I’ve come to learn that bereavement is a strange emotion. I’ve also come to realize that the way I cope with death is by writing about it. Coffee and Vodka Many of my books include the death of an important character. A surprising amount for someone who writes stories about family and love, … [Read more...]
Change of Genre?
Like many other writers, I often want to change the genre I write in. I want to escape the shackles of the romance genre and write something gritty. Fair enough, my Nordic fiction isn't exactly bodice-ripping, Hallmark movie type of romance, but neither is there too much mystery and absolutely no … [Read more...]
New Year, New Freebies, and New Resolutions
Happy New Year! I hope you've had a lovely, relaxing (!?) Christmas holiday and a good start to the new decade? New Year Not Skiing The Englishman and I spent Christmas with family and New Year in the stunningly beautiful Swedish ski resort, Åre, where one of my books, The Christmas Heart, is set. … [Read more...]
Season’s Greetings
It's nearly Christmas and the end of the year so I wanted to send you my Season's Greetings! New Series Looking back to 2019, I've had a fabulous writing year. I've published two novels in a new series, Love on the Island, set on the stunningly beautiful Åland Islands. Book I, … [Read more...]
How to Turn Your Life into Fiction Step 1: Research
This is first in a series of blog posts about how to turn your life into fiction. Today I'm going to be talking about research. Why Me? I've talked extensively about how to turn your life into fiction in blog posts and seminars. I've even written a book about it! This coming Tuesday, I'm going to … [Read more...]
Advice for New Writers: Five Stages of Writing a Novel
Are you struggling to complete the novel you started? Or want to write one but don't know where to start? Writing a novel is a complicated and sometimes a long drawn-out process. However, it can be divided into five steps. These five stages of writing a novel can vary a little from author to author, … [Read more...]
How to Write in Another Language
Would you like to know how to write a regular blog, novel or a nonfiction title in another language? When I tell people I’m a writer, the first thing they ask me apart from what I write (Nordic contemporary fiction), is what language I use. I graduated from a Finnish College with a Baccalaureat and … [Read more...]
My Chernobyl Scoop
I’ve just seen the preview of the new Chernobyl series on BBC Breakfast and it took me back to my days at BBC Monitoring. I believe I was the first person to learn about the disaster here in the UK. It was my first scoop! Monitoring Finnish and Swedish Radio It was an ordinary day in … [Read more...]
The Mother in Fiction
How do you find the mother characters in the fiction books that you read? Are they believable, loveable or not true to your own experience? In my novels, I've used mothers and complicated family relationships to both move the story along, and to explain the motivation and difficulties of the other … [Read more...]
Five Reasons Why Authors Should Attend Live Conferences and Seminars
Authors spend most of their time at a desk be it in a coffee house, an office (oh, the luxury!) or at home. It's quite a solitary profession, something which I've had real difficulty to come to terms with since I turned full-time author two years ago. Attending author events has helped me a lot with … [Read more...]
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