How to write from multiple points of view and still maintain balance throughout the novel? This is a daunting task because, truth be told, there is no magic formula to...

April 1st 2014 was a Tuesday, and the day my debut novel was published in North America. I remember it so clearly. The excitement, the disbelief that it had finally...

Writers are good at guilt – especially, perhaps, female writers, although that may be an unfair generalisation. There’s guilt about writing  instead of paying attention to our children or walking...

I always start with a very small kernel of a story.  For Do Not Become Alarmed, it was the idea of children in danger who don’t know how much danger...

When I signed up for a summer creative writing course, I had already worked as a writer and sub-editor on magazines for several years, and didn’t think it would be...

Every minute of every day, some author is out there writing a post on how to deal with negative reviews. The coordination is hell. What if it’s your turn to...

Writing is rewriting, according to a meme I saw on Twitter some years ago. I didn’t know then who said it originally (I googled, it was Ernest Hemingway) but the...

If I gave you a piece of paper with a yellow spot of paint on it and asked you to tell me what it was, you might respond in a...

  In Ireland, pretty much everyone is an amateur meteorologist. When two Irish people meet, a comment on the weather is almost invariably the conversation opener. One might remark that...

It’s London Book Fair week and the great and the good of the publishing industry are meeting and greeting and striking deals in London’s Olympia. The Book Fair is a...