Write every day. Write when you can. Just write. Plan first. It’s so contradictory. Who should you listen…
Word-counts. Meh
I get that for some people, word-counts are a Jedi mind trick. They’re a way of disciplining yourself to write…
Like an arrow: On maintaining writing momentum (Part Two)
Part One was all about prep. Here’s how I laugh in the face of procrastination when I’m doing…
Like an arrow: On maintaining writing momentum (Part One)
A couple of people have asked me recently how I maintain momentum when writing a novel. How to keep going?…
I signed a contract for my novel!
Regular readers will remember me trilling recently about the fact that MLR Press is going to publish a novella I’ve…
On not waiting: or, a publisher wants my book!
Some of you may remember that three months ago I sent my historical, fantasy m/m romance off to a publisher…
Slaughter the darlings with a blunt pen-knife
I’ve now heard three different people saying how silly it is to ‘kill your darlings’ when you’re writing. “Why would…
How to slay self doubt and write that novel
Do you have a half-finished manuscript saved in the bowels of your computer? Do you dream of starting/finishing…
Today I crave curried books
I used to read whatever took my fancy: a history of witchcraft, a novel about a Japanese student’s…
Balancing hope
It’s done. Salt Magic, Skin Magic – my m/m fantasy romance set in Yorkshire in 1851 – is finished and…
The Tudor Hogwarts
Before Hogwarts, before Ursula Le Guin’s school for wizards on Roke, did you know that a real academy that taught…
Hot gin and sugar with Oliver Twist
Recently I read Christina E. Pilz’s historical m/m romance Fagin’s Boy in which a now grown-up Oliver Twist…