For the past few years, colourful skulls have joined the more traditional skeletons as Halloween decorations. More people outside of the Americas are adopting Day of the Dead celebrations. The 2015 James Bond outing, Spectre, even opened with a huge Day of the Dead parade. But what is the Day of the Dead? How does it differ from […]
Why should, and shouldn’t, you do NaNoWriMo?
You pretty much can’t avoid NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) every November. And with just three days left of October, it’s time to decide if you’re in or out. Whether you’re an author yourself, or just someone who knows one, you see that acronym pretty much everywhere soon. If you haven’t, the general point of NaNoWriMo is […]
3 Classic Ghost Stories Perfect For Halloween
Ghost stories have quietly sneaked into the 21st century. They made their presence felt as the Woman in Black stalked Daniel Radcliffe around a peeling Edwardian pile back in the 2012 movie by Hammer Films. I’m not talking about the Paranormal Activity model of low-budget demonic visitations dressed up to look like ghosts. I’m talking about supernatural spectres capable of […]
5 Ways to Use Where You Live to Generate Ideas
It was the 148th anniversary of the death of Charles Dickens this year. While much has been written about his life and work, we can still learn a lot from his methods! His depiction of a supposedly-fictional London was so realistic because he drew from how people lived and worked in Victorian society. Some of this he would […]
The Surprising Truth about English Witch Trials
‘Witch hunt’ is a term currently being bandied around to relate to a whole raft of things. Yet in earlier centuries, the term referred to a very real danger. Rather than losing a reputation, its victims could lose their lives. Popular culture often implies a craze for witch trials swept Europe, with thousands of people […]
What can you do with unfinished writing projects?
Chances are, you have dozens of unfinished writing projects cluttering up your drawers or your hard drive. Each of them held the promise of being the Next Big Thing and occupied your every waking thought while you worked on them… Until you stopped. Now they’re gathering dust, forgotten and unloved. Does that mean you’re less […]
