While away an hour in the British Library – at home!
I recently came across an article discussing the British Library’s collection of images. Fascinating, I thought at once: I love to visit the library when
Category: In the news
Newsletter: A new medium for expression
No doubt you’ve come across newsletter signups in your forays online. Perhaps you subscribe to some newsletters; perhaps you even put out your own. Certainly,
Do judge a book by its cover: Crafting the book blurb
‘Blurb.’ It is not a very compelling word; it does not seem to signify text of importance. Indeed, the word came into common usage back
The invisible author
Imagine a world in which books matter a great deal, but authors – their creators – do not. Imagine a world in which the author
The crusade to change Amazon’s review policy
It is a perfect example of the power of the internet: a self-publishing author has hit the headlines for her petition on Change.org for Amazon
The author’s need to be read
All authors began as readers. We were the toddlers begging our parents for one more bedtime story; we were the children nose-deep in a book
The best reading is re-reading
How do you characterise your favourite books? The emotional impact of the book and your enjoyment while reading it are no doubt important. So is
Reading too much romance? Surely not!
Subscription is very much in vogue. Rather than create a collection of audiobooks, you can subscribe to Audible and take your pick. Rather than stack
The classics of literature: untouchable or reworkable?
My favourite work of English literature is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. For the Gothic feel, the Byronic hero, the mystery and suspense, the poetic
The untold story of unfinished books
Before the digital revolution, book buying was a business requiring thought and commitment. When you bought a book, you were serious about reading that book,
Start with a bang…
… and you won’t end with a whimper. Common writing advice, based on the final stanza of TS Eliot’s poem ‘The Hollow Men’: This is
Getting ‘in the mood’ for writing
A long-time subscriber to Mslexia magazine, ‘for women who write’, I always find its surveys really interesting reading. Not only do they help me find
A novel idea for readers: Buy after you read
With 30 published books translated into 80 languages and a total of 175 million copies sold across 170 countries, Paulo Coelho without a doubt knows
The Future Library
Recently on this blog I wrote about books as a legacy, reflecting on the story of a writer who realised after his mother’s death how
What he saw: Moving into the hero’s point of view
Would you buy a romance novel written in the perspective of the male protagonist, so the entire story is told through his eyes? Traditionally,
Grounding my romance novels in real places
Recently, I was interested to read an article in the Guardian on the subject of settings for books by the very popular novelist David
Passing on books
In my novel Indiscretion, it is the power of heredity that pushes the heroine, Alexandra, to return to the place of her birth: Spain.
Adult colouring books
This morning, I logged onto Amazon UK and had a look at the books bestsellers list. What did I find at the top? Not a
Dreaming big, writing small: The #TwitterFiction Festival
Twitter: a social media platform used regularly by 302 million people, including me. I use Twitter extensively as a means by which to connect
The well-thumbed dictionary
On a mild summer’s day, once I have completed the writing tasks I set myself, I am usually to be found sitting in my
Historical romance fun for aspiring romance writers
I know that many of my readers enjoy historical romance, and a number of you either write in the genre or aspire to. So I
Reading romance: A feminist pursuit
Is reading romance a ‘guilty’ pleasure for you? Do you read romance novels on an ebook so no one knows what you’re reading and judges
The ‘real’ Mr Darcy
Mr Darcy, the archetype of the brooding, aloof romantic hero who is famous the world over more than two hundred years since his inception. Clearly, Jane
Book restorers: The unsung heroes of the literary world
Two news stories caught my eye this week. The first was that, according to The Association of American Publishers, ebook sales fell by 10 per
Follow your read with The Fictionary
I’ve written about a couple of interesting apps for readers recently: Whichbook, which matches a book to your mood, and The Clean Reader, which blanks
Author: the most coveted job, and yet the least lucrative?
Back in February I reported on a government survey of almost 15,000 British people in the UK that revealed ‘author’ is the most desired job
Author outputs: Prioritising quantity over quality?
The publishing industry has transformed radically in the past twenty years. The keyword in the preceding sentence is industry. The business of publishing has been
Improbable libraries
I came across this book via the Guardian this week: Here’s the outline: From the rise of the egalitarian Little Free Library movement (motto: Take
Rehoming the forgotten books
Here’s a simple fact of the publishing industry: many more books are printed than are read. In the UK, for example, according to data compiled
Digital roundup April
I’ve been following publishing news ever since I began publishing my romance fiction, and in recent months it’s become apparent that digital is dominating the