Tag Archives: fiction

Vendetta in Corsica: Myth and Reality

We’ve visited Corsica six times. L’Île de Beauté is a captivating place, with a savage beauty and a culture all its own and I strongly advise a visit. In 2014, we went to Olmeto, once the home of a woman who was the inspiration for Prosper Mérimée’s Colomba. His novel is about vendetta, an integralContinue reading “Vendetta in Corsica: Myth and Reality”

NaNo or NoNo? How to Survive National Novel Writing Month

Is it that time of year again? Well not quite, but it comes upon you before you know it. Having spent the past few months on paid work, my fiction-typing fingers are tingling and the ideas are flowing. I need space to write and I can’t do it with clients and deadlines snapping at myContinue reading “NaNo or NoNo? How to Survive National Novel Writing Month”

On the Chaise Longue with Vanessa: Meet Author Sue Barnard

On the Chaise Longue with Vanessa: Meet Author Sue Barnard I’m very pleased to welcome back my friend and fellow Crooked Cat author Sue Barnard – who is also my editor! She is a lady of many talents and has a range of short stories, poems and three published novels to her credit. She wrote aContinue reading “On the Chaise Longue with Vanessa: Meet Author Sue Barnard”

Relatively Speaking…

Relatively Speaking…   I loathe promoting myself and always have done. I was brought up not to boast, not to push myself forward and never to ask for things for myself. Not a good training for an author these days, eh? With gritted teeth, I have launched myself on social media and, while I do enjoyContinue reading “Relatively Speaking…”

On the Chaise Longue with Vanessa: Meet Author Nancy Jardine @nansjar

Joining me today is a lovely lady whom I had the pleasure of meeting at last year’s Crooked Cat author bash. Nancy Jardine is a prolific author who squeezes more out of each day than anyone else I know. She wrote a great guest post for me about using photos and I’m delighted to welcomeContinue reading “On the Chaise Longue with Vanessa: Meet Author Nancy Jardine @nansjar”

A Reminder about the @Writersabroad Anthology 2015

Just a little reminder. If you are, or have been at any time, an ex-pat (i.e. living away from your country of origin), and on top of that you are a writer…you still have more than three weeks to submit a short story or a poem for the Writers Abroad Anthology 2015.

What Happened to the Art of Letter Writing?

The noble art of letter writing seems to have gone into freefall. I think this is a shame, although I am the first to admit that I rarely find time these days to write more than the tersest of emails. As a literary device, letters are a gift for authors, as I know from myContinue reading “What Happened to the Art of Letter Writing?”

TEN THINGS NO ONE TELLS YOU ABOUT BOOK PUBLISHING

Originally posted on Jane Bwye:
I am delighted to welcome back a valued friend, Karen Charlton, from my Authonomy days. Her  little piece is so, so true. And the strange thing is, we all have to learn every one of these lessons by personal experience; sometimes more than once. In a recent survey carried out…

A #Corsican Easter Procession

Religion in Corsica is just as important as in the rest of France – if not more so. You get the sense, though, that the Roman Catholic faith overlays deeper currents of belief, stretching back beyond the birth of Christianity. It’s more elemental, like Corsican music. There wasn’t a place in The House at ZaronzaContinue reading “A #Corsican Easter Procession”