Me-Time Tales: tea breaks for mature women and curious men, 2nd edition Katie Fforde said: “Quirky and Intriguing”. This short story collection is certainly not erotica; hardly a glimpse of bare flesh– but a subtly dark edge instead. Most, at first, seem light-hearted; then there’s the twist. After finishing the[…]
Read More »Writers’ undercurrents: in the novel you’ve just read — or in your own writing? Sometimes it’s only after finishing a novel that you become aware of its undercurrent. For instance, in Dead Water (Simon Ings) the fast paced plot involves the protagonist in a deadly international chase after an evil[…]
Read More »This weekend, Jude Higgins pulled off a wonderful feat in initiating the first Flash Fiction Festival in Bath. Gaining support from the Arts Council Fund, she was able to attract some of the best flash practitioners to give readings and workshops to enthusiastic participants from five countries. Vanessa Gebbie, Kit[…]
Read More »In this 2nd edition of Me-Time Tales: tea breaks for mature women and curious men, there are stories short and long about women of all ages, at all stages. Katie Fforde called the stories “Quirky and Intriguing”. No, they are not erotica. Hardly a glimpse of bare flesh. There is a subtly[…]
Read More »Starting out on your first writing journey? If you are just starting out to write and self-publish, whether fiction or non-fiction, put some money aside for the journey. After all, if you were about to open a shop, or offer a repair service, you’d expect up-front costs. Don’t expect the[…]
Read More »‘Icy short story’ could feature a crime, an arctic setting, or a scientific experiment – even cryogenics. These skilled stories heard by the packed audience at Story Fridays in Bath, UK. My own icy story explored the ultimate chill in a relationship. There’s a growing popularity for short stories as[…]
Read More »New book in the Relative Invasion trilogy: IMPACT Post-war, the fall-out. Book 3 of the trilogy: IMPACT is now available on all e-book platforms. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N759C1Q https://books2read.com/r/B-A-IJPB-ZGSL and in paperback, from Amazon and bookshops. The new book is much longer than Book 1 and Book 2, bringing the two boys painfully[…]
Read More »Writing characters? E.M. Forster admitted that “We all like to pretend we don’t use real people, but one does actually. I used some of my family …” Perhaps you can’t or won’t do that. As a writer, you will need different resources for bringing your characters to life. You may[…]
Read More »Bookbub promotion: a wise investment? Jane Davis recently ran a Bookbub promotion. Jane is a successful indie author and member of ALLi whose first novel, Half-truths and White Lies won the Daily Mail First Novel Award in 2008. She has written six further novels, each of them in the genre of[…]
Read More »Writing stimuli. What gave you that sudden idea that made you urgently scribble it down? It’s worth exploring. The power of olfactory stimuli in activating memory is well known. But it’s much harder to ‘dream up’ a smell that might affect the character in your story, than it is a sound[…]
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