Shauna Bickley's Blog, page 2
December 19, 2014
The times they are a changin'
At the moment I'm back working in the city in one of the high-rise office blocks. High-rise in Auckland isn't as tall as many other cities, and usually equates to around thirty floors. I'm on a floor halfway up with a great view of the harbour. The building is close to St. Matthews church, and from my window I look out at the top of the tower.
You get a different perspective of the city from that height, and I guess when the church was built in the first few years of the 1900s it would have be...
You get a different perspective of the city from that height, and I guess when the church was built in the first few years of the 1900s it would have be...
December 15, 2014
Book Launches and Writing Events
At this time of year most social events seem related to Christmas, but I've been fortunate to have attended two great events over the past few days that had absolutely nothing to do with bearded man in the red suit.
On Thursday evening I had the pleasure of attending a book launch for Vivienne's Blog, written by a good friend and critique buddy. It was a brilliant evening and actress Penny Ashton was in amazing form as she read three extract's from the book. Graham Beattie wrote about the laun...
On Thursday evening I had the pleasure of attending a book launch for Vivienne's Blog, written by a good friend and critique buddy. It was a brilliant evening and actress Penny Ashton was in amazing form as she read three extract's from the book. Graham Beattie wrote about the laun...
December 1, 2014
Recipe for a Dinner Party
A short note to point you in the direction of the lovely Amy Spahn who has written an essay on the style and narration of my short story Recipe for a Dinner Party.
Amy has done an amazing job of making me sound a lot more intelligent than I feel, and for that she earns my heartfelt thanks.
Pop over and take at look at this and many other thought-provoking posts.
Amy has done an amazing job of making me sound a lot more intelligent than I feel, and for that she earns my heartfelt thanks.
Pop over and take at look at this and many other thought-provoking posts.
November 24, 2014
Writing Weekend Report
Often the best part of a long-awaited event is the anticipation and excitement before the actual occasion. I’m so thrilled this wasn’t the case for our writing group weekend. We had an amazing time.
Our group has been together for almost five years. In that time one has moved to Australia because of work, and another down to Christchurch. They skype into our critique meetings, and if either are in town for any reason we rearrange or add meeting dates.
Like some others of the group,...
Our group has been together for almost five years. In that time one has moved to Australia because of work, and another down to Christchurch. They skype into our critique meetings, and if either are in town for any reason we rearrange or add meeting dates.
Like some others of the group,...
November 16, 2014
A Writing Weekend
Today I'm flying down to Christchurch, which in itself makes it an exciting occasion, but the reason for the trip is that I'm spending the next four days with the other members of my writing group. We've been planning our own writing retreat/getaway for some time and it's finally arrived.
As a group we met about five years ago when we joined a writing class run by John Cranna of The Creative Hub. John founded the AUT University Centre for Modern Writing and designed the Masters Level writing c...
As a group we met about five years ago when we joined a writing class run by John Cranna of The Creative Hub. John founded the AUT University Centre for Modern Writing and designed the Masters Level writing c...
November 6, 2014
Awesome Allshorts: Last Days, Lost Ways
In my last post I mentioned some of the great things about reading and writing short stories, with special mention of the new Awesome Indies anthology.
One of the authors appearing in the anthology is Amy Spahn with a beautiful story called The Cost of Hope. On her blog, Amy has a great post titled 5 Things Short Stories Can Do that Novels Can't.
It's an interesting and insightful post in which Amy uses some of the stories from the anthology to illustrate her points. I'm thrilled she used...
One of the authors appearing in the anthology is Amy Spahn with a beautiful story called The Cost of Hope. On her blog, Amy has a great post titled 5 Things Short Stories Can Do that Novels Can't.
It's an interesting and insightful post in which Amy uses some of the stories from the anthology to illustrate her points. I'm thrilled she used...
November 3, 2014
The Long and the Short
It's an exciting time right now. In addition to the launch of my latest novel Still Death, I have a short story that's been accepted for inclusion in the Awesome Indies Anthology - Awesome Allshorts: Last Days, Lost Ways.
I am thrilled to be included in such stellar company.
I like reading short stories, and I'm pleased that since the advent of eReaders there seems to be more collections of short stories available.
Reasons to read short stories
I love the intense nature of a short story and...
I am thrilled to be included in such stellar company.
I like reading short stories, and I'm pleased that since the advent of eReaders there seems to be more collections of short stories available.
Reasons to read short stories
I love the intense nature of a short story and...
November 1, 2014
New Awesome Indies Website
This weekend Awesome Indies launches their new website with a great sale - over 70 books by brilliant indie authors in a variety of genres, and a competition to win a Kindle Paperwhite.
This is the link to the new website and this will take you to the sales page.
As part of the launch I have two books in the sale - Lies of the Dead and Lives Interrupted. They are both reduced from $2.99 to $0.99 for this weekend.
Lies of the Dead is a crime/mystery story set in Cornwall.
Liam Tr...
This is the link to the new website and this will take you to the sales page.
As part of the launch I have two books in the sale - Lies of the Dead and Lives Interrupted. They are both reduced from $2.99 to $0.99 for this weekend.
Lies of the Dead is a crime/mystery story set in Cornwall.
Liam Tr...
October 29, 2014
More of the Good and Less of the Bad and Ugly of Writing
In the last couple of posts I talked about wanting to write my current novel in a year. Before I started writing, I set down some ground rules to give myself the best possible chance of achieving the goal. I thought I'd share them here - some are obvious, some may not work for you, they're just things that helped me.
I committed to writing five days a week for an hour. Initially I started with a word count, but I found if I didn’t make the word count it was discouraging. When I swapped t...
I committed to writing five days a week for an hour. Initially I started with a word count, but I found if I didn’t make the word count it was discouraging. When I swapped t...
October 13, 2014
Writing a Book in a Year
When I wrote my first novel, my goal was simply to see if I could get to the end. Did I have what it took to write a whole novel? I had no plans for daily word counts or a particular time frame. It was a simple goal. Write a novel.
Like many other authors, I worked full time, so I wrote in the evenings and at weekends. I had days or weeks when my motivation lagged and I didn't write. I see from my spreadsheets that book took me between eighteen months and two years to write and edit.
I'm horrif...
Like many other authors, I worked full time, so I wrote in the evenings and at weekends. I had days or weeks when my motivation lagged and I didn't write. I see from my spreadsheets that book took me between eighteen months and two years to write and edit.
I'm horrif...
