Just a short update on the novel progress. Yesterday I reached the 50,000 word mark, a new milestone. Whoop whoop. Quite a feat I think (ahem) as it is the length of a short novel, Nicholas Sparks’ The Notebook was 52,000 words and a Nanowrimo novel is 50,000 words. It’s taken longer than expected to…
Like spare change found in the cushion seats, finding and using some of the dead time in your day to squeeze in a bit of extra writing can make a real difference over time. It can also make it a bit more fun. A while ago I chatted about why we sabotage ourselves; and referenced a…
I’ve heard it said before: writing is not for the faint of heart. Like acting, you’re only as good as your last gig. Where you can go from being praised to vilified from one piece of work to the next, and it’s almost impossible to know which one it will be, half of the time. I…
A while back I came across this rather scary book about writing a novel, I can’t remember what it was called or who wrote it (I blocked that out), but it’s probably lying there in wait, deep in my unconscious, ready to compete with the other nightmare that tortures me every so often – the…
A Greek Vintage, ( working title – I have been playing with the idea of ‘Under a Cretan Sky’ as well …) my novel set in Crete, about love, loss and following your heart featuring a burned down vineyard, an unsolved mystery, and a journalist, who after losing everything, is on the search for a new life … is winding its way…
Last night I attended the launch of Lesley Lokko’s latest novel In Love and War at Love Books in Melville, Johannesburg, and was lucky enough to spend a little time chatting with her about her process and what inspires her novels. She’s written nine books, and publishes a book a year. She’s Ghanian and Scottish, and spends…
When I first discovered my love for writing I’d sit down for hours happily creating a magical world, never once wondering what an end reader, or critical other would think. And then I started writing for a living. Journalism is not for the faint of heart. Or the sensitive. Or for anyone with a heart.…
Lily Graham 