All blog posts, back to 2012. For earlier posts, go to the “dusty archive”.
It’s an exciting time for me as I prepare for the launch of my debut novel, “Mime”. Writing this book has been a 10-year long journey of learning the craft and discovering the story. I must admit, in all the planning over the years, trying to launch a book during | Read more…
At the end of February, I attended my first ever writers’ retreat. I joined six other writers in a large house on the edge of the Brecon Beacons for three days of intensive writing and discussion. The organisers of the event were Jo and Roz from MeddwlCoed. A couple of years | Read more…
It has been an age since I did a personal update, so this could be a long one. Mime – Releases 28th June 2019 was a big year for me. I finished my debut novel, Mime. I. Finished. A novel. That’s big! Huge! Around this time last year, I was | Read more…
In this post I’d like to share some experience of my beta read process – some examples of the feedback I received and what I did to address it. | Read more…
Editing is difficult because it involves change. While self-editing can be relatively painless, integrating external feedback into your edits can be excruciating. There’s lots of advice out there saying you should get feedback, but less about what to do when you get it. I’m certainly no expert, but here’s my take on | Read more…
Creating an ePub Navigation TOC when you don’t have chapter headers to use If you make your eBooks with Indesign, you’ll know the Table Of Contents tool is super handy, except for when your chapters don’t have headers. This might be the case if you want to include a rasterised | Read more…
I’m in the process of working through my line editor’s comments on Mime and I thought I’d share a little glimpse into the evolution of one of my scenes. We join Elliot, armed with a fire extinguisher, in the middle of a very improvised rescue… 1st Draft White fog erupted | Read more…
My (long) short story Gravewatcher appears in the newly released Tales from The Graveyard from North Bristol Writers. Here’s a sample from the opening. Carina watched from the cemetery gate. Her new arrival tried to shove the gardener’s shoulder, passed straight through, and stumbled to his knees. Those who died | Read more…
If you’re anything like me, you’ve spent a lot of time stressing over your writing process and worrying that you are doing it all wrong. A lot of famous authors spout advice about writing, but no writer–bestseller, famous or otherwise–has the one true solution that works for everyone, because no | Read more…
It’s been said it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert. If you spent an average of two hours a day for six days a week, it would take you 16 years. I don’t know how accurate that claim is, but I do know many people balk at the | Read more…