Books don’t write themselves, as anybody could tell you. While writing a book, I look more like this: Than this: But what might not get as often a mention is that books also do not edit themselves. For that you need, at the very least, a beta-reader (mine is the unrivaled talent of Wendy Rathbone), […]
At Lodgings In Lyme Chronology
Keeping track of the chronology of a story is important to me, so here is the chronology of Oliver & Jack: At Lodgings In Lyme. Earlier, Wendy Rathbone and I were talking via email about our current projects; though the characters and settings are very different, the topics and tropes we are working with are very similar, […]
Fagin’s Boy Chronology
When I write my books, I’m a stickler for chronology, the timeline of the events in the book. Part of this is due to my sense of OCD, the other part has to do with Victorian life. I mean, if it’s Sunday, are the shops open? Maybe yes, maybe no. At any rate, for any […]
A Less Well-Mannered Outline
With another NaNoWriMo beneath my belt I am pleased to announce that the next book in my Oliver & Jack series entitled Oliver & Jack: Out In The World, is 73K words done; I’ve written Oliver’s point of view in those words, because, as I determined early on, this particular story was about what happens to […]
Historical Maps at the NLS
I’ve recently discovered the National Library of Scotland (NLS), a repository of ordinance survey maps that help me with accuracy in my historical novels. I’m the kind of writer who likes to get a Google map of the area I’m writing about, or better yet, to actually go there and walk the streets. What usually happens […]
Working on Nano
This time around, for NaNo 2015, I’m like the slow starter in a horse race. My excuse is a Very Bad Cold, the kind my dad used to say needed lots of bed rest, ice cream, soda, and comic books. Well, I’m doing all of that, and seem to be getting better, though the comic […]