Read All About It!
A quick post to acknowledge a hugely appreciated mention from Libby Purves in yesterday’s London Times. You can read it here. Thanks too for your cover design comments which boosted my own inclination to go ‘graphic’. By this time next week I hope to have a cover ready for the oven.
Read MoreTake Cover
Today, a little market research. As you know, I don’t believe novels can be written by committee, which is why I’ve only ever listened to my editor, my agent and my husband, and not always to them, but in the matter of marketing a book, I’m a novice, and therefore all ears. Dr Dan’s Casebook…
Read MoreWears Many Hats
Wears Many Hats would be a good name for me if I had any Cherokee blood. But I don’t. I’m just a gal who’s done a lot of different jobs and I’m about to extend my CV even further. I’m becoming a publisher. I have good news and bad. The bad news is, (and it’s…
Read MoreLand of my Fathers
Well, not quite. Land of my great-great-great grandfather, to be accurate. On Monday I’m off to Wales to visit the little town where my ancestor was born and try out my Welsh, in the wild. We go back a long way, Welsh and I. My first boyfriend had family in the Rhondda Valley and…
Read MoreJust Words
I’m always piggishly interested in what people are eating so I just had to have a look at the menu for the State Banquet HM Queen gave for President Trump last week. The dessert was listed as Strawberry Sable. Now I’m not a pastry expert but I knew there was a pastry French patissiers make…
Read MoreUnexpected Pleasures
It’s strange how something you’ve enjoyed can disappear from your life and all too soon you forget about it, and then, if it returns, you wonder how you’ve managed without it. This week Garrison Keillor’s resurrected Writer’s Almanac popped up in my mail box. First thought: yeah! Second thought: what callow breed of fan are…
Read MoreBusman’s Holidays
First, dear readers, thank you for your kind words of encouragement. You may not realise quite how important they are to a writer who works in fairly isolated circumstances. There are twin occupational hazards: that you’ll become deluded about the true scale of your own talent, an embittered mutterer against the world of publishing, or…
Read MoreOde to a White Bloke
So we have a new Poet Laureate. For my non-Brit readers, this is a position conferred by our monarch (as advised by the Prime Minister) and worth, in addition to the honour, £5750 a year plus a butt of sack. The laurels now sit on the brow of Simon Armitage, who used to work…
Read MoreBlack Dog
No, I haven’t been on holiday all the time since my last post. Simply that I still don’t have a publisher and it’s now getting embarrassing when people ask. Also, beyond depressing. Thirty years, never out of print, and now this. I mean…. So although I haven’t yet given the order to lower the lifeboats,…
Read MoreThe Big Squeeze
I’m often asked what I think of e-books. It’s difficult to give a simple answer. As a reader, I’m all in favour because I travel a lot and I don’t always know what I’m going to fancy reading while I’m on the road. This week, for instance, much as I’ve been looking forward to Ben…
Read More