The draft, getting it right the first time.

Welcome back to another blog hop, with #OpenBook. Here’s this week’s prompt. Do you hurry through a first draft, or are you conscious of flaws as they go down? Has that changed over time? Before I answer that, I need … Continued

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Creating a Steampunk World

As some of you may know, I wrote a textbook on World-Building, I thought you might be interested in a sample chapter, dealing with Steampunk, that quasi-Victorian land of heroes and villains, not forgetting the King and a good cup … Continued

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Story Arc. Can you see the future?

Welcome back to another blog hop, with #OpenBook. Here’s this week’s prompt. What is story arc to you? Oh no, not another technical prompt! Although this time at least it’s not grammar. I sort of get the idea of story … Continued

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Be Careful. A short story to make you think.

Today, I’m sharing a short story from one of my collections. This is the one that I (famously) wrote on my mobile phone while waiting for a delayed appointment. It was what prompted me to get the plug-in keyboard that … Continued

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Adverbs everywhere

Welcome back to another blog hop, with #OpenBook. Here’s this week’s prompt. Are adverbs really the devil? If they sneak in occasionally, does it mean we’re lazy? As I’ve said to you many times before, I don’t do grammar. I … Continued

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Andorra Pett takes a Break

You might think it’s strange, given that The Hitman and the Thief hasn’t even been published yet, but I’m already looking at my next release. It will be an Andorra Pett adventure. The fourth full length mystery that she has … Continued

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