Here’s a question for all you writers out there. Does anyone get to read the rough draft of your book, in part or in full? Or do you keep it strictly to yourself?
I like to share and gather feedback but is it downright odd to seek opinions on something that hasn’t even begun to take shape? I can’t imagine it happening with other creative arts. Would a composer share a few cack-handed chords ...
I did a terrible thing. I went on a writing retreat and wrote nothing. The retreat was of my own making. Three weeks in Shetland, in a motorvan, touring the most northerly locations in Britain. I had in mind a peaceful setting and long, uninterrupted stints working on my current book. But sitting in a motorvan is like sitting in the capsule of a space rocket. There’s no room to spread out your stuff ...
It’s awful to discover someone has lied to you. You feel betrayed. With an outright lie at least you know what you are dealing with. Armed with the true facts you can call the liar out.
But what if it is a different type of lie, one where the person deliberately withholds a key fact? Not an outright lie, more of a half-truth. This is lying by omission, and, to my mind (I speak from experience), ...
July 1972
They were beating the living daylights out of the ‘big drums’. Dusk had now turned to blackness. Brenda knew there was no chance this tribal thunder would let up any time soon. It was set to continue well into the night. The narrow street she stood on only served to amplify the sound.
She breathed in the acrid smell of burning tyres. Rival gangs of young lads ...
The British Library has been in touch to request my debut novel, Soldier Doll. It wants to add it to its collections. I know. I could hardly believe it myself, especially as the collections include historical gems ranging from the Magna Carta and Leonardo Da Vinci’s notebook to Jane Austen’s manuscripts. Sublime company, to say the least!
Actually it was more of a demand than a request. ...
Another first this month! My own novel was up for discussion at my book group. Prepare for your grilling I’d been told, which really put the frighteners on me.
I needn’t have worried. They’d enjoyed reading Soldier Doll and the purpose of our evening together was to celebrate its being published, with me, the author. They weren’t there to review it, simply to learn more about the inspiration ...
It’s been an exciting few months since my last update. The door that’s been hanging off its hinges since Storm Arwen has finally been fixed; on my first try at aerial yoga I didn’t break a limb; and I notched up a new top speed of 31mph on my cycle route (all right, it was downhill). I’m also delighted to say that my first novel, Soldier Doll, was placed in the top 10% in the Cheshire Novel Prize. ...
