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Joining a writing group will save your soul – Things I learned while writing Dead Ringer
When I look back and try to identify the ONE thing that took me from slush pile to publication, it’s joining a writing group. Specifically, a workshop critique group. This was a big, scary step for me, because (like most writers) I haaate having my writing critiqued. At the time, it felt like someone was…
Is there a stranger out there who shares your face? (guest post for Confessions of a YA Reader)
What is the likelihood that you have a doppelgänger somewhere in the world? The scientific facts are stranger than you think. The idea of the doppelgänger – a stranger who looks uncannily like you – stretches back through history. The superstition is that encountering your “double” is a bad omen that could lead to your…
“Tense and compelling” — Daily Mail review of Dead Ringer
Christena Appleyard of the Daily Mail gives her review of Dead Ringer. The idea of this book might sound a bit far fetched — two girls find their doppelgängers via a new facial recognition app and decide to swap lives. Nicola Martin spins this slightly dodgy idea into a tense and compelling story that courageously…
Don’t give ’em a reason to stop reading – Things I learned while writing Dead Ringer
One of my favourite pieces of feedback I’ve got on Dead Ringer is: “I stayed up past my bedtime reading it.” During one of my later re-drafts of the book, I did something bold. I re-cut all the chapters. I made them shorter and I changed the places where the chapters ended. My purpose (and…
“Pacy, witty, succinct” – CrimeTime review of Dead Ringer
Bob Cornwell gives his review of Dead Ringer for CrimeTime. “When I first met my double, I was disappointed how little she looked like me.” So thinks Ella Mosier, 24, a native of Walney Island, close by Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria as she meets Jemima Coottes-Mitchell, 25, London for the first time. Both have been intrigued by…
You’ll have to rearrange your life in order to write a novel – Things I learned while writing Dead Ringer
If there’s one myth about writing that I hate, it’s the myth that great novels were written in snatched 5-minute bursts. “Get up earlier and write while drinking your morning coffee! Write in your lunch break! If you’re not writing while simultaneously making a risotto and changing a duvet cover, you obviously don’t want it…