My novel, The Unravelling, begins with Karen Rothwell driving home from work on a miserable night. An apple drops from her bag and rolls into a gutter. That is enough to spark memories of a girl she hasn’t thought about for 35 years. I don’t think I have been blocking out any memories, all theseContinue reading “Apples and Other Memories”
Category Archives: writing
Gwen and Other Names
A choice of names for characters is always tricky. Never have too many characters with names starting with the same letter. And never use the same name twice, even though, in real life, you probably know half a dozen Janes and Jameses. Maybe go for names that have a certain significance, athough sometimes the author’sContinue reading “Gwen and Other Names”
So Clear, So Obvious
There’s a difference between writing history and writing historical fiction, but sometimes the two can overlap. Write about a real historical character and the author has to do all the research that an academic historian would. The facts are there and cannot be changed. The difference is that the author of fiction is free toContinue reading “So Clear, So Obvious”
What’s in a Genre?
When I first moved from seriously obsessive scribbling to trying to get someone else to appreciate what I’d written, the first question confronting me was ‘what genre do I write in?’ People want to know. At least publishers want to know, and agents and librarians and book shop owners, not to mention readers. This canContinue reading “What’s in a Genre?”
Crime with a Welsh Twist
Everyone knows Scandi Noir. Scottish Crime Writing is a phenomenon that makes its voice heard loudly. Not so many people know about Welsh crime writing, though they have probably watched Welsh crime dramas like Hinterland and Keeping Faith. But there are a lot of Welsh crime writers (like me) and we have a Presence: weContinue reading “Crime with a Welsh Twist”
Being over-nice about words
There are some words that literally drive me mad. Well no, not literally. Figuratively. They annoy me, but that doesn’t mean I have literally been declared insane as a result or have had to seek psychiatric help. The first of them is ‘Literally,’ which does not mean figuratively. It means the opposite of figuratively, andContinue reading “Being over-nice about words”
The Unravelling: Keep Going.
How long does it take to write a book? How long is a piece of string? In the case of string, the answer is simple: twice as long as half. In the case of books, it can be really complicated. My novel, The Unravelling, took me three months to write. But it also took thirtyContinue reading “The Unravelling: Keep Going.”
Swimming with the Editing Current
This was a post I wrote years ago, after a particularly harrowing session of editing. If you want to write, there are rules you have to follow. Apparently. What I want to know is, who set these rules? And what will happen to me if I disobey them? I would really like to disobey them,Continue reading “Swimming with the Editing Current”
F
An old post from last year on naughty words. I’ve had a review of Motherlove, otherwise complimentary, but marked down because of the excessive use of obscenities, particularly F… Well I wouldn’t want to offend anyone in this post by writing it, but it’s derived from the Middle English word for copulation. And its original sexual connotationContinue reading “F”
The Great Devon Novel
This is a post I wrote years ago, and I still haven’t started on the novel. I’ve been delving, as I often do, into the branch of my family that came from Devon, and while mulling over lists of Devon parishes, I couldn’t help but think that they could surely provide an entire cast list for aContinue reading “The Great Devon Novel”
