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When Mussolini came to visit
Researching a bizarre range of topics, is for me one of the great joys of being a novelist. Yes it comes with its perils. The internet is a far too distracting place for most authors as it is, but if you use a historic setting for your stories then the distractions of the on-line world are completely unavoidable and it becomes more a question of which rabbit hole will you disappear down first rather than whether you will fall down one at all. Read more…
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Inconvenient inspirations
There are many things I like about the crafting of a new novel, though I admit there are always times when it’s more a long slog than a joy. For me, it invariably starts with that first kernel of an idea that can come from almost anywhere. Read more…
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It’s a bit different to how I thought it would be. . .
Keeping a journal is a bit odd sometimes. I’ve been keeping a sporadic journal of my thoughts and perspectives for just over twenty years now, which sounds a lot, but in some years I might only make half a dozen entries while in others I might make an entry every couple of weeks. Read more…
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Oceans of books
The world is swimming in books, huge shoals of good quality fiction, thrilling mystery stories, exciting tales of adventure, wondrous sagas of other worlds and other times and places and people that are similar to or outrageously different from what we know, but can I find something that I fancy reading right now, can I bobbins! At the risk of stretching this metaphor a little bit further than is wise, I know I probably need find some new places to go fishing, and to rely a bit less blatantly on the Amazon or Goodreads reviews that routinely find their way… Read more…
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Just a bit weary
Just coming to the end of a week’s snowboarding holiday in the lovely French alpine resort of Montechavin which makes between the Les Arcs and La Plagne ski areas, and my goodness what wonderful snow we’ve had here. The only drawback is that I’ve snowboarded my legs off, so much so, that early nights and deep sleeps have very much been the order of things, along with the fine Savoyard cuisine, and one out two glasses of the local Genepi. Read more…
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Stolen hours and small miracles
It’s been rather gloomy for the past few weeks, with the days full of rain or cloud or both, and the daylight never seeming to really break through. But today was different. Today was full of bright golden winter sunlight, the kind that takes the edge off a bitterly cold day while you’re in it, and makes you realise just how much it’s been helping when you’re in the shade. Read more…
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So close I can almost taste it . . .
Oh, but I’m so close to finishing my second novel I can almost taste it. Read more…
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Light and shadow
I’m having a very pleasant Christmas break so far, with lots of catching up with friends and family, lots of good food and sociable drink, and I’m even getting a few things done around the garden despite the often very soggy weather we’ve been having. Unfortunately, while all this has been really nice, it has to a small extent been spoiled by yet another bout of seasonal lurgy, this latest a wonderful racking cough that sounds like I’m about to lose a lung, but in actuality is just a nuisance and an irritation. Read more…
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Publish and be damned!
Well I’ve finally done, I’ve pressed the big red button and my first novel is now available through Amazon in both paperback and kindle/eBook formats. It looks like such a straight-forward and simple thing when I see it written in black and white like that, but perhaps because it’s been such a long time coming (I began writing this novel in 2006 after all) there was still a significant part of me thinking there must be something more required than simply pressing the ‘Submit and Publish’ button on the printers website. Read more…
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If at first . . .
How time slides by when you suddenly end up with several more things to do than you’d banked on. As always this is down to several things, a stinker of cough and cold, which is still lingering on even now, causing me to fall behind with a couple of things, closely followed by the artist who had offered to create my cover art for me having to pull out due to other work commitments. Now, my not so fiendishly clever master plan for the next 12 – 15 months has been deceptively simple. Read more…
Website of the author Peter Knyte