Authors Electric

  After a period of stressful ‘getting the novel completed’ and ‘getting the novel edited’, it’s a wonderful feeling when the typescript is finally on its way towards publication. For me, as an ‘Indie Author’ this means having the text (interior) and cover, etc., all processed and sent over from my book and cover designer — and awaiting the final push — that of sending it off to Ingram Spark to transform it into a saleable book — and also to Amazon for Kindle. A great period for rejoicing! Though after the initial rejoicing — of completing the text, editing, etc. and after receiving the completed files, there is now a kind of hiatus before that final push, that Ingram form-filling. So, then I realized that today there’s another task which takes over — my AU contribution for September. And, surprising how these things turn up, it’s our wedding anniversary — 15th September 1973 — which makes it our fiftieth or Golden Wedding. Hum. So many couples may’ve planned, or had planned for th...

  Oysgeshsternt is a Yiddish word. It means crowded with stars. I heard it recently at the Purbeck International Chamber Music Festival as part of their Forgotten Voices programme. I love it – the programme and the word. We stayed on after the concerts had ended and had a few more days walking around various beautiful places in that part of Dorset, including the church at Moreton with its etched-glass windows by Whistler.   We’ve not been back home long, and I am spun out and all out of ideas, so having started with oysgeshsternt, I’ll go on with a theme of heavenly bodies and share some poems about the night sky and various planets. I’m not sure it fits with what Authors Electric is about, but it is the best I can do for now.  SKY-WATCHING   Out in the street as the evenings drew in that time between supper and bed, we lay flat on our backs, looking up at the sky,   naming constellations, tracking the moon from sickle blade to dinner plate, ...

 Image Credit:  Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. I can guess what you’re thinking. There is no such thing as a reading/writing season. We read and/or write all year around, right? True but do you find there are certain times of year when you read certain types of book? Or you write certain types of story in the winter as opposed to the summer?   I love reading humorous works throughout the year but I read more during the autumn and winter months. If you don’t need cheery reading then, when would you? I usually find I write more humorous flash fiction during this period too.  I write festive flash fiction, which is cheery by its nature, so have often written some during the autumn and submitted it somewhere in the run up to that word beginning with C we won’t mention yet because it is far too early to do so. (Supermarkets, please note). My TBR pile has a good old mix in it, which is how I like it, and this is consistent all year but the funny books ...

How many authors have fancied themselves as detectives? The ones who love to second guess the plot of a TV series – not just whodunnit, but who missed that vital piece of evidence that was staring them in the face? And furthermore, which character is going to spot it, and what are they likely to say? But it’s not just the hypothetical. Every once in a while an occasion for subterfuge crops up, and authors are not above doing a sly bit of investigation themselves – and, on the whole, being pretty good at it. Some years ago now an old friend of mine married someone who turned out to be very bad news. Her choice of men had always been questionable – what I’d call presentation over content – and Jock Campbell rang alarm bells. Perhaps she should have known better. He was a habitual liar, something she and I had been quite creative about at school. “You’re late again, Elizabeth.” “The bus got stuck behind a steamroller, Miss.” Whatever you’d done Jock had done it a bit better. After a pro...

  I’m a great one for mislaying my mobile, which set me musing recently about our attitude to our phones. Some time ago I was faced with the prospect of having to go into town  WITHOUT MY PHONE as Mike was expecting a call from the clinic and they had my mobile number not his. The horror of this situation did not bear thinking about, so plan B had to be put into action: i.e. I would have his phone and he would have mine, so any emergency I might have to deal with on a fifteen minute walk to the library could be coped with. If this all sounds somewhat over dramatic, it shows how reliant we are on these devices.   Years ago, you went shopping, or out for the day, or even away for a weekend, or on holiday, without feeling the need to have the means of instant communication at your fingertips. Of course there were times when being able to summon help was useful. I remember coming back from swimming one evening with my three kids in the car and having a puncture on a l...