Blog

This week we come to the copy edit. The structure is in place. The beta readers have had their say. It’s getting interesting.  I first approached John Hudspith when I was working on My Counterfeit Self because I felt that I needed to be challenged a little more. He steered my writing in subtle ways to…
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In this week’s blog, I focus on the structural edit. It includes a contribution from my structural editor, Dan Holloway, the person Stephen Fry might have had in mind when he said, “We are not nouns, we are verbs.” “I am not a thing – an actor, a writer – I am a person who…
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Since winning the Daily Mail First Novel Award in 2008, I’ve become known for writing about big subjects and giving my characters almost impossible moral dilemmas. What interests me is how people behave under pressure, because it reveals so much about them. And as the tagline of Smash all of the Windows suggests, my new…
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Today, I’m delighted to welcome Chantelle Atkins to A Day in the Life, my occasional interview series in which authors talk about their writing processes and inspiration.  Chantelle was born and raised in Dorset, England and still resides there now with her husband, four children and multiple pets. She is addicted to both reading and…
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Today, I’m delighted to welcome Darlene Jones to Virtual Book Club, my interview series which gives authors the opportunity to pitch their novels to your book club. Darlene Jones is a retired educator and writer. A graduate of the University of Alberta she was a teacher, principal, second language consultant, and staffing officer with Edmonton…
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Today, I’m delighted to welcome Elizabeth Gates to Virtual Book Club, my interview series which gives authors the opportunity to pitch their novels to your book club. Between reading English Language & Literature at Bedford College, University of London, and acquiring an MA in Linguistics at the University of Essex, Elizabeth explored Europe as a teacher…
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According to this article by Beulah Maud Devaney in the Guardian, the average reader will read 3,000 books during their lifetime (assuming they make it to 90). Like many readers who chose books they are told they ‘ought to read’, Devaney felt cheated when she didn’t enjoy an estimated 300 of the the 900 books…
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Today, I’m delighted to welcome Rosemary J Kind to Virtual Book Club, my interview series which gives authors the opportunity to pitch their novels to your book club. Rosemary says that she writes because she has to. You could take almost anything away from her except her pen and paper. Failing to stop after the…
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This week on Virtual Book Club, it is the turn of Lorna Fergusson whose historical short story ‘Salt’ won the HNS London 2014 short story award, and its publication in the short story collection Distant Echoes. Lorna is a novelist, editor and writing coach: she runs Fictionfire Literary Consultancy and teaches on various Oxford University…
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Today, I’m delighted to welcome Katrina Shawver to Virtual Book Club, my interview series which gives authors the opportunity to make a pitch to your book club. Katrina is an experienced writer, blogger, speaker, and the author of Henry: A Polish Swimmer’s True Story of Friendship from Auschwitz to America, an adult nonfiction biography released…
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