In-depth

This week I’m taking a break from showcasing authors shortlisted for The Selfies Award to bring you news of a brand new release. I’m delighted to welcome Lorraine Devon Wilke to Virtual Book Club, my interview series that gives authors the opportunity to pitch their novels to your book club.  An accomplished writer in several genres…
» Continue Reading

I’m delighted to welcome Jane Steen to Virtual Book Club, my interview series that gives authors the opportunity to pitch their novels to your book club. This month I’m showcasing my fellow nominees for The Selfies (Best Self-published Work of Fiction) Award 2019. Whilst the judges of The Selfies Awards had only anticipated giving one award,…
» Continue Reading

This week, I thought I’d take a break from the usual Virtual Book Club format. Instead, I put the same question to a number of authors.  “A novel requires stamina and grit,” says author Oyinkan Braithwaite. “You need a certain kind of faith in yourself and in what you are doing to bang out 40,000-plus…
» Continue Reading

This week, I thought I’d take a break from the usual Virtual Book Club format. Instead, I put the same question to a number of authors.  “A novel requires stamina and grit,” says author Oyinkan Braithwaite. “You need a certain kind of faith in yourself and in what you are doing to bang out 40,000-plus…
» Continue Reading

Last October 1st, I was fortunate enough to be among the audience at Waterstones, Tottenham Court Road, for the Northern Fiction Alliance’s first London Roadshow. I say ‘fortunate’ because sometimes – whether by fluke, luck or some divine intervention – you find yourself witness to the beginning of something special. Something that has the power…
» Continue Reading

Few authors can be as steeped in art – literally since birth – as Valeria Vescina, my first of today’s guest contributors. “My mother is an art historian and my father directed a gallery of twentieth-century art. Some of my earliest memories are of sitting down with books of old-master paintings,” she says. Passionate about…
» Continue Reading

A few weeks ago, I was watching a topical panel show. When the question of plastic pollution came up, one of the panelists replied, ‘No, you’re not laying the blame at my door. I bought plastic on the understanding that it would be recycled. It’s not my fault if someone went and dumped it in…
» Continue Reading

The focus of this week’s exploration of art in fiction is finding your inspiration. We kick off with a contribution from Michael Jarvie. Michael is a working-class writer from the North East of England. He is the author of the composite novel The Prison and the thriller Black Art. With a BA Honours degree in…
» Continue Reading

This week’s Art in Fiction focuses on novels that are set in the mecca of modern art, Tate Modern.  One of my favourite reads in recent months was Harriet P Paige’s Man With A Seagull on his Head, which was nominated for Not The Booker 2017.  Paige perfectly pitches a portrait of outsider artist Ray…
» Continue Reading

To give this week’s guest post a rambling introduction would be to do it a disservice. It is more than capable of standing on its own two feet. Suffice to say that, when I read it, I felt as if I’d been given a gift.  Vivienne Tuffnell is a writer, poet, explorer and mystic. She says…
» Continue Reading