More than Writers

When I asked ACW members in a Twitter (X) poll (because it was I asking that question on Twitter (X) that day), 80% of you said you preferred to read fiction in a paper-based book, rather than using an e-reader.   Me myself, I devour books electronically, generally on my iPad, and occasionally on my phone, mostly through the Kindle app, sometimes using Libby (the library app) and occasionally files which have been sent to me in .pdf.     ‘Oh, but I love the feel of a book… and the smell of a book,’ you say.   Let me list the benefits of ebooks: My husband has a bag with ‘My Book & My Lunch’ printed on it.   Nice bag, but, if you read electronically, you don’t need to carry a heavy book about with you, or risk scuffing the cover (and possibly smearing your lunch on it).   You always have access to your ebook.   It’s not ideal reading on the Kindle app on your phone, because of the size of the screen, but it’ll do in an emergency, when you find you...

  Today is my youngest son’s birthday. Turning eleven turns out to be a big deal, who knew? He’s been excited for a long time, which is lovely in itself. When my children first arrived, there was no anticipation, no looking forward to anything. It meant for peaceful birthday Eves and Christmas Eves but it made me sad as well. I remember waking my parents up at ridiculous times, announcing it was my birthday. We’re not quite there yet, but seeing my son’s excitement has been lovely. My latest novel came out last week, and as it’s been such a long time, it felt strange. We had the necessary book cake for the Book Launch Party , and I did enjoy talking about the story online. On the other hand, I felt drained a little, as the book had been so long in the making, it was hard to feel excited. Until one of my best friends started messaging me about how much she loved the story. There have been a few books released in the last week. There’s Jenny Sanders’ book, Polished Arrows , and I...

I adore flash fiction and believe writing it can benefit all writers. Why?   The limited word count (1000 words maximum) means it can be a great writing exercise. You can polish and submit those pieces later.   There are many flash fiction websites. You can build up publication credits this way. Could that be something useful to add to a query letter to a publisher/agent when you’re submitting longer works? I think so.  It shows the publisher/agent someone else thought your work was of a publishable standard (and websites I write for reject stories. I’ve had work turned down. Funnily enough, that matters). Flash fiction teaches you so much about editing.  All fear of stamping on adverbs will leave you, I promise.  The moment I see a “ly” word in my writing, I stomp on it. I have gone through this piece carefully to ensure I don’t leave any. Oops - almost! Removing as many adverbs as I can has improved my pacing. I use, as an example in my workshops, the phrase ...

  Yes! There’s always a first time for everything under the sun in God's watch! This is my first experience of interviewing an author!! Enjoy below! Hi Emily!   I’m delighted and excited to interview you. Thanks again for your time. Have your cup of tea and hoping it  doesn’t  run cold before the end.   Thank you! My pleasure. It’s a privilege that you asked me to do this.  Okay, let’s start! Your Favourite Things:   1.What’s  your favourite movie? I'm  not a movie buff! The most recent I've seen is Robot Dreams, an animated movie, which I thought  really well  done. I'm  a fan of Mary Poppins, largely because I watch it with my niece. I like The Theory of Everything As I say;  I'm  not hugely into movies.   2. What’s  your favourite hot drink? A cup of tea. I  didn't  even have to think about that one. Tea is my petrol! It's lovely that you suggested I get a cup of tea befo...

My friend's lovely Guide dog, Arlo, has been struggling with a nasty syndrome that caused his eyes to droop and the muscles in his face to waste away. He chokes a lot too which is very worrying.  He seems to improve and then there is a sudden flare up of symptoms.  We are finding we are always on edge wondering if he is ok.   This up and down nature of physical syndromes is very typical of another syndrome that many, if not all of us writers contend with.  Our old nemesis, imposter syndrome.  Quite a few have blogged about it already, so why am I bringing it up again?  I believe it's an area we always need God's fresh encouragement about.  Like Arlo, the symptoms can seem to improve to such a degree that we think we're healed and then something we read or hear triggers that little lie in our hearts, 'You're the odd one out, you don't match up.  You're a fraud!'  When that lie comes into my heart it seems so very real!  I feel like t...

Image by  Artur Pawlak  from  Pixabay Last month I asked the question, ‘ Who remembers your characters? ’ Thank you for all of your lovely comments, I am so glad that you found my muse helpful. In a similar vein, I would like to ask another question. How much thought do you give to the names of characters, places, objects, inventions, etc? In my ‘ Mimics ’ series, many of the characters and creatures are given Greek or Hebrew names. One of my Hebrew character names is ‘ Abaddon .’ I’ll leave you to figure out what that means.   Having recently moved house, I was keen to find out the meaning of where I live. The village is Kings Stanley . The ancient word for stoney or rocky ground is ‘stan’ and ‘leah’ means clearing. In the 13 th century, the local manor was a demesne of Henry III, hence the ‘Kings’ designation. My street name is ‘ Penn Lane ,’ originally spelt as ‘PEN.’ This seems rather fitting for an author don’t you think? The word ‘Lane’ is from the Germa...

  This time next month I will be in recovery mode. I know I will probably be exhausted, because running a writer’s retreat is not quite the same as going on one. Or is it? I know that despite the tiredness I will have been blessed, encouraged and inspired. And that is the point of a writer’s retreat isn’t it? Last year when we ran our first Writing Kingdom Stories Retreat, none of us knew what we were doing. I had never even been on a Writer’s Retreat, or any kind of organised retreat before. I just knew that God had invited us into the adventure of running one. And He blessed it beyond our expectations. By the time we invited our intrepid first attendees, we had a good idea of what we wanted to provide for them, and an inkling of what God might want to do. We were actually blown away by what God did during the weekend, and by what He launched from that first retreat. More than we could think or imagine. Funny that. When you pray, when you step out in faith, when you submit to Hi...

Most days, I post a photo on Instagram and Facebook. It’s either a book I’ve just read, with a mini-review, or it’s a close up photo of a plant or flower from my garden. It’s a deliberate attempt to be a positive influence on social media (to my few followers at least!). I bumped into one of my ‘Facebook friends’ the other day and she said she loved my photos of flowers and only wished her garden looked as good as that. ‘That’s why I take close ups,’ I said. ‘They look better, and you can’t see the mess in the rest of the garden.’ I’m not trying to be misleading. I’m just making the best of what I have: the blessing of a large garden and not enough time to maintain it as I would like. But the conversation made me think about perspective. Unlike a lot of writers, I enjoy editing. I can put in a decent day’s work without needing to wait for inspiration. And it’s less scary than writing the first draft, wondering where the words are coming from and whether I have any contr...