I created this website hoping that aspiring writers may find it helpful. It will also feature some of my own writing.
I claim no expertise in writing or assistance but decided to log the sites I found useful in my journey to become a published author. Maybe you will,too. If you are a poet or aspiring author, then please see the News for Writers page for a list of publishers and publications seeking submissions. This page will also contain writing competitions.
I’ve also listed some of my favourite books to read and I hope you find some of these interesting.
If you are looking for a source of books that isn’t Amazon, then please have a look at my BOOKSHOP.ORG affiliate page. Between ten and thirty percent of each purchase on this site goes to independent book sellers.
See the helpful writing resources HERE
The New America series
Discover insights and themes explored in the series titled When America Sneezes.
Book 1 – When America Sneezes
I set out to write a geopolitical thriller. The editors had other ideas for my book, and as a first-time author, I may have made the mistake of accepting their changes too willingly. The first writing lesson I learned was to listen to the ideas of others, but remain true to the original idea.
I suppose the first lesson should really have been, don’t wait until you are pretty much blind before becoming an author. It does make things more difficult, but the fact that the first draft of book one was over two hundred and thirty thousand words maybe suggests it’s no real barrier.
I can type, just not read what I have typed. But with Microsoft Narrator and NVDA screen reader, I can get by.
Anyway, lesson learned – Start while you can see and don’t listen to editors who want to change your book too much.
So, I write with no real plan. Here was all the premise I had when starting. America’s election goes awry. Trouble ends on the streets. The world goes to poop, and my characters in Britain must negotiate the fall out. (Not nuclear. Not yet anyway!)
The book was going to end with my home country, Scotland, declaring independence and breaking from the Union that had been overthrown by shady forces. The protagonist, Duncan Clark, was an Edinburgh lawyer who, with a team around him, transitioned from being agnostic on Scottish self-determination to become one of the movement’s leaders.
I was about one hundred thousand words in, when I realised that Duncan would need to know what was going on in London, and so I gave him a sister (Jane) who worked for the BBC news. For some reason that I still don’t know myself, Jane proceeded to rewrite the book.
I first went back into the text, giving her some background. I also bestowed her with a gay cameraman and Jane decided she would have a little crush on Ed, despite his sexual preferences. I was now all ready to create the story with the Clarks and their orbiting friends and enemies.
This is where things took a slightly unusual turn. As I wrote these characters, they changed the story. Ed and Jane took up far more real estate than previously envisioned. Other peripheral cast members seemed to demand their own story. Baddies became goodies. Goodies decided they too wanted a dark side.
Poor Duncan found his starring role to be overwhelming, and worst of all, (for me, who is a supporter of Scottish independence in real life), the story took an entirely different turn.
Writing “by the seat of your pants” is a nervy experience, but for me, on this occasion anyway, was richly rewarding.
The New America series
This is a story of life in the UK, Europe and America after a disputed American presidential election. While America falls into anarchy, BBC reporter Jane Clark has to contend with the erosion of democracy in the UK.
At first, her interest in the changes is entirely professional, but when her brother, Duncan, gets drawn in, she has decisions to make.
The three novels in this series cover the ramifications in the UK mainly, but I have included the USA backstory below as a free story. (I am adding more to the story regularly.)