Thank you for dropping by my blog. I post about a variety of topics including book reviews, my author journey, the writing craft and more. All my blog posts are listed below, but if you fancy looking at a particular topic, you can check the drop down menu on 'blog' on my main site menu. New blog posts added weekly, Monday or Tuesday afternoons GMT. Hope you enjoy!
On the blog this week, I thought I’d talk about the Kingdom of Mercia. Mercia was one of the largest kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England. It made up much of what would today be the Midlands, but also extended into parts of Cheshire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. In 600-700 AD, it would become one of the ‘big three’ kingdoms along with Northumbria and Wessex. Mercia in my Novels I’m currently writing my first draft of my 4th historical fiction novel. In it, both
This week in my writing craft series, I thought I’d talk about handwriting. Writing technology has developed a lot in the last century – even now I’m writing this blog post on my laptop, directly onto my WordPress site. However, I’m not sure I’ll ever move on from the simple joys of handwriting. I love jotting down ideas in my notebook and also writing things in my planner to organise my goals and writing progress. Here are some reasons why I
This week on the blog, I review A Girl Called Ari by P.J. Sky. This book was a fantastic read! Although I’ve enjoyed lots of fantasy reads recently, this is my first science fiction novel in quite a long time. A Girl called Ari has been on my TBR pile for a while and I was excited to finally get to it. Here’s a flavour of the book: The Plot After Starla gets abducted she wakes in the worst possible place
This week on the blog, I thought I’d update you with some author goals! I have some exciting writing news and a couple of new features I wanted to update you on. Announcement! If you read my blog last month updating you on some author goals last month, then you’ll know on March 31st I submitted my 3rd historical fiction novel to my publishers. Well, I’m thrilled to tell you that they accepted my manuscript! Last Wednesday, I officially signed the
I thought it was about time for another blog in my ‘writing craft’ series – this week, we’re thinking about plot twists. Plot twists can be a great tool for writers to hook readers. It’s great when they leave readers shocked and on the edge of their seats wanting more. However, can they ever be overdone? I was watching a series on Netflix recently – I won’t name it, as then you will expect a massive twist! The series starts out
This week on the blog, I review the wonderful book ‘The Borrowed Boy’ by Deborah Klee. I actually read this book a few weeks ago, but even after moving house and moving onto another couple of reads, this story has stayed with me. Here’s a flavour of the book: Fearing she only has a short time left to live, Angie Winkle feels she hasn’t done much with her life. However, after a chance encounter at a London Underground station, suddenly Angie
This week on the blog, I review the book ‘Heroes of the Shadow: Blue Scar Indeabinito by S.S. Frankowska. This is the author’s first novel. It’s a recent debut, published in February 2021. A flavour of the book This book is an epic portal fantasy that tells the story of Thomas, a soldier living in London. After finding a stray cat, ‘Weirdo’, Thomas unexpectedly finds himself travelling to a different, ancient world. This world is made up of 12 different races,
Thought this week I’d give an update on my writing and how I’m doing with the goals I set back in January. It’s been a busy three months! 1. Proofread my 3rd historical fiction novel This was my first, main goal. Most of 2020 was spent deep into the edits of my 3rd novel. For a while I even had ‘editor’s block’. By January 2021, I knew it just needed a final proofread, to get it as ready as possible for
This week on the blog, I thought I’d talk about trying new genres, or writing different genres. From posts I’ve seen in the #writingcommunity on Twitter, writing in different genres seems a bit controversial. Some writers say the more genres the merrier, whereas others say it is good for an author to have one focus and one way to build up your market audience. It seems to be a mixed bag, too, for whether publishers will accept an author’s work in
This week on the blog, I review the book ‘Of Shade and Shadow’ by best friends and sisters-in-law Niamh and Rebecca Schmid. It is their debut novel, published in December 2020. The Plot This fantasy novel starts with a bang a year after a great war has devastated the world. Astra, princess and sister to the king, struggles to recover from dark events and the gift she is not sure how to control. Soon Astra is forced to travel to the