The Literary Sofa

I love September – it’s the start of a new year for me in every sense, when I’m full of plans and energy (horrible depressing January, you can’t compete).  It’s great to be back on the Sofa after my almost-month away from the blog and if you missed it last week, I started the new … Continue reading →

Today, as a supplement to my Summer Reads 2017 selection, it’s great to be bringing you something a bit different: a showcase of recent and ‘coming soon’ titles by members of The Prime Writers.  I’m very lucky to be part of this fantastic community of novelists first published over the age of 40 and have … Continue reading →

Welcome to my Sofa Spotlight for Summer 2017 – despite my switch to a shorter quarterly format, this is the full dozen as with my previous Summer Reads selections because I’ve found so many excellent novels.  Far more than could be included, which says a lot about those which made the cut – plus I now … Continue reading →

As you may have noticed, this is a pretty noisy and packed week in the book world, which completely mirrors my own schedule of late.  In view of this, I have decided to postpone publication of my Spring Spotlight author Addison Jones’ post on Postwar California for a little while – it is simply too … Continue reading →

This is only the second of my quarterly selections and already things have gone awry – I’ve discovered more excellent novels recently than I strictly ‘need’!  But of course there can never be too many good books (or too much shouting about them), so for today’s spring Sofa Spotlight I’ve decided to focus on seven titles … Continue reading →

Since the sole focus of today’s post is my literary year, it will be a rare positive verdict on 2016.  Obviously it has been significant for me as the year my debut novel was published  – I will always look back on the launch of Paris Mon Amour as one of the happiest moments of my life.  … Continue reading →

When I sit down to write a sex scene – and there is certainly no shortage of them in my debut novel Paris Mon Amour – I don’t think about it.  I get the characters in a room and let things take their course. And to me that is a less daunting prospect than it … Continue reading →

It’s an exciting day on the Literary Sofa as I launch my new quarterly ‘Sofa Spotlight’ for Winter 2016.  As mentioned when the blog reached its fifth anniversary, these shorter, more frequent selections will replace the  Hot Picks and Summer Reads, but I hope they will be just as popular!  The new system is already proving more … Continue reading →

It’s been a busy and exciting time lately, with wonderful reviews of Paris Mon Amour appearing all over the place – one reader wrote to me when she finished it at 2am! It’s so interesting and rewarding hearing what people make of it (and everyone sees something a bit different), so a very big thank you to everyone … Continue reading →

In view of the appreciative response to the above piece I wrote for the Writers’ Workshop (York Festival of Writing) blog, I thought I’d also post the link here on the Literary Sofa. Thanks again to WW for hosting me and for their important role on the journey to publication of my debut novel Paris Mon Amour.   … Continue reading →

It’s nearly a week since my debut novel Paris Mon Amour came out and I’ll be writing about that incredible experience very soon… But in the meantime – and because I was way too busy to post this week – here are some of the pieces I’ve written elsewhere to coincide with the release.  Given the longevity and popularity … Continue reading →