Interesting and Useful Links

Karla writes romance with a touch of the supernatural, and is one of my critique partners (meaning we get to read one another's first drafts). She does a great job of finding my plot holes and continuity errors.

Author of various book genres including science fiction, UFO Sightings and children's stories. A member of Writers in the Wood.

Jason writes crime thrillers, and is a member of Writers in the Wood.

Franca is a writer, blogger and motivational speaker, and a member of Writers in the Wood.

A member of Writers in the Wood, who writes about the core issues of the 21st Century via poetry, fiction and non-fiction.

Terry writes "romance with a twist of mystery," and is my other critique partner. She finds all the weak characterisation and the places where I'm using more words than necessary.

Lorraine is the founder of Writers in the Wood, our local writers' group, and writes comic poetry for children and adults.

Elliot has written three humorous novels and a book of sinister short stories entitled The Crimson Scarf and Other Stories. He's a member of Writers in the Wood.

A comparison of the 10 most popular blogging sites that a writer should consider when setting up a blog.

A useful checklist for those writing fantasy. I can answer "no" to most of the questions.

Helping readers to find and share the books they love. My profile on Goodreads is here.

A large collection of rants (the author's own term) about everything to do with fantasy fiction. Often opinionated, sometimes very blunt, but containing much good advice for the beginning fantasy writer - and the experienced one too.

The One Million Project (OMP) is a worldwide collective of writers and artists who aim to raise a million pounds (sterling) for charity. I'm the editor for their blog. Officially, the blog's articles tie in with the project's aims. Unofficially, I'm quite generous in interpreting that.

A blog about "Writers, Writing, Self-Publishing, Disruptive Innovation and the Universe" - lots of good articles about the business of being a writer.

If you're stuck for a name for a character or place, this page will generate as many as you need. It has various options for the type of name (short, long, vowel-heavy, consonant-heavy, unpronounceable and so on) and generates about fifty at a time. If you don't see one you like, just reload the page to get some more. Names of several minor characters in The Barefoot Healer came from it.

The Facebook group for our local writers' group. It's a closed group, meaning you'll have to apply to join.

A weekly podcast about the craft and business of writing novels, presented by Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, Howard Tayler and Mary Robinette Kowal. Often funny, always worth listening to.