I wrote a memoir. I’m not a celeb. Why would any commercial publisher be interested? I self-published. It used to be the fact that the face of self-publishing had mud all over it. The more realistic description of the method of publishing your own book was Vanity Publishing, a term which is now extinct. … Continue reading The Respectable Face of Self-Publishing
For just this week, I’m returning to the question of self-publishing as I had a friend of a friend ring me to discuss the experience of my publishing The Baby Box. I’m deliberately not going to confirm which publisher I used. You can discover that for yourself if you want to. These are the questions … Continue reading More on Self-Publishing
I have been invited to design and give a 2-morning workshop on writing memoir. Brilliant. I've been wanted to workshop writing memoir for a while now. Easy, I thought. After all I've written my own memoir. Then I read someone else's memoir and then another and then a book which was really bio-fiction, which took … Continue reading Memoir – What Exactly Is It? (1)
Autumn is here and winter around the corner. We rub our hands in glee as we encounter cold and rainy weather, confining us to being indoors with plenty of time to write. My plan was to re-read sections of my novel set in the 1950s, to arrange them in a funky way with more spaces … Continue reading The Writing Timetable
Anyone out there who has read my memoir, The Baby Box, could be forgiven for assuming that I am an only child. One friend certainly did and said that being an only child explained why my mother was so harsh with me. No, my mother was harsh because I upset the middle-class, domestic apple-cart big … Continue reading Whose Memory?
In my last blog I described two of the book groups I’ve talked to and discussed the various questions which were put to me. Although this is putting the cart before the horse, (I am about to write several blogs devoted to writing a memoir) I said I’d deal with the question about a memoir … Continue reading Writing a Memoir – How a memoir is a Construct.
As all writers and readers know, the idea of book groups appealed widely and now there are countless numbers of groups across the country as well as, no doubt, other countries. Years ago, I was a member of an online book group. It was run the same as other groups: one member suggested a book, … Continue reading Book Group Discussions
I've been away from London taking a break from daily life and the publishing world. I've been in Russia, a place which brings to mind those books and short stories set in that far away country. Years ago, Radio 4 broadcast Tolstoy's War and Peace as a serialised drama. Newly married, we had no TV … Continue reading Crossing Continents
I’m organising my papers – newspapers, downloaded articles, book and film reviews – you know the kind of things. A year later, or even a couple of months later, that article we ripped out of a magazine or downloaded and printed, doesn’t seem quite as interesting as we thought it was and what with the … Continue reading Memoir and Memory
I thought I'd post a 'writing quickie' in the middle of the week. The Baby Box has been selling well but the market is slowing down. Which is a media phrase for 'need to make a bit more effort'. I've had many encouraging reviews but this one, sent by a writer colleague, is particularly welcoming. … Continue reading A Wednesday Post
