De-blog

In this post: Anniversaries and Birthdays When in Paris... from Josh's Journal Celebratory Freebie Love Unlocked Giveaway Coming Soon Anniversaries and Birthdays I'm going to cut to the chase in this blog post, because there is SO MUCH to get through! Ten Years of Hiding Behind The Couch First up, this year is the tenth anniversary of Hiding Behind The Couch , which wasn't meant to be a series. I wrote the first book (from which the name of the series was derived) to prove I could write another novel. The following year, I was stuck for an idea for NaNoWriMo and wrote No Time Like The Present (Season Two). Long story short (hahaha), as I near the end of writing Reunions (Season Seven), the series consists of 11 novels, 7 novellas and 2 short stories - 1.7 million words! That's a lot of words. :) As existing readers will know, the series is about a group of nine (+/-) friends who met at school and university, and with the exception of Brea...

A video blog in which I talk about Love Unlocked, Chain of Secrets and The Love Hearts Game! GIVEAWAY! To win an ebook of Love Unlocked, post a comment with your answer to the following question: How old were Josh and George when they first met? a) seven b) eight c) ten d) eleven Available February 14th, 2016...

The Viaduct of Love... ...and other places to visit in the world of Hiding Behind The Couch Back in 2007, when I first started writing Hiding Behind The Couch , I made some decisions: 1. Not to base the characters on people I knew. 2. Tell the story that needed to be told without forcing the narrative. These two goals continue to guide the storytelling in the series, but there is a real-world inspiration for where the stories happen. I grew up (and still live) in the North-West of England, and it's a beautiful place. I won't bother describing it here - I do it often enough in my books (also, see below), because those places the characters take you to are 'kind of' real locations. In Chain of Secrets ( Love Unlocked anthology - Feb 14th, 2016), Josh and George often treat you to a cycling trip along the canal - that's the Leeds to Liverpool Canal. Top Locks - the junction of Leeds to Liverpool Canal and Rufford Branch Creative Commons - http://www....

Blood, sweat and tears really don't matter Just the things that you do in this garden. (Levellers - 'This Garden' ) I was thinking. I like to do that occasionally, but I rarely give myself the time. I take my Kindle to the loo with me, I proofread in bed, I listen to music while I drive. The rest of the time I'm working, sleeping, or I am in the company of others (I'm working really hard on that last one). Today, I took a few minutes to think and reflect, which is not the same as wallowing. I'm quite adept at living in the moment, but sometimes being mindful is about engaging with thoughts. Indeed, creative thinking requires it. Prompted by a reader's question, my thoughts zoned in on a story I have partly written, which I shouldn't really think about until I've finished what I'm writing now. I did come up with a few ideas, which I safely stowed for later reference, and then I came here to write this post (another thing I'm...