Tag Archives: writing

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

NEW BLOOD BOOSTS BRITAIN’S GOTHIC FANG CLUB

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From Bram Stoker’s Dracula to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Britons have been devouring gothic literature for over 200 years. But after more than two centuries is our appetite for the gothic finally starting to wane? To hell it is, writes novelist Katja Brown – it’s more alive than ever.

I’m often asked why the gothic still appeals. The genre is a creation that compels everyone from a lover of romantic fiction to a lover of blood and guts. Whilst it doesn’t hinge on these elements they add to it and create something that is constantly reinventing itself. The gothic is essentially the presentation of a ‘terrible beauty’, a collection of literary conventions that come together beautifully to scare, entrance and hook the reader. In what other genre could a character such as Dracula exist? He is a character you love to hate, the greatest anti-hero that has been thought up and is so loved by readers and authors alike that he has been revived ever since in one incarnation or another.

The gothic appeals because inside every reader there is still a spark, a need, a deep desire to be scared by something beautiful, something obscure and otherworldly. I think this genre inhabits the part of your imagination that wants to see the world differently, that imagines alternate possibilities to the norm and much like a vampire it doesn’t stay down for long. Once you pick up a gothic book it’s like a budding romance: you feel as if you have to know how it ends and the truth is… no one really knows why. It happens with other genres, sure, but the gothic has something special about it. You’ve heard that girls are attracted to the bad boys? Well it’s the same idea.

Throughout history the gothic has been the mother of great tomes and literary works of genius, manipulated and reshaped to fit the changing times. From Bram Stoker’s famous fanged fiend Dracula, to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, we’ve watched as this genre has survived the stress of time and made it here to 2018. Thanks to a wealth of fabulous new gothic books, and also to the Twilight series, I’ve no doubt that it will keep kicking long after. 

It has endured because we as humans want a thrill, we actively seek out the new and terrifying because we want to feel our hearts quicken, our palms get sweaty and the hairs on the back of our neck stand on end. It is the gothic that provides those sensations, every page walking the razors edge between dream and reality.

What’s so loveable is that behind the things that go bump in the night, behind the sublime descriptions, the complicated characters and the narrations I guarantee there will always be something to learn – from a moral lesson to something more practical (‘don’t go down the scary-looking corridor by yourself late at night). The gothic has and will probably always be used to impart some sort of wisdom from one person to the next and it doesn’t matter what piece of gothic literature you pick up, it’ll be there between the lines. All you have to do is look.

The gothic helps define us as people, understand our own identity by understanding what we are not. We are not immortal, so, unlike Dracula, we learn to live like there’s no tomorrow. We shape ourselves based on what knowledge we assimilate, but the gothic gives us imagination and way to step out of our lives for a few hundred pages, a chapter each night, a page between coffee and cake. That is why it appeals, why it still appeals, why it always will.   

Katja Brown is an acclaimed gothic novelist. Her seat-of-the-pants debut novel, The First Bride (Austin Macauley) is out now in paperback and eBook from Amazon UK.

   

How To Make Your Blog Posts Go Viral Part Two

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blogIn the first post on how to make your blog, and your blog posts, go viral we covered content, social media sharing, titles, tags and keywords. Next up we have more advice for helping your hard work pay off.

Post at The Right Time

Doing a post on Christmas Day probably won’t get a lot of hits. Posting on a Friday evening is not ideal either. Have a think when people will be more likely to be online. You can research when people are on Twitter and Facebook. Use your Google analytics to find out when the ideal time is to reach your readers.

Share your post in your Newsletter

A newsletter is a brilliant way of making sure your great posts get another chance. Even your most loyal readers may miss a post or two. Build up the people on your newsletter list by doing competitions and having one of the entry requirements signing up to your newsletter.

Press Release

Writing a press release, and distributing it to the media, is a great way to get traffic and build on your reputation. The way to do this is to have an angle and then write about 500 words on that, along with a good pictures and then sending it out to the media. Channel Mum do this well by doing surveys and then releasing the results to the media, along with a statement. A lot of companies and publications do this. You could also write about a relevant subject, or have a personal story. It is all about the angle. Start building a media list. You can do this by signing up for Gorkana’s Consumer Alert or the Diary Directory. You can also find out who the editor of each publication is by looking on Twitter, the actual publication or websites. Getting a copy of the Writers and Artists Yearbook is also a good idea. It will be full of contacts.

Create Evergreen Content

One of the best ways to turn your blog into a success is to write evergreen posts. What is an evergreen post? It is a post that keeps getting hits. Even years later. These kind of posts tend to be informative or educational. Frost has a number of posts that are still getting hits up to seven years later. Imagine if you wrote an article and it still got thousands of hits years later. That is a great source of traffic and the only effort you had to put in was writing the initial post. Win win.

Get creative with Design

Creating pictures and graphics to go with your post is a great way to market them and improve engagement. Graphically engaging people can be done in many ways.  You will get more pins on Pinterest and more clicks on other social media too. Frost writer Jane Cable uses Canva to great effect. Canva is a free design tool which is easy to use. You can also create banner ads, headers, marketing material, ebooks and documents with it. Other design tools to use include Piktochart, Venngage, Infogr.am and Visual.ly

Optimise Your Images

Optimising your images is one of the easiest ways to get more traffic and also one of the most effective. Give your images a title using relevant keywords before you upload them, then add in a few more for good measure. Fill out the Title and Alt Text. This will optimise your images and you will get a lot of traffic through sources like Google Images.

Write Long Form Content 

Apparently long form content gets more shares than short form content according to Blog.visme.co in their article 10 Ways to make your content go viral. BuzzSumo did a study in which they found out that posts between 3,000 to 10,000 words were shared the most, while posts that were 1,000 words or less were shared the least. I am quite surprised at this but it is worth thinking about. It is a good idea to make most of your posts over 500 words.

 

I will be telling you all you need to know about blogging in a series of articles. You can also check out my book, The Ultimate Guide To Becoming a Successful Blogger which is available in ebook and print. 

 

How Much of Yourself Should You Share Online?

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awesome cat picturesWe live in the era of information overload. People share everything from what they eat, to pictures of their children. But how much should we share online? As a writer I have to share my experiences. Well, to be a good writer anyway. But when you write an article and it goes out into the world it is not always possible to bring it back. Nor is is possible to control who reads it, or what that person does with that information. And there is the problem. I feel we are too trusting when we are throwing information out on to the internet. I believe most people are good, but not all are.

I am not talking about criminals, although we should definitely be watching out for those. Those type of bad people are why I am careful about what I post about my children online. No, I am talking about something marginally more benign: people you know. I remember I wrote an article many years ago on the media and how they report fertility, only for some people to somehow find it and use the article in a mean and bitchy way for years. This made me very sad and is one of the reasons I stopped writing as much. Then I realised the bullies were winning, so I wrote more, but was still cautious. Hard to know whether that is a good or bad thing.

In real life I am a very open person. I will talk to most people about anything. Well, except sex or money. There has to be some limits. But the truth is: there are horrible people out there that will take your words and use them against you. There are also employers who might not like what they see on social media and decide to not hire you.

So what do I do as a writer? Should I continue to share my life, or should I stop and find other things to write about? I have not decided what is best yet. I will continue to share my personal experience, but I will be wary and think about the consequences. Mostly I will write about things I think will help other people or make them laugh. I believe that human beings have a desperate need to connect with each other, to hear each other’s stories, to know they are not alone. That is what is most important to me. Sharing and connecting with my fellow human beings.

Please share your thoughts below.

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!

 

 

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.

 

 

What are the Essential Ingredients for a Gritty Crime Novel?

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The crime thriller genre has always been a big seller. It has evolved over the years along with readers’ tastes. A few decades ago it was all about slick gangster flicks, driven by a morbid nostalgia for criminals like Capone, Dillinger and the Kray twins. At the turn of the century the gritty crime thriller ruled and now, thanks to a collective obsession with Nordic noir, that genre is making a return.

But what makes for the quintessential gritty crime novel? Here, author Eli Yance, whose new novel Consequences is best described as a high-octane blend of classic Brit gangster flicks Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Get Carter and Sexy Beast, provides his top tips.

Humour

I am a firm believer that there should be humor in every genre. I write comedy novels under a different pen name, so I’m a little biased, but it’s something that has worked for me in every genre. In horror, it’s a great tool to help move the story along, keeping the reader interested before you get to the scary parts. In the crime genre, it can help the reader to associate more with the protagonist and the story—it just makes everything feel a little more realistic.

Humour helps to break down barriers. It’s why we use it to break the ice; it’s why we use it more when we’re anxious and it’s why it works so well in introducing readers to characters in a story.

Multiple Stories

The best crime stories involve a multitude of characters and storylines and they invite the reader into each of these. Writing the story from multiple perspectives, following completely different trajectories and then bringing them all together in the end is the best way to keep the story interesting.

It also allows the author to tell the same story from different perspectives, bringing multiple protagonists into the same narrative and ultimately reaching a climax where they all clash.

The Unexpected

Most stories are better with a twist and it’s almost a necessity for this genre. It doesn’t have to be big but it should leave the reader guessing. Just make sure it’s not clichéd and it’s not disappointing. A reader can love your writing style and your

story, but if they arrive at an ending that lets them down, they’re going to hate the book.

I find that the best way to write a twist ending is to just see where the story takes you, stop when you reach the climax and then let a few friends read it. Ask them how they think it will end and how they think it should end and then write an ending that none of them mentioned.

If you can throw a few twists in as you are building towards the climax, even better.

A Bad Good Guy

If all the bad guys are funny and entertaining and the protagonist is a clean-cut detective, it’s just not going to work. The readers won’t side with someone who goes by the book. The best protagonists are always flawed, because that makes them more relatable, but in gritty crime novels those flaws should be bigger and more obvious.

You don’t want to create a psychopath who has little regard for human life and literally does what he or she wants. But readers are always happy to get behind someone who wears their heart on their sleeve, gets angry and violent when the bad guys get their way and is always prepared to bend the rules. It’s a cliché, yes, but for a reason.

 

Consequence by Eli Yance (Skyhorse Publishing) is out now, priced £12.99 in paperback. Visit Amazon UK.