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Articles by Jade Craddock
On Wildfires and Writing: A Conversation with Christy Lefteri — nb. Magazine
Congratulations on your new novel, The Book of Fire, which was a pleasure to read. How was the experience of writing this book, which deals with some big issues, some moral dilemmas and some complex relationships? Thank you! The experience was harrowing, thought-provoking and humbling. I was three months pregnant when I went to Greece to learn as much as I could about people’s experiences of the wildfires in Mati. I also wanted to understand what recovery had been like for them.
Boundary Road, Ami Rao — nb. Magazine
‘Rao is the ultimate literary shape-shifter and to master each genre is frankly mind-blowing.’ Aron and Nora are two young people travelling home from work; Aron after his first day at a new job at a gentleman’s suit shop, Nora after another shift as a maid in a hotel. They are just two strangers who happen to be on the same No. 13 bus. Strangers who notice one another but who sit apart; strangers travelling the same route but experiencing separate journeys.
Exploring the Emmy Lake Chronicles: A Conversation with AJ Pearce — nb. Magazine
Congratulations, AJ, as book three of the Emmy Lake Chronicles, Mrs Porter Calling, is just about to be released, but can you take us back to the start and tell us a bit about the origins of Emmy Lake and the inspiration for Dear Mrs Bird? Of course! The idea for writing about a young agony aunt in WW2 came when I bought a 1939 copy of a weekly women’s magazine on eBay.
On creating a fantasy world - Elise Holland
By Elise Holland The first story I wrote was a young adult novel. A 15-year-old girl finds a German soldier’s diary from World War I, and then discovers disturbing parallels between him and the boy next door. Before I started writing this story, I spent countless hours researching WWI. The research aggravated me.♥ I thought, why can’t I just sit down and write already? It occurred to me that writing fantasy would un-shackle me from the tedious process of getting all my facts straight.
Writer as YouTuber - Paula Brackston
I quickly became taken up with the whole business of making videos and creating a channel. It is a satisfyingly creative activity. Once, that is, you’ve overcome the horror of seeing yourself on ‘film’. The cameras on iPhones might be excellent but they are also unforgiving. I don’t have fancy lighting or flattering lenses. I film most of my videos in my writer’s shed, so sound effects include thunderous rain, lawn mowers, and stupendously noisy sheep.
How the Faber Academy course helped renew my faith in my writing - Charlotte Duckworth
I had been writing novels ever since my early 20s, and with my first book managed to secure an agent. But the coveted publishing contract remained elusive, and disillusioned, I’d been on a five-year break from writing when I went on maternity leave with my first baby. I’d sold my PR business while pregnant, meaning I didn’t have a job to go back to – a scary prospect.
The Who, What, When, Where and Why with Candice Derman
1.Who has been the most important person in your writing journey? The people in my life that have moved my heart and head the most. My biggest loves and unfortunately the person who hurt me the most. My inner dialogue needs an outer place to sit. Seeing my thinking external to myself and on the page is essential. Words coming together forming sentences is thrilling. 3.When did you first start writing? I’ve written for as long as I can remember. I had diaries, and I’d fill them with thoughts.
Writing a novel in ten simple years - Francie Arenson Dickman
I, however, suspect that the process of writing my novel simply grew fuzzy in my mind over time. That’s what happens when you take a decade to write a book. When I began, my kids, who now drive a car, were in kindergarten. George Bush was president. Facebook did not exist, neither did smart phones. My memory isn’t served, either, by the fact that I waited until relatively later in life to start writing the book.
The next big thing - Lindsay Emory
Hopefully, they’re not in the same book. Although, now that I think about it, a military unit filled with paranormal creatures would make a great starting point for a new series. No, what I meant to point out was that all of the above have been major trends in romance novels in the past decade or so. And when a trope or a genre starts to get popular, writers start to wonder… is it time for me to jump on that trend? The general consensus is… yes.
A true sense of place - Tracy Corbett
My second book The Summer Theatre by the Sea is set in the beautiful county of Cornwall. It was originally set in Looe, a place I’d frequently visited and felt I had a real sense of. . . until my partner pointed out that you can’t surf in the English channel, and my main male character is a keen surfer! Surfing is only possible off the Atlantic side of Cornwall – hence why research is so important! It was too late to move the story, so I ended up creating the fictional town of Penmullion.
How my daughter’s teeth got me a book deal - Matthew Farrell
One year later, 2015, the urge to write was gaining strength. I tried to quell the compulsion, but it was unrelenting. This is how I know I was born to write. It’s in me. Even when I try and escape it, it’s there. Always. I came home from a particularly bad day at the office, and as soon as I walked inside the house, my wife informed me that I had to take my daughter to the orthodontist. Apparently, something came loose on her braces and she needed them adjusted.
10 simple ways writers can instantly improve their public speaking skills - Betsy Graziani Fasbinder
1. Think of your talk as a conversation, not a performance. If you think of your talk as a friendly conversation, it’ll come off as more authentic and you’ll seem more accessible. Interact with your eyes, with your face, with rhetorical questions or audience involvement just as you would with a group of friends around the table. If the situation allows, include others in the discussion to share their ideas and their questions.
Five lessons learned from writing five novels - Sally Kilpatrick
Your goals should only be the things you can control. When I was fresh out of college, I made the rather ridiculous goal of being published by the time I was thirty. A better goal would’ve been how many words I would write in a day, how many queries I would send out in a month, how many classes I would take, or even how many manuscripts I would finish.
Curiosity… the author’s (sneaky) best friend - Sandy Rideout
But I was a cat lady — never owned a dog in my life. I just wanted to shake things up after my mom’s illness and my dad’s passing. A dog would be such a comfort. I figured managing eight pounds of fluff would be a breeze. Yet despite my good intentions, somehow I was quickly in over my head. I loved the pup to bits, but he needed a real leader and… that wasn’t me. Eventually, my old friend, Curiosity, came to my aid. I couldn’t be the only one struggling to raise a well-behaved modern dog.
Art imitating life - Debbie Viggiano
‘You should write a book,’ said my bestie, ‘because your letters are certainly like one.’ This was in the “old” days. Before WhatsApp, emails and social media. My friend had moved miles away. We kept in touch by snail mail. My letters were long. Pages and pages. And when my first marriage came to a juddering full stop, those pages were full of angst. And that was when I heeded my friend’s advice, and wrote my first novel…♥ They say everyone has a book in them, and I really do believe that is true.
The joy of the subversive heroine - S.E. Lynes
I write psychological thrillers, which comes under the crime umbrella and whilst I would say that all the writers I’ve met, in whatever genre, have been lovely, whether I myself am lovely or not is something I cannot possibly comment on. What I am, what I was brought up to be, like many women, is a good girl.
Don’t compare - Lucy Knott
I’ll always remember it because one: I love the Gilmore Girls and two: I love Jack Kerouac. I remember smiling at the mere mention of his name but then also being slightly offended that she felt the need for Kerouac to edit. (I know it’s a TV show but stay with me.) I thought, how dare she criticize one of the Beat Generation’s most-loved writers, how dare she think his work needs revising.
Tips for researching real life - and not nostalgia - for your historical novel - Juliet McDaniel
The lesson that sticks with me most from college wasn’t one I learned in a lecture hall, but rather the school’s cafeteria. During something called Spirit Week, the cafeteria was done up like a 1950s-styled soda shop, complete with milkshakes, poodle-skirts, and Elvis tunes.
When you have to market your book, but you’re an introvert - Sarahlyn Bruck
Often this means I get anxious and nervous before events. If let myself get too wrapped up in that anxiety, it can tank my interview or reading or presentation—or at least, that becomes my perception. A badly perceived performance can make me want to avoid those experiences in the future. It’s a vicious circle. This means I’m not sharing my work as widely as I want, which is counterproductive.
The Who, What, When, Where and Why with Hilary Boyd
1. Who has been the most important person in your writing journey? My husband, Don, no question. I don’t think I’d ever have written if I hadn’t met him. I’ve read obsessively all my life. But it never occurred to me that I could write too – I come from a family of solid professionals, no whiff of a crazy artist in my genes. He’s one such crazy artist – a film director/producer – and the sort of man who’ll turn his hand to any creative project, writing included.
How I block writer’s block - Heidi Mastrogiovanni
1. I give myself permission to write shitty first drafts. It’s a first draft. It doesn’t have to be perfect. No one has to see it except you. No pressure at all. Just get some words down on paper. That’s all you need. It can be absolute crap. You’ll rewrite it. It has often been commented that writing is in the rewriting. Just write. Because you love to write. Seriously, no pressure at all. I know that looming deadlines might negate that entire statement about there being no pressure.
Publishing an audiobook - Belinda Austin
I again chose ACX to produce and distribute my new release Single and Looking, Daisy. My main characters are a 39-year-old woman who is a bit of a screw-up, unlucky in love, but she always looks on the bright side. After Daisy’s five sisters and aunt invade her house for an old-maid intervention and pray over her, Daisy’s 14-year-old cat begins talking in English with a British accent because the cat’s name is Shakespeare so naturally, the cat is British.
Where do you find good material for fiction? Right under your nose - Jill Childs
I filed news reports but often came away from danger zones feeling frustrated. The underlying human stories of the people caught up in these tragedies still felt untold. I’ve written fiction since I was a child and I started to write novels inspired by news events and the many people whose lives had touched mine. Writing friends seemed envious. “It’s easy for you,” they said as my novels started to hit the bookstands.
Abstinence of a promiscuous reader - Kelly Doust
I’ve often told anyone who’s starting to write that the best thing they can do is read, read, and read some more from the best and worst in their chosen genre. For much of my life I’ve indulged in historical or classic fiction like a greedy connoisseur, but soon discovered as I deep-dived into writing the past that I needed a complete break from it myself.
The truth in the fiction - Cathy Zane
As I started telling people about my book, Better Than This, a frequent question I was asked was whether it was autobiographical. The short – and I thought clear – answer at the time was it wasn’t. While my protagonist, Sarah, and I shared the common history of childhood exposure to domestic abuse, her story was not my story. We both suffered sequelae but coped in different ways.
Opening a vein - Kate Hewitt
One of my favourite insights about the writing process is a quotation attributed to newspaper columnist Red Smith: ‘Writing is easy. Just open a vein and bleed.’ Of course, it’s not really easy at all, but it’s important to connect emotionally with readers, and the most powerful way to do that is by being vulnerable yourself, and bringing your authentic emotions to your writing. This can be challenging, frightening, but also liberating.
My journey to being a successful author - Sejal Badani
I always wanted to be a writer. My first memory of my decision was reading a Judy Blume book at six years old then telling my sister I wanted to write books one day. It took me over thirty years to achieve my dream. I didn’t pursue writing seriously until after giving birth to my first child. During my leave from the law I wrote a screenplay about two runners based off of my husband’s stories of his collegiate years.
It takes a village - Rachel Dove
I was helping out my husband at the time, and I had an idea pop into my head about two warring shop owners, in a lovely Yorkshire village called Westfield. I sent off my idea, and went back to my life, writing when I could around raising my two young boys, teaching adult courses on autism and special needs, and running a home. I had entered loads of competitions before, and had never even been shortlisted, so I forgot all about it.
Top four things to consider before going indie - Krystal Ford
So you wrote a book. Congratulations! Now what? If you can’t find a publisher or an agent to take it on, does that mean your book can’t cut it in the real world? That’s a question I grappled with before I decided to go independent route. The rejection rate in the publishing world is sky-high, but the road to self-publishing is neither smooth nor easy.
Will write for food: a cheese lover’s guide to writing a novel - Victoria Brownlee
And, like so many others, I dreamed of one day filling enough pages to write a novel. But it was such a daunting prospect. I was hung up on the idea that I needed a suitably big idea – something poignant and literary that I couldn’t quite determine – resulting in more than a few false starts. One day, a friend revealed to me that she was writing a Viking romance novel. My first reaction was to ask her ‘Why Vikings?’ and her response was perfect: they’re fun. She simply loved Vikings.
Letter to my younger writing self - Lisa Dickenson
I see you sitting there, a teen dreaming about being an author, about working anywhere in the world, creating stories and lives and adventures. I see you picturing a cat on your lap and a view from your window. I see you there, on your blow-up chair, with your purple walls and your Friends posters, struggling to know if you’d be good enough, or interesting enough. I see you thinking ‘it’s too hard, it’s never going to happen’. Well guess what, sweetheart? It happens.
How could you possibly write alone - Lisa Leighton and Laura Stropki
But let’s back up to the beginning. Way back when, I (Laura) was a middle school Language Arts teacher outside of Baltimore and Lisa had recently moved back home to Cleveland from Chicago. This is pre-Instagram, blogger heaven and Lisa devoured blogs like nobody’s business. I preferred young adult books after that corner of the market had exploded following the success of Twilight. Plus, I could recommend books to my students…and Lisa.
Letter to my younger writing self - Shari Lapena
If I could write a letter to my younger writing self, I would tell myself to start earlier. I wanted to write novels from the time I was about 9 years old. I wanted to write pony books and Nancy Drew books. I thought the life of an author would be the best possible life. (I was right, as it turns out.) But as I got older I thought that writing wouldn’t be a very practical career.
How (and when) to turn real life into a novel - Kimberly Belle
What happens, though, when you come across a tale worthy of retelling, one that sparks a story-fire in your fingers? Transforming real life into fiction isn’t as simple as regurgitating what happened. Real life doesn’t come with built-in plots and character arcs. It rarely has a neat beginning or a satisfying humdinger of an ending. Most experiences will need a bit of massaging, of stretching the truth for dramatic impact.
How place can inspire story - Michelle Sacks
I never imagined that I’d set my first novel in Sweden. I’ve long been a confirmed Scandiphile, with a particular fondness for Sweden, its people, and its approach to many of the issues closest to my heart – from gender equality (480 days of paid parental leave!) to progressive environmental policies (they have literally run out of trash to recycle!) to the promotion of a balanced, well-rounded life (fika, anyone?).
The funny thing is … Writing comedy - Patricia Caliskan
I wouldn’t have dared tell myself I was going to write Comedy, until I wrote it. Working on my first novel, as I became more comfortable in the story-telling, humour became an inherent part of the mix. Initially, I didn’t think about trying to make readers smile. I saw it as a way to make my job more enjoyable.
Four tips on braiding past and present - Amy Mason Doan
It’s challenging to weave together three equally-compelling storylines without confusing the reader, giving away too much, too soon, or hitting word-count issues. There were many days when I wished I’d chosen a less ambitious structure for my first novel. Who did I think I was, Michael Cunningham crafting THE HOURS?
On writing poetry - Shalini Dua
While writing novels, short stories, articles and/or essays can be daunting and quite a lot of work, writing poetry can be cathartic and freeing. A poem doesn’t have to follow any rules, it just needs to have rhythm and emotion. The only thing necessary for a poem to be successful is to dig deep and tap into your feelings. Here are a few tips that I find helpful in the poetry writing process. Feel: Write what you are feeling. Don’t worry about rhyming or syntax.
The four things I wish I could tell debut me - Amber Brock
Almost everyone has wished for a time machine for one reason or another. Sure, we tell ourselves that we’d use it to do something truly noble to change the course of history but, if we’re being honest, more than a few of us would like to go back to warn our past selves about a few things.
Truthiness in fiction - Mary Hogan
“Write what you know.” That’s nearly everyone’s advice to beginning authors. From the start, I took it to heart. The first line of my first published novel was: “My father drinks too much and my mother eats too much which pretty much explains why I am the way I am.” At the time, I didn’t fully understand what it meant to expose your family’s secrets to, literally, the world. ♥ I remember my mother asking me, “Does England need to know I overeat?” Dad had a different take.
Why I’m glad I was not an overnight success - Meredith Jaeger
I wrote the first draft of my novel (sometimes surreptitiously at work!) going wherever the plot took me. I used to be a “pantser” as in flying by the seat of my pants. I joined a novel writing class in San Francisco to meet other aspiring authors and I felt creative energy pouring from my fingertips. Six months later, I had a completed manuscript.
Resilience: dealing with publishing industry ups and downs - Charlotte Nash
This isn’t because the love has waned, but because reality has staged an unwelcome intervention. Just as you’ve noticed your significant other snores, has dreadful music taste, and always drops crumbs on the couch, so too you’ve noticed that publishing isn’t the fabled land of unicorns and dreams that you’d hoped for.
Why I write - Jody Sabral
Of course, finding an agent isn’t that simple, but it was an honest answer to an honest question and a partnership was born. Full disclosure here, I had upwards of sixty-five rejections by agents before I found ‘the one’. It was a journey of perseverance and finally relief, a bit like writing a novel. They say there is a book in everyone, but I’m not sure because sitting on your own in a room with only yourself to contend with for long periods of time is actually quite frightening.
The Who, What, When, Where and Why with Ali McNamara
Ali McNamara burst on to the writing scene eight years ago with her smash-hit debut From Notting Hill with Love… Actually and since then has a become a firm favourite for readers all over the world. With her ninth novel, Daisy’s Vintage Cornish Camper Van, publishing today, Ali has stopped by to answer our Who, What, When, Where and Why, and to offer a tantalising extract from the new novel. ♥ 1. Who has been the most important person in your writing journey?
The importance of female friendships - Janet Hoggarth
When I suddenly became a single parent in my late thirties, I felt like the rug had been whipped out from under my feet and a time of great uncertainty was about to unfold. The first person on the scene after my husband left was one of my oldest friends who held me while I sobbed and put the kids to bed so I didn’t frighten them. At the time my family lived too far away to immediately reach me and so my friends took up the slack.
A tough road to walk - Elaine Roberts
Although I have been writing stories on and off for many years, and done nothing with them, I decided to start following my dream of getting a book published about eight years ago. My first attempt, at that time, had to be edited about a thousand times; I think that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but you get my drift. My son, James, decided if I was taking it seriously, then I should do an online course, which he bought as a surprise.
The three rules of write club - Uzma Jalaluddin
“One cannot make up for in a weekend what one has not done in a year. WRITE every day!” I didn’t take my own advice. I seldom do – otherwise I would be a far more organized and efficient person. I blame my two young children, who insist on talking to me daily, as well as the dozens of students I teach every year. If it weren’t for them, I’d have no excuses, and then where would I be? It’s the accumulation of advice that helps, I find.
In traditional book publishing, perseverance is key - Carola Lovering
That publishing is subjective is something I was told repeatedly while working on my debut novel – as advice, and probably also as a warning. In traditional publishing, all you need is one agent to connect with your manuscript – to see what’s special about your book in the same emphatic way you do yourself – in order for your entire trajectory to change.
My rollercoaster writing career - Susanne O’Leary
So here I am, having come full circle being traditionally published again. But how publishing has changed since I last pressed my nose to the windows of a publishing house! I was a huge fan of self-publishing during my Indie years, loving the creative freedom it gave me and the amazing learning curve I had to face when tackling editing, formatting, cover design and then that hard work of marketing.
Writing through the rough spots - Kimberly Stuart
Let’s be honest, shall we? This writing gig is for the birds. It’s ridiculous. It garners an inconsistent, often paltry paycheck, if there is pay at all. It demands an outlandish number of hours alone, in front of a laptop, wearing the Class of 1994 sweatpants that definitely should have found a home at Goodwill by the end of 1995. And it requires an emotional fortitude of Churchillian proportions in an age of online reviews and general mean-spiritedness.♥ There are perks, of course.
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