The story behind the story

As is the way when an author releases a new book, I've been scanning the early reviews of The Clock in My Mother's House. There are twelve on Goodreads at the moment, so it's easy to see when new ones appear - I'm not stalking reviewers or anything. Soon I'll forget all about them - …

How to be Happy

I wrote a short story, once, with that title - How to be Happy. I know - pretty shocking for something with 'happy' in the title to come from my pen, but there you go. It's still in draft form, so I may even get back to it at some point. I chose that title …

Asking for help!

When I started writing - in the dark ages, before the internet, possibly using slate (so my kids would have you believe) - writing was a solitary profession. I must have shared my vision of writing with you: sitting in an attic, with fingerless gloves, looking as unkempt as Fagin? No? I've actually got the …

“I just want to sell my books!” says one author to another

It's - loosely - advice week here at the Fountain Pen, but I'm going to use this time to have a little rant about Facebook. Hopefully it will be a useful rant, a helpful one. On Saturday morning, I was scrolling through the stats for my Facebook page. If you don't have one, it shows …

My tips for submitting

My last post, My rules for writing, was quite popular, so I got cocky and started thinking maybe I could actually help writers. Here are a few tips about how to submit your work, because this seems to cause either agony or resentment, as your darlings are repeatedly rejected. These tips will work just as well …

My rules for writers

A couple of days ago, I stumbled upon Zadie Smith's Rules for Writers, and, coupled with a conversation I had on Twitter last night, I thought I'd give my own list a go. For those of you still new to me, here are my credentials: I've been seriously writing for publication since I was about …