Tag Archives: Half-truths and White Lies

Today, I’m delighted to welcome Rosemary J. Kind to Virtual Book Club, an interview series in which I put questions to authors about the books they would like to persuade your club to read. If you want to pose a question of your own, you’ll have the opportunity to do so at the end. Rosemary…
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Today on Virtual Book Club, it’s my turn. Last week I was asked the question, ‘If you could have a relationship with any one of your characters, who would it be?’ It seems like a simple question, but it set me thinking. St Mary’s Church in Beddington is normally locked on a Thursday lunchtime, but…
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As much by accident as design, the mother-daughter relationship takes centre stage in several of my novels. I tackled it first in Half-truths & White Lies where my main character Andrea only discovered the truth about her mother after it was too late to ask any questions. In my novel An Unchoreographed Life the relationship…
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Orna Ross describes herself as a conscious creativist, a term she coined to describe those who apply the creative process to all aspects of life. She writes and publishes novels, poems and the Go Creative! books and is Founder/Director of the not-for-profit, global association for author-publishers, The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi). The Bookseller has…
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The January VAT hike for digital products has been tough. For writers, there was a stark choice: either take a 17% hit on income or pass the increase onto readers. In search of a way to redress the balance, I didn’t need to go any further than the aisles of my local supermarket – 3…
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‘A beautiful object’ In his 2011 Man Booker acceptance speech, Julian Barnes was quick to praise the unsung hero in the publication process, his book cover designer, Suzanne Dean. But this was three years ago, and Barnes’s concern was the rise of the e-book which, as we all know, is no threat to the paperback. It is just another…
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Last night I made a new discovery. I’ve never pretended to understand Led Zeppelin. I wrote about their difficult rhythms in Half-Truths and White Lies and how, when Peter’s breakthrough comes, it is as if he has understood a difficult mathematical equation. Well, 37 years too late, I think I have finally got it. Just as…
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I have to admit that public speaking is not my favourite thing, but given that it is a necessary evil, last night’s talk at my local branch of Waterstone’s in Sutton was one of the more enjoyable events I have taken part in (and not only because we were able to extend the evening with a…
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Yesterday, I made my first return to the Winchester Writers Conference since winning the Daily Mail First Novel Award. The conference provides a fantastic opportunity for networking with fellow authors, and those in search of agents, editors and publishers have the opportunity to make their pitches. A full day of lectures had been carefully prepared and rehearsed. And then…
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Attending local book club meetings has really driven home how the reader brings their background and life-experiences and emotions to a book, finding meaning that the writer may have never intended. Last week, on speaking to a club comprised of local mothers, I realised that in writing Half-truths and White Lies I had touched on a subject that would divide and might…
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