Award-winning international best-selling horror author Michaelbrent Collings explains how he got into horror and why indie authors need to try just that little bit harder… Thinking back to when you started writing, what are common mistakes new writers make? Ugh. So many. Or maybe that was just me. Probably one of the biggest mistakes new…
Category: Children’s Novels
Creating Inspiration – Where to Start
Embarking on the task of writing a new book is always a thrill, but that thrill doesn’t start for me until I have the title, because until then, I don’t have a clue where to start. I little while ago, I wrote about coming up with the idea for a series of books in the…
‘The Wolves of Willoughby Chase’ by Joan Aiken
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (The Wolves Chronicles Book 1) In an England that never existed, in a time of Victorian values, the country is overrun with wolves. When young Sylvia embarks on a long train journey to stay with her cousin Bonnie, things begin to go wrong very quickly. With Bonnie’s parents leaving for…
5 Things I Learned from Writing
I always assumed my writing would improve as time went on, though I have to say I wasn’t sure how that would happen. With 13 titles out in the world now, it got me thinking about what I’d learned from each of my books and how that affected subsequent creations. I’ve only included my middle-grade…
A Book Cover Paints A Thousand Words…
When I started putting ideas together for the cover of my middle-grade book ‘The House That Wasn’t There’, it’s fair to say I didn’t really know what I was doing. The problem was that, as usual, I’d come up with a title that intrigued me, but part of that intrigue meant I had to work…
The Something of the Some Thing Thing…
Why ‘something’ is my favourite word. Writing can be a choosy business – choosing which direction to take with the plot, choosing the settings, atmosphere and time of day, and (my favourite) choosing who to kill off, push down the stairs or throw into bed with the leading lady. But choosing which word to use…
‘Oy Yew’ by Ana Salote
Oy Yew Nabbed by waif-catchers in the alley where he spends his days sniffing bread and dreaming of floury loafs, Oy Yew is dragged in front of the wiry-haired Mrs Rutheday who sets him to work at bench 54. Oy meets Linnet Pale, a colour-drained girl who becomes his first friend. But assembling unknown items…
