Andrea Montgomery's Blog: Andrea Montgomery's Blog, page 11

Shuggie Bain, Douglas Stuart

Set in the deprived Glasgow of the 1980s, Shuggie Bain is a deeply personal account of one woman’s struggle with alcoholism and the devastating effect the disease has on her relationships with her men, her parents and her children, particularly the youngest, Shuggie, who is also grappling with his own sexuality.

It’s hard to believe Shuggie Bain is a debut novel, ...

Review of The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley

As gripping page-turners go, this one’s a winner. Once you start reading The Hunting Party,  it’s very, very difficult to put it down, especially as you approach the denouement. All credit to Lucy Foley for building the tension and suspense as the novel progresses at a cracking pace, never boring or tedious, and racing to an exciting climax.

For anyone who loves a...

The Author Profile Picture

Getting an author profile picture is not a new experience for me. Over the 16 years that I have been a freelance travel writer and travel blogger, providing profile portraits for bylines, websites and book covers has been an integral part of the job. I have never once been happy with the results and the mission for the perfect profile picture continues.

The pose
I accept that part of the issue may be that I simply don’t look as good as I used to but I have learned to embra...

Marketing Your Book

Things are moving rapidly now; the manuscript is due to get signed off in the next few days, the cover is finalised and I am now working on my marketing plan.

Talking to a fellow writer this week, he remarked that he was surprised I had opted for a partnership publishing contract as Jack and I are already well-versed in marketing and perfectly capable of doing it for ourselves. It was an astute observation and a perfectly reasonable assumption. If I’m completely honest, I ...

The Book Cover

It feels like I have now reached a rather exciting stage in the process of getting my book published, finalising the book cover.

When I failed to procure an agent at the end of last summer, and before deciding I would accept the offer of a partnership publishing contract, I had resolved to self–publish. Happily, I happen to have an extremely talented niece who is just beginning her career as an artist and illustrator. After Emily had designed a fabulous cover for Jack’s Ca...

Time to Write Creative Fiction

In beginning to write creative fiction, one of the hardest things for me to come to terms with is not having an externally set deadline.

Ever since I started full time employment, my working days have been punctuated by deadlines. When I worked for the Department of Employment my proficiency was based on mantras of ’empty your in-tray before you go home’; ‘clear the rejections before close-of-play’; ‘finish the proposal by the deadline’.

When I ran away to the Canary Islan...

Where the Crawdads Sing

I  had heard good things about this book and could not believe my eyes when I saw Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens on the shelf of the foreign language section of my local FNAC store in Setúbal. Usually the only English language books they stock are either new releases of Penguin classics or authors such as JK Rowling, George RR Martin and Danielle Steel. Greedily grabbing the only copy ...

Revolution, Russell Brand

One of the few silver linings of this pandemic pandemonium has been the additional free time it has brought. Despite having very little paid work last year, Jack and have kept ourselves almost as busy as if we were up to our ears in deadlines. I say almost because in reality, our working day has shortened by around an hour and a half. Instead of getting up at 7:30am, since the arrival of the coldest winter we have yet experienced in Portugal, I don’t currently crawl reluct...

Why Education Should Be Top of The Political Agenda

As the effects of Britain’s decision to leave the EU begin to bite, I am angry that so much of history is manipulated by so few.

It seems to me that any political party that does not put education at the top of their political agenda, has something to gain from keeping voters ignorant, and that’s a party I really do not want to be in power.

Whether you voted to remain or to leave is not the relevant point here, nor indeed is Brexit the only issue. What underlies my anger...

Using A Professional Editor

At the start of Christmas week I got my manuscript proof back from the publisher having had its initial professional edit.

At first glance it looked as if my editor had practically re-written the manuscript; there seemed to be multiple track changes on every page. There was also a short note from the editor which assured me the changes were minimal and that she had loved my book. Naturally, I took that delightful note to be the ‘spoonful of sugar’ to my edits medicine.

How...