Zoe Lea's Blog, page 8

How to write :: getting over the fear of the blank page

Fear of the blank page, or writers block, or blank page anxiety, whatever you want to call it, is something I don’t suffer from too often.  And no, it’s not because I’m super confident and have wonderful self-belief, (ha! If only) it’s because years ago, I was a part of a writing boot camp.

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There were about twenty of us in that boot camp and the rules were simple: you had to submit a short story to the group every week. You had to critique every story submitted. If you didn’t play by the rul...

Book review :: Snap by Belinda Bauer

I’ve not read a Belinda Bauer book for a while and I’m not sure exactly why, but when I saw that this had been picked for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction and it was a crime novel, well, I had to read it.

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The opening chapter is just brilliant, completely gripping and terrifying.
A group of children are left in a broken down car on a motorway layby on a hot summer’s day in 1998. They are awaiting their mother, who has gone to phone for help, and Jack, who is only eleven is in charge of his tw...

Working from home in the holidays : tips to manage the kids

Working from home sounds fantastic, until the school holidays roll around. I work in an office, but do all my writing work at home, so as it’s the holidays and a few of you are working from home, I thought I’d share a couple of things I do for getting work done.

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Schedule self entertainment

My writing time is early evening.  I know this isn’t the same as having them ALL DAY when you’ve got deadlines to meet, but, if I’m going to be writing, I always try to plan stuff to keep my little one...

Book review :: Open Your Eyes by Paula Daly

I’ve not done a book review for an age and what has happened to book club I hear you ask?
Well, time, my friends, time.
Time has gotten away from me and although I’ve been reading many books, I’ve forgotten to update the book club choices and stopped doing book reviews. I know, it’s not good enough.

So by way of apology, and to make up for all the posts I’ve not written, here is a book review with a difference.
The difference being, that I knew this book from when it was a teeny-tiny idea, wh...

Writing a book :: writing a brilliant logline

A logline is the first thing I concentrate on when writing a book before writing anything else. Not the characters, plot twists, or a particular scene, but the logline.  And it’s not easy.

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As this blog is now up and running, I thought I’d write about the process of how I write a book. I’ve shared a few general tips, but I was talking to a few people on Instagram and Facebook  and after the questions I got, I thought it would be good to share a series of posts about how I do it.

And this is t...

Make giant bubbles :: weekend adventures

Giant bubbles. They sound fun don’t they?  Well, let me assure you, they most certainly are.

No matter what your age, whether you have kids or not, if you feel a bit down, or grumpy, spend some time making giant bubbles and I promise you’ll feel better.

For starters, it’ll get you outside.
You’re reading this thinking you won’t care and that you’ll not be bothered about how big a bubble you create, but once you start making those bubbles, you’ll revert back to your seven year old self.  On  o...

How to make time to read

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In my previous life, before I had kids, I used to read about three of four books a week.  No joke.
I remember long afternoons lying on my bed reading, whole weekends where I’d be able to float about the house, nothing to do other than lose myself in whatever book I had on the go. Bliss.

Now, I have to make time to read and if I get one book read a week, it’s a real achievement.
It saddens me sometimes, how life has got so busy that I have to actually plan time for reading.

My ‘to be read’ pi...

Gooey white chocolate cookie recipe :: weekend adventures

This white chocolate cookie recipe is a favourite in our house and I put the ‘gooey’ in there because that’s exactly how I’d describe the cookies when they come out of the oven.  Warm, sweet and deliciously gooey.

We use white chocolate in ours, but if you’re not a fan (whaaaaaat?????) then substitute it for whatever takes your fancy: dark chocolate, cherries, nuts, milk chocolate, you get the idea.

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These cookies are incredibly easy to make if you have a food processor.

You basically just ch...

5 reasons to keep a writing pad

Writing pad (or notebooks) are underestimated. In the age of the smartphone, I can understand how the humble writing pad has lost some of its appeal.  I used to be the same, I’d think, ‘I’ve got my phone, with it’s handy notepad feature, why would I need to lug a writing pad about?’

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But since I’ve been fiction writing, I’ve come to learn how valuable having a writing pad is, how much I use it, and if I’d kept a writing pad with me when I first started If He Wakes, I don’t think it would’ve t...

Bluebell woods in the Lake District :: weekend adventures

Bluebell woods

They are one of  my favorite places to visit in the month of May.
The Lake District is mostly known for daffodils, thanks to Wordsworth, but in May, the bluebell woods of the Lake District  are really worth a visit.

Carpets of blue on the woodland floor with a delicate scent filling the air, it has the knack of  transporting me right back to my childhood.  A time when flower fairies were all the rage and I loved those illustrations of the fairies wearing the bluebell flower as...