Category: Writing

  • I hate to BRAG, but…

    We writers are an insecure bunch, but perhaps that’s not surprising. The average development of a book goes as follows: 1. I’ve had this AMAZING idea! 2. Oh wow, this book is going to knock the world’s socks off! 3. Er, this isn’t coming out how I thought it would. 4. This is awful. 5.…

  • A whole new world

    I love writing fantasy because in that genre you get to make it all up as you go along – don’t you? You absolutely do make up a new world, but “as you go along” might be problematic – whatever you create has to be internally consistent and make logical sense to the reader. I…

  • Hello, handsome!

    I never really know what my characters look like. Honestly – I like to keep them moving fast, not sitting for a portrait. So I was as surprised as anyone when I saw one of my characters on a music video on Youtube. Thanriel, the seriously gorgeous, angelic alien hero of The Last Gatekeeper, can…

  • 26 = infinity

    I was going to rant this week, but it’s spring, the trees are blossoming, my WIP is progressing well and I don’t want to spoil the sensation of everything being right in the world. So instead, I’m going to share a fact that blew my tiny mind when it was pointed out to me. There…

  • Out and About

    I spend an awful lot of time inside my own head. That’s okay – I know my way around and I’m quite safe there. But it does have the effect of making me marginally unsettled when I have to leave my imaginary worlds and interact with real people in the real world – unlike my…

  • School milk memories

    Today’s planned blog was derailed (in a good way) by a tweet. A twitter friend tweeted about plans in Scotland to return the “milk break” to all primary school children. (You can read the article here if it’s a topic of interest.) As one of the generation whose milk was “snatched” by Maggie Thatcher, this brought…