Spain Series: I Up until 2019, I’d been to a spiritual retreat in England long, long ago, a meditation retreat in the hinterland of the Gold Coast in Queensland a few years back and a yoga retreat in Bali in 2015. Considering writing has been an important part of my life for much of it, […]
The 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami: A Personal Perspective
5th May 2019 by Leave a Comment
Gold Coast Author Sandra Sweeney tells her story of loss, resilience and survival Book Review The 2004 Boxing Day tsunami took the lives of more than a quarter of a million people within a matter of hours. Peter Beattie, who wrote the Foreword to Sandra Sweeney’s book ‘Ripples from the Wave: After the 2004 Tsunami’ […]
Book Review on Your Second Life Begins When You Realize You Only Have One
11th April 2019 by Leave a Comment
This book review on Your Second Life Begins When You Realize You Only Have One, by French author Raphaelle Giordano (I seem to have had a bit of a focus on French authors recently!) is an interesting mix between novel and self-help book. According to the book description, it reached best-seller status in France, stayed […]
Questions to ask Book Editors
29th March 2019 by Leave a Comment
Are you new to writing and/or to the publishing world? Publishing options for your book Are you seeking an objective viewpoint about your publishing options? It is – sorry to say but a fact nonetheless – extremely challenging (but not impossible) for a mainstream publisher to take on a first-time author. One of the alternatives […]
The French Art of Not Giving a F*ck
21st March 2019 by 2 Comments
Book review When does a book sell more copies because of its title rather than its cover? When it’s called “The French Art of Not Giving a F*ck”! Fabrice Midal, the author, is a philosopher and ‘one of the world’s leading teachers of meditation’. So it may come as a surprise that a practitioner of […]
Working With a Genuine Business in Publishing Services
5th March 2019 by Leave a Comment
I’m a real person. Not a robot. Or a telemarketing company. I live and work in Australia. When you contact my business, I’m the one who replies. I email you. Or Skype you. Or phone you. We can even meet in person. When you work with me, you’re working with a genuine business in publishing […]
Book Review of The Empyrean Quest
21st February 2019 by Leave a Comment
Debut Queensland author Don Horsfall has done himself proud with his first novel. The Empyrean Quest is part story and part mystical personal development journey. The self-help aspect of the book, however, does not detract from the story. I recently read another self-help fiction book, Your Second Life Begins When You Realize You Only Have […]
Book Review – A Town Like Alice
14th February 2019 by Leave a Comment
Book Review – A Town Like Alice A Town Like Alice, by Nevil Shute, is a novel I have heard about since childhood yet until recently I had not read it. Having done so, I realise what I’ve missed. The story, narrated by her solicitor, Noel Strachan, follows Jean Paget, daughter of a Scotswoman and […]
How to Punctuate Dialogue
1st February 2019 by Leave a Comment
Is it a struggle for you knowing how to punctuate dialogue? How to punctuate dialogue correctly eludes a lot of writers. Yet once you know the rules, it is straightforward. Quotation marks, speech marks and quotes Quotation marks are also referred to as ‘speech marks’ or ‘quotes’. I’ll use the term ‘quotation marks’ here so […]
Is your Book Character-Driven or Plot-Driven?
25th January 2019 by Leave a Comment
First of all, what does character-driven and plot-driven mean?! Plot-driven In a plot-driven story, the action is the focus of the writing, not the character. The character tends to be static; there is little character development. Plot-driven stories are often genres like horror, action, science fiction. An example of a plot-driven story is Dan Brown’s […]