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Ask the Author

This month’s Q & A features novelist Lisa Conway, who writes historical fiction under the pen name Elisabeth Conway. Her trilogy, The Strands of Shining Gold, is set in 19th Century Singapore. How did you start writing? I’ve always been involved in writing, but up until a few years ago it was mainly non-fiction and documentary film scripts. I started…

A Waltz through the Dark Wood

My volume of short stories, A Waltz through the Dark Wood , will be published in August 2023. To mark this occasion I thought I would tempt readers with a brief description. The Girl A forty-something, angst ridden screenwriter meets his much younger girlfriend at a cafe, and hears a startling revelation. The Lover A married businesswoman meets a charming…

Art imitating Life

Strange things happen when you embark on a life writing fiction. Your characters start to come alive in your imagination, developing quirks and attitudes you hadn’t anticipated. Your sleep is hijacked by new ideas and insights which come to you in the dead of night. Novels are notoriously difficult to write – or at least to stay the course long…

Tales from the Woodshed

Q & A with author Nicky Shearsby What drew you to writing initially? I have always been fascinated by words, how stories can come to life on paper and last forever. From an early age I knew that I wanted to be a writer, crafting untold stories so that a little piece of me would live on when I’m gone.…

How much is enough?

Novels are often criticised for their lack of research, a laziness on the part of the author. Which begs the question, how much is enough? I always imagine a stone-faced historian peering over my shoulder while I’m writing, and his scornful look at my audacity. Hollywood has always revealed a shameless disregard for history, a fact which incenses many scholars.…

Woman

Most men spend their lives in search of the material, a way out of the conditions they’ve been born into. Status, wealth, opportunity. All these might come their way, causing them to rejoice at their good fortune. Even better if they’ve won the love of a good woman to share the journey. For centuries, man has taken on heroic struggles…

Persistence

The first and last word in any undertaking is persistence. Without it there can be no breakthrough, no fanfare, and no remuneration for the years of wasted effort. Until success comes along, the dream lies buried, a vain and preposterous hope that might never be realised. Most people give up because the road is too long and the work too…

Hide in plain sight

When you think about it, all personality disorders are characterised by flawed thinking. I’m not a psychologist, but perhaps my decades of direct experience with mental illness gives me a voice of some sort. After years of clinical depression, I was finally diagnosed with bipolar disorder. This helped explain my somewhat erratic behaviour and inability to maintain a ‘normal’ life.…

Survival

I’m currently reading Robert Greene’s excellent book, The Laws of Human Nature. The basic premise is that all of us act in ways that are largely unconscious, often driven by our shadow side – the aspects of our character we prefer to keep hidden. As social creatures, our success in life depends on our ability to integrate with others. The…

The Enemy Within

‘I think, therefore I am’. When Descartes made this famous statement, he was claiming proof of his existence, rather than making a random observation about what went on in his head. Leaving aside the existential issue, which could consume several volumes on its own and still remain unresolved, let’s examine the first part of the proposition; ‘I think.’ Neuroscience can…