Ruth’s Blog
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Audiobooks: can I do it all myself?
It's amazing what a relief it is to have decided already that I won't have a new book out until mid-2018. For the first time in five years I feel I can step back a little and not be plunged immediately into the research and planning of a new book, while simultaneously...
Authentic local setting: useful or off-putting?
It was a wild and snowy night, with a full moon wierdly visible through the snow, as I drove to a readers' group meeting at Grange-over-Sands library on Thursday and spoke to the hardy souls who turned up. Talking about the new book 'Fatal Reckoning' without giving...
Do I really need an ‘App’ for my writing?
I didn't know 'writing apps' existed until I was being interviewed for a blog last year and the interviewer asked me which one I used. He was far more digitally sophisticated than me, and seemed surprised that I was plugging away in 'Word', saving drafts into files,...
Explicit sex in the novel: too much information?
'Fatal Reckoning' has been out a few weeks now and I'm beginning to get feedback from readers about it. Overall views are very positive, but there are always some who wanted something from the plot which I didn't choose to provide. In particular, two male readers have...
What about the ‘unreliable narrator’?
Two recent bestsellers have two things in common: the first is the use of the word 'girl' in the title, and the second is a story told by at least one 'unreliable narrator'. I read 'Gone Girl' because I wanted to see what all the fuss was about, and felt at the end...
Writing about your own community
Every year in mid-December I borrow tables, chairs and crockery and invite all my neighbours in for the 'Street feast'. The annual gathering took place last night: fourteen adults, two children and a baby celebrating his first birthday with us. Ages ranged from 81 to...
A new chapter?
I knew this week would be busy but it's been more than that: it feels like the start of a new chapter in my short writing life. Two events happened simultaneously. First, my new book 'Fatal Reckoning' was officially launched, on Friday at the Beacon Museum in...
What does a book cover really mean?
This is a bit complicated. Just to start things off, here are the covers of the two crime fiction books I've published, last year and last week. I think they're quite good, but what they indicate more than anything else is the setting - Morecambe Bay in 'Cruel Tide'...
‘Angst’: does it undermine creativity, or inspire it?
There's a Woody Allen movie - which one is it? - which opens with the young Woody talking to a psychiatrist. The boy is appalled by the idea that the universe is expanding, which he sees as a sign of impending doom. After the 'angst' of the past few months, I think I...
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