Often we read to escape- but sometimes we find ourselves. In genre fiction, the novels of science fiction, fantasy and historical authors build a world where readers can travel to imaginary worlds, marvel and be lost to the present day.
Summer holidays last forever, especially if you are a child – or indeed a parent. Weeks and weeks of sun drenched days with no planned activities. Sounds marvelous? But how are these to read about? Endless descriptions of sunsets or
Woo who – lets have a party! Said every human in every culture since the dawn of time. There are more festivals and things to celebrate than there are days in the year, so the human race is definitely one
People have been making up ways to measure and define all the things for a very long time, perhaps longer than we can measure. So if in “real” life people make up stuff that becomes a standard, what shall we
If a smell can trigger a memory, then a touch can trigger an immediate reaction. Our vocabulary is rich in words that are repellent merely from their association with touch – moist slithers to mind. But the opposite is true
It was a dark and stormy night… Trite words yet they bring a sense of expectation – of a horror to come, with wild deeds afoot. Climate is so variable that it can almost be another character in a book.
Water is the universal solvent, enabling life on Earth, and dissolving the hardest rock to soil over time. It can be the lightest mist, a cloud scudding across a sky so blue it hurts your heart. A mighty torrent of
Often the favourite part of a fantasy book is the map. A land of the imagination, full of cities with strange names, mountain passes guarded by trolls or otherworldly creatures, deserts of unending pain, oceans teeming with mermaids and sea
Designing a new world with its own creatures and plants is a lot of fun. There are so many resources available online that research can be a bottomless pit. However, this depth of knowledge will shine through in your writing.
Writing is quite a personal thing, with authors each having their own idiosyncrasies and quirks to help them imagine and get the words on the page. Books may start in a dream, but like anything worth doing, take days that
