Can you? Well, we all do! Even in this age of ebooks, covers play a significant part in the decision to buy a novel. They are often the first interaction a reader has with a book, and they need to attract, intrigue and capture some of the essence of what’s... read more
It’s six months now until the launch of ‘The Piano Player’s Son’ on 25th October in Worcester! To try to contain my excitement between now and then, I’m going to blog from time to time about aspects of the novel – characters, plot, themes, settings, and next week, I’ll be... read more
I love Venice! I can imagine some people might hate it: in some areas, it’s overrun by tourists; shops are full of gew-gaws; and you keep getting lost. Wherever you go, there are people standing with maps wondering where on earth they are. The vaporetti are no less confusing. You... read more
‘This city enfolds upon itself.’ Canals hide other canals, alley-ways cross and criss-cross so that you will not know which is which until you have lived here all your life. Even when you have mastered the squares and you can pass from the Rialto to the Ghetto and out to... read more
I’ve been puzzling over an aspect of my work-in-progress novel for some time now. It’s not stopping me from writing it, but there are aspects that make me feel anxious. The cause?I’m a white writer and one of my main characters is a young Ethiopian woman who was brought to... read more
Yes! I went fishing and I’ve caught a fish! I wrote on the blog last year about my disappointment when my flash fiction ‘Errol’s Eyebrows’ made the shortlist for the Fish Publishing flash fiction competition, but then wasn’t a winner. Roll on a year and my flash ‘Dexter’s Lover’ is... read more
I wrote earlier in the week that my little book on writing ‘A Writer’s Alphabet’ will be coming out soon. So, in alphabetic mood, and in honour of A-Z bloggers, I thought I’d put up this story. I’ve mentioned before that at my writing group, we take turns to bring... read more
It’s all about book covers for me at the moment. I’ve been working on the cover for ‘A Writer’s Alphabet’, my book (almost there) compiled from some of the blog posts on writing and being a writer that I did last September in the A to Z challenge. Also the... read more