#BookReview ‘The Woman of Substance’ by Piers Dudgeon #biography
The Woman of Substance by Piers Dudgeon is in part an authorised biography of A Woman of Substance writer Barbara Taylor Bradford, and part analysis of how Barbara’s own family history features in her...
View ArticleGreat Opening Paragraph 128 ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ #amwriting #FirstPara
“If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had...
View ArticleMy Porridge & Cream read… @AlexMarchant84 #books #childrensfiction
Today I’m delighted to welcome children’s author Alex Marchant. Her ‘Porridge & Cream’ read is Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper, first in the ‘Dark is Rising’ sequence of five books. “Although...
View Article#FlashPic 47 Union Jack and Trees #writingprompt #amwriting
Central London. A special occasion. Something happens here… you decide what. First choose your year, perhaps a date from history. Now make the story your own by putting you character there. Close your...
View ArticleHow Deborah Moggach writes #amwriting #writetip
Deborah Moggach“One of my great tips for writing is not to start too quickly. If you get excited about a book, don’t plunge in and write it too quickly, because until you know the characters pretty...
View ArticleMy Porridge & Cream read… Linda Jones @LJonesauthor #books #LordoftheRings
Today I’m delighted to welcome children’s writer Linda Jones. Her ‘Porridge & Cream’ read is The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien. “In 1979 I lived in Bristol, in a house full of university...
View ArticleGreat Opening Paragraph 129 ‘The Paying Guests’ #amwriting #FirstPara
“The Barbers had said they would arrive by three. It was like waiting to begin a journey, Frances thought. She and her mother had spent the morning watching the clock, unable to relax. At half past two...
View Article#FlashPic 48 Wet Leaves #writingprompt #amwriting
Today you are going to prepare the place where an action scene will take place. It is a wet day, everything is dripping. It is outside, perhaps in an isolated wood, a city park, a garden. Underfoot,...
View ArticleMy Porridge & Cream read… Ian Gouge #books #writerslife
Today I’m delighted to welcome poet and novelist Ian Gouge. His ‘Porridge & Cream’ read is EM Forster’s A Passage to India. “My ‘Porridge & Cream’ novel is perhaps an unfashionable choice: EM...
View ArticleGreat Opening Paragraph 130 ‘Gilead’ #amwriting #FirstPara
“I told you last night that I might be gone sometime, and you said, Where, and I said, To be with the Good Lord, and you said, Why, and I said, Because I’m old, and you said, I don’t think you’re old....
View ArticleMy Porridge & Cream read… @MaggieCobbett #books #Yorkshire
Today I’m delighted to welcome Yorkshire novelist Maggie Cobbett. Her ‘Porridge & Cream’ read is The Beloved Vagabond by William J Locke. “The Beloved Vagabond by William J Locke has been a...
View Article#BookReview ‘Charlotte Brontë A Life’ by Claire Harman #books #writerslife
How did Charlotte Brontë create the character of Jane Eyre? Was Villette really based on a doomed love affair in Brussels? How much of the real author is in these novels? If you have read Charlotte...
View Article#FlashPIC 49 Painted Sky #writingprompt #amwriting
Today you are an artist and you will paint a picture of this sky. First work out the practicals – where are you, time of day, what is your skill level, what are your expectations. Don’t worry about the...
View Article#FlashPIC 50 Tube Platform #writingprompt #amwriting
One setting, one character on different days. Today’s writing exercise puts you into the mind of a person who is in the same place, same surroundings, on different days. Explore the variations possible...
View ArticleMy Porridge & Cream read… @CarmenRadtke1 #books #cozymysteries
Today I’m delighted to welcome Carmen Radtke, writer of cozy historical mysteries. Her ‘Porridge & Cream’ read is Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett. “Picking my “Porridge & Cream” book made me...
View ArticleGreat Opening Paragraph 131 ‘The Go-Between’ #amwriting #FirstPara
“The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.” ‘The Go-Between’ by LP Hartley BUY THE BOOK Try one of these 1st paras & discover a new author:- ‘Peter Pan’ by JM Barrie ‘A Month...
View Article#FlashPIC 51 Sky on Fire #writingprompt #amwriting
Changing weather is a useful technique used over and again by writers of fiction, poetry and films. It can convey atmosphere, increasing or decreasing dramatic tension, signal turning points in the...
View ArticleGreat Opening Paragraph 132 ‘Love in the Time of Cholera’ #amwriting #FirstPara
“It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love. Dr Juvenal Urbino noticed it as soon as he entered the still darkened house where he had hurried on...
View Article#FlashPIC 52 A Lion on a Tube Train #writingprompt #amwriting
Today’s writing exercise considers a surreal image – the juxtaposition of the mundane and the unexpected, an unconscious expression of fantasy, of the inner world of a character. Let’s explore how the...
View Article#FlashPIC 53 Wheatfield after Harvest #writingprompt #amwriting
Imagine you are a teenager again, laying in a recently harvested field of wheat. Recreate those lazy hazy days of summer when school was out and days seemed endless. This is a writing prompt from the...
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