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How To Make A Study Guide
Practical suggestions for exploiting the learning potential in your book and creating a whole new audience. Whether you write chicklit, literary fiction, historical fiction or crime, like me, there’s...
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Interview – David Nicholls
David Nicholls trained as an actor before making the switch to writing. His TV credits include the third series of Cold Feet, Rescue Me, and I Saw You. He was co-writer for the film adaptation of...
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Bookmuse
What makes you buy/borrow/steal a book? I want to know what someone else thinks of it. Is that all? I’m kinda busy, so I’d like a short cut. You know, will I like it? Why? Keep going. This is your...
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The Writing Process
I’m always fascinated by how writers work, forever snooping into how well-known authors operate (see The Interviews page), so I readily accepted the invitation to join this Writing Process blog tour...
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Writing 4 Young People #1
Advice from the experts On Saturday, thirty-five people gathered at Zürich’s Volkshaus to spend a day learning about writing for young people at a workshop organised by Nuance Words. The experts were...
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Writing 4 Young People #2
Advice from the experts On Saturday, thirty-five people gathered at Zürich’s Volkshaus to spend a day learning about writing for young people at a workshop organised by Nuance Words. The experts were...
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On Subjectivity
When I reach a writing milestone, I reward myself. Not with cake, champagne or a roll in the snow, but by contact with the outside world. Or more specifically, the online world. Today, three stories...
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The Learning Curve
Creative control of my own work is a truly glorious feeling. Yes, it has its scary moments, but I trust my own judgement and that of the team I have assembled to bring my books to life. The editors,...
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Why I Love Literary Agents
As often happens during your average week, something I see on the Wonderful Worldwide Web rattles my cage. This week, it was this: Why We Love Literary Agents – NOT Let me set out my stall from the...
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Lynn Shepherd and JK Rowling
It’s such a terrible shame to see precious column inches wasted by someone talking out of their hole. I thought I’d seen a fair few stupid things over the past week, but Lynn Shepherd’s absurd take on...
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Ten Things I Learned From My Peers
Wherever I live in the world, I seek writers. Regardless of genre or experience, I always learn from encounters with other word-wielders. That can be critiques of my work, critiques on theirs,...
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Ten Things I Learned From My Peers #2
Part Two: Sheila, Max and Darren taught me a lot about structure, style and sentences. Other writerly friends have added their own generous intelligence to erode my rough edges. Here’s three more....
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Ten Things I Learned From My Peers #3
Third and last in my recognition series. Click here for Part One – Structure, Style and Sentence or Part Two – Individuality, Voice and Interference Or access both by a mere flick of the wrist, as they...
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Ten Years A Scribe
On 1 April (I like to tempt fate) 2004, I quit my job and I moved to Switzerland to become a writer. So today is my 10-Year Switzerversary! Prost! Dreams of floating around in white linen, scribbling...
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Just Good Is Not Enough
Standards in self-publishing. This whole argument feels like a perennial pinball machine, where opinions converge, collide, bend at impossible angles and ricochet off in another direction. Debbie Young...
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The Measure of Success
I started writing because I wanted to tell stories. My aim was to communicate – raise a smile, elicit a nod, provoke a frown or incite a reaction. Letters, journal entries, articles, stories and now...
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The Baileys Prize I
In two weeks’ time, the winner of The Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction will be announced. Here’s the shortlist in order of my reading: Eimear McBride - A Girl Is A Half-Formed Thing Jhumpa Lahiri -...
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The Baileys Prize II
In a weeks’ time, the winner of The Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction will be announced. Here’s the shortlist in order of my reading: Eimear McBride - A Girl Is A Half-Formed Thing Jhumpa Lahiri - The...
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Baileys Prize III – My Winner
The Baileys Prize will be announced tonight.I don’t know which book will triumph, but I have a bottle of fizz chilling to celebrate the winner, whoever she may be. But as an opinionated reader, writer...
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Can you spoof it?
Words with JAM – the thinking person’s litmag – has a new competition. Fun, challenging and free! Words with JAM’s Spoof The Genre Competition! In association with Bookmuse A condensed spoof of...
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