Writing Blog
Book review: The Storm Sister
I’m usually not a fan of book series. I know they’re all the rage, and authors and readers swear by them, but personally, I tend to avoid them. I picked up, The Seven Sisters, the first book of this series by Lucinda Riley last year without knowing it was part of a developing series. I…
Read MoreDo you ever need incentives to edit?
Your novel is all completed and now it’s just down to the easy peasy task of editing, right? Well, err, I doubt many would describe it that way. I find the initial writing to be the easier task, and the editing process to be much slower going. That’s why I like to look at photos…
Read MoreBook review: A Hundred Summers
Plot in a nutshell: Boy meets girl. Boy loses girl. Years later, boy returns into girl’s life, now married to girl’s best friend. Classic story, but it’s what the author does with it. This wonderful debut novel by Beatriz Williams is told in alternating story lines. The first unrolls in 1931 as smart, ambitious Smith…
Read MoreWant a workout for your brain? Read a novel.
As (obsessive) readers, we all know how a novel can amuse us and transport us. But did you know novel reading also provides a workout for your brain? There’s a short, interesting article in the LA Times about brain research showing how our mind reacts to novel reading. College students were all provided with a…
Read MoreRereading Little House on the Prairie
I read Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder when I was a little girl, and, like most kids my age, I loved it. I devoured the whole series, and also enjoyed the television series of the time. Years later, my own son saw it in a bookstore back on a visit to New…
Read MoreBook review: The Good Girl
This psychological thriller by Mary Kubica is being promoted for fans of Gone Girl and The Girl on The Train. This isn’t my normal genre, but I was curious to read this book after reading about it and finding the plot intriguing. I’d read both Gone Girl and The Girl on The Train. Despite being…
Read MoreElena Ferrante on bending writing rules
“I use plots, yes, but, I have to say, I can’t respect the rules of genres.” —Elena Ferrante Successful, anonymous author Elena Ferrante certainly has the right to devise books any way she chooses. The Italian novelist (male or female, we don’t know, but my money’s on female) became an international bestseller with her ‘Neapolitan…
Read MoreNovels over authors
“I am more interested in works than authors.” -E.M. Forster “What is important is ‘Hamlet’ and ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ not who wrote them.” -William Faulkner An interesting observation from the great novelist, E.M. Forster (1879-1970), who has a soft spot in my heart for all the novels he set in Italy. And something very…
Read MoreBook Blogger Hop: Who am I reading for?
Over at the excellent blog for readers, Once Upon a Littlefield, blogger Emma joins the Book Blogger Hop answering the question: Who am I reading for? The question – which is ideally answered by many bloggers blogging about or reviewing books: Do you read and review books mainly for publishers or authors? Like Emma, I…
Read MoreWriting inspiration from Lord Byron
If I don’t write to empty my mind, I go mad. Lord Byron These words from the great Romantic poet, George Gordon Noel Byron (1788-1824), more commonly known as simply Lord Byron, may feel quite familiar to writers. Well, hopefully not hauled-off-in-a-straight-jacket mad, but I’ve been known to have stories jingling around in my head,…
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