. And I wondered, how realistic should I make my characters? Should I make them bash their alarm clocks into snooze mode at least five times? Should I make them ignore cobwebs in corners until a visitor mentions it? The thing that intrigued me about the Famous Five was the fact they could be tied up for hours on end, yet nobody was desperate to go to the toilet. Then there is the lack of energy. With the world in turmoil and the stress of the last two years, I have days where it’s hard to move or think. Hearing dreadful news about an acquaintance’s h...

  That good advice sounds simpler than it often is. Let's call the inner voice IV. Anyone who's quit smoking or drinking will tell you that the road to hell is paved with the devil's whispers: Go on, one more smoke or drink won't kill you...This isn't the right  time to quit...With all the stress you're under, you'll die from a heart attack or stroke instead of cancer or cirrhosis... Etc. That IV is every bit as seductive and compelling as the one that says it's time to move to a new city or write a book unlike any other book you've done. You'd be just as foolish to turn a deaf ear as you would to act without thinking. In the past twelve months I've made decisions based on two IV Siren calls. For brevity's sake, I'll deal here with the second. Besides, the first seemed to be a no brainer: moving from Seattle after eight years to Tucson, AZ. Cost of living and rent are far cheaper...the hot, dry weather will be kinder to my new knee an...

Today I’m being silly. My blog is the equivalent of an unexpected cream horn, or a Fruit Shrewsbury with a nice cup of tea, or a toasted cheese sandwich with home made chutney. Something which I trust will give you a warm glow and a bit of a chuckle in the face of increasingly worrying news on the world stage.     I can absolutely guarantee that you will not learn anything about writing technique or the Oxford Comma or marketing strategies for the self-published, or anything else about which we writers often pontificate. I am simply going to share some Funny Stuff with you.   You’re welcome. This blog is coming to you from the Palace of Creativity (see photo), my lovely writing studio in the garden. I share the Palace with an elderly armchair for visitors, a bookcase full of research volumes, whiteboards with my 'To Do' lists written upon them and two neat piles of boxes containing my books, The Diary of Isabella M Smugge and The Trials of Isabella M Smugge . Now the...

It's me on the blog today and I am so ashamed that I do not have not much to say.  It is not because I can't think of anything interesting to blog about, but because as usual I have been  consumed  by my busy life, not organised myself properly and left things to the last minute and now I am in a rushed panic, trying to scramble words and have something decent to say. I sat down around 11.35am to write this blog. I had spent the previous 4 hours getting a power point presentation finished for a speaking event I have later on today. It is 00:34am as I am currently typing these words. After thinking about my last minute post, I decided I was going to write about my trip last month to Sintra in Portugal where I visited a 14th century monastery and the impact that had on my thought process around writing research. I stayed on a beautiful resort that is also home to this cultural monument called Mosteiro Da Penha Longa It turned out to be a really interesting blog post as...

  Right now, the world feels a very unsafe and frightening place. Every time I switch on the news there is more on the war in Ukraine and the suffering of the people fleeing for their lives. I do what little I can by signing petitions to allow more refugees into the country, writing to my member of parliament and donating money. Even so it doesn’t feel enough and it would be so easy to slide into a sense of helplessness. At times like these it feels almost wrong to announce any happy news and yet there is no point, and it doesn’t help anyone, to allow myself to sink into despair. It may be a cliché but life must go on and after I’ve counted my blessings and made up my mind never to moan about the small stuff again, I am trying to keep things as normal as they can be. And so I find that I am in the middle of a marketing campaign for “The Further Adventures of Poppy and Amelia.” This is the second book I’ve written with my granddaughter Maddy. The first, “The Awesome Adventures o...

In the Thatcher room at Portcullis House, Westminster at a cross party meeting of MPs lobbying for a new right. This lovely young woman is 27  yet her disabilities are such that she is  at the level of a toddler. Should she be restricted to interaction  with her mother behind a perspex screen?   In fact, it’s such an old and basic human need that it’s astounding that it must be lobbied for. We are asking for the legal right for patients, residents or service users in the health and care system to maintain their closest personal relationships and be supported, in time of need, by someone who loves them.  And it's not 'them' - it could just as easily be me, or you. Imagine that you're living with some disability, impairment or trauma which means you can’t manage the system for yourself. You need your cognitive guide-dog, your back-up brain - your spouse, partner, dearest friend, child, parent, sibling. The person who you have chosen and you trust. The perso...