Ruth’s Blog
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‘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...
Algorithms for Marketing? What?
I was talking self-publishing with an old friend who writes and publishes in a different genre to me, and does very well. Most of his sales are on Amazon, both paperback and ebook formats. 'It's all about algorithms,' he said, and I nodded sagely. I should have said...
‘Foreshadowing’: can it be overdone?
Louise Doughty had a profound impact on my fiction writing when I first met her on an Arvon course in 2008 called 'How to Write novel'. She was already a well-published author, although not as famous and celebrated as she has since become. More importantly for me at...
‘It’s been a long time’ – again!
I wrote a good post this afternoon, illustrated with the cover of my new book, 'Fatal Reckoning' - due out end of November. The post was full of wise words about the need for visual images, that I learned in a workshop on blogging at the Killer Women event in London....
First post for a long time! Did anyone notice?
It's been a long absence!
Does it matter that a title’s been used before?
There's no copyright on book titles. I didn't realise that to start with and fretted that I couldn't ever use a title that had been used before, but I can, although it's still needs thinking about. The easiest way to check is to do what I did yesterday - draw up a...
The book title dilemma
My editor and I are having a disagreement about the title of the new book. The first title I chose sounded fairly dull, and I wasn't convinced. Then I opted for a phrase 'Seize the Day' which appears once in the book, and quite significantly, but right at the end. She...
How important is ‘authenticity’?
Problem: I want to write a crime series based in Cumbria. I want to have a female detective, who needs to be at least at sergeant and better still at inspector level. I want to keep clear of the technical complications of the DNA, Police and Criminal Evidence Act and...
Here’s to the Society of Authors
I love the Society of Authors, for all sorts of reasons. For a start, they let me join, which for an independently published author is a real bonus, as most of the writers' groups won't let me join regardless of how many real, well-produced and well-written novels I...
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