Three things I wish I knew before I started writing, and three things I’m glad I didn’t.
Writing is a deceptively complicated business. I’d devoured books all my life and spent my life using words in one form or another. How hard could it be to put them in an order that resulted in a book? Here are the three things I wished I had known before I set sail in HMS Blissful Ignorance to write (and actually finish) my first full length story.
What Evie is reading
This time I’m going leftfield, with three books that are gloriously bonkers in very particular ways. ‘Early Riser’ takes place in an alternate reality, where each perilous winter, most of the earth’s population hibernates, ‘The Rearranged Life of Oona Lockhart’, shows us what happens when, every New Year’s Eve, Oona is transported to a different year of her life, moving backwards and forwards through time, and in ‘Bonk’, we learn about the real and surreal world of sex and science.
Behind the Scenes in Evie Land – April 2021
Welcome aboard the Evie train for a whistle-stop tour through April 2021. This month we’ve got virgins, porn stars, poetry, puppies, blogs, bingeing, bathrooms, tattoos, and my mother-in-law. I’ve got fabulous book recommendations for you, a video of a hot man being humped by a puppy, and further proof that I need constant adult supervision. So buckle up, my friends, and read on!
How to Write the First Draft of a Book
Every writer has their process, their way of getting from an idea in their head to words on a page. The first draft is one of the biggest milestones in the publishing process and I wanted to share how I got to the first draft of book three in the Kinloch series.
What is a Beta Reader?
Beta readers come in lots of different forms, and authors have their own definitions of what makes one, but essentially, a beta reader is someone who reads your work before it is published and offers their opinion. I’ve used beta readers in many ways and have found them absolutely instrumental in my writing process.
The dangerous internet search history of an author
What does the internet search history look like for other authors? How weird could it get? How dodgy could it look? I asked around the writing community, and holy guacamole there are some good stories out there.
What Evie is Reading
I’ve got some awesome reads for you in this blog and I can’t wait to share them with you. I’ve got a romantic comedy with a man who joins a secret all male book group dedicated to reading women’s romance novels, a steamy hot story of two ice hockey stars falling in love, and the slowest burn romance I’ve ever read between a Hollywood power player and her assistant.
Best Facebook Groups for a Romance Author
Unless you start your career as an author on a creative writing course, or with a bunch of like-minded people in a different setting, chances are you’ll be writing on your own. Writing can be a lonely task at the best of times. Here are some of the author Facebook groups I’m in, which you might also find useful.
Behind the Scenes in Evie Land – March 2021
In January I finished book three. In February I went through overused words in Highland Games. In March I have been mainly on my hands and knees cleaning up puppy piss.
What Evie is reading
I’ve got a fabulous gift basket of books by (mainly) British authors for you in this blog. Pernille Hughes takes us from her home in the UK to her birthplace of Denmark in search of great beer and the best kiss in the world, Nick Spalding takes on a quest to discover why he’s so unlucky in love, and Margaret Amatt whisks us north to the Isle of Mull for a heartfelt second chance romance.