In all the world, there is no heart for me like yours. In all the world, there is no love for you like mine. Maya Angelou   I love you as certain dark things are to be loved, in secret, between the shadow and the soul. Pablo Neruda, 100 Love Sonnets   Soul meets soul on lovers’ lips. Percy Bysshe Shelley, Prometheus Unbound   If all else perished and he remained, I should...

We’ve seen them all, haven’t we? I’d need as many hands as a centipede has legs to count how many writing tips I’ve encountered and pondered over. Some were helpful; others weren’t. Most of what I know about writing I learnt from reading obsessively and spending an insane amount of time writing absolute garbage. Practice is vital: nothing makes for a better writer than writing itself—but still, even at the risk of adding...

Despite the warning not to ‘judge a book by its cover’, I’d bet we’ve all been guilty of it more than a few times. A cover is a window of sorts into the book. It’s a test as to whether or not the book is worth our precious bookworm hours. Having passed that test though, there’s another favourite way to measure a potential new book: the opening lines. You know you’ve discovered a...

Excerpt from my current draft of Book Two in the Immisceo series (Includes spoilers.)   They stole through the forest like shadows, breaking through the thicket as dawn broke in the sky. As they left the forest, Ardeo moved fast beneath them and Luciana allowed herself a fleeting moment of peace as a fierce breeze whipped against her face, enough to make her eyes water. Nate clutched her waist. The solid warmth of...

Have you heard of Scrivener? If you haven’t heard about it on the writerly grapevine, first: what’s your secret for brain organisation? And second, if you’re struggling with exactly that, and if you’re a writer, this post might land. Maybe you have heard of it and are wondering: is Scrivener any good? Is Scrivener worth it? Doesn’t Microsoft Word or Google docs do the same thing? Well, in short: Yes, it’s good, it’s worth...

Far smarter people than I have probably explored this topic far more eloquently and in broader ways than I ever could, so I shouldn’t really belabour myself with the task of defending creativity, and yet, I’ll say this: creativity shouldn’t be squashed for the sake of sanity because it lends itself to sanity.   Fear might deter some. That fear has deterred people in my life, and those people went on to deter...

There are certainly more strong female characters in fiction now than ever before, but even with these changes, there is just as certainly, room for a wider and fairer portrayal of the world of women in media, and always cause for celebration of those which have stood out. The Damsel in Distress has thankfully, mostly, screamed her last plea for help, and we hear a lot about Kick-Ass Females in both book and...

There is a truth at the centre of a fictional work waiting to be found, interpreted, and applied where possible. Human emotion and experience, and everything that makes a story relatable provides us with a connection far beyond the reach of our ever-shrinking social circles...

The debate on the existence of writer’s block is as long as it is tedious. There are those who would argue that it’s nothing more than an excuse for laziness but if you’re a writer, you’ll know these people and that statement are wrong. Yes, we all make excuses from time to time and some of them are valid. When I sit down to write, I am often overcome with the urge to...