My thoughts about books, writing, life and so many other things….Judy Leigh/ Elena Collins.
Like most writers, I started young, with a pen and any paper I could find to scribble on. I wrote my name on the kitchen walls when I was two and had a slap for my efforts. I penned poems on empty Corn Flakes boxes. I filled jotters with an assortment of stories. In my …
Continue reading How I became a novelist – the journey so far
A friend of mine sent me a lovely piece of writing this week and asked my opinion on its worth. By coincidence, I'd just read a bestselling novel by someone I worked with a few years ago. I was pulled in by the intrigue and the characters of both stories straight away. Although the styles and …
There's something heart-rendingly sad about my statement, that novels are like good friends. It begs the question: but what about real friends, real people, not ones who are imagined and made up? The life of a writer is essentially solitary, so the idea has developed that we are a lonely bunch of individuals who have …
I recently read an interchange on social media, a discussion by writers about who they believe they write their novels for. A gifted writer who I've met, for whom I have much respect, said he always wrote for the reader. That's another reason why I respect him. Someone else disagreed strongly. This person wrote for …
On a recent Radio 4 programme, Marlon James was asked if he'd listened to reggae as he wrote A Brief History of Seven Killings. He suggested that reggae was the last music he'd have listened to: the novel was set mostly in Jamaica around the 'Bob Marley era' and of course he didn't listen to reggae: …
I've been busy writing. My third novel is finished and I'm editing it, making a lot of changes, before I step away for a while, go back, later and decide if it still feels fresh and readable. Then I'll edit some more. I'm becoming better at editing. I have an incredible two-book deal and a …
My third novel is almost finished and editing it is my next focus. What could be better? It's time to see if I would choose to read my own novel and, if so, how I can make it more readable. I am learning all the time. My first novel is out there with a really experienced …
I've finished editing my second novel, for now. Of course it's impossible to finish editing, ever: there's always more to upgrade and revise and rethink, but I wrote this one, currently titled The Matter with Men, from August to November. It was an exercise to see if I could write within the CWF genre. I …
I've never had writer's block.Smashing out three thousand words in a morning isn't difficult. I started my second novel towards the end of the summer and I'm now on over 65 thousand words. Writing is like plastering a wall: slosh it out and then sand it down and paint it later. Or like making a cake: whack …
So the world is imploding. All sorts of worms are crawling out of the opened can.The negative feelings of the disenfranchised are manifesting themselves as widespread disagreement and arguments and dissatisfaction and we're seeing Facebook memes of Pooh Bear and Piglet healing rifts between polarised friends. Everyone has a strong opinion - thank goodness for Free Speech, …
Continue reading Words to stem the storm or at least hold the tide back for a moment.
That quintessence of dust 