This week I’m going to get organised! How long have I been saying that? All the submissions, letters, emails, those half-finished conversations; I really do mean to keep track of them. It’s just, well, to be honest, admin’ is so mind-bogglingly BORING. I’d rather watch the grass grow. Read the rest of this entry »

I published my e-book, ‘The Dark Side – Real Life Accounts of an NHS Paramedic’ on Kindle 18 months ago. I’m proud to say that I’ve sold approximately 3,500-4,000 copies to date. Since publication, it has never been out of the top ten best sellers list in the Allied Health Professionals sub-genre, often taking the number one position.  It has remained in the top 40,000 in the UK Kindle charts for the majority of the past 18 months and continues to sell on a daily basis. I published ‘The Dark Side, Part 2’ a few weeks ago and that is already selling just as well.

So, how did I do it? These are my tips: Read the rest of this entry »

Did you hear Michael Morpurgo on BBC Radio last Thursday? talking about the Wicked Young Writers competition, along with shortlisted finalist Susanna Tredinnick, age 10. Susanna had entered a poem called ‘The Most Annoying Thing About My Little Brother,’ and both she and it were fabulous. I wish I could write like that! Read the rest of this entry »

Characters are the heart of a story, without them – nothing happens. And whether they’re as sweet as Christopher Robin or as dark as Lisbeth Salander, the one thing they must always be is ‘believable.’ Now a believable character starts with you, the writer. Because, whatever you’re working on, one thing is certain – if you don’t believe in your characters, no one else will.

So, what can we do to make our characters more believable? Read the rest of this entry »

As usual, thanks to Vanessa for last week’s guest blog. The publication of her novel is very timely with all the coverage and commemoration events linked to the start of World War I. But, as a writer, this is something that you need to bear in mind.

If you are writing a novel it should, preferably, fit into a specific genre so that publishers will have no difficulty visualising how to market it. Or, it should tie in with some big event that the general public are interested in. Books on Afghanistan (The Kite Runner, The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul etc.)  were brought to life by news footage of what was going on in that country.  And now, the coverage of events from WWI is spawning a plethora of books – both fiction and non-fiction. Read the rest of this entry »