Guest Post: Chris Hill sings the Song of the Sea God

Today we have another guest writer on 52 Ways To Write A Novel - Chris Hill, author of SONG OF THE SEA GOD and THE PICK-UP ARTIST.

Lovely to have you here, Chris. 

First off, could you tell us a little bit about yourself and your background?

Thanks for having me along today, Jane, it’s a real pleasure to be here! I live in Gloucestershire and I’m married with two towering teenage sons and a Cockerpoo called Murphy. I spent a lot of years as a journalist working on regional newspapers in the UK - I started as a reporter and finished as an editor. Now I work in PR for a children’s charity called WellChild who provide nurses for seriously ill children so they can be cared for in the family home rather than hospital. I’ve always written fiction, I started with short stories and improved over time, winning a few awards including the Bridport Prize. Later, I progressed to writing novels.

What are your ambitions for your writing career and which writers inspire you? 

I’d like to write a book I feel entirely proud of, something I think is the best thing I could possibly write. I doubt it will ever happen. Most things I write I just try to make the least bad they can be. My books are all different from each other, which I know makes no sense commercially but it pleases me. All authors inspire me - all of them, good ones, bad ones, self-published, small press, big publisher. I think writing books and stories is a tremendous thing for people to be doing, we hold a mirror up to society, we are its conscience and its soul. That’s no small thing to be involved in.

What have you written and/or are writing at the moment?

I’ve had two books published so far. Song of the Sea God (Skylight Press 2012) which is literary fiction, a kind of creepy fairytale about a man who comes to a small island off the coast of Northern England and convinces the locals he is a god. And The Pick-Up Artist (Magic Oxygen Publishing 2015) which is an off-beat rom com about a young man’s hopeless attempts to find love with the help of  PUA movement who claim to be able to use psychological techniques to attract the opposite sex.

I have another one done, a crime novel based on my years as a reporter. It’s sitting in a drawer waiting for me to dust it off and find a publisher. There’s also a short story collection I’d like to find a home for. And I’m currently working on a new novel which feels like it’s going to be a sort of thriller. Most of what I write can be appended with the word ‘quirky’ for which I feel equally cursed and blessed.

How much research do you do?

It depends on the book I think. For Song of the Sea God I had to do all sorts of reading around ancient myths and religions, for The Pick-Up Artist I learned about the rather murky world of the PUA movement. For the crime book I’d lived it as a crime reporter over a number of years but I did a fair bit of fact checking on technical details.

When did you decide to become a writer, and why do you write? 

I’ve been writing fiction pretty much since I learned to write I suppose. Scraps at first in notebooks, then proper stories and later novels. I don’t know why I write except I feel compelled to. I don’t necessarily enjoy it that much, it can be a chore, though I do feel better during periods when I am doing it. Less fidgety, more at peace with myself.

Do you write full-time or part-time?

I’ve always worked full time and I have a family so I’m one of those people who write around the day. That’s probably one reason why it takes me so long to finish anything. I quite like it this way though, I don’t think I’d change it even if I could. 

Do you have a special time of day when you like to write or a special place where you feel most creative or hard-working?

I carry a notebook around in my man-bag and scribble in it in all sorts of places - on the bus often. But I also need to sit down in front of the laptop in the evening a few times a week and work in that more organised and focussed manner.

Are you a plotter? Do you tend to work to an outline or synopsis, or are you a 'pantser', someone you prefers to see where an idea takes you?

I have a kind of middle way. I do some planning at the outset and more as I go along. I like to know where I am going to end up from the start but I don’t have a complete roadmap of the entire journey. We all find our own way of working of course but for me this feels like having my cake and eating it.

How long on average does it take you to write a book?

It takes me about two years in all, one for the first draft, one for rewrites, and I procrastinate a lot before I even get started. I don’t suppose I will ever be particularly prolific!

Do you ever get writer’s block?

Not as such, though I do take a long time to get started and then a long time to write anything to the level where I am satisfied with it. I do envy writers who talk about having crashed out a book in just a few months.

Ha, I'd better not rub it in then that I wrote my last 100,000 word novel in 9 weeks. Do you read much - I know I find it hard to make time for reading these days - and if so who are your favourite authors? Is your drug of choice fiction or non-fiction? Any particular kind?

I’m always reading, I don’t think I could trust a writer who didn’t read. It’s mostly fiction though I go through non-fiction periods too. I read literary fiction mostly but I have read books in most genres too I suppose, over time. My first love was the work of the American novelists of the last half of the 20th century - now recently deceased. People like Updike, Heller, Vonnegut, Bellow. They combined fabulous writing, great narrative voices and amazing plots and characters. But since then I’ve spread my interests fairly widely.

For your own reading, do you prefer ebooks or 'proper' books? (Personally, I love an improper book.)

It’s dead trees all the way for me. I do have a Kindle and have read books on it but for all kinds of reasons: emotional, physical, nostalgic, sensory, I prefer a book made of paper. There was a report recently in the media about the decline in ebooks and the resurgence of print ones. I’m sure there’s room for both but I don’t see print disappearing when it comes to books. Newspapers are a different matter. 

What are you reading at present?

The last three books I’ve read have been A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and I’m half way through American Gods by Neil Gaiman. All wonderful books in their own way and an eclectic selection as always.

Tell us about your book covers and how they came about, and do you think that the cover plays an important part in the buying process? 

I suppose it must be important though personally I don’t think I have ever bought a book because of the cover. I work with my publishers on them. Small press publishers tend to be quite collaborative so I’ve enjoyed the process. We’ve discussed ideas, I’ve shown them covers I like and so on. With Song of the Sea God I even gave them photos I liked which were taken by a friend of mine on Walney Island where the book is set, and one of those ended up on the cover.

How do you market your books, and do you have any advice for other authors on how to market their books?

I do PR and marketing for my day job so it’s a bit of a busman’s holiday for me, that side of things. I enjoy social media and blogging. I don’t think there’s a magic bullet; awareness grows over time. At my last book launch, my eldest son was with me. After about the fifth person had come up to me like an old friend because they knew me online, my lad said: “Wow dad, you might not be famous, but you are Twitter famous.”

What part of your writing time do you devote to marketing your book, and is there any marketing technique you've personally used that had a strong impact on your sales figures? (We all want to know this!)

I’m doing less at the moment as I’m between books - I get on it a lot more when I have a new one out but I always try to be classy and not bang people over the head with my ‘product’. That’s a big turnoff for all of us, isn’t it? I don’t think you can beat physically standing in front of people at events and talking to readers. I do that when I can.

I quite enjoy clouting people over the head with my books. Thanks for coming along to chat to us today, Chris. How can readers discover more about you and your work?

My website

https://www.chrishillauthor. co.uk/

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/ chris.hill.3726

Twitter

https://twitter.com/ChilledCH

Song of the Sea God

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Song- Sea-God-Chris-Hill/dp/ 1908011556

The Pick-Up Artist

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pick- Up-Artist-about-Dating- Digital/dp/1910094161

Guest Post: Su Bristow on the writing of SEALSKIN

This week, novelist Su Bristow shares with us the mechanics and mystery behind the writing of her debut novel, SEALSKIN.

SEALSKIN: Amazon UK

SEALSKIN

What happens when magic collides with reality?

Donald is a young fisherman, eking out a lonely living on the west coast of Scotland. One night he witnesses something miraculous ... and makes a terrible mistake. His action changes lives - not only his own, but those of his family and the entire tightly knit community in which they live. Can he ever atone for the wrong he has done, and can love grow when its foundation is violence?

Based on the legend of the selkies - seals who can transform into people - Sealskin is a magical story, evoking the harsh beauty of the landscape, the resilience of its people, both human and animal, and the triumph of hope over fear and prejudice. Rich with myth and magic, Sealskin is, nonetheless, a very human story, as relevant to our world as to the timeless place in which it is set. And it is, quite simply, unforgettable.

Su Bristow: Hi Jane, and thank you for the invitation to write a guest post for 52 Ways To Write A Novel.

My debut novel, Sealskin, came out in February this year, published by Orenda Books. Does that qualify me to talk about how to write a novel? Of course not! All I can do is tell you how I wrote this one. The process will certainly be different next time; for a start, Sealskin took years to write. I don’t think I’ll ever match your speed, but it won’t take quite so long the second time around. I’ve learned – I hope! – a thing or two along the way.

But I do have a day job, so writing happens when other things don’t. And a lot of the process, for me at least, happens when I’m not sitting at the computer. Bits of plot fall into place, characters develop, and whole passages of dialogue unroll themselves while I’m walking, or gardening, or driving; anything that doesn’t need full concentration. The actual word count doesn’t tell anything like the whole story.

That’s true for most people who write, of course, but I gather it’s quite unusual not to have blizzards of post-it notes around your desk, or time-line diagrams, lists of characters and so forth. All of that was inside my head until I actually came to write it down. Is it more or less efficient that way? Well, I did try writing notes now and then, but I never looked at them again, so they were pretty much redundant.

Author of SEALSKIN: Su Bristow

However, Sealskin is a retelling of a legend, so the basic structure of the story was already there. I knew how it started and how it ended; my job was to colour in the picture, add some twists and turns, and make sense of the huge moral anomaly at the heart of the story. For those who haven’t come across it before, the story comes from the west coast of Scotland, and it tells how a young fisherman witnessed a marvel one moonlit night: nine seals came ashore, took off their skins and became young women, dancing naked on the beach. He hid one of the skins, so that one of the selkies – as they are called – could not go back to the sea, and he ‘took her home to be his wife’.

And there’s the problem. Is this really a sweet, sad, romantic tale? It’s usually told that way, but the selkie woman has no choice, and certainly does not consent. She mourns for her lost life, and when the chance comes to return to the sea, she does not hesitate, even though, by then, she has human children whom she has to leave behind. As a younger woman, I might have told it as another example of how women can be used by men, tricked into servitude for sex, domestic labour and childbearing. But these days I’m more interested in how people find their way through the traumas that life deals out, and how getting it wrong at first can teach us, if we’re willing, how to get it right for ourselves and for others. After all, I’ve spent most of my working life helping people to do just that.

So I decided to tell the story from the point of view of Donald, the young fisherman. How did he come to do this dreadful thing? And if he came to regret it and tried to make amends, how would that work? I told it in deep third, so that we are always inside his head.  That was partly because Donald himself – at least at first – has trouble seeing things from other people’s point of view, but also because I wanted to follow his emotional and spiritual journey as he slowly, painfully, begins to grow up through his love for Mairhi and his desire to atone for his crime. There is no omniscient narrator: we see the way people change through Donald’s own eyes, and through what they say and what they do. And as Mairhi herself never speaks – or at least not in words – we have only her actions to give us clues to her inner life. Like Donald, we have to learn to interpret what we see and experience. Showing, not telling, was definitely the name of the game.

I won’t say too much about the twists and sub-plots in the novel, for those who haven’t read it yet. But as I arranged it into the short chapters that some people have commented on, I had in mind the action of waves on the shore: most of them small, only changing things a little, and from time to time a bigger, more dramatic one, that leaves the landscape different and sometimes almost unrecognisable. Each wave brings something, and takes something away. Land and sea are joined in an eternal dance. They can’t be united, but there is mutual dependence. That’s one of the major themes of Sealskin, played out through all of the characters in the book.

Thanks for those insights, Su! 

I very much enjoyed reading Sealskin, and can see why it has capitvated so many readers. 

Don't get concerned about your way of working though. Some novels I've written have required complex timelines on whiteboards - mostly multiple point-of-view historicals - while other novels, like the psychological thriller I finished writing today, had nothing down on paper except a 2-page synopsis from which I strayed quite far at times. The notes happened in my head. 

So it may be down to the book in hand. Not necessarily a process we choose, or one which is good or bad, or more problematic than any other, for instance, but a response to the task we set ourselves when we write the first line of a new novel.

Best of luck with your next project! - Jane

SELECTED PRAISE FOR SEALSKIN 

‘An extraordinary book: original, vivid, tender and atmospheric. Su Bristow’s writing is fluid and flawless, and this is a story so deeply immersive that you emerge at the end, gasping for air’ - Iona Grey

‘An evocative story, told with skill and beauty, that held me spellbound until the very last page’ - Amanda Jennings

‘Sealskin is the most exquisite tale of love, forgiveness and magic. Inspired by the legends of the selkies, this gorgeous novel is a dark fairy tale, an ode to traditional storytelling, a tribute to the stories we loved hearing as children. But be warned – this is no happy-ever-after tale. The language is just glorious, poetic and rich but precise. And her characters – oh, they will remain in your heart long after you’ve closed the last page. Mairhi – especially since she never really “speaks” – is a beautiful mystery, but one who haunted me when I was between chapters. If this is her first, then I can’t wait to read whatever Su Bristow bestows upon the literary world next’ - Louise Beech

Buy Sealsin on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sealskin-Su-Bristow-ebook/dp/B01MSUB9W6

 

   

Cathie Hartigan asks: What Kind of Novel Are You Writing?

I'm thrilled to have my friend and fellow author Cathie Hartigan from Creative Writing Matters as my guest on the 52 Ways blog today. Creative Writing tutor, novelist, talented musician, and an administrator of the Exeter Novel prize, Cathie has many strings to her bow. And as you can see, she is going to lead us through the thought processes and research that led her to write her fascinating debut novel SECRET OF THE SONG.

SECRET OF THE SONG was released on October 6th and has garnered much critical praise. I have read the novel myself and can highly recommend it: a rich but delicately woven time-slip, it will transport you to a complex, musical world you may never wish to leave.  



 Cathie writes:

So you have a great idea of what your novel will be about, and are keen to get going, but before you start tapping, there is a crucial question you must ask yourself. What sort of novel am I writing? Make your decision carefully and base it on the sort of writing you can do, rather than the writing you wish you could do.

I’ve always written contemporary women’s fiction. My most successful short stories have been told in the first person, via characters with strong, individual voices. I love writing about relationships between families, friends and lovers, I’m curious, keen on puzzles and I find Italy, singing and a sense of humour irresistible.

So what sort of novel would I write?

Two separate incidents provided me with the idea for my novel, Secret of the Song.

The first arose at a choir practice when we were asked to sing a piece of music by the Italian Renaissance composer, Carlo Gesualdo. Who was he? I had no idea. The music was really difficult and I don’t think we even made to the end of the piece. There were murmurs of disapproval about Don Gesualdo though, so I decided to look him up.

It transpired that Carlo Gesualdo was a bad man. In fact, two centuries before Byron, he was much madder and badder and decidedly dangerous. Plus, whereas Byron was a lord, Carlo Gesualdo was a Neapolitan prince. Gesualdo’s story, and that of his lovely wife, Maria and her dashing lover, Duke Fabrizio was equal to anything the Tudor court in England could muster at that time.

But the retelling of an incident already documented isn’t a story; it’s an account.

Then, coincidentally, I heard a programme on the radio, during which musicians and neurological experts discussed the power of ‘ear worms’, those maddening tunes that go round in your head for days. Was Gesualdo mad because of his music, I wondered? More significantly, could his music send the musicians who performed it mad?

Here was a story. I would write a contemporary mystery about a singer haunted by the song she was singing. Yes, that was it. 

But during further research, I read the witness statement of a servant, and felt hugely sympathetic towards the poor girl caught up in such a dreadful situation. With only a little imagining, her voice was in my head. Yes, she must be heard.

So I had two heroines: one in contemporary Exeter, and one in Renaissance Naples.  I felt there was only one sort of novel that would do the story justice. Secret of the Song is a time-slip mystery. The decision to write the dual narrative as alternating chapters proved challenging, but it also kept both plot lines moving forward at a good pace.

My top tip?

Remember that every reflection, every look back, brings the plot to a dead stop. Ask yourself whether it is necessary, and what is lost if you leave it out. 

Cathie Hartigan

When a song by the mad composer, Carlo Gesualdo, is discovered in Exeter Museum, trouble descends on the group asked to sing it. Lisa is full of enthusiasm at first, but she soon becomes convinced the song is cursed. Can Lisa find out what mystery lies behind the discordant harmonies? Will she solve the song’s secret before her relationship with Jon breaks for good and harm befalls them all?

 

In Renaissance Naples, young Silvia Albana is seamstress and close confidant of Don Gesualdo’s wife. When Donna Maria begins an affair, Silvia knows that death is the only outcome. But who exactly will die?

And where is Silvia’s own lover? Why is he not there to help her?
 

As a big fan of the work of Barbara Erskine, I was delighted to discover a new Time-slip author whose first novel is a delight. I’m sure Cathie Hartigan has a great future.
Margaret James - Writing Magazine 

Explore SECRET OF THE SONG on Amazon UK

Guest Post: Author Samantha Tonge on Writing

This week I am thrilled to welcome popular author Samantha Tonge to 52 Ways To Write A Novel.

Samantha Tonge lives in Cheshire with her lovely family and a cat that thinks it’s a dog. When not writing, she spends her days cycling and willing cakes to rise. She has sold over 80 short stories to women’s magazines. Her bestselling debut novel, Doubting Abbey, was shortlisted for the Festival of Romantic Fiction best Ebook award in 2014. Her summer 2015 novel Game of Scones hit #5 in the UK Kindle chart. 

Samantha, why do you write?

Sounds cheesy, but I always knew that one day I would write. This perhaps comes from being a voracious reader as a child. I finally got the opportunity when my youngest started school, and haven’t been able to stop since.
 

Why do I love it? Because nothing satisfies me more than crafting words together. And whilst no one may ever read my work  once I’m dead and buried, I feel as if I am leaving behind some sort of legacy... some sort of mark that I existed.

I am sure that nagging desire to leave something behind is what drives many writers. So what is your preferred field as a writer? And is there anything you'd like to write that's outside your comfort zone?

I adore writing romantic comedies, the words just seem to flow onto the page, I think it is my natural voice. But yes, at some point I might want to challenge myself to try something different. I have got an idea for a YA thriller.

 

YA is a very challenging genre, I've found, not least in terms of finding the right readership for your books. But it can also be one of the most rewarding areas to work in as a writer, perhaps because fans are more likely to reach out to you on social media or really engage with your work among themselves. I wish you luck with that.

Now, back to the interrogation!

Could you describe a typical writing day for us? Any routines/techniques you habitually prefer or tricks for getting yourself in the zone?

 

I am lucky to write full-time from home, so usually I am behind my desk, after my cycle ride, at about 7.30 am. At about ten I realize I need to bath and breakfast, and then domestic duties allowing (!) I can more or less continue for the rest of the day.

I do need quiet to get into the zone – and the power to resist social media. I adore Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, and tell myself far too often that I am on there “for work”!

 

Well, we all need to network and promote our books on social media. What do you fear most in terms of writing or being a writer, Samantha?

Not selling. The most important thing to me as a writer, above improving my craft or making money or earning a reputation, has been to reach an audience, reach readers – if you aren’t doing that, what is the point?

So I am very broad-minded about taking my editors’ viewpoint on board when they suggest what might need doing to suit a particular market. I’ve never been interested in just writing for myself.

 

So what would go in your Room 101 where books, writing or writers are concerned?

They certainly aren’t my pet hate, but I wish there were no writers who are overly apologetic about promoting their books. I understand and sympathize, but there is nothing more off-putting as a reader, in my opinion, if a status or tweet starts off with, “Sorry to do this but...” 

Especially if you are a digital-first author like me, you need to promote your work to gain visibility, to gain readers as you aren’t in  shops, on bookshelves. I am lucky in that I love social media, and I know how hard it is for some authors who really don’t. It’s an on-going battle, I feel, for the modern author, to embrace promoting and creating a brand. There is nothing sadder than a book bombing because it just hasn’t been advertised enough.

Not that promotion is everything – obviously the story, the writing, has to be good and connect with readers, But at least promoting your work gives it the chance to be read.

Do you think all writers are basically anarchist, disruptive types or harmonizing influences? Please show working-out.

Ha ha! No comment. Okay, one comment. I think we are all bonkers.

And in my case, you would be right. Talking of writer insanity, are you Nanowrimo-ing this year?

No, I am too busy promoting my Christmas book – but best of luck to everyone who is!

 

Thank you, it's proving hard for me to concentrate on Nanowrimo, what with all the promotion I've been doing for Girl Number One lately. But one does one's meagre best ... 

Now to promote your work. Which book or books of yours should we be reading, and why?

My Big Fat Christmas Wedding is currently only 99p and bound to add a bit of sparkle to your festive season! Perfect for fans of Lindsey Kelk and Debbie Johnson.

 

 

My debut Doubting Abbey is also at a great price and might blow those blues away if you are missing Downton after the finale!

Also Mistletoe Mansion is currently available as a paperback (as is Doubting Abbey) in The Works stores, only £1.99!

 

They all sound fabulous and astonishingly good value! Thanks so much for agreeing to be on 52 Ways, Sam.

Thanks so much for inviting me, Jane! x

 

http://samanthatonge.co.uk/

https://twitter.com/SamTongeWriter

http://www.facebook.com/SamanthaTongeAuthor

 

Guest Post and Giveaway: Alison Morton on Writing Trilogies

Alison Morton's ROMA NOVA trilogy

Trilogies. As a reader, I love them. What is more satisfying than following a set of characters off into a new adventure, the sheer joy of seeing them develop as people, facing up to new challenges, discovering new family secrets or buried treasure or resolving long and bitter rivalries over the generations? Or perhaps they have a more internal theme focusing on the emotional ups and downs of three generations of women who come to live in a new country and pass wisdom up and down the family chain.

But I’m also a serial reader.

When I put the third book of a trilogy down, I’ve been known to sniff, gulp and reach for a strong cup of tea. The world I have loved for nearly three hundred thousand words has shut its door, the characters have vanished to the other side of nowhere.  Then to my joy (and not a little relief) I discover the author has written a fourth book, a follow-on. I have my credit card out before you can say ‘Harry Potter’.

As a writer, it’s both similar and different. When I started my first novel, INCEPTIO, I had no idea what I was doing. Writing was an impulse, a reaction to a dire film and thinking I could produce something better. But not even halfway through the first draft, I realised I had a far bigger story than I’d anticipated.

So I did the classic thing - I turned it into a trilogy.

The trilogy dilemma

SUCCESSIO, the last Roma Nova thriller in the original trilogy, set off into the world last June. The heroine had finished her journey with birth and deaths, traumas and triumphs, and I had closed her file on my computer. Now for wine, sun and leisure.

But one of the main secondary characters was whispering in my head, ‘Tell my story. You know you want to. Think of all those readers, begging for more. You’ll get fat, lounging by the pool. Get back to work!’

Juno!

Yes, this was the tough, no-nonsense Praetorian Aurelia Mitela insisting. Now, it’s not good for your future health if you disobey a Praetorian special forces officer, let alone one who’s also one of the most powerful women in Roma Nova. And her story of undercover work, loss, struggle and living at the most dangerous time in Roma Nova for three centuries – the Great Rebellion – was too tempting.

So begins a second trilogy within the Roma Nova world; it starts in the late 1960s with AURELIA and reaches to the 1980s. Fascinating how technology and attitudes have changed in fifty years! Research traps abound; some inventions we think recent were around in the late 1960s, others are surprisingly modern.  

This time round, I have the benefit of my own experience plus Roma Nova is familiar territory. But the gods punish hubris so I re-read the first trilogy and marked up the passages that referred back to the times when Aurelia had been a young woman. With a new three-book cycle within an established series, readers can start their Roma Nova adventure with AURELIA without having to plough through the first three.

But I do hope they will be so entranced, they'll want to go back and grab the first three books!

 AURELIA is out now in ebook (various formats) and paperback.

AURELIA: available now on Amazon

 Late 1960s Roma Nova, the last Roman colony that has survived into the 20th century. Aurelia Mitela is alone – her partner gone, her child sickly and her mother dead – and forced to give up her beloved career as a Praetorian officer.

But her country needs her unique skills. Somebody is smuggling silver – Roma Nova’s lifeblood – on an industrial scale. Sent to Berlin to investigate, she encounters the mysterious and attractive Miklós, a known smuggler who knows too much and Caius Tellus, a Roma Novan she has despised and feared since childhood.

Barely escaping a trap set by a gang boss intent on terminating her, she discovers that her old enemy is at the heart of all her troubles and pursues him back home to Roma Nova...

Buy from Amazon: http://authl.it/B00WIQL08A?d

Other retailer links here: http://alison-morton.com/books-2/aurelia/where-to-buy-aurelia/

Read about Alison and Roma Nova: www.alison-morton.com

Connect with her on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AlisonMortonAuthor

Twitter: https://twitter.com/alison_morton @alison_morton

 GIVEAWAY!

A signed copy of AURELIA (paperback) is available to one of our lucky readers!

Just comment below, telling us whether you prefer to read stand-alone fiction or a series like a trilogy, and your name will be entered into a draw. (UK only)

The draw will take place on Monday 25th, so please do remember to check back to see if you've won!

Week Four: Rowan Coleman's 'Letter To A New Writer'

This week, I'm handing over my thoughts on novel writing to an excellent, prolific and very popular novelist, Rowan Coleman.

Rowan is writing a series of 'old-fashioned' letters this year - 52 letters, in fact, by eerie coincidence!! - and has agreed to team up with me this week by writing a letter to a new writer. Her letter will be posted simultaneously on both our blogs, through the magic of writerly synchronicity.

This week's letter is addressed to Sarah Callejo, a writer known to both of us through the marvellous Romantic Novelists Association, where Sarah is a member of their much-coveted New Writers Scheme.

Rowan Coleman, who is writing 52 Letters: One Letter, Every Week, For A Year.

Rowan Coleman grew up secretly longing to be a writer despite battling with dyslexia. After graduating from university she worked in bookselling and publishing for seven years before winning Company Magazine Young Writer of the Year in 2001. Her first novel Growing Up Twice was published in 2002.

Rowan has gone on to write eight novels for women including the bestseller The Accidental Mother, The Baby Group and The Accidental Wife, and eight novels for children and teens including the paranormal adventure novels Nearly Departed and Immortal Remains under the name Rook Hasting.

You can peruse Rowan's many novels on her website or here on Amazon UK and US.

 

Rowan Coleman's letter to Sarah Callejo - and any new writer - on how to approach writing a novel.

  

Thank you, Rowan!

This week's question is on the art of procrastination mentioned by Rowan in her letter: what excuses do you make when you put off writing your novel? (Or are you the dedicated type who never flags?)

Answers in the comment box below, please. Any comments for Rowan also very welcome!