Tag Archives: author

A Day in The Life of Sandy Hogarth

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Sandy Hogarth is the acclaimed Indie author of The Glass Girl which Frost will be reviewing shortly. 

 

Breakfast and a beautiful day. Perfect for the Nidderdale Show – an arch temptress. I have a lot to do today. The Glass Girl must go off tonight. I will feel a little lost when Ruth, my protagonist, goes. She has a troubled life but she’s tough.

 

‘Say thank you to your sister for me were his words. So Ruth fled, first to Australia, then to the outback.

 

Sisters. I am fascinated by families; by their honesty, their brutality, their love. And fascinated also by only-ones, so I have made Ruth’s lover an only-one: gorgeous Daniel. Everything she is not.

 

Music and voices from the loudspeaker drift up the hill, scrambled. Enticing

I give in, cease checking my MS and hurry down the hill with Ruth still in my head. And her sister Alexis.

 

Cars are queuing. I Pay my £10 and walk through the ancient turnstile.

In the first judging arena I come to is a magnificent bull with curls behind his horns. I wonder if it will win.

 

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I remind myself that I must not stay long.

I pass a pig that is bored or asleep. They say pigs are the most intelligent of animals.

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My head is still with Ruth.  I especially loved writing the early part: Ruth’s time in the Australian desert.  I love the deserts there with their dunes of red dirt scattered with spinifex, and occasional wild camels.

I try not to laugh out loud when I see a cow receiving a final back-combing to the last 8 or 9 inches of its tail.

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Some of the sheep waiting in pens are shivering. It’s a hot day so it must be fear.

One puts up its head to me to have her curls admired.

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In the next tent, I find the winner of my ‘best hairdo competition’.

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Odd, this fixation on hairdos. From one who often forgets to brush her own.

I’m hungry so I get fish and chips from a van. We are almost as far from the sea as it is possible to be but they taste great.

 

The sisters take over my head again. And the glass girl. An old man in the desert gives it to Ruth.

 

“an exquisite glass girl, a dancer, with straight back and proud posture. Her body is draped in a mid-calf-length pink dress, the folds caress her long legs and her feet are encased in delicate oyster pink ballet shoes, the ribbons winding round her slender ankles. Her dark hair is shoulder length, her face tranquil and her hazel eyes as fathomless as the ocean. A brittle beauty. He says that it carries the desert within itself.’

6.Sandy

The Glass Girl calls. I walk/run back up the hill.

 

The Glass Girl is available here.

 

 

 

A Day In The Life of Shelagh Mazey

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For years I’ve been a frustrated story-teller, never having the time or peace to be able to concentrate and hurtling through life from one crisis to another, but now every day is like a blank page, here in my thatched cottage in Somerset.

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I met Margaret Graham years ago, at a writing circle in Yeovil. We have been friends ever since and good grief, the adventures we’ve had, as awe snatched moments from the home-front. I remember with fondness a trip across Ireland on a coach, enlivened by two America Baptist Ministers. We’ve seldom laughed so much, alongside absorbing the history of the place for a book Margaret was writing. It was here I kissed the Blarney stone. Perhaps that’s where the story telling began.

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As time went on the sleepless nights with newborns; the back-breaking, lifting and chasing of toddlers; the homework of school years; the endless chauffeuring of teenagers, and the frantic the frantic worry of them prematurely experiencing the joys and heartache of the opposite sex, drunkenness, drugs and all-night raves became a memory.

No more renovating the derelict cottage sold long ago. No more rising at 6:30am to rush off to work as a practice secretary. At last my ship, with its rather bedraggled rigging, has sailed into a harbour of refuge. I am retired. Whoopee!

Now I listen as my husband leaves for work and lie in bed for a few more minutes, where in a state of alpha I’m able to dream. Then I soak in the bath, empty my mind and plan the trials and tribulations, love stories, intrigues, and let’s not forget the murders and rapes of my 19th century stories.

After breakfast I type out my bath-time plots. I usually write or research on-line, with a short lunch-break, until about 3.30pm and then I need to take a breather. I might do some gardening; mow the lawn, weeding or dead-heading just to breathe some fresh air.

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Yes, my life has indeed reached peaceful harbour; my daughter-in-law takes the ironing each week and I take the grandchildren. I’m lucky, they’re lovely.

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Of course, aside from the writing, I do have to participate in marketing the books and I’ve made many friends, particularly on Portland, through this. Every now and then I take a friend with me and drive down to the coast to deliver to my outlets there. We usually enjoy lunch at the Lobster Pot on Portland Bill.

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The tales my father told, as a born and bred Portlander have inspired my writing, and my first two books are based around that area. Somehow it makes me feel closer to my parents.

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I’ve now published two books with Matador. The first is Brandy Row (A love triangle and family saga set on Portland, involving smuggling and the preventive service).

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The sequel is Dawn to Deadly Nightshade (continuing with the family, but adding witchcraft in Somerset to the mix).

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My third novel is located partly in Dorset, Somerset, Tasmania and Australia. It tells the tale of the ex convicts who were transported to the antipodes and involves the excitement of the Victorian goldfields. I’ve finished the first draft and I’m busy doing the revisions. I hope to bring out Legacy of Van Diemen’s Land next spring.

I totally love my life now. I am a writer. It is my dream come true.

A Day In The Life of Author Frances Colville

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I’ve always been an organised sort of person; writing lists, making plans and generally achieving whatever I set out to achieve. Then I took early retirement and expected to devote hours to writing. But… But… There are, suddenly, all kinds of people making demands on your time. And there are so many things of interest calling to you.

All of this means I no longer have a typical day. But there are some typical elements.
I always make time to read. Have you ever worked out how very few books you can actually get through in a lifetime? A scary thought when there is so much wonderful stuff on my list and in my teetering pile. Then, if it is at all possible, I make time to walk down to the sea.

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It takes me twelve minutes to reach my local beach of Seatown. I like it best when it is wild and stormy, when the waves crash in along the shore line and the cormorants have to battle to stay airborne. But whatever the weather, there is inevitably something different to see, something to provide writing inspiration.

And that is the other constant. I try each day to make time for whatever writing project is uppermost in my life This year there have been several main threads. I’ve organised a Story Slam in my local town of Bridport,

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I’ve taken part in various performances and competitions, and I’ve been working on my Sixty List ( a project to do sixty new things in my sixtieth year and to write about them). But the biggest project and for me, the most satisfying, has been working on a local First World War story. I’ve researched it thoroughly, curated two exhibitions, talked about it on radio and TV, written about it for magazines and papers.

It’s the intriguing story of a young woman who contributed fresh eggs to the National Egg Collection for wounded soldiers and who decorated those eggs with paintings, poems and her name and address. In return she received thank-you letters from many soldiers. Now, as well as dealing with the factual aspects of the story, I’m trying to develop it as fiction.
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So far, a couple of short stories have been successful and I’m working on a novel. But there’s a long way to go yet. And never enough hours in the day!

© Frances Colville

A Day in the Life of Kaira Rouda

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My life has changed a lot over the past six years. Not only because I finally became a full-time author, but also because my nest has been emptying year by year. Our four kids are five years apart, so that’s made my life filled with a lot of goodbyes lately. Without daily kid duties, life is certainly a lot less complicated. And, apparently, a bit darker. I’m not sure if Paul Strom, the protagonist in BEST DAY EVER, popped into my mind because of my empty nest, but maybe it gave him room to appear. I’ll blame him on the kids’ departures into the real world.

So now, a day in my life is quiet. I’m blessed to live at the beach, in Southern California, and most every day is sunny and warm. I try to hike or go for a walk everyday and soak up the sunshine. I have two dogs and they are both my walking and writing buddies. In fact, Tucker likes to sit ON my desk as I’m writing. (photo of walking desk and tucker)

I don’t usually start writing until the afternoon. I’m a night owl, so mornings are for exercising, emailing and drinking A LOT of coffee. My husband also has a second act of a career, deciding after the most recent US presidential election that it was time to get involved and be the change you want to see. I’m proud to say he’s running for congress as a first-time political candidate. That makes me a first-time political candidate’s spouse. I’ve been having fun meeting so many new people, and helping him as he follows his dreams.

All in all, it’s a blessed life. And, even though the kids are all busy young adults living their own dreams, they all live in Southern California, too. So I get to see them often. (family photo). And, they’re all doing super interesting careers. My oldest is in commercial real estate, but also is an amazing photographer. My daughter is a screenwriter in Hollywood, my middle son invented an app while in college that let’s you round up spare change to a charity of your choice and my youngest is a singer/songwriter pursuing his dreams in LA with his band, Firstwave.

So, it’s a busy, creative fun life. I hope yours is, too. And I hope you’ll give Best Day Ever, my first UK published book, a read!

 

 

WHY I TRADED IN A HIGH-FLYING CAREER IN THE HOTEL INDUSTRY TO PURSUE MY ACTING DREAMS, AND HOW I DID IT

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By Peter Meyer, author of The Boy from the Wild

Most of us dream about quitting the 9-5 (or is that the 8-7) rat race, but few ever do.  The author Peter Meyer is proof that following a dream can be more than just a daydream. He hung up his suit and left a highly-paid job in the hospitality industry to embark on a career as an actor – and was soon rubbing shoulders with Brad Pitt.

I grew up in the hospitality industry, quite literally. I was born and raised on a game reserve in South Africa that my father created. It had a safari park, a five-star hotel and a conference centre. It was once known as Safari World and its pioneering fusion of Disney-style theme park and nature reserve  made it akin to a real-world Jurassic Park

When I was older, I graduated from Les Roches Hospitality University in Switzerland and went on to work all around the world in places including the UK, Jamaica, Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Kuala Lumpur.  I worked in different director roles in sales, marketing and business development for groups like Hilton, Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, JA Resorts & Hotels and then YTL Hotels.  At one point I was even one of Hilton’s youngest directors at 26 years old.  I had it all going for me – the experience, the qualifications, the connections, the lifestyle and so much more…. but then it all changed.

In 2014, I dropped everything to spend time with my father after hearing he had a very rare form of terminal cancer.  My father was my life and an incredibly special person, so I was going to be by his side.  After I lost him I lost a part of myself and realised that you are vulnerable – and that life is governed by time that we take for granted.  I tried to get back into hotels and got a huge position in Kuala Lumpur but was ultimately in a very bad mental state and lost my zest and desire for the industry.  I was missing my dad plain and simple.

By chance a short while later a family friend suggested that I try acting and modelling for fun, and at least until I’d planned my next move.  So, a short while later, I signed onto a website that was a portal for jobs in that industry.  Within the space of a few days I was contacted by a production company, which asked me to do a TV commercial for Ford.

I did the shoot and was told I was a “natural” and was advised to do more! Two weeks later I got a call from a director making an independent British film and I got a tiny part as a news anchor with some lines.  It was then that I realised how much I loved acting and it woke me up out of semi-depressed state for my father.  I decided to see where it went.

Suddenly I was getting acting and modelling roles and even got my first lead in a short film within three months of starting.  My biggest came when I got a call to audition for Allied with Brad Pitt and got the smallest part to sing.  Sadly, the role was cut but I was still an extra and got picked to be near Brad Pitt and enjoyed getting to know him. I then got chosen to work as an extra next to Liam Neeson this time on The Commuter.  He partly inspired my book “The Boy from the Wild”.  In less than 18 months all this had happened.  I was also doing a lot of plus size modelling and was Tesco’s first plus size male model wearing Jacamo.  But I have also modelled internationally with groups such as El Corte Ingles wearing Hugo Boss, GANT, Ralph Lauren and more.  Who knows what’s next?

I’ve gone from surviving animal attacks and snake bites on a safari park to surviving the concrete jungles of Hollywood.  How, people ask?  Well, get headshots, get a showreel, get an agent, brand yourself to get your followers and have passion.  If you are determined and do what you love then you will achieve.  Sometimes you have to risk it to get the biscuit. A dream is yours and yours to fail, so don’t let it.

The Boy from the Wild by Peter Meyer is out now, priced £9.99 in paperback and £3.99 as an eBook. It is available for sale on Amazon UK. Visit  www.petermeyer.com

Felicity Everett The People at Number 9 | Author Interviews

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I loved your book. Where did the idea for The People at Number 9 come from?

I’m glad you enjoyed The People At Number 9. The idea had probably been bubbling under for a long time before `i thought of a way to make it into an entertaining story. I’ve always been susceptible to ‘dangerous’ friends – the kind who are fun to be with but unreliable and sometimes worse! It started in primary school for me, when I was desperate to be in with a little gang, led by a queen bee who decided on a weekly basis who was ‘in’ and who was ‘out’. Even after the agony of being sent to friendship Siberia on a number of occasions, I didn’t learn my lesson and find a proper friend, just hung around until my turn to be ‘in’ came round again. I’m not saying Lou and Gav in The People At Number 9 are as mean or calculating as this – they probably aren’t aware of exploiting Sara and Neil (who maybe deserve it anyway!) but it’s that attraction, like a moth to a flame, that interested me.
Did you expect it to become so successful and resonate with people so much?

Of course any author hopes for  readers, but you can’t write the book you think people want to read, because it won’t be authentic. You have to write the book you’ve got in you.  More than anything, writing is communicating. It’s a way of asking ‘is it just me or…?’ So when I wrote The People At Number 9, it was my curiosity about the subject that drove me forward. I hoped people would get it, but it was surprising and thrilling that so many readers reacted so positively to it. From the feedback I’ve had, I think it resonates because it’s a rare person who hasn’t at some time in their lives been the underdog in a friendship – the one who always makes the phone call, books the tickets, turns up on time and is kept waiting around. Not many people are daft enough to let a situation like that get out of control the way Sara does in the novel, but they can empathise enough to enjoy the journey.

How long did it take for you to write?

It took about two and a half years to write, which is quite along time for a short novel, but I wrote it when me and my family were living in Australia for a little while, and there were many distractions!

What is your writing process?

I don’t plan very much. I take a theme and some characters and sort of improvise, although for No 9 I did have a vague route map for the story. In the past I’ve tried to do that thing that some writers do of creating a life for their characters before they even start writing, listing their record collection, where they lived as a child, their favourite colour – stuff like that, but it just didn’t work for me. I think I find my characters by hearing them speak. I love writing dialogue.

I am a compulsive rewriter – I can’t just rush to the end of a first draft, knowing it’s terrible and then rewrite it from the beginning, I have to go back and make each paragraph right (or as right as it can be) as I go along, which is very laborious. My finished first draft is effectively a fifth or sixth draft. I don’t send it to my agent until I’m pretty sure it’s as good as I can get it.

Do you have a daily word count?

No. It’s so dispiriting if you don’t reach it. I’m happy if I can write five hundred good words a day. Sometimes a good day’s writing can actually be deleting a page or two, if the scene’s not working, or the writing is flabby, so I tend to think in terms of progress rather than pages.

Where do your ideas come from?

That’s a tough one. I don’t really know. I think I’m very influenced by place and I’m interested in the psychology of relationships. I suppose I tend to take a fairly mundane universal situation – a friendship gone awry or a move to the countryside (in the case of my new novel) and then ask ‘what if?’ If you ask that question enough times, it can take you to some pretty dark and twisted places!

Do you have a specific place where you write.

I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I write in bed! We moved to a new house, and I got the study all kitted out, had the desk positioned in front of the window with the lovely view, got all my books organised, and then found I never went in there. It was just too daunted by the open lap-top on the pristine desk. It felt too ‘intentional’, as though I had to write really impressive sentences; be ‘A Writer’. So now, instead, I wake up and grab my laptop, read the news, check Facebook and then open my document – I sort of sneak up on it. I re-read what I last wrote, alter a word or two and then, before I know it, I’m in full flow and if I’m lucky I’ve written a page or two. The only problem is that all that slouching is doing my back in!

Who are our favourite writers?

Jonathan Franzen, Colm Toibin, Anne Enright, Elizabeth Strout, to name a few. I love a family novel and I like social commentary. I’m a big fan of short stories – The New Yorker has a wonderful archive and I’ve discovered some great novels by writers I’ve first come to for their short stories – George Saunders and Curtiss Sittenfeld being two.

What books have you read recently that you loved?

Eligible by Curtiss Sittenfeld and Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders (see above). I’ve also re-read Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier because it’s a tutorial in evoking a sense of place and a compelling atmosphere, two things I am attempting in my new book.
What is next for you?

I’m writing a gothic psychodrama!  It’s a novel about a couple who move to the countryside to make a fresh start, but find themselves haunted, not only by their own past, but by a strange unease in their new community and the landscape that surrounds it.

 

 

Five Essential Goal-Setting Habits for the Entrepreneur By Emine Suleyman, author of Aliya

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Ever wondered why some people get ahead and others tread water? It’s not luck, says life coach, mindfulness expert and career mentor Emine Suleyman – it’s about how well they spend their time. Here, Emine offers her own top 5 habits that every budding entrepreneur should practice to realise their ambitions in 2018. Her new book Aliya, a practical day-to- day productivity diary for 2018, is available now priced £25.

Habit #1: Clarify & Regularly Reaffirm Your Life Mission  

We spend the majority of our adult lives working, so we owe it ourselves to spend that time doing something we love and that we feel is a reflection of who we are and what we want to say to the world.

Finding our element – living a life of purpose – is crucial to our wellbeing and to our success. This has been well documented. The sooner we can clarify our life mission statement the sooner we can begin a fuller more satisfying life.

So how do you start? Kick back with a pen and a diary and write down what it means to be successful in your life and on your own terms. Make lists of all that you love doing, what all your skills are, what problems you feel connected to in your community or in the world.

Upon regular reflection of your purpose and these three lists, your day-to-day life will reveal a common thread where you can creatively tie aspects from each list into new ideas and projects. The side projects you pursue could well evolve into a great income and lifestyle over time.

Habit #2: Self -Reflection

Self-reflection is the school of wisdom. It is no secret that a regular practice of self-reflection is necessary for mental and physical health. Allow this to be a humbling process and use it to look back over your last year. Life must be understood backwards before it is effectively lived forward. At the end of each year, ask yourself: what were all my highlights? What challenges did I face and how did I grow through them?  Writing your answers down is a great way of extracting them into physical form and owning them.

In addition to annual self-reflection, regular monthly reflection throughout your year is a habit worth cultivating. We can do this is our diaries each month. Self-reflection helps to build two components to emotional intelligence: self-awareness and self-regulation. This gives us the ability to understand our emotions, strengths, weaknesses, drives, values and goals, and to recognise their impact.

Habit #3: Set & Monitor Goals

You have more efficacy to create your life than you may realise. What matters most is right now. You cannot change the past and the future hasn’t yet happened, so the only thing we can change is the moment. How you feel right now and the story you’re telling yourself will transcend as your future. Put aside all limiting beliefs and ask yourself, what would I do if I knew couldn’t fail? Literally make an inventory of all your dreams in your diary. Remember that we go only as far as our imagination takes us. Include a range of short, mid and long-term goals over the next three months, one year, three years, five years, 10 years and 20 years.

After listing all that you would love to have a go at in life, review your list and pick your top 3- 5 priority goals to get started on. Break each chosen top goal down into 5 actionable steps. Then simply give each step a deadline in your diary. You can include a reward for each goal if you wish. At the end of each month make it a habit to reflect on the previous four weeks and review your progress.

Habit #4: Identify Two Priority Tasks Daily

Before you go about your day or perhaps from the night before, take a moment to pause and decide what two things you can do today that will have the biggest impact on getting you to your goals. This habit is so simple yet so powerful and has the ability to focus your mind each day. Forget checking emails and running small errands until your two priority tasks for the day are done.

Habit #5: Keep a Gratitude List

The benefits linked to gratitude are one of the most beautiful things about life itself. Whilst a whole book can be written on all the endless benefits, I would just outline a few. It opens the door for better relationships, improves physical health, psychological health, enhances empathy and reduces aggression, helps you sleep better, increases mental strength and boosts self-esteem. It just simply makes us happy; if there were a key to happiness, this would be it.

Saying ‘thank you’ for all that we have and experience, doing it often and actually writing it down is the most important habit of all.

Aliya by Emine Suleyman is out now, priced £25 in hardback. Visit www.planmyvision.co.uk

 

Why Technology is Ruining Christmas By Ian Shepherd, author of The Sleighmaker

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A third of children will be sending their wish lists to Santa by smartphone app this Christmas.

Let that sink in for a moment.

Now, when the kids aren’t looking, swipe their gadgets – all of them – and hide them in a sock drawer until December 26. Because technology is ruining Christmas. And I mean ruining it.

I wrote an unashamedly traditional children’s book called The Sleighmaker, which is out this week. My publisher assures me that it will capture the public’s imagination in much the same way as The Snowman did all those years ago. Except that it won’t. Because that was then, and this is now. Raymond Brigg’s classic picture book was released in 1982, long before Britain’s obsession with all things ‘smart’. In those days, children read books for entertainment, not homework. Books were the must-have ‘device’, the original hand-held tablet.

Children still love to read – a lot. Sales of children’s books rose 16 per cent last year to £365million, according to figures released by the Publisher’s Association. But in today’s tech-obsessed households, where youngsters spend an average of six hours-a-day (yes, you read that correctly) glued to an array of ‘smart’ screens, the paperback no longer takes centre stage. Technology and its new leading lady, the smartphone (which has never been, er, smarter), steal the show. A quarter of children will use one to send Christmas wishes via Facebook on December 25. Yes, technology has written off the humble pen, too.

And so back to Christmas and the thankless pursuit of that impossibly perfect day. Nothing, even the in-laws, should be allowed to spoil it.

Except that technology in any of its guises almost certainly will. Its availability anywhere in the home will prevent kids from focusing on wonderful books like The Snowman (and The Sleighmaker). It will fill your home with irritating noises, and reduce your children’s vocabulary to monosyllabic grunts. It will also cause your children more harm that cocaine, if you believe the warnings (Earlier this year, an addiction therapist claimed that giving children a smartphone is like “giving them a gram of cocaine”. She said time spent messages pals on Snapchat and Instagram could be just as dangerously addictive for teenagers and drugs and alcohol).

A new smartphone app lets kids scan the barcode of a toy they want for Christmas before sending their parents an automated email with the details.

Let that sink in for a moment.

Now, when the kids aren’t looking, swipe their gadgets – all of them – and hide them in a sock drawer until December 26. Because technology is ruining Christmas. And I mean ruining it.

The Sleighmaker (Raj Joshi Publishing) is out now priced £11.99 in hardback, £6.99 paperback and £4.60 as a Kindle eBook. Signed copies and further information from www.thesleighmaker.com