Ironblood     Author: Mord McGhee Release Date: November 2023 Description:   IRONBLOOD is a historical saga exploring the raw and complicated story of America’s industrial legacy, which gives voice to humanity’s worst fears yet displays our greatest hopes. A story told through the eyes of characters from various cultures and countries after the American Civil War, pitted against one another amidst the rise of steelmaking empires.   Pearl, a recently freed slaves formerly living on the run. Earl, who falls in love with her at first sight. Hans, a recent immigrant from Germany, with a murderous...

      Beneath the Hazel Crown     Author: Anna Kirkup Release Date: November 2023 Description:   ‘She wouldn’t let her friends turn into murderers. Wouldn’t let them do what she had done.’   The comfort of returning to her human home is only temporary for 17 year old Elara Anderson. With barely enough time to come to terms with her new reality, a summons from Forneus has her catapulted back into the witchy world of Felicia. A grand tour to display the new ‘darling’ of the Council means gowns and jewellery galore… and a kidnapping.   Twisted corruption...

a) Don’t use dead language - Toni Morrison     b) Use concrete imagery when you write about large, abstract themes - Wislawa Szymborska     c) Work stories out in your head when you can’t write - Alice Munro     d) Read and draw on wide influences but don’t cram your work with others’ ideas - Wole Soyinka     e) Make people believe in your story first and foremost - Gabriel Garcia Marquez     f) Don’t focus on the end goal excessively as you write - John Steinbeck     g) Make sure you write regularly...

  Characters are the heartbeat of almost every story. They generally have two different purposes in a narrative: to be human enough for your readers or audience to identify with them and to contribute to the meaning or message intended by the author. Coming up with characters is as simple as looking to our subject matter and asking ourselves who might be expected to be involved. But that only creates the expected characters -predictable and uninteresting. Making these characters intriguing, unusual, and memorable is a different task altogether.     Look at the subject matter and see what characters could...

  1. Chose a time and location   People often feel like writing at different times of the day. It's an observable fact that many are not in the enviable position of choosing their preferred writing hours. Some good advice is to organise your day around the hours that you prefer to write in. Whether that is within the early hours of the morning or in the middle of the night. Inspiration can appear at different times depending on the passions of the writer. The best time to select is when you feel most energetic and the creative mood sets...

Explanations are a particularly unnecessary style of telling. It’s likely that you know by now that both showing and telling are necessary in fiction. But explanations are often the kind of telling that should instead be shown. Or even worse, they might be telling that has already been shown but is being told as well.   If you’ve shown the reason a character does something—typically in reaction to another event—then you don’t also have to tell why the character did it. The showing is sufficient. Readers will catch on. And if they see that you’re explaining as well, they will notice. They’ll notice you, the author,...

    “Cheat your landlord if you can and must, but do not try to shortchange the Muse. It cannot be done. You can’t fake quality any more than you can fake a good meal.” William S. Burroughs   “The road to hell is paved with adverbs.” Stephen King   “Not a wasted word. This has been a main point to my literary thinking all my life.” Hunter S. Thompson   “The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to make one book.” Samuel Johnson...

      The Half Paper Moon     Author: Melissa Ingoldsby Release Date: November 2023 Description: The Half Paper Moon is a crime drama that touches on themes that are dark, painfully sketched and yet very relatable and real. Connie Alvarez, a young college woman is still reeling from discovering that her beloved girlfriend Barbara is missing and presumed dead. Connie becomes involved in the high profile first degree murder case and as the trial commences other strange things come to light. She is also trying to piece together the timeline with the help of their mutual circus friends,...

      A Dance of Wind and Shadows     Author: Joshua Abraham Release Date: November 2023 Description:   A Dance of Wind and Shadows is an adult fantasy about redemption and discovering the true self.   Sariel Asheram is the commanding Fae general of the armies of The Haven, the ruling authority of the country of Keralis. The Haven is led by the brutal King Seraph and High Priest Belil. Sariel and his friend Aquiel and their dragons are tasked with ending rebellion in the northern neighbours of Nua. They encounter powerful magic and Sariel’s shadow and lightening...

      Skylark     Author: Sam Sommer Release Date: October 2023 Description:   Abigale Skylark opens the door to her apartment only to find that her partner of two years has left her and made off with all her possessions. In the ensuing twenty-four hours she will lose her job and receive a letter from her father explaining that he’s taken his own life. As her world collapses around her like the proverbial house of cards, Abby comes to the bitter realization that it’s high time to reassess her life, and the choices she’s made along the way....