, , ,

Rejection and Acceptance

This is a photo of me back in 2005, when I was twenty-seven years old. I had finished writing my first book, The Poet's Wife (which I called In the Shade of the Orange Tree - this was later changed by the publisher) and my then-boyfriend-now-husband,…
, , ,

Votes for women, books about women?

A landmark anniversary passed this week in the UK, marking 100 years since women were granted the long overdue vote. In my first novel, The Poet’s Wife, Luisa meets with other women to discuss women’s suffrage and proudly casts her vote…
, , , ,

Interview with Scott Mullins from This Is Writing

An interview I did with Scott Mullins from This Is Writing is now live! Click here to read it. There were some really interesting questions which I had to think hard about, for example how I would define creativity, and what's my greatest fear…
, , ,

Why should we read Historical Fiction?

I'm going to let you into a little secret: I never intended to write Historical Fiction. It's not that I didn't enjoy reading it from time to time, but in my pre-novel days when I focused on the short story form, they were almost always set…
, , , ,

The curious truth about book covers

So here's a curious thing I've learnt about the covers of novels since becoming a published author: They don't have to (and often don't) have anything to do with the book's contents. Seems peculiar, doesn't it? Counter-intuitive? Downright…
, ,

Music as a creative force in writing

Katie Basil Screenprint I come from a family in which music is very important. Last week I wrote about the healing power of music as written about and illustrated in Quentin Blake's gorgeous children's book Patrick. As I was growing up, everyone…
, ,

Keeping the stories alive

        It seems I have a bit of a thing about elderly men. That's not nearly as dodgy as it sounds. Let me explain. Whilst researching for my first novel, The Poet's Wife, I was lucky enough to interview a gent in his…

Why Granada?

The Spanish Civil War raged the length and breadth of the country between 1936 and 1939, so why Granada? Why did I chose to focus my narrative around this one place? (And, to a lesser degree, Barcelona - a city I've never been to, but long to).…
, ,

The power of reading out loud whilst editing

Yesterday, the wonderful Bookouture turned two, my publisher who had (and continues to have) faith in me. That's two years of publishing 22 female authors and building their publishing business into this melting-pot of international creativity…
, ,

A few thoughts on Rejection

I have been meaning to do this for some time, but finally I sat down this morning and counted up how many times my manuscript of The Poet's Wife was rejected before being taken on by Bookouture. Ok, are you ready for this? 83 times. Eighty-three…