Let’s face it. No one is perfect. We all make mistakes. As cliché as that is it’s true. Clichés are something we want to try avoiding as writers and authors, but sometimes they echo in our everyday work. Why do we avoid them? Well, any editor with years of experience will tell you that using a phrase that’s often repeated (in most circumstances) doesn’t reflect our true uniqueness. That being said… not everything an editor tells you is correct either. It’s your work and you h

If you could sit down to a meal with your favourite villain who would choose and why? As a writer of suspense novels, I am always reading about and researching that infamous “bad guy.” So, who would I pick to share a meal with? I’ll get to that shortly. First, let’s discuss how to create a villain your readers will love to hate. Sounds like a cliché I know, but after all, we do want our readers to like our characters…even the bad guys…enough to buy our books. Count Dracula,

Characters are the most important things in a novel. Readers follow characters, live their lives, cry with them, laugh with them, scream at them and feel for them. Characters are a small piece of the author but they also take on their own personality. The key thing is not to force it, to let the characters take their own direction, even if it doesn’t fit with what you were aiming for. You might learn something about yourself through them. I probably sound crazy when I say my

#authorssupportingauthors are looking for budding (or established) writers to do some guest blogging. To be perfectly honest I'm one author on my own trying do run this online community as well as trying to write, hold down a full-time job and be a mum, so any help would be greatly appreciated! I'm looking for blog posts which will benefit our author community. Whether it's hints and tips on writing, editing or marketing, your insights and experiences as an author, or anythin