The Concept of Monarchy in Stories

The Concept of Monarchy in Stories

This week on the blog, I’m talking about the concept of monarchy in our stories. You can probably guess what has prompted my thinking on this! As a Brit, the last few days have been quite different as we mark the passing of Queen Elizabeth II and Charles III acceding the throne. I’m very aware of contentious views on social media, but however you feel about the monarchy, it is a historic moment for the UK. The end of one monarch,

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Getting through Writer’s Block

Getting through Writer’s Block

This week on the blog, I’m talking about writer’s block. You may have noticed a pattern that my blog posts address something relevant to my own writing experience. In other words, last week I struggled a bit with writer’s block. Or rather, perhaps more accurately, ‘editor’s block’. This sometimes happens when looking back over my manuscript. Some bits I enjoy going back over to revise. I’m quite happy with how a scene plays out, whether it’s a few lines of description

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Balancing Screen time – Writer Wellness

Balancing Screen time – Writer Wellness

This week on the blog, I’m talking about screen time. It’s ironic really that I’m writing this blog post on a screen, but that’s really what I want to discuss – how we balance screens. For me and probably most authors I know, technology is important for our business. We use our laptops or devices to craft our novels. We use also use screens for marketing or building our online presence – social media, blog posts, newsletters, websites. Plus, these things

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The Kingdom of Bernicia

The Kingdom of Bernicia

This week on the blog, I’m talking about Bernicia, one of several kingdoms in Britain. Before becoming one united kingdom, there were many different tribes and kingdoms grappling for power. (You can read more about what Britain looked like in general in this blog post). The history of Bernicia Bernicia was an Anglo-Saxon (Anglican specifically) kingdom from 547-616 AD in the northeast of England. England. After 616 AD, Edwin of Deira takes over the kingdom. He also regains his throne of

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Writing and Reading Romance

Writing and Reading Romance

Since it’s Valentine’s Day, I thought I’d talk about romance this week! Romance is a huge genre in literature. Even more books have at least some element of romance in them, even if that is not their main genre. What makes a romance a romance? Like with any genre, romance has a few tropes (literary devices that mark a story as a particular genre) it has to hit in order to be a romance. Obviously there needs to be a love

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My Top 10 Indie Books of 2021

My Top 10 Indie Books of 2021

This week on the blog, I’m excited to tell you my top ten indie books of 2021. Originally this was going to be my top 5, but I couldn’t choose between half of the books, so I extended it to a top 10. I’ll include Amazon links and links to any blog reviews under each book. Disclaimer that I have read any wonderful books this year – so if your book isn’t mentioned, it doesn’t mean I didn’t love it! Just

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2022 Author Goals

2022 Author Goals

Happy New Year, everyone! It seems fitting to do my first blog post of 2022 about my upcoming goals for the year. So without further ado, here’s what I’d love to be doing in 2022. 1. Have my 3rd Historical Fiction Novel published My first goal for 2022 is to have my third Celtic era novel published! I submitted it to them back in March and it was accepted at the end of May 2021. I don’t have a provisional date

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Review of Writing Goals

Review of Writing Goals

This week on the blog, I thought I’d have a look at my goals! It’s almost at the end of 2021 (this year seems to have both sped by and lasted forever). So I thought it would be good to check with the goals I set at the end of the year. Here were my goals for 2021: 1. Proofread my 3rd historical fiction novel and get it ready for submission I’m so excited to say I hit this goal! I

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NaNoWriMo 2021 Reflections

NaNoWriMo 2021 Reflections

Well, I did it – I won NaNoWriMo 2021! I hit the 50k mark around 11am on the 30th November. By the time I typed ‘the end’, I had a final word count of 51,122. What I wrote for NaNoWriMo I really enjoyed writing this story! It was set in Edwardian times (specifically 1909). It’s a historical mystery romance, that starts out with my main character Penelope having just got married to David as part of an arranged marriage. They once

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Using Humour in Writing

Using Humour in Writing

This week on the blog, I thought I’d discuss using humour in writing. As is becoming a regular habit for me, I’m basing my post on something I’ve been thinking about in my own writing. It’s become a trait for one of my secondary characters to keep making wry sarcastic comments. This made me wonder about the ways humour can be effective in writing. 1. It develops your skills as a writer Putting humour in your scene is a great fun

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