How To Commemorate A Published Author’s First Anniversary
I have an anniversary. I have officially been a author/publisher for one year. A lot has changed in a year and I decided it’s time to take stock of it all. I have two books on the market. A third, closely followed by a fourth, are going to the presses in a...
A Change Is Better Than A Holiday
I’ve had a mammoth week of change. I moved house three times, went to a writers’ conference in Dublin and started a new life as an artist in residence. I’m exhausted, but happy. Some weeks are much better than others. Change beats holidays hands down. Ireland It was...
Pantsing Your Way To A Plot
To pants or to plot? That is the question. It does not really matter now. The main thing is I made it to the end of my third novel. I don’t know what it was, but getting to the end seemed like climbing Everest. Not that I have climbed Everest, but writing the novel...
Author Aloud: Chatting With Richard White And Stephen Pearl
I recently took part in a live author chat with writers Richard White and Stephen Pearl on Authors Write Aloud. It is the first time I have done a live streaming as an author. The entire experience was a lot of fun It also helped me gain further insight into how...
The Trials Of Independent Author Time Management
I kind of lost the plot for a while (slight pun intended). I forgot to manage my time. I got caught up in the business of publishing. I have been obsessed with watching my sales rankings and trying to optimise my book’s descriptions, categories and...
Stream Of Consciousness And Writing At The Speed Of Light
I’m doing an experiment. I am trying to put as much down on the page as possible in the shortest amount of time. I am hoping it will also make sense and not be mindless dribble. A lot of the blogs I write use a technique called stream of consciousness. They are...
Is There A Secret Weapon For Writing Great Stories?
Recently I attended a free online writing course. It proposed to solve the common problems which most writers encounter. It also promised to increase writing productivity. It sounded like getting the keys to a secret weapon. Naturally, as a writer, I was inquisitive...
How To Write A Really Big Story
I find myself in unknown territory. A year ago I started writing a story about a witch. It almost grew by itself. At some stage I decided the story had the potential to be bigger than just one book. This is when I realised I should write a series. I put the idea aside...
Taking Stock Of Where You Are As An Authorpreneur
Not that long ago I began writing in earnest. I plunged into it and along the way discovered I have a talent which had laid buried for most of my life. I made a change. I decided to pursue my creativity. It has opened doors for me. It has introduced me to a whole new...
The Real Life And Death Of A Fictional Character
Creating great fictional characters draws on all of a writer’s knowledge of mankind. Quite often a character is a conglomeration of people they have met in real life. Some people have a greater influence on the development of a character than others. Some leave a...
A Witching We Will Go: Time To Celebrate A New Novel
Very soon my second book, about a whole other witching world, will hit the stores. Even though I have been through the process once, it still feels like the first time. My writers journey started in earnest in July this year. At that stage I set up my own publishing...
Writing From An Indigenous Perspective: Part 2
The feeling that I didn’t have the right to write from an indigenous perspective was a major obstacle for me for a long time. It prevented me from finishing a musical around the original idea for Loreless. It held me back with writing the novel. No matter how many...
The Hell Ride To Get Books On The Shelves
I got there! Probably one of the hardest parts of distributing my book has been achieved. It was a hell of a ride, but well worth it. Last week I felt like I crossed yet another finishing line. There seem to be so many of them on the publishing journey. This time...
Is Writers Block A Figment Of Your Imagination?
What is writers block? What is any form of creative block? Is it real or is it invented? I don’t know whether what I’m experiencing is a block. I only realised it when I wrote the title to this post. I gave it that name, but is it really what I think it is?...
The Self-Help Guide to Self-Help Gurus
Learning the ropes as an author and independent publisher involves gleaning information from all kinds of sources. Inevitably you are drawn into what the internet has to offer. There are thousands of experts and gurus out there who are more than willing to share their...
Perseverance Is Everything
I have been struggling. Perseverance is getting me down. Writing itself and being a dedicated author is not a problem. It’s more about coming to terms with finding an audience. Creating a novel is only part of my job as an author. I have to make sure others can...
A Publishing Aftermath and a New Beginning
A couple of weeks ago I published my first book. I sent Loreless out into the world. To use a well-worn cliche, it was a baptism of fire. Now in the aftermath I realise I am at the beginning once again. For months and months I had no fear. I was convinced of what I...
Fairies and Tantrums: What Happened The Day Before The Launch
About a week ago everything changed, again. I sent my book Loreless out into the world. To use a well-worn cliché, it was a baptism of fire. On the morning preceding publishing day I wrote down my thoughts. Now they make interesting reading. Escaping with words I...
A Book Begins Its Journey
Twenty years of garnering knowledge, and four years of writing and learning to become a publisher, have led me to this point. A book on the market. I know it’s not the done thing, but if you need something to entertain your eyes, go buy a book. Preferably...
Being Unemployed Is Hard Work
I’m not unemployed. It’s not true. In fact I’m constantly employed. I write. I make music. I run two bands. I do historical research and take courses in marketing. I maintain a website. I blog. I soak up every snippet of information on writing that I can find. I am a...
Never Lose Sight Of The Big Picture
I just discovered this stream of consciousness. I wrote it a few months ago. Sometimes, its good to have this kind of thing to put it all into perspective. Lack of a view of the big picture happens to be one of the biggest battles with writing professionally. The...
Stop Chasing The Muse
Yesterday I was reading an article about writing and the subject of the muse came up. muse noun ˈmyüz 1 capitalised : any of the nine sister goddesses in Greek mythology presiding over song and poetry and the arts and sciences 2: a source of...
How To Make Yourself Creatively Accountable
If you are trying to make a living with a creative endeavour you need to hold yourself accountable for what you do. Writing requires enormous dedication. There is a large percentage of the population who have thought about writing a book. Supposedly this figure is...
What Is Synchronised Drowning?
It’s the weekly swimming lesson and I am sitting on a balcony above the pool. I have a birds-eye view of everything. I am watching my daughter flailing through the water and trying to remember what that was like. She looks so uncoordinated. It looks like synchronised...
Trapped
I'm stuck, trapped. I thought I knew where I was going but I’m not so sure anymore. The future is dark. I can’t see it. A heavy curtain has fallen in my path. I try to push it aside but it has so many folds I can’t seem to find the opening and draw...
How To Become A Publishing Expert
There seems to be no end of people online with an opinion on writing. And not only about what the best methods are for putting words on the page, there are also literally thousands giving advice on publishing. I’m no publishing expert but it is clear to me that...
Invoking Parkinson’s Law
Mr. Parkinson had it all worked out. Government departments have a peculiar way of working. There is a certain amount of work to be done. It makes no difference if you have a week to do it in or a year. The work will get done in the prescribed amount of time. It will...
Research and Memory
Research takes a lot time. It also involves an enormous amount of reading. Most of it goes in and gets lost somewhere in the recesses of your brain. You can’t absorb everything in detail. Somehow your brain filters out the unimportant stuff and you’re just...Discover a part of Australia you never imagined existed.
Read Loreless
Do you like stories about witches? Ghosts? Powerful entities? You must meet Anaïs Blue.
