Rhoda Baxter's Blog, page 7

Brotherless Night by V. V. Ganeshananthan

This book was quite intense reading. Shashi has four brothers, we meet them as a family when they all have dreams – of going to University in Jaffna or in Colombo, of becoming doctors, engineers etc. But then the civil war starts and slowly their ordered life disintegrates. Sashi loses most of her brothers, one way or another, and loses the boy she fell in love with as well.
This story is fictional, but the big events in the background (and some fictionalised events in the foreground) are tru...

EXCITING NEWS!

My book, Playing For Love, written as my alter ego Jeevani Charika has been shortlisted for the RNA’s Jane Wenham-Jones romantic comedy award! This is the third time I’ve made it onto an RNA shortlist. Fingers crossed for third time being lucky.

Sam and Luke work in the same office, but unbeknownst to each other, they both secretly play online games at night. Sam has had a cyber-crush on a famous YouTuber called Blaze for years, and when she wins the chance to play alongside him in an on...

Canva for Authors: why bother?

When my first book came out, I expected the publisher to do the marketing. (Ah, baby author me was so naive!). Turned out that was wrong. Where were my lovely marketing graphics that I could share on social media? How come other people got photos of their book covers on bus stops and on billboards? What was going on?

Eventually, I figured out that those cool images of your book on a billboard were mock ups and I found out how to make them. You used to have to either use Photoshop or fiddle ar...

A ghost In Shining Armour by Therese Beharrie

This was a fun book. Gemma can see ghosts. She has to help them finish their unfinished business so that they can pass on to wherever it is they go after that. If she acknowledges them openly, then other people can see and hear them (they appear to be normal people, apart from they know that they’re dead).
When she accidentally kisses the ghost Levi, she’s surprised to find that he’s been sent to help her, rather than needing her help himself.
Levi wants to get back to his old life, so that he...

Canva for authors – graphics for the bewildered

I started a YouTube channel! No, really. At the moment, it focuses mainly on Canva tutorials for writers – these are step by step walk throughs. There are also several quickfire reviews of the creative writing teaching books that I own. I have a whole shelf full of them, so I figured I may as well tell you which ones are useful for what.

The first tutorial is a very basic introduction to Canva for beginners. What is Canva good for? Well, it’s a graphic design package that’s designed specific...

Canva for authors

I started a YouTube channel! No, really. At the moment, it focuses mainly on Canva tutorials for writers – these are step by step walk throughs. There are also several quickfire reviews of the creative writing teaching books that I own. I have a whole shelf full of them, so I figured I may as well tell you which ones are useful for what.

The first tutorial is a very basic introduction to Canva for beginners. What is Canva good for? Well, it’s a graphic design package that’s designed specific...

Terry PRatchett- A life with Footnotes

I was given this as a Christmas present. I wasn’t sure what I would make of it, because I’m a fan of Terry Pratchett’s books and when he died, I felt palpable grief for this guy I’d never met, but had heard in my head for decades. When I read A Slip of The Keyboard, I cried.
This is a biography, written by Rob Wilkins who DID know and work closely with Terry Pratchett. If you thought Pratchett was a twinkly cuddly person, you’re in for a surprise (but if you’ve seen any of the programs abou...

A Season For Love by Ally Sinclair

I enjoyed this book a lot.
Emma Love is trying to revitalise her mother’s dating agency by adding an old fashioned twist – A season, where people meet potential partners face to face, eschewing the digital dating app and going to actual conversations and fun instead. Will it work? Will everyone get paired off?
There are four couples in this story – Annie, Lydia and Jane – all of whom are Emma’s clients and Emma herself. They all get their own stories, complete with happy endings.
There’s a defi...

There’s No Place Like Home by Jane Lovering

Izzy is part of a reality TV show, where a bunch of people are sent out on the freezing moors trying to find evidence of a big cat (which half of them don’t believe even exists). The contestants are all there for their own reasons – for some it’s money, for others it’s family guilt or a chance to prove something.
This is a fairly quiet book, the story is almost entirely character driven. There were some bits which were genuinely laugh out loud funny (especially the bit with the Portaloo – it ...

Exciting News

I have signed a new contract with HQ Stories to write two more book for them. These will both be romcoms (written as Jeevani Charika), set in the same ‘world’ as Playing For Love and Picture Perfect. If you’ve read those two books, you’ll recognise some of the background characters.

Here’s a link to the tweet announcing the deal (with apologies for my giant face).

I guess I should get back to writing now!

We are beyond thrilled to have two more gorgeous and uplifting rom-coms coming ...