How do you decide something is a good story? Do you judge that by the genre or by the quality of the characters?
For me, the latter is by far the most important criterion. Really good characters stay with you long after you’ve finished reading or listening to the story.
This is the time of year when many traditions are upheld, of course, but I think the best involve getting together with friends to celebrate something you have in common.
For me, this winning combination works so well with the Bridge House Celebration Event held this year at St. John’s Church, Waterloo, in London on Saturday, 7th December 2019.
Author events are fun but they all have one thing in common – the writer always wonders if anyone will show up! The relief when people do is enormous.
So if you know writers and they are putting on events, do go along. Never underestimate the value of much appreciated morale boosting support here. (The other simple way of supporting writers is to review their books on the usual sites. The nice thing with this is the review doesn’t have to be a long one).
Thank you to my guests in this series, especially for answering my first question. I can’t think of any writer who would willingly just save one book!
I conclude with contributions from Bridge House Publishing/Cafelit colleagues, discover what two fine Scottish crime writers would save if push came to shove (that’s an apt expression given what they write!), and will finally answer the questions myself. [Read more…] about What Books Mean To Me – Part 3
It was a great pleasure last week to start this series on What Books Mean to Me. Now I write, I have realised how important reading well is for developing my imagination. [Read more…] about What Books Mean to Me – Part 2
Any writer will say to write well, you must read well (and widely). Every writer I know is as happy to talk about the latest great book they’ve read as well as what they’re working on. Why would you write if you didn’t love books and stories in the first place? There are two sides to this coin.
Image Credit: A big thanks to my guests for supplying photos. Unless otherwise stated, the book and library pictures come, as always, from those magnificent people at Pixabay.
Well, is it? The simple answer is not on everything. It’s never a good idea to have favourite children, for example. [Read more…] about Is It A Good Idea to Have Favourites?
If ever there was a city that knew how to make the most of its space, I would say it was London. I was there just over a week ago for a committee meeting and, afterwards, visited the Sky Gardens, which are the highest roof gardens in the capital. [Read more…] about Making Space – Part 1
Can someone ever define what a good book is given everyone has different tastes in genre? I think so. [Read more…] about What Do You Look For In A Good Book?
Regardless of what you write, no two writers have exactly the same journey (whether it is to publication or just to produce work they value for their own pleasure).
There are, of course, many elements in common, not least of which is the fact every writer goes through highs and lows as they try to make progress. We all have to work out how to deal with these. Yes, even the highs, because while they are wonderful, life as a whole is not one long continuous good news chain so why should the writing life be any different? [Read more…] about The Highs and Lows of the Writing Life
I’ve talked about my writing journey before but how about the reading one? Do you remember which book you first read by yourself or the one that was always read to you as a child because it was your favourite?
I can’t remember what was the first book I read myself though it wouldn’t surprise me if it was a picture book. Once you pick up a few words, going through a picture book to find those words for yourself because you can now read them, is special. This is yet another reason why a well produced picture book is important in a child’s reading development. They build confidence in reading and with that comes the wish to read other things. A child that lacks confidence in reading will be reluctant to try something they don’t already know. [Read more…] about Reading Journeys
What do the above have in common?
They will be appearing in Chandler’s Ford Library on Saturday, 2nd February 2019 between 10.30 am and 12 noon.
Hang on… let’s revise that a moment. [Read more…] about BOOK EVENT NEWS: Anne Wan / Sally Goodden – Chandler’s Ford Library
Phil, a friend of ours from Sheffield, England, is over here in Perth, Western Australia at the moment visiting family … on Saturday, he visited us in Glen Forrest, as he has done for the past eight years.
On this occasion, he presented me with a copy of Barbara Hillier’s book, ‘CHANDLER’S FORD, A PICTORIAL HISTORY’ (1994 edition – Front Cover shows Fortune Court and a VERY blue sky) … Phil bought it via Amazon U/K from a bookshop in Reading, Berks … [Read more…] about A VERY L–O–N–G Shot from Australia
One of the things I love about this time of year is that it is a wonderful time for stories. The weather’s cold and grim, it can be getting dark by 3.30 pm (which I find depressing), there’s not much on TV, so what could be better than keeping cosy and warm while reading a good book?
Naturally the publishers try to tap into this. It is with very good reason the Christmas book market is a major “pay day” for publishers and long may that continue. Book sales now should help fund the discovery of other writers and fabulous books later. [Read more…] about Christmas Stories – Allison Symes
In this final section of my mini-series, Jennifer C Wilson, Val Penny, Anne Wan, Wendy H Jones, and Richard Hardie continue to share their thoughts on different aspects of writing the series novel. Tonight we look at how to ensure each novel can be read as a stand-alone book, specific things my guests love and loathe about writing series, and whether they know, ahead of time, how many books are going to be in their respective series. [Read more…] about The Joys and Challenges of Writing Series Novels Part 3
It was a great joy last week to introduce my fellow writers and contributors to this series which looks at the joys and challenges of series novels. Amongst tonight’s topics for Jennifer C Wilson, Val Penny, Anne Wan, Wendy H Jones, and Richard Hardie to tackle are the challenges of writing a series and what are the issues which arise in trying to promote a series. (Trust me it is challenging enough promoting a single book!). And as ever many thanks to all of my guests for supplying the author pictures and book cover shots. [Read more…] about The Joys and Challenges of Writing Series Novels – Part 2
The joy and challenge of writing flash fiction is creating a short story out of nothing, with a proper beginning, middle and end, to a tight word count.
The joy and challenge of creating a novel is conjuring up your own world out of nothing and having an enthralling story set there, which usually comes in at the 80,000 to 100,000 word mark. (So your story must be strong to literally go the distance). [Read more…] about The Joys and Challenges of Writing Series Novels – Part 1
The world of literature would be much poorer without its fantastic fiction and its realistic opposite (and I am including non-fiction in what I term reality writing). Both show worlds we can identify with in some way.
For example, in The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkein’s epic fantasy work the way Saruman attempted to destroy the natural world to make his weapons and build his power is a direct reflection of how things have been on our own planet time and time again. I needn’t name the dictators and while Tolkein always denied any comparison to the build up to World War Two, you can see why people made that link. An absolute evil had to be destroyed. An unlikely hero did so. (Who would have thought Britain would win the Battle of Britain? We weren’t supposed to!). [Read more…] about Fantastic -v- Reality Writing
Summer seems to have gone. According to the BBC, there’ll be rain for many parts tonight, torrential in places. Squally winds in the south. UK flood warnings have been issued.
This morning, however, I saw something heartwarming on my way to work.
Walking past Desborough Road in Eastleigh this morning, I stopped at a house, which has a mini free library in the front garden. [Read more…] about Little Free Library on Desborough Road in Eastleigh
Following on from last week’s post about the best and worst decisions made regarding writing, I thought I’d share here some of the most useful writing tips I’ve picked up on my writing journey to date. The great thing about making mistakes is, if sensible, you learn from them. It is true of life in general you learn what to do by getting it wrong first!
[Read more…] about Writing Tips
