I am often writing about families in my books – children, parents, sisters, grampas, aunties… the whole family scene. And because it’s all fictional and written for entertainment, these imaginary people are so much wittier,… Read More »When families are… complicated!
Annie Valentine is back! Thanks to the lovely people at Boldwood, The Personal Shopper has had a makeover. I hope new readers will love Annie and previous readers will remember her fondly. So, a little… Read More »Happy Annie Valentine’s Day!
By Ian Fleming. Published by Penguin. Book review Because I am definitely going to miss Daniel Craig’s James Bond – Spectre was my favourite Bond film – I spent some very enjoyable evenings reading three… Read More »On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
I was visiting relatives in Germany this summer and spent one wonderful hot and sunny day wandering round Frankfurt, a city I’ve been visiting since I was young. I’d been so starved of travel that… Read More »Ich bin ein Frankfurter
This is for everyone who is feeling a bit the same, a bit stuck… a bit bleughhhh… And after the time we’ve had lately, that’s probably quite a lot of us. We’ve not been allowed… Read More »The Getting Out of a Rut Blog
I was desperate to have children because I wanted to have babies… you know, those adorable, tiny, scrunched up, helpless little preciouses. I never thought for one moment about gangly big teenagers stomping and flouncing… Read More »The All About *Those* Conversations Blog
I’m writing this for one person in particular, but hopefully it will help all kinds of creative people going through a tough period of rejection. So, the girl I’m writing for has been dancing and… Read More »Why rejection is good for your artistic soul
When I’m writing, I am sitting almost completely still, apart from the flying fingers of course, but writing makes me so hungry. Probably because my brain is working so hard. The danger of serious snacking… Read More »Because writers need snacks
People overestimate what they can do in a year. And underestimate what they can do in ten years. I must be getting older and wiser, but I do find that my need to rush at… Read More »The Long-Term View
This is a short blog and a kind of bad tempered one. Novel editing: AAAAAAARGH! Yes, editing your work – going back over it once the first draft is done – and re-writing, clarifying, adding,… Read More »Editing Swamp