Thank you to all the people who entered our competition to win a copy of Billy and Me by Giovanna Fletcher. 

Penguin, 2013.

The winners are…..

Laura from Spain who would like to meet John Keats, (who wouldn’t with some of the poems he produced.) 

Shannon from Cumbria who would like to meet Giovanna Fletcher, (me too. A girlie chat with cake and coffee.) 

Mona from Germany who would like to meet the Queen of England because she seems adorable. (I’ve always imagined her to have a brilliant sense of humour away from official life.) 

Billy and Me is was released this week and is now available from Amazon (a link is on our widget on the right hand side.) 

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Thank you to everyone who entered our competition to won a copy of Before I Met You by Lisa Jewell. 

Arrow, 2013

The winners are (drum roll) ….. 

Val Leath, Eliza from Exeter, Trish from Blackburn, Natasha from Leighton Buzzard and Jacqueline Pye. Well done all. You’ve all won a copy of Before I Met You. 

Before I Met You is available from Amazon UK. 

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There are many books out there that will tell you how to create characters, plot your story and get published. These books will help you kick start your writing…

The Write Brain Workbook by Bonnie Neubauer. 

(Writer’s Digest Books, 2006.) 

I’ve used this book and have found it very helpful. It contains 366 exercises to help kick start your brain. It’s a workbook so you can write and draw straight into the book (For someone who never writes in books it took a while to get used to but great fun once I had.) One exercise a day. It will help warm up the brain before jumping in on the work in progress. 

  Continue reading →

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Chris Baty was one of the founders of National Novel Writing Month. He’s now become a full time author and public speaker. 

1) Follow your heart. Don’t write the book you feel you should write. Write the book that excites you.

2) Know that the books that inspired you to write started out as craptastic first drafts. Don’t be discouraged by the quality of your early drafts. They’ll get better over time.

3) Turn writing into a social activity. The sound of other people writing will make you want to write. Find other folks who are working on books and pick one night a week (or more!) to get together and write.

4) Use mini-deadlines to break up large, daunting projects into smaller, achievable tasks.

5) Remember that completion is more important than perfection. You have a lot books left to write. Get this one done and move on to the next.

To read his interview with Novel Kicks, click here. 

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I am very pleased to be the sixth stop on the blog tour for Giovanna Fletcher’s debut novel, Billy and Me which will be released by Penguin on 23rd May 2013. 

My review of the book plus an exclusive Q&A with Giovanna will be posted shortly. 

All of us on the tour were asked what our impressions were of the cover of Billy and Me. When I saw it, I felt warm -like I was getting a hug. I fell in love with the cover. It’s beautiful. 

Giovanna matched our emotions by drawing an exclusive cupcake. I LOVE IT. 

Tomorrow, the tour is stopping off at Fairy Tale Ending Book Reviews. 

Previous stops on the tour: 

Jess Hearts Books. 

Reading in the Sunshine. 

Chick Lit Chloe. 

Dot Scribbles. 

I Heart Chick Lit. 

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