For over sixteen years, I’ve been writing a monthly column for two local community magazines, the Tetbury Advertiser and the Hawkesbury Parish News. Around the middle of each month, I’d down tools to dash off 500 words for each paper – a different article for each of them – to meet their deadlines. I’ve loved every minute of it – even when it meant burning the midnight oil to fit it into my busy schedule. But the time has come to step down to allow more time for other projects.
Q. What’s a literary Easter egg?
A. It’s a little surprise tucked away in a story to amuse readers smart enough to spot it.
Today I’m going to tell you about some of the Easter eggs hidden in my books, how some of my author friends like to play the same game, and how to get a free Kindle ebook of my fun little novelette, The Clutch of Eggs – the perfect read for Easter weekend.
Usually my last blog post of each month is a conversation with a fellow author, often about their new book. But this month, as I’ve just launched my latest cosy mystery novel, The Importance of Being Murdered, I’ll be talking to myself!
So, here’s a quick Q&A to whet you appetite for my new story.
Keep reading through to the end, you’ll find not only a buying link to The Importance of Being Murdered, but also a link to a FREE prequel short story that sets the scene, Overture and Beginnners.
Last week, I was pleased to be a speaker at the London Book Fair as a member of the panel discussing “The Rise & Rise of the Authorpreneur”, chaired by Orna Ross, founder of the Alliance of Independent Authors and champion of indie authors everywhere.
It’s an author who treats their writing like a business – and, crucially, makes money from it!
Orna invited me to be part of the line-up to represent what’s known in the trade as the hybrid author. That means someone who self-publishes some of their books while licensing rights on other books to traditional publishers. Thus, they have a foot in both camps.
That’ll be me, then!
Continue reading “What’s an Authorpreneur and Why Am I One?”
In motoring terms, if there’s one thing worse that breaking down during rush hour on a roundabout, it’s breaking down during rush-hour on a double roundabout. As I know, having done both, 40 years apart. For both incidents, the clutch was to blame.
The first time, a loose connection silently leaked clutch fluid in my wake on my morning commute to Queen Square before I ground to halt at Stokes Croft. I could hardly believe what was happening. This was my brand-new company car, a cute metallic green Renault 5, of which I’d proudly taken delivery only the previous day. Although this was before the age of mobile phones enabling drivers to call for help, the timing was on my side. Almost immediately, a traffic officer arrived on the scene to investigate the cause of the bottleneck.
“What seems to be the problem, madam?” he asked kindly, noticing my visible distress.
“It’s my birthday!” I sobbed, which was true. “It’s not fair!”
Continue reading “A Tale of Two Clutch Failures: What I Learned When My Car Broke Down”
