Advent Calendar December 19th
Introducing a Dickensian Christmas On this day in 1843 Charles Dickens published A Christmas Carol. He wrote it in just six weeks. The print run of 6000 sold out by Christmas … Continue reading
Advent Calendar December 18th
Brrr! It’s cold outside. Jack Frost is the personification of winter weather and is responsible for nipping toes and noses and the beautiful fern-like patterns that appeared on the inside … Continue reading
Advent Calendar December 5th
New Clothes for Christmas After the simple lines of the the Regency empire dress, big sleeves became the height of fashion. Above are the 1829 cartoons by William Heath that … Continue reading
What I’m Doing Instead of the Thing I’m Supposed to be Doing
Yes, it’s time wasting, and yes I have plenty of other things I should doing and yet it makes me ponder on the nature of our existence
Chop, hack, prune and trim…Nick Hornby QUOTES FOR WRITERS
Anyone and everyone taking a writing class knows that the secret of good writing is to cut it back, pare it down, winnow, chop, hack, prune, and trim, remove every … Continue reading
My Year in Books
This week it’s all about books. It’s not a record of what I’ve read in 2023 or even of the ones I’ve liked. No, it’s more about the ones I … Continue reading
Why Fiction is More Interesting…Eleanor Roosevelt QUOTES FOR WRITERS
The reason that fiction is more interesting than any other form of literature, to those who really like to study people, is that in fiction the author can really tell … Continue reading
Writing about Health – a competition for Scottish Writers
A new and free to enter competition for creative writing revolves around the medical archive of The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow historic collection of medical items … Continue reading
Getting to the Heart of Things – Lily Dunn on Writing Memoir QUOTES FOR WRITERS
When writing memoir, a writer is not simply expressing or purging their painful experiences but also also using it to explore themselves, and the human condition generally, by engaging with … Continue reading
Get Over the Fear of Failure – Brandon Stosuy QUOTES FOR WRITERS
Even the most accomplished people deal with failure and ongoing self-doubt. You have to learn how to deal with it. Failure is how you learn. If you see it as … Continue reading
Launch Your Picture Book Career With This Competition
Would you like to write for the 3 to 5 year old age group?
UK publishers are running a picture book competition
It’s All Change for Brighton’s Regency Housekeeper. Will She Stay or Will She Go?
Mrs Finnegan, housekeeper at The Regency Town House, is at a crossroads. One path will take her to matrimony, the other to a much nicer bed sitting-room
Without You an Entire Industry Would Not Exist – Doris Lessing QUOTES FOR WRITERS
And it does no harm to repeat, as often as you can, ‘Without me the literary industry would not exist: the publishers, the agents, the sub-agents, the sub-sub-agents, the accountants, … Continue reading
Tension in Flash Fiction – Audrey Niven QUOTES FOR WRITERS
Make sure you actually tell a story. A descriptive vignette, however gorgeous, is not a flash story. A woman lolling in a hammock sipping cocktails is not enough. But if … Continue reading
BRIDGET WHELAN writer 