Where has Valentine’s Day appeared in literature? How have writers, poets and playwrights drawn on the customs and associations of this curious day of romance? A review of 6 classic works featuring Valentine’s Day. Continue reading Valentine’s Day in Literature
How my novel The Art Trip explores themes of love, inspiration, reinvention and self-expression. Continue reading Themes in The Art Trip
Why a vintage writing slope is more than a decorative object or antique curiosity and might still be a writer’s best friend. Continue reading The Beauty of a Writing Slope
Making the difficult cuts to hone and refine your novel. How to approach it? Editing on paper or on screen? When and how to use feedback? When are you actually finished? These are just some of the issues I’ll be … Continue reading The Long Road to a Novel – Part 6 – Cutting Free
Finding those sweet moments when the words just flow and pages begin to pile up. Knowing where you’re going. Writing towards what excites you. Choosing where, when, even what to write with. I’ll be looking at all this in the … Continue reading The Long Road to a Novel – Part 5 – The Flowing Stream
I’ve been posting recently about the journey to writing my first novel The Art Trip, from how I began to write, to how I gained in experience, then in confidence. Today I’m continuing with the next chapter in that story. I’ll be sharing … Continue reading The Long Road to a Novel – Part 4 – The Elusive Voice
Welcome to the next post in my blog series about the road to publishing my first novel, The Art Trip. This time I’m looking back at the long period I spent secretively working away and how I finally arrived at the … Continue reading The Long Road to a Novel – Part 3 – The Secret Ambition
I’m continuing my series of posts on the journey to writing my first novel The Art Trip, and this time I’m looking back at how the idea of writing first came to me at all. It’s interesting for me to … Continue reading The Long Road to a Novel – Part 2 – The Slow Start
Having just published my first novel, The Art Trip, I’m itching to get started on writing my next. The idea came to me a while ago, I have a rough plot outline and a few scribbled notes, so the most … Continue reading The Long Road to a Novel – Part 1 – The Reflective Reader
Being an avid reader and author of romantic comedy novels, naturally Jane Austen looms large among my heroes and inspirations, and that goes back a long way. As a teenager in the Nineties, when Jane’s work was enjoying a huge … Continue reading 5 Jane Austen Sites – Tour and Tea
