Is your character Suzanne Rickson a combination of real people, or not? Suzanne Rickson is inspired by my mother. While planning my first mystery novel and searching for ideas, I visited my parents at their retirement community on the West Coast of British Columbia....
As many of you know I love prompts and this particular one was set at a recent writing group meeting. The prompt was - Create a character and add something unusual. Alice's World Alice slumped into the chair, huffing and puffing. She didn't want to be here again - a...
When did your interest in magical stories begin? I think I’ve always been fascinated by stories of magic, but it deepened in high school and college when I became somewhat obsessed with stories of Merlin. I found the depictions of Mary Stewart particularly fascinating...
I don't know about you, but writing villain's can be much more fun than 'normal' characters. We are able to dig deep into the dark places in our imaginations, trawling through the many movie and novel villains we have encountered in our lives. And also maybe some...
I recently lost my furry companion, Sammie and for some time, I could not concentrate on everyday things and my creativity stalled. Heartbroken. A pet is such an integral part of our lives and routine, it is hard to adjust to their absence. She will always have a...
I am again plunging into NaNoWriMo this year. I should concentrate on book three of my crime trilogy, The Delphic Murders - Killers Match, but as with all things writing it might be secondary to another 'bright and shiny project' - a prequel to my Rython series. I am...
As we all know the definition of a trope in literary terms is a plot device or character attribute that is used so commonly in a genre that it is commonplace or conventional. I've recently been intrigued by the bad boy-good girl trope of romance books and movies,...
When creating a story the main element is the characters within the narrative. To ensure we, and our readers, can visualize and become empathic with these protagonists and antagonists, we need to take into account their personalities and backstory. We can begin by...
Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com Editing encompasses several elements in order to achieve a well-polished manuscript for submission. Editing includes among other things, continuity, grammar, spelling, character development, revisions to scenes etc. the list is...