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Turning Family History into Stories

by Sheila Johnson My historical romance, Waireka - Maori for sweet waters- began as a fictionalised account of a real family story.   A distant relative of my Father’s wrote an account of his first ancestors arrival in New Zealand from Scotland. The story my relative shared was captivating as it explored the difficult conditions of my relatives as early nineteenth ...

From Roots to Routes

by Daisy Hart Writing for me has never been about the physical act, and instead has always been a way for me to project my worries, experiences and beliefs into a world where for me, clarity doesn’t exist. As a child I attended a Steiner school, a German schooling system where children do ...

Separating the Rocks From the Spindryer

By Gertcha Cowson I think I have always had a gift for using words in abstract and metaphoric ways but could never get myself to sit down and put it to paper. I did try writing lyrics when I was a teenager but, life got in the way and I put ...

Taser Your Writing Muse

by Cindy Tomamichel Writers block is something often mentioned when a group of writers get together. How do you fix it? How do you deal with the menace of the blank page? Has your Muse abandoned you?  Well, firstly writer’s block is just a temporary inability to write. It may feel horrible, ...

World Building – A Novice’s Guide

by Claire Buss When you set out to write a novel you have an early choice to make. Either the people and the setting are based on real life actualities. Or, and this is definitely more fun, you get to make the whole thing up. And let's face it, that's one ...

The Writing Research Rabbit Hole

by Cindy Tomamichel Most writers love to know things, collecting odd fragments of information to craft into a telling scene, or to spark creativity. From old recipes, newspapers, dusty books and odd google searches, the amount of random snippets can overwhelm any writer. For a writer of historical, fantasy or science ...

Feeling the Fear and Writing It My Way

by Lynda Shepherd My love of words started in a similar way to many; with my parents reading to me at bedtime. My imagination sparked, I would go on adventures with the Mr Men, Sooty and Jill Murphy's The Worst Witch all without leaving my duvet. I'd been so proud when I received a gold star in primary school ...

NaNo who?

by Claire Buss November means only one thing in the writing community, and it's not Thanksgiving - it's NaNoWriMo! What is NaNoWriMo? NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month and in their own words is both "a website, a community and an ambitious writing challenge". Every year writers sign up to start writing ...

How to get permission to use song lyrics in your books

by Maria R Riegger If you have ever wondered how to request permission to use song lyrics in your fiction and nonfiction books, then this blog post is for you. First, nothing in this post constitutes legal advice. Generally speaking, an author does not need to request permission to use the title of a song ...