Category: General Blog

Which is, exactly, where? For the past weeks of July and August, I have been reading. And writing. And staring at spectacular sunsets and casting my eyes over the valley of a Cretan village. And marveling at mountains, their limestone shifting from pink to grey as the reliable sun rises every morning. It’s surprising that...

Knee-deep in research, obsessed and fascinated by everything I can source about the Home Front in WW2 and other matters relating to my new novel, I know it is time to start writing it. After all, only a smidgen of what I am reading about will eventually find its way into the book. There is...

This is the question that is unfailingly asked by potential customers every time I go to a book or craft fair to sell my novels. It’s also the question that is always asked at the end of a talk that I might give about writing and publishing. But where do you get your ideas from?...

There’s a vacuum when a novel is finished, manuscript dispatched to publisher, synopsis, book blurb and AI (advanced information that goes out to bookshops et al) all written. It’s a kind of empty nest feeling – and I’ve been experiencing that restlessness when there is no clear reason to sit down in front of the...

Every author will tell you – I imagine – that the worst part of writing a novel is not actually writing it. Or researching it. Or editing it. Oh no. All these are delights. Frustrating, time-consuming, near blood-letting events – but nevertheless overwhelmingly satisfying. And – yes, well …delightful. It’s once the novel is finished...

Some weeks, the days disappear so swiftly that it’s hard to remember anything that has happened on them or in them. They simply seem to have be swallowed up by the mechanical and practical business of living. Then there are other times. Which is where the sheep bells come in. The past four mornings I...

Recently, I came across an Anne Tyler novel that I realised I had never read. I thought I had devoured everything she has ever written, always waiting with anticipation for her latest novel. But no. Thumbing through a few pages of Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant was to discover the joy of a novel new...

Mother’s Day – or Mothering Sunday to give it the more traditional name – feels like the start of good times. Better times. Spring surely has sprung or at least is meant to have done and days are drawing out, daffodils are delighting us and clocks will be magically accelerated by an hour in a...

Editing is essential for any novel. Whatever length of story intended, there will always be far more words and pages than required once you arrive at the last sentence. It’s inevitable that there will be repeated comments or thoughts. At least it’s inevitable if you are as slow and disorganized a writer as I am....

St Brigid of Kildare, a younger contemporary of St. Patrick, is quietly growing in regard in Ireland and further afield. Who knew – unless you are Irish or know a thing or two about saints – that she is one of Ireland’s three Patron Saints? Along with the ancient pagan Irish goddess whose name she...