by Elizabeth Gates | Jul 22, 2019 | A Writer's Life, A-Main Blog
Just a quick note to explain my very long silence. Pleurisy/pneumonia and convalescence. Need I say more? But one thing I do want to emphasise is that – rain or snow – The Author’s Mind has ploughed on and there are some wonderful books discussed on that...
by Elizabeth Gates | Jan 10, 2019 | A-Main Blog, Genre, Writing process
I have been thinking about Romance in novels. My characters, it seems, won’t let go of the idea that they are really not stereotypes and there are reasons why they do things and there is evidence that they must change and grow. Even Adelaide de Fontenoy –...
by Elizabeth Gates | Feb 24, 2018 | A Writer's Life, A-Main Blog, Locations, Research
The Call of the Wild! One of the delights of writing fiction is the imperative to bed it into reality. Sound strange? Not really. With historical fiction, for example, you wed your story to this earth through its place in place and time. And this is called...
by Elizabeth Gates | Dec 9, 2017 | A Writer's Life, A-Main Blog, Events, Writing process
A number of readers have kindly suggested The Wolf of Dalriada to their book clubs. I thought a list of possible questions to start the discussions off might be helpful. So here are thirty. Don’t feel you have to do more than say 10-15. Avoid overkill! There is...
by Elizabeth Gates | Jul 20, 2017 | A Writer's Life, A-Main Blog
Author Joanna Cannon appeared to have it all. Written during snatched moments in car parks at the hospital where she worked as a psychiatrist, Joanna’s first novel, The Trouble with Goats and Sheep, garnered the lifestyle that many a writer would aspire to and an...
by Elizabeth Gates | Jul 6, 2017 | A Writer's Life, A-Main Blog, Research, Writing process
When I first announced that I wanted to attend a writing group – as a participant not a facilitator – someone looked me blankly in the eye and asked ‘Why?’ There I was, the author of two novels, a long-serving and published freelance journalist, a writing coach, a...
