My Blog
The lottery of writing fame
Last Thursday evening I had a great opportunity to see a very successful writer up close and hear the details of her career. Ann Cleeves was visiting Cockermouth in West Cumbria, not far from from where I live, and I was asked to 'interview' her live in front of a...
How do we measure ‘success’?
I spent decades of my professional life working with schools and education systems on how they find out how well they're doing: what information to gather, how to do so, and how to use the information so that it improves their 'performance' rather than just measures...
Beware of publishing rip-offs
A year or so ago I ran a self-publishing workshop at a northern book festival, explaining the various choices and challenges we authors encounter when trying to get our books first into print and then into readers' hands. One of the the twenty or so people there told...
A writer’s dilemma: what’s the priority?
After my last novel 'Fatal Reckoning' came out in 2016, I promised myself a break. Five books published in five years, and I needed some time out. So six months later I'm looking back and reflecting on what the break has taught me, so far. Firstly, it's clear that I...
The ‘Unbound’ contract is signed, so what now?
How did this happen, and now that it has, am I up to it? I started to write relatively late in life: going on a course on 'How to Write a Novel' was my 60th birthday present to myself. Four years later I published my first novel 'A Good Liar' and four more have...
Recording an audio book: lessons learned?
This week I finished the recording of 'A Good Liar' and here are a few things I learned, in case you fancy doing it yourself. Find a good studio with a decent mike and a proficient engineer. Mine was the Music Farm in Egremont, only 20 minutes from home, and exactly...