In 1858 my great-great-grandfather, a soldier in the 91st Regiment of Foot, embarked on what must have been one of the strangest events of his life. Alongside the rest of his comrades, bound for India, he was transported across seventeen miles of desert between Alexandria and Suez in a column of around 1,000 donkeys, in […]
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A new venture
In the 1970s someone gave me a photograph of a man in uniform, supposedly my great-grandfather. I found it interesting but then put it away. A decade or more later it re-emerged and I began a search for my ancestors. It took over twenty years to find what had happened to the man, a journey […]
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It’s been a while coming
At last, my first newsletter is available here
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The Road to a Novel
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away … actually it was in 2010 in Donegal, Ireland … I’d written the beginning of a short story featuring a coroner’s clerk in 18th century England. I liked the character but I knew nothing of the period, the style of language of the time, nor […]
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A Patient Man released
A Patient Man, fourth in the Inspector James Given series, is now published Amazon.
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An Honest Review of Scrivener 3
Readers of these posts will be aware I’m a great fan of Scrivener as a writing tool. It enables detailed planning and has a really good system of structuring folders, text, research and notes. The writing target options help keep track of progress on a document by document and on a project basis (Scrivener 3 […]
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Outlining using Scrivener and Scapple
I’m a big fan of Scrivener as a writing tool and recently began outlining a new novel (the fifth in the Inspector James Given series). As always, procrastination took over and I searched for ideas on how to make the process easier. I found an exceptionally good video on outlining from Abbie Emmons, which is […]
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Planning a new novel
When I was half-way through A Patient Man, the third in the Inspector James Given series, I decided I’d kill him off. I’d had enough of him and wanted to move on to pastures new. I’d a long-term project I wanted to finish and an outline for the first in a possible new series I […]
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Mind mapping a novel
I don’t profess to be an expert with mind maps, but there are plenty of posts out there to help if you need detailed info. However, I do use a mind map in the early stages of planning my novels so hope the following might be of some use. What is a mind map? A […]
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