Small Forgotten Moments has a cover…

You might have spotted this fantastic new offering from Jessica Bell in your inbox or on your Facebook feed, but here it is again, just in case you don't follow me anywhere else! Is Zenna a muse, a sleep-deprived apparition, or something much more sinister? Suffering long-term amnesia, artist Jo Mckye is ready to start …

The art of neutral thinking

Have I ever told you why I became a writer? Well, obviously there are several reasons, but one of them was because when I was very young I'd have dreams nightmares that felt very real. I'd be coming home from school to find my family missing, or running away in the middle of the night. …

The end, the end, the very very end…

My novel is complete. It's been sent for editing - the lovely Karen Sanders removed a million extraneous commas - and I've looked over the notes, and now it's done. Completely and utterly done! Next, I have to decide what I want to do with it. I'd like to submit it, either to an agent …

Yes, Yes, Yes!

I've done it! I've finished my novel. I started - as you know - in November 2016, and wanted to finish within the year. It's been one year, two months and sixteen days. With a caveat... it's going to go to my editor, the wonderful Karen Sanders, who, I imagine, will pull it apart and …

Merry Christmas!

Every time I write a post for this blog, I realise how long it's been since the last one. Instead, I've been novelling (yes, squiggly little red line, that is a word if I want it to be!) Progress on the novel is still going well, but the actual details haven't changed since the last post I …

One last edit… (and #BlackFriday sale)

... is what I said to myself, before I hand it over at the end of January. Well, actually, my plan was to retype the whole darn novel, and it started pretty well. If you're new to this blog, you may not be aware of my rather unique editing style of retyping. I discovered a …

Happy Birthday, Novel-of-Mine

This morning I posted this picture on my Facebook page, and thought it deserved more comment. You see, after sending my novel to beta readers, receiving their feedback and implementing it, this was supposed to be the final quick read-through to check for snags before sending it off to Karen Sanders for editing in the new …

To write a novel, don’t write a short story instead!

  This month, I have mostly been side-tracked by the Commonwealth Writers Short Story Prize, which is a huge international competition that I've entered for the past couple of years. Normally, I've had a story that I can refresh for this, and send off without too much fuss. But this year I had nothing. At …

Novel in a Year, plus another year

With the chill autumnal air approaching, and the kids back to school and - sigh - university, it's time to get back to my novel. Over the summer, three wonderful beta readers (Nick, Liz and Ruth) read my draft and gave some awesome feedback. There's a lot to do. I realised, while scanning through their comments, …

Finished!

I've done it! I've finished my final draft, and sent off copies to some awesome beta readers! Ahem, it can be a roller coaster of emotion... This final draft came in at 47,500 words, and took 38 days. In total, this whole novel has taken 6 months and 1 day to get to this stage …