Not long ago, I shared a plane journey with a woman who was heading to Haiti to continue charity work with the victims of the terrible earthquake in 2010. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed or left homeless by the earthquake. At the time the world rallied to offer aid – but these…
I think it was the great Ray Bradbury who said a story has three parts – the writer, the story itself and the audience. A story has not fulfilled its function until someone has read it. The final session at the Michael Hauge workshop held by the New Jersey RWA was on pitching your work to…
The second part of Michael Hauge’s brilliant workshop was on the character arc. Talking about the main character – hero or heroine – or if there are two equal main characters – hero and heroine – the same story arc must apply to both. And it is inextricably linked to the plot arc outlined…
Watching movies as work – now that’s something I can really get behind. It’s not procrastination – it’s research. Even better – it’s homework. I recently had the chance to attend a one-day workshop by Michael Hauge noted Hollywood story doctor. He’s done a lot of work on films for people such as Will Smith, Julia…
A funny thing happened a couple of months ago – I became a knitter. It started like this…. I was in Canada, looking for a birthday present for a friend of mine who is Canadian but lives in the U.K. I thought a Canadian present might be nice. My friend has been known to knit.…
Here’s a bit of a confession – I am a Science Fiction nut. (OK – the Twilight Zone Blog back in November was probably a bit of a hint). It’s therefore not surprising that a few nights ago, I was seated in the balcony of a New York theatre – watching William Shatner’s one man…
I’m currently writing a section of my new book set at an outback race meeting, and a thought occurred to me… every book I’ve written has horses in it somewhere. I decided that couldn’t be right, but when I stopped long enough to think about it…. Matt – the hero of The Farmer needs A…
At a recent event, I was lucky enough to hear a reading from Audrey Niffenegger – author of The Time Traveler’s Wife. She read a short story – written in response to the closure of a bookshop that she really loves… In this story – she suggested that heaven is a great library – and…