Category: Writing

  • Summer Scavenger Hunt

    Summer is nearly upon us. Have you got your summertime reading lined up? If not (and even if you have), check this out. In June, the Alliance of Young Adult Authors is sponsoring a massive young adult scavenger hunt. This is a chance to meet some new authors, grab a bunch of free books, and…

  • Check out my next project!

    I am so excited to share this with you – my next release will be part of a set with 22 other novels by a group of uber-talented YA writers: Shattered Worlds Escape into twenty-three epic worlds that will leave you breathless.     .99 for a limited time! From dystopian nightmares to gorgeous steampunk…

  • We interrupt our usual broadcast…

    I’m so sorry! My blog this week should, of course, be all about my Q book. However, it’s gone a bit pear-shaped. I had it all worked out: on holiday I was going to finish my P book (managed that) and find and read my Q book. A nice plan, but I hadn’t realised how…

  • Free Reading Challenge: How much is too much?

    Finding Free I’ve spoken before about how I’ve found books to read for my free reading challenge. I’ve surfed Amazon (not a brilliant success), found books from e-mail promotion companies, and from recommendations on Facebook and Twitter and signed up to blog tours (much more successful). Just lately, I’ve also signed up to several author newsletters…

  • Free reading challenge: but that doesn’t count!

    I’ve bought four books this week, which sounds like a lot for someone who isn’t buying books at the moment, but wait, your honour, I can explain… One for me… I have bought a book for myself this week, but it was non-fiction and an excellent reference book for self-publishing (it’s Format it Yourself by Jo…

  • Cover reveal

    Rising Tides My new YA novel, Rising Tides, will be published on Amazon (ebook and paperback) on June 24th. Today is my cover reveal. Designer Jane Dixon-Smith has created another beauty. I hope you like it half as much as I do! City is the last civilised place left on a drowned Earth, a floating…

  • Is this writer’s block?

    I don’t hold with the concept of writer’s block. There isn’t a special flu that only writers get which stops us writing. If you’re a writer, you write and (in my view) that’s an end to it. There are good days and bad days, but saying you have writer’s block is akin to getting a…

  • 5 ways to get more words written

    I’ve been making a deliberate effort to increase my productivity lately. I’m now a self-published writer looking to increase the audience for my fiction. One of the sure-fire ways to do this is to write more books (everything I’ve read about self-publishing says the key is to write more and get more books out if…

  • Words are magic, that’s why it’s called spelling

    Wide-range reading I’ve been reading out of my genre this week – Longbourn caught my eye (and who wouldn’t want a chance to escape back into the Pride and Prejudice universe?) and I’ve absolutely loved it. As well as the story (it’s Pride and Prejudice seen from the servants’ point of view), I’ve loved the…

  • Queen of Rubies

    I’m manically busy at the moment. My next-next book winged its way to the RNA’s New Writer’s Scheme this week, I’ve written 21k words of the one to follow that since the start of the month, while simultaneously revising something from long ago which I hope might be the start of a series. This leaves me…