I've had asthma since my teens, nearly forty years now. It lurks, ready at the lack of a coat to remind me of how it's compromised my respiratory system. A mild cold in December mutated into a chest infection that hung around like an oblivious, unwelcome guest for nearly a month. Needless to say, I'm… Continue reading Getting Creative with the Coronavirus
...And the blackbird's tune, And May, and June! - De Gustibus, Robert Browning I've added a lot of tags to this post; my four weeks away from writing and blogging generated quite a few thoughts and ideas, as well as… Continue reading Breaks and Pauses
I've been thinking about beginnings a lot, since, well, the beginning of this new year. I'm currently reviewing my manuscript for And The Buntings Flew, having put it away for a few months; that distance allowed me to clean up what I've written to date, and forge on with the story. I've now got 35,000… Continue reading Begin at The Beginning -Does My Novel Need a Prologue?
Hi constant reader, I'm still here, in case you were wondering; I took a summer/autumn hiatus from all things writing; my creative outlets were limited to completing a drawing course, gardening, and some pre-Christmas knitting. I promised to read more (and more physical books - Kindle on a tablet makes it way too tempting to… Continue reading 2018 Review – Freeing the Flow and Looking Forward
"The themes and tropes that interest, inspire or worry us are timeless" At her historical fiction blog, A Writer of History, author and blogger M.K.Tod (Mary) recently posed a series of questions to readers, and bloggers on the subject of what constitutes successful historical fiction. The questions posed by Mary were: What’s your definition of successful historical fiction?… Continue reading Successful Historical Fiction – Interview with M.K.Tod
"Progress is not an illusion; it happens, but it is slow and invariably disappointing.” - George Orwell (All photos © Margaret McGoverne 2017) So, dear reader, I've published my very first work of fiction and the truth of the Orwell quote above has hit me hard. Writing the story is only the first step; I'm… Continue reading Photo Inspiration for “The Bondage of The Soil”
I recently published my first work of fiction, an Alternate history/Sci-Fi novella, The Battle of Watling Street, using Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). This may turn into a short series of posts, but for now I want to limit the discussion to the technical/formatting challenges and benefits I discovered with KDP. Hopefully this will help… Continue reading Lessons In Kindle – Twelve Things I Learned When Publishing My Book on Amazon
I am a published author of a historical/science fiction/alternate history novella! Yesterday was D-Day. After feverish last-minute formatting and some tiny revisions (how can I still find things to tweak after dozens of self-edits, software edits, beta readings and more edits?), I took the plunge and submitted my book to Kindle. I've entered Amazon's Storyteller… Continue reading The Battle of Watling Street is Published!
I've had a tumultuous couple of months, and my writing has suffered; in fact my output nose-dived to zero. I keenly feel the truth of the (probably apocryphal) Chinese curse of living through interesting times. You may note, dear reader, the lack of any posts on here since July, but my hiatus is hopefully over,… Continue reading A Hiatus and HPL…
I recently read a great article in the Guardian Food in Books series by blogger Kate at The Little Library Cafe; - you can read the latest article here. Kate writes about the food that features in some of her favourite books, and she often recreates recipes for foods as described in such classics as To… Continue reading 8 Foods of Ulster featured in “And The Buntings Flew”
