The Mysterious Life of Writers

  Writing is a mysterious business. It’s a lot of smoke and mirrors; living with imaginary people, crazy google searches and staying in my head a lot. My imaginary friends talk loudly to me sometimes and too quietly for me to hear at others. Sometimes they fight me. I’ll want them react a certain way,…

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Who am I?

Here we are on the 4th of January. It’s only going be what feels like a few days time we all say: ‘wow, it’s December already, where has the year gone?!’ Anyway, I wanted to start the new year with a bit of a ditty on me for all the new people who have recently…

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Ideas from nowhere

  As you can see my white boards are beginning to fill up with ideas, character descriptions and a few other things. I don’t always use everything that goes up on these boards, and there’s nothing plotted here, only a place to throw ideas and thoughts at. I’ve been troubling over how to start Book…

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Two at a time…

  Last week I wrote about a needing to write two books at at time to make my deadlines. I was getting involved with NaNoWriMo to help do this. Deciding to spend one week on each book, would mean I should get about 25k into each book by the end of November. Best laid plans…

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Naming characters

  Well it’s November and November can be an important month in writer-world. November means NaNoWriMo. What does that mean, you might ask? Well, it means National Novel Writing Month. And today, I’ve just formatted my new file to start book 20, so I can join in. During NaNoWriMo, you’re supposed to write about 50,000…

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What it takes to write a book

  I’m often asked what it takes to write a book. Having finished my 19th novel about twelve hours ago, I reflected on the question, whilst sitting on the patio with a wine, screaming: ‘thank god that’s done!’ So, I compiled a list. A workable laptop. Not one that dies with only copy of your…

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The warmth of Nana’s kitchen

Have you got long lasting memories of hanging out in your grandma’s kitchen? I sure do. My Nana H was the best cook – some of her specialties were chocolate chip biscuits, sponge cake, trifle and bread rolls made from scratch. In fact she taught me how to make bread from scratch and I still…

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My books and music for 2020

Well, what a year, huh? Who would have though that the words ‘unprecedented’, ‘Covid normal’, Self-isolation’, ‘social distancing’, ‘Black Lives Matter’, and ‘Karen’ would have made their way into our everyday language? That the news would be full of Corona Virus information, forsaking all other news! That Zoom would have become part of our ‘norm’.…

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The NEW Detective Dave book

Oh my gosh! So many questions as to whether there is going to be a sequel to Red Dirt Country! Did you really think I’d leave you hanging to see what Bulldust did next? Well, in case you did, fear not! The answer is yes. Something to Hide will be published on the 30th March…

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My friend, Anxiety

I’ve always told my kids that “if we don’t share our stories, then how can we help people?” That’s why they don’t mind me talking about the challenges they live with; they embrace them and are what makes them who they are (that doesn’t take away, they’ve had extra challenges to deal with and hard…

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A rather personal post

I’ve got quite a personal post, today. A post about anxiety, heartache, discovery and in the end, immense satisfaction. Today is International Day of Disabled People. I have two children with disabilities – although as a great friend pointed out to me the other day: ‘I don’t think of your kids as disabled.’ Nothing more…

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Another novel

  I love the ‘new feels’ of starting a new book. It’s exciting, fun and the possibilities are endless. Trouble is, those feelings don’t always hang around. I find I get to about 20,000 words in and get a bit stuck. Those first 20,000 come with a rush of adrenalin and enthusiasm. The next 50,000…

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