Roz Morris's Blog, page 51

‘A story of a vagabonding soul’ – The Undercover Soundtrack, Daniel Paisner

My guest this week is a man of many guises. He’s a prolific bestselling ghostwriter with clients who include tennis champion Serena Williams, Hollywood stars Whoopi Goldberg and Denzel Washington and 9/11 fire chief Richard Picciotto. While writing the lives of others, his steady companion is the Spa channel on Sirius; whatever they play, all […]

Masterclass snapshots: must plot twists always be misfortunes or disasters? And where does your story end?

Hello! I know I’ve been uncharacteristically quiet. I’ve been trying to finish a rather exciting project that’s turned into a corkscrew of learning curves. It’s not quite there yet, but the end is nigh. Which also seems an appropriate way to introduce this post. Yesterday I was back at The Guardian, teaching an advanced editing […]

‘After 13 books I became a real author’ – guest post at Helena Halme

There’s been quite a fuss about self-publishing on internet channels recently. Brit author Ros Barber swore in The Guardian that she’d never self-publish her fiction, which prompted a lot of us to reassert why we did. This post by me appears to join the general howl, but in fact it was commissioned several months ago. […]

Should writers tackle environmental issues instead of playing make-believe? Guest spot at Howlarium

I’m taking a short blogging break to finish a big project before Easter, but in the meantime I can leave you with some slightly unusual bloggery. Look at the question in the header. When I received it in my email, I thought I’d quietly pass. I don’t really see my fiction as a cudgel for […]

How to write a gripping, unforgettable plot – video podcast guest spot with Lorna Faith

Think of all the kinds of novels we might write … from a sensitive character study to a sprawling epic to a nailbiting thriller … are there any common factors they all have? There are. They’re my secret. Actually, they’re not a secret at all. The 4 Cs of a great plot is one of […]

How to blog about your book … without giving too much away

Following my post about not talking about novels I’m writing, I’ve had this question: I am a new author (just signed) and I am struggling with how to share parts of the story to entice readers while also protecting its integrity. Any suggestions? Don’t be a tease My first question is this. How far off […]

‘Vulnerable and isolated’ – The Undercover Soundtrack, Sanjida Kay

My guest this week has been here before. Not in a reincarnation sense; she’s guested on the series, but under a different name. For her latest novel she’s using a pseudonym for a change of direction. She’s written a gritty psychological thriller about a woman who discovers her young daughter is being bullied at school. […]

Editing seminar snapshots: How much should you budget for editing your book? And how should you choose an editor?

This very good question came up when I spoke at the Writers & Artists selfpublishing summit a few months ago. And my answer… deserves a post. First, there seem to be two modes for charging: by the hour and by the wordcount or page. With the wordcount, writers can be quoted a fixed price, so […]

I wish I’d written… Five novels that make me raise my game

Sometimes I put a book down and am left a tad envious. These are books that, although I finished them several months ago, still make my green eyes … greener. …….. Night Work by Thomas Glavinic, translated by John Brownjohn Jonas wakes up one morning to find he is the last person left alive. There […]

‘Those immortal days we might have enjoyed if we’d known better’ – The Undercover Soundtrack, Tim McDonald

My guest this week is a true hybrid of the two Undercover Soundtrack disciplines – music and writing. He’s primarily a musician with the indie rock band Broken Poets, but he traces his songwriting to a profound childhood loss – the death of his best friend at age 13. He decided he had to write […]