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This is the story of Vanessa and Gerald, who fall in love in the sixties when she is an art student and he a sculptor. They marry, have children, divorce, have other lovers, meet again with tragic consequences, but never stop loving each other.
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The Excitement of Winning
I was going to post about something else today, but feel I have to write about winning the Cinnamon Press novel award with my novel The Piano Player’s Son. I am filled with joy at the affirmation of my writing. Publication isn’t until …
Posted in Competitions, Writing
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What’s in a Title?
How significant is a title for a novel, a short story – or a poem? What do we expect of a title? A successful title will probably grab our attention - hook us in some way -intrigue, surprise or amuse us, or …
Posted in Blog, Marketing, Writing
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The Importance of Rewriting
Nabakov, best known for his work Lolita said ‘One cannot read a book: one can only reread it. A good reader, a major reader, an active and creative reader is a rereader.’ He goes on to explain his belief: ‘When we read …
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Goodbye Stones
I’ve blogged about The River of Stones before, but today is the last one, a month of looking, noticing, absorbing, writing. Choosing the stone to write each day has been great fun, although much more challenging than I had expected. One of …
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Building an author platform
Sometimes it seems the only thing that matters these days is MARKETING. You have to network, plug, sell, tell, promote … on and on … you have to be out there shouting from the rooftops: Look at me! I’m here! If …
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The Joy and pain of ‘small stones’.
This January I’m taking part in the River of Stones. This is an idea, set up by Fiona Robyn of Writing Our Way Home where people – from all over the world – write a small stone every day in January. …
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Is it worth entering competitions?
Writing competitions are everywhere now. Novel, short story, flash fiction, poetry, published, unpublished, self-published – the list goes on and on. Each one motivating us to get on and finish a piece of writing, or sending us back into our …
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Feeling the pinch at Christmas?
Double dip recession. Collapse of Euro. Rising unemployment. Is this the hardest Christmas in decades? For some, yes, but certainly not all! It was such thoughts that gave me the idea for an alternative version of a carol for my …
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Flash fiction
A few years ago, I had a three-minute thriller broadcast on Radio Nottingham, but until recently I hadn’t done any more shorter fiction. For the last two or three months, I’ve been experimenting with flash fiction and am finding it’s …
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Samuel Beckett
Sometimes you can tell your frame of mind from the quotations that appeal to you. I’ve always loved the quote from Samuel Beckett: Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better. There’s something about the philosophy …
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