Today I am posting an interview with YA author Gemma Malley (who you might also have come across as Chick Lit writer Gemma Townley, sister of Madeleine Wickham/Sophie Kinsella – totally irrelevant to this article but nevertheless quite interesting!) I first came across her when I was working at the library and picked up a shiny copy of The Declaration, the first in a trilogy set in a future where drugs have eliminated old age and people are prevented from having children because there’s no room for them. It’s well worth a read, as are the other books in the series, The Resistance and The Legacy – particularly if you like a bit of future dystopia. Continue reading “Author Interview – Gemma Malley”
My name is Ali and I’ve been blogging for ten years.
Continue reading “How to Blog”
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This month’s Pictonaut Challenge is Sci Fi, in honour of the release of Mass Effect 3. That’s a computer game, for those not in the know, and to be brutally honest it is of little significance in my life. My gaming habits are restricted to endless Tetris and getting stuck on Monkey Island, with a bit of Wii Bowling/MarioKart for luck. Mass Effect 3, meanwhile, ‘plunges you into an all-out galactic war to take Earth back from a nearly unstoppable foe.’ No coloured blocks or weak puns, then.
Continue reading “Pictonaut Challenge – Any Direction”
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Wednesday will shortly be interview / guest post day again, but in the meantime here are some links of interest. They are predominantly writing related but everyone in the world should watch the video at the bottom.
Advice
I interviewed novelist and comedian ALKennedy for IdeasTap (which is a useful resource with lots of features and funding opportunities).
Continue reading “5 Useful Links for Writers”
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The thing about writing a book every month for a year is, it’s not very focused.
I mean, obviously you have to focus on getting words out there. But because you’ve got this thirty-day window to get the story down NOW NOW NOW, you spend the whole time splurging out bits and pieces of ideas at a rate of knots without ever getting the time to really flesh them out properly. Everything exists in potentia and parts that aren’t working yet can be left for much later, after further thought and research will surely have occurred.
All of this is really exhilarating – but then you get to the end of the project and realize now you have to go back and start addressing some of those flaws. Continue reading “How to Focus on One Thing”
12 Books in 12 Months 
How to write blog comments
I mentioned this is because if I was going to say something I’d want it to add value to the discussion, or at the very make me appear pithy / wise / hilarious to other readers…. But also conceded that I love getting comments on my blog regardless of what they say, because the important thing is someone stayed long enough to read an entire post. People often get here by accident – sometimes looking for Glempy, Sandra, or Michelle; other times because some of my tags are a bit facetious.
Still, I’m rarely inundated with chat in the comments section and I reckon this is partly down to the fact that lurking readers do the same thing as me – read (or skim), go ‘I see. Well, I have nothing to add,’ and move on. But help is at hand! From now on you will always have something to add – just choose from one of my top ten pithy and insightful blog comments*, listed below. Copying and pasting has never made a blogger feel so validated.
Continue reading “How to write blog comments” →
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