Ali Bacon's Blog, page 18

An eventful library event

Apologies for a belatedreporton last week’s library event, when a small but friendly crowd (not all arm-twisted by me!) greeted us in Emersons Green library to celebrate e-books in general and ours (that’s Thornberry publishing) in particular.

Well our crowd was friendly but there was a bit of a diversion when the local constabulary decided to weigh in and sort out some local yobbery hanging around outside. Said yobs were marched in to the library and lined up against the wall in true usual su...

Claire King and The Night Rainbow

Claire King

I’ve never actually met today’s guest in the real world, but I feel like we’ve known one another for a while and I remember some of the big moments in her writing story: finding an agent, then a publisher, as well as some short story successes along the way. And so I’m delighted to have her here today to mark the launch of her debut novel The Night Rainbow and at the same time I’m looking forward to filling in some of the gaps in my knowledge.

Hi Claire, I know you live mainly in Fr...

Who said February is no fun?

In our family we have two birthdays in January and there also seems to be a kind of overspill of social occasions from the Christmas period, so much so that I often find Februry a more depressing month. But there’s no time for that his year, with real and virtual life providing plenty to do.

First of all, this week I’mwith local saga writer Jo Lambert having virtual tea and cake in Bath (such a nice ideaI’m not sure why we’re not doing it for real!)

And on Feb 15thI’m very pleased to be part of...

E-books for readers and writers – my first author event

My first author event is on ‘home turf’ at the local library where I’m a regular visitor and where I did some voluntary work as IT Helper a year or so ago.Many thanks to the staff for having meand other Thornberry authors along for the evening. We’ll be reading and talking about our e-book experiences and Thornberry will be there to answer questions too.

Anyone in the vicinity do drop in – it’s a very welcoming library.

There will be paperback copies of A Kettle of Fish on sale too, which you c...

A Little Bit of Madness

I met Sheryl Browne at a reader/writer event last summer but only got round (you know how it is!) to reading any of her work last week. I’m glad I did though, because although I only do romcom once in a while I did enjoy this one, particularly for the way it deals with one of our big contemporary issues along its light-hearted way.I’ve already reviewed the book on Amazon and today Sheryl is here to tell you more about it and how she came to write it – it’s a great story too so do read on.Over...

The Immortal Memory or Virtual Haggis

It’s that time of year when Scots the world over get together for a shindig to pay tribute to our Bard so today Canadian writer Melanie Robertson-King whose blog you may remember I visited on St. Andrews night has come to mark the occasion.

Of course we’d rather not be on our own, so do join in the celebrations and where you feel moved by the bard, chip in with your own songs, poetry or reminiscences.The programme and menu are in accordance with tradition, so let’s get on with the show!

1. The...

Genre and non-genre, or whatever happened to mainstream?

It’s not so much that I’m obsessed by genre as that it just keeps cropping up and this week I ended up checking out this blog post from Savvy Writers which links to otherslisting possible genres and sub-categories for fiction. Skimming through them I had a bit of a bolt from the blue, because nestling in among Romance, Horror and Crime in all its guises I happened on something I haven’t seem mentioned for a while.

Mainstream.

You see back in the day, when I was first sending out to agents and p...

The nice thing about blogging

As an antidote to my previous grumble, here’s a nice thing about blogging. Back in the mists of time (5 years is a long time in blogging) I made contact with Maureen at Random Distractions, aladywho lives in Devon and hasall kinds of interests which she shares with friends and followers. On her site I’ve found recipes, knitting patterns, and book recommendations – many of which have turned out gems. I sent her a copy of ‘Kettle’ for old times’ sake and am delighted that she liked it enough to...

Author platform – who needs it?

I’m not sure I ever set out to develop what is now called an author platform. I started to blog partly for fun and also because of an instinct that in the increasingly digital world (this was back in 2007) it would be good to have an online presence. As an unpublished author it was also a way of finding an audience for some of my writing and of celebrating any successes that came along. If I’m honest I’d also say that knowing I could publish a few paragraphs every week bolstered my confidence...

Going out with a bang: do’s and dont’s of writing about sex

Have I lost my mind? I can’t help feeling that a writer talking about sex is a bit like an actor working with children and animals – the writer is unlikely to come off best! But having read Catherine Czerkawska’s post over at Authors Electric I realised that although we can all think of examples of ‘bad sex’ in novels – (or have it thrust under our noses) it’s rare for anyone to talk about what makes good sex in fiction. And since like Catherine, I have also been complimented on my talent for...