Linda Acaster's Blog, page 27

Do you Read or Skim?

A recent article in the Washington Post asked if living in the online Social Media world is having a detrimental effect on our overall reading habits. As reading is a learned skill, are we training our brains to skim-and-click for information we consider relevant without realising it may be to the detriment of longer, in-depth reading skills where we savour nuance and metaphor?

It caught my eye

Back-Blurbs and Interviews

As has probably been noticed by those following this blog (thanks, great to have you along) there's not a lot of creative writing being done at the moment. At least not of the type I enjoy. I am currently formatting The Bull At The Gate for paperback, and that means copywriting the back-blurb. Allow me a quiet arghhhh!!



The thing with a paperback is that it is a solid item. Unlike an ebook,

Launching a Novel: How it *should* be done!

Today, good friend Stuart Aken launches Book 1 of a trilogy of epic fantasies, A Seared Sky: Joinings. Cracking, luminescent cover, isn't it? And this is just the tip of a gigantic launch iceberg propelled by his publisher.



Fantastic Books Publishing is from Yorkshire UK, whose sights are set on a global market and whose thinking is very much author and reader centric. Social media is not an

Romancing the Fantasy - Stuart Aken

With a
week to the release of the first of his Fantasy trilogy: A Seared Sky: Joinings, I am pleased to welcome Stuart Aken to talk
about a subject dear to my heart...









Romance
in fantasy? But, isn’t fantasy all about dragons, swords and sorcery, maybe
elves, goblins and other magical folk

Guest-blogging #6: The Bull At The Gate - Interview

I'm being interviewed today on Penny Grubb's blog, but don't think it's the usual dark chocolate and fluffy slippers stuff - oh no! The title should give you an idea of what to expect... "Linda Acaster, Stephen King, Agatha Christie and Barbara Taylor Bradford on Writing". [Gulp]



So if you have a question on anything writing related, do ask. I'll answer, even if the others are somewhat spare

Guest-blogging #5: The Bull At The Gate - Excerpt

Historical Fiction Excerpts is my host today as I chat about melding history with contemporary. In keeping with the ethos of #SampleSunday the post includes a run-on excerpt of both time periods. And about time, I hear you say.



The book is garnering great reviews, which is very rewarding. It also gives me snippets to add to the back cover of the paperback version - when I get a chance to

Guest-blogging #4 The Bull At The Gate - Crime

I'm waving the flag again, this time with crime-writer Shirley Wells. I'm chatting about using crime elements, in particular the police, in non-crime novels. Though how I can say that when The Bull At The Gate is sitting in the Amazon UK Crime>Suspense>Occult chart I'm not sure. As I explain, I think genre is all a matter of emphasis in the writing.

Do join me for chance to win free copies.

Guest-blogging #3 The Bull At The Gate - York

I'm on the road again, this time at British Romance Fiction where I'm chatting about "Walking on History: Modern York as a Setting".

In The Bull At The Gate this isn't just paying lip service to the city of York,  the novel can be used as a detailed map. Was it planned this way? Not entirely, but I found contemporary York and its historical detail just too good to ignore. In fact, it fitted the

Guest-blogging #2 in support of The Bull At The Gate

Launch weekend proved a bit of an unexpected rollercoaster. The Bull At The Gate swept up the AmazonUK Crime, Thriller & Mystery > Suspense > Occult chart to No3! Thanks so much to those who purchased it. It slipped down to No10 earlier in the day but is now back up to No7. Away to go!

I continue with the blog tour, today at Lindsays Romantics where my question is "Does a Romance need a Happy

Guest-blogging in support of The Bull At The Gate

I'm guest-blogging in support of Books 1 and 2 in the Torc of Moonlight trilogy, not so much excerpts as articles on elements and concepts raised in the novels. The first two are live, so catch me at...

Stuart Aken's blog where I'm explaining a Celtic knot of intricacies in Writing About Alternate Realities

The Celtic Rose blog where I'm chatting about ancient springs in Resurrecting a Celtic