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!
Hi everyone, today I thought I’d talk about writing in-between projects. Last Friday, I hosted a chat in the weekly writing group #FriSalon on this very topic and it seems other writers are often in this phase. Have you ever finished a project and you’re not sure what to do next? I myself have been in this stage recently. After recently writing another 20k for book 5 in my series for April Camp NaNoWriMo, I’ve been wondering which direction to go
April is here, so I thought it would be a good time to tell you about Camp NaNoWriMo and give you an author update. Camp NaNoWriMo If you don’t know, Camp NaNoWriMo is a flexible version of November’s NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). While in November the general aim is to write 50k of a new novel, in Cam5p NaNo writers can choose their own goals and continue to work on existing projects. For April Camp NaNo, my goal is to
Hi everyone, this week on the blog, I’m reviewing The Living Stone by Niamh Schmid. I absolutely loved this book, the latest installment in the TetraWorld series by the fab writing sisters-in-law duo Niamh and Rebecca Schmid. More about my thoughts in a moment, but first here’s the blurb to give you a flavour of the book: The Living Stone – the blurb Exhausted, disheartened, and defeated, Baey and her companions have somehow managed to make it to Alkemar…. Now an
Hi everyone, I thought I’d talk about my first virtual writing retreat experience! The amazing writer Lelita Baldock organised a ‘Winter Writing Retreat’ this past weekend – you may well have seen her posts about it on social media. I’ve attended a few retreat days before, but this was my first time being able to dedicate a whole weekend to writing – or so I hoped anyway! A few unexpected commitments meant I couldn’t make every session live or have as
Hi everyone, this week no the blog, I’m reviewing Coming Apart by Karen Heenan. I actually read this book in October/November, but I wasn’t really blogging much then. However, I did read some amazing books last year (check out this blog post for my top 8 books of 2022!). So I thought I’d do a few blog review posts over the coming months. The Blurb Here’s the blurb to give you a flavour of the book: Ava has always been poor,
Hi everyone, today is the 5 year anniversary since The Boy from the Snow was first published! All the way back in August 2016, I thought I might try to get my book published. While researching options, I came across Olympia Publishers, a small press who seemed particularly interested in new and unknown authors. I remember hitting ‘send’ on their online form, thinking that I’d never know unless I tried. I wasn’t expecting to hear anything back, but first they wanted
Hi everyone, today I thought I’d talk about my top 8 indie reads of 2022! I read some really great independent books last year. In fact every read was enjoyable, so if you’re an indie author and your book doesn’t make my list, it’s not that I didn’t love it. I had to be quite ruthless, otherwise I’d be hear all day! You’ll notice that several books are from the same author – excitingly some of my favourite authors released new
Hi everyone, Happy New Year! It’s been a while. I thought coming up with my 2023 author goals would be a great way to kick-start this year’s blog. So, without further ado, here are my goals for this year: 1. Have the 3rd Novel in my series Published The sharp-eyed among you may have noticed my first goal has carried on from last year! I’d hoped the 3rd novel in my series would be published in 2022, but the publication process
Hi everyone, today I thought I’d update you and reflect on the goals I set for myself in Jan 2022. Also, gosh, I hadn’t realised quite how long it had been since my last blog post. Something like three months! I’ve been focussing more on just writing recently. So as we near the end of 2022, here’s how I did on my writing goals. 1. Update on my 3rd historical fiction novel I really hoped the 3rd novel might have come
Hi everyone, this week on the blog I’m talking about why so many writers and readers love historical fiction. What makes it such a popular genre? Why do writers love writing it? Last Friday, it was my turn to host #FriSalon, a weekly chat where we discuss writing topics. (I really recommend it, both for the great chats and the wonderful community. Fridays 4pm GMT/11am ET). On Friday we chatted through this very question – so I thought I’d do a