Getting started

A great post from Janet Gover on the Take Five Authors blog.

Take Five Authors

I thought I’d start 2016 and my part of this great new blog space with an attempt to respond to the words I hear so often – ‘I don’t know where to get started writing a book’.

The timing of this new blog is great because I’m setting out on a new journey myself. That is to say, I’m starting to write a new book and I thought I might share some if that with you here.

For those of you who want to write, getting started is surprisingly simple… just sit down with whatever writing implement you prefer and write something down. It really doesn’t matter what you write. Just write something.

Although I write the actual chapters on a computer, each book gets its own new notebook. Coloured pencils and post-it notes are essential too. More about that in a later blog.

A blank page can be quite…

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Writing Together – How Does It Work?

Fascinating post on collaborative writing by Lorraine and Pam, who, together, make up fab author Ellie Campbell. I’ve always wondered how and why it’s done!

Take Five Authors

Hi, my name’s Lorraine Campbell and together with my sister Pam Burks, I write women’s fiction under the name of Ellie Campbell, blending contemporary themes with humor, drama, romance and mystery.  As introduction I want to answer the question everyone seems to ask us:

How the hell do you manage writing together?

Well, we can’t answer for other writing teams but perhaps it’s no coincidence that they’re often intimately connected — husband and wife (Nicci French, Dick Francis), father and son (Dick Francis again), mother and daughter (Lily Herne, P.J. Tracy), mother and son (Charles Todd). Even Ellery Queen’s famous mysteries were written by two cousins.

You might say Pam and I started collaborating since we were 3 and 5. Poor Pam, as youngest was coerced to play Robin to my Batman, Tonto to my Lone Ranger, Will Scarlett to my Robin Hood, as we rampaged around Edinburgh, sharing fantasy adventures and…

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Fiction on the Taw

News of a new fiction course in Devon this summer, led by me! 🙂

Why I love Readers

From the new group blog that I’m thrilled to belong to, ‘Take Five Authors’. Don’t miss the competition to win a signed copy of The Wedding Proposal! 🙂

Take Five Authors

Obviously, I love my readers. They send me nice messages on Twitter and Facebook, they post fabulous reviews on Amazon and Goodreads – and they buy my books or borrow them from libraries. I think of my readers whenever I write. Is this right for them? Will they like that? One of my writing missions is to try and stop my readers putting out the light at the end of a chapter.

To be a writer in the age of communication is a privilege, because receiving a nice message from a reader makes my day, and I always reply. Sometimes readers message my characters so I reply on his or her behalf, too.

But I have a huge affection for all readers of all genres/books/magazines/authors. Without them (or I should say ‘us’ as reading is one of my greatest and abiding pleasures) the publishing industry wouldn’t exist. That thought…

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Happy New Year!

I’d intended to create some gorgeous Happy New Year graphic to wish all my reader, writer, blogger and all-kinds-of-other friends a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year. However, my iMac is undergoing surgery so I’ll rely on good old words instead.

And my thanks to you all for your friendship and support. I look forward to sharing 2016 with you.

🙂 X