Tag Archives: Advice

Major new book – Weight Loss for Life, from Johns Hopkins University

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I have had three children and my weight has fluctuated after every one of them. My third is almost one and now I want to lose the weight so I was interested in reading this book. I am glad I did. It is a comprehensive and non-judgemental plan backed by the latest, and best, science. I found it easy to read and follow. I highly recommend it.

Major new book – Weight Loss for Life, from Johns Hopkins University’s Healthful Eating, Activity & Weight Programme

Weight Loss for Life

The Proven Plan for Success

By Lawrence J. Cheskin, MD, And Kimberly A. Gudzune, MD, MPH

This is not a fad diet book. This is the most comprehensive, scientifically based-programme to lose weight and keep it off, with practical details about diet and nutrition, movement and motivation, medications, supplements, surgery, and more.

In Weight Loss for Life, two experts from the Johns Hopkins Healthful Eating, Activity & Weight Programme provide you with all of the information you need on your weight lossjourney. They bring together leading experts in behavioural health, nutrition, exercise, and nursing to help you develop a plan that works best for you—and one that’s not just focused on just restricting calories or certain foods. Anyone struggling with unwanted weight gain or obesity will find this programme to be helpful, compassionate, and clear.

A central feature of the programme is a Personal Plan of Action to help you set up reachable goals, plan your meals, and make time for movement. All the recommendations are customisable based on your personal health and needs. You’ll find interactive features too, with surveys throughout asking you to reflect on your own eating habits as well as barriers to success. And unlike other books Weight Loss for Life covers it all: supplements, prescription medications, med spas, and surgical options. If you struggle, it can help you get back on track. Throughout, testimonials from others who have followed the programme along with hundreds of photographs and drawings will help educate and keep you motivated along your weight loss journey.

Weight Loss for Life is the guide to the science and art of achieving and maintaining a healthful weight.

“This evidence-based, easy-to-understand approach to weight loss provides readers with the appropriate tools they need to be successful long term in reaching their own individualized goals. More comprehensive than other weight loss books on the market, this book is a valuable resource for anyone wanting to lose weight safely and effectively.” – Virginia Quick, PhD, RDN, Rutgers University

Lawrence J. Cheskin, MD, is Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Professor and Chair of Nutrition and Food Studies at George Mason University. Kimberly Anne Gudzune, MD, MPH, is Associate Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, where she is the director of Johns Hopkins Healthful Eating, Activity & WeightProgramme.

Hardback, 400 pages, 131 colour photos, 10 colour illus., 9781421441948, £22.00

https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/12203/weight-loss-life

 

How I Got Published By Alec Marsh

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Alec Marsh, writer, authorWhen I was 21 I started to write a novel. It wasn’t very good. I was working as a reporter for a local paper in Cornwall and my book… was about a reporter working for a local paper in Cornwall. 

Soon I moved to London to work for the Daily Telegraph and started writing a second novel. It was about a young journalist working for a newspaper in London. 

It wasn’t very good either. 

I met a top agent at a function and asked him if he’d see it. 

‘What’s it about?’ he asked.

After several seconds of flannelling he cut in: ‘If you can’t tell me in under 11 seconds then I’m not interested.’ 

I’d been introduced to the idea of the elevator pitch. If you can’t encapsulate your idea in a nutshell, you’ve had it.

I kept writing and the rejection slips (paper in those days) kept piling up.

Then one day a friend suggested I try my hand at historical fiction. ‘You’re obsessed about the past,’ he said. And it was true.

About a year later I read The Da Vinci Code, and was hooked. 

And I thought, “I can do that.”

So I started thinking about a historical mystery that could sit at the heart of a story, and some characters that would have sticking power.

That was around 2004. Before I knew it, I had started writing what would become my first novel, Rule Britannia. And I knew I was onto something, I could feel it in my fingertips. My characters – a historian and mountaineer Ernest Drabble and his pal, a journalist named Harris – were alive. And so was the story.

With a half-written book, I started polishing and went looking for an agent. Again the rejection slips piled up (still paper).

Then one day in 2008 an email landed at about 6pm on Saturday evening from an agent. Do you have any more, he asked?

I didn’t sleep that night. Soon I’d emailed the next three chapters, then we had a meeting. After that, I had an agent and went off to finish the book – armed with the self-confidence to finish it properly, to believe in myself and the benefits of his insights.

The agent then took it to market. But it was 2009 and e-readers, Amazon and the global financial crisis was hitting hard, and – for whatever reason – my book didn’t sell. After a dozen very polite rejections from major publishers, my agent suggested I try writing a different book. Which I did. 

For five years I wrote a book set in the First World War, but Drabble and Harris were still in the back of my mind, calling to me from the binary prison of a hard drive. 

By 2015 the First World War book was finished – but so was my relationship with my agent who finally spelled it out to me when he told me this was not a book that he could sell to his clients. We were finished.

Exhausted and disappointed, I stopped knocking on doors that wouldn’t open and focused instead on my day job. Every now and then someone would ask about Drabble and Harris; I would change the subject.

Then my son Herbie was born in 2016, and his arrival rekindled my ambition. So in the small hours, I dug out Rule Britannia and reread it, shook my head at parts that hadn’t aged well, and I polished it. And I pitched it again.

After a string of rejections (emails now), I went direct to publishers, finding an independent in Cardiff, named Accent Press. 

When the owner telephoned me and told me she’d take it – and she’d want two more books after – I was standing in a corridor at work. I didn’t punch the air, but a tear might have come to my eye. It had taken 20 years and I had endured numerous disappointments but it had finally happened. Drabble and Harris would get to their readers, and I was going to have a novel out. So what’s my advice for would-be authors. Don’t give up. And as Martin Amis once told me when I asked him for advice at book-signing: keep writing. After all, what else are you going to do?

Alec Marsh is author of the Drabble & Harris novels, published by Headline Accent. The latest book, ‘Ghosts of the West’ is published in original paperback and ebook on 9 September

 

Susannah Wise: My Writing Process

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  • Susannah Wise: My Writing Process
      What you have written, past and present

 Like so many authors, I have always written stories, poems, and the beginnings of ‘novels’ that remained forever unfinished. As a young child these were complete with messy felt-tip illustrations and growing up, pieces of my work would appear in the school magazine each term. I’m still not sure of their merit, but Mum always thought they were great, and she obviously wasn’t biased. 

    In my late teens, I found myself in a long relationship with a playwright and screenwriter, and encouraged by him, began a regular writing practice between acting jobs: short stories, plays, more poetry than I can recall; always poetry – I have an engraved Moleskine at home full of these personal noodlings. When I die, I dread to think of my family going through them. 

     In my thirties, frustrated with the quality of scripts I was reading (I am also an actor), I began to write screenplays and comedy pilots of my own. These would garner modest amounts of interest from the powers that be at television channels, but never reached fruition and they are now consigned to my ‘oh well’ drawer.

    In truth, it was only shock, when my father was given a terminal cancer diagnosis back in 2015, that propelled me into writing seriously. I think it made me reassess what my life and what I was waiting for. I tentatively started the novel that was to become This Fragile Earth, and discovered I loved everything about the daily practice of writing: the space and time long-form prose gave me in my head, the agency I had over my characters and the world-building. I haven’t stopped writing since.

     What are you promoting now?

    This Fragile Earth is my debut, and the hardback is out on 24th June of this year. It’s a post-apocalyptic survival story about a mother, Signy, and her six-year-old son, Jed, who following a tragic event, are forced to flee near-future London and travel to the Midlands to seek out the protagonist’s mother. When they get there, however, things are far worse than they could ever have imagined. The book is a grounded science fiction thriller, with at its centre, the beating heart between the two main characters.

If you’re a fan of John Wyndham, or perhaps Emily St Mandel’s Station Eleven, this is the book for you.

Susannah Wise: My Writing Process, my fragile earth

A bit about your process of writing, how do you do your structure, and do you plan or just write?

 I find it very hard to talk about ‘process’ when discussing art of any kind. I know some people are good at it, I’m not. I’ve written three books and for each one the process has been different. With This Fragile Earth the plot came to me quickly over the course of one night. With only a few small tweaks, I set about writing it directly from the ideas bubbling in my head. I already had a decent grounding in some of the themes in the book, although I made up almost all the ‘science’ myself. I even dreamt one of the main coding theories in there! In the course of completing it though, I did more research, attending lectures and reading books on the subject and so on. 

    My second novel, out next year, is a dark comedy about grief. When I set out writing it, I had no idea what it would be about, barring the bare bones. I had no plot, only two characters and not a clue what the ending would be. I took part in the Faber Academy novel-writing course over six months in 2018 and completed an entire first draft. I really loved the ‘pants-ing’ rather than ‘planning’ nature of this book, though it did mean rather a lot of editing once finished, of course!

    My third novel is set around some dodgy goings-on in a small village in Cumbria. Before I began, I had a plot, all the characters, and a location, and wrote out each point at the start. I did research on some elements in the book (I can’t say what they are here without giving the game away!), but the setting is a place very familiar to me, so that helped a lot. A few plot points have moved within the process of writing it, but basically, I am sticking to my initial ideas. I began during lockdown in April last year and am still going strong: I was hoping the first draft would be about 75K words, but I think it will be closer to 100K. Its completion has been hampered by home-schooling, preparing This Fragile Earth for publication, editing my second book, and the fact my partner has been away for seven months for work since January. It’s been slow-going, but I’m hoping the book is no worse for it. 

    I tend to write in the morning for two hours if I can, either at 9.30 straight after dropping my son at school, or after a walk or some sort of exercise, around 11. I find it very hard to write in the afternoon for some reason but will force myself to if I’ve been unable to complete my daily words beforehand. I’m also an actor, and auditioning and learning lines, as well as acting work itself, eats into a vast amount of writing time. Saying that, there is a lot of hanging around when one is filming, so I always take my laptop with me and use the time to catch up on my word count. It’s a brilliant and unexpected bonus and has made me far less resentful about all the ‘wasted’ hours actors endure.

Most of the time I am not filming and will write at the kitchen table (without music) or kneeling on the rug in our living room, using the coffee table as a desk. I get terrible dead feet after I stand up and will often hobble around comically for half an hour trying to eradicate the pins and needles. I have a special foam support for my wrists too, as I tend to get RSI after a long period of typing. My eyes do go a bit squiffy after a long session of intense focus. Basically, I’m falling to pieces.

What about word count?

    I tend to set myself a very achievable 500 words per day (five days a week) when I’m drafting. This will take me around an hour to an hour and a half. Then another hour perhaps of reviewing the previous day’s words. I prefer to set a low bar as I find I work better if I’m hitting my target than setting unrealistic goals, then spending the rest of the day beating myself up for my failures. This helps me stay motivated, which is important when undertaking such a vast piece of work. 

    When I’m editing a completed draft, I can easily spend three or four hours at my desk and hardly even notice where the time has gone. Even more if I have line edits back from my publisher. I once spent ten hours working on notes from my agent. I would strongly advise against this. 

What do you find hard about writing?

Ha. Well, this is a tricky one to answer, because without meaning to sound like a plonker, I really feel – for me at least – that writing is the best job in the world. I guess if I had to say a couple of things, one would be the loneliness (though ironically, this is also one of the things I love about writing). It can be a little isolating spending all day with only the people in your head for company, before going out for a walk alone. Sometimes 24 hours can pass and the only person I will have spoken to is my 11- year-old son. Love him as I do, he’s not a great dinner table conversationalist. 

The other thing I find difficult is the mental responsibility. By this I mean that like the expression ‘this book isn’t going to write itself’, the completion of any book is entirely in the hands of the author. The manuscript sits like a patient pet waiting for attention, but if there happen to be other things going on in life, it requires huge amounts of discipline and mental energy to carve out time to honour this. Some days the words fly out, some they are like sticks in a muddy dam. It’s important to know when to just close the computer and get one with something else

What do you love about writing?

What’s not to love?! I love that no one else is there making me write, it is entirely my own work, that ‘being left alone’ feeling. I love that it allows time for introspection. I gain a great sense of inner peace from its practice. On top of this, having a whole world in the palm of one’s hand is just the greatest feeling. There is huge satisfaction in putting words in order so that they have rhythm and cadence, just like music. The joy when one reads back a passage and thinks ‘hmm, that isn’t half bad,’ is like nothing else. 

More than this though, is the vast pride and sense of achievement from completing a novel, especially when one gets to see it type-set, or in its proof form, or better still the actual finished version. It is an object created outside oneself, to be held in the hands of others, taking them to new places, and will it live on long after the author is dead and gone. I still can’t quite get my head around this concept. 

This Fragile Earth by Susannah Wise is out now in hardback by Gollancz.

 

Why You Need a Professional for Plumbing Repairs

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When you own your own property, all sorts of problems can arise that need to be dealt with. In a rented home, the landlord would generally sort these out, but as a homeowner, you need to do it yourself. When it comes to plumbing issues, which are common issues in homes, you need to ensure you do not make matters worse by attempting to do the work yourself. This could actually end up costing you more money in the long run as well as wasting your time.

What you need to do in the event of plumbing issues in your home is contact an experienced professional with a solid reputation. Someone with expertise and experience when it comes to plumbing repairs can ensure the job is completed quickly, efficiently, and to high standards. This will make life far easier for you and could be far cheaper than finding someone who is not qualified or attempting it yourself.

Why This Is So Important

There are many reasons why it is so important to use a professional and reputable plumbing expert for your plumbing issues. Some of these are:

Avoiding Wasting Your Time

If you attempt plumbing jobs yourself without the necessary experience, knowledge, and tools, you will simply end up wasting your own time and possibly being back at square one – or in a worse situation – at the end of it all. With a qualified professional, the work will be done properly, and you won’t have to spend time trying to work it out yourself.

Avoid Making the Problem Worse

Another reason you need a professional for plumbing work at your home is that it means you won’t end up making the problem worse. If you make a mistake, you could end up causing more damage and this will then cost you more money to put right. With a professional, the job will be completed to professional standards.

Save Money

Following on from the last point, getting a professional in can save you money because you are not risking making the problem worse. You won’t have to go out and spend money on tools to try and fix the issue, and you won’t be spending your time trying to work out a problem you know nothing about, so you can get on with other things. All of this can save you both money and time.

Get the Job Done Right

One other reason to get a professional in is that you can benefit from greater peace of mind because the job will be done properly and to high standards. You won’t keep having the same problem over and over again, and even if you do, a reputable professional will get it sorted out for you. This makes the whole process far easier and means that you can get the plumbing issues sorted out quickly and permanently.

These are some of the reasons why it is so important to get a professional out to work on plumbing issues at your home. 
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Grow Healthy Babies: The Evidence-Based Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy

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grow healthy babies, pregnancy book, pregnancy, Being pregnant can feel like a minefield. Knowing what to eat and what to avoid can feel overwhelming. With allergies on the rise it adds more pressure. So I was excited to see the Grow Healthy Babies book. It is an evidence-based guide to reducing your child’s risk of asthma, eczema and allergies.

I was hoping it would not be a hippy-dippy book preaching to others what to eat and do, and I am happy to report it is not. It is a fantastic, well-researched book which backs up everything it says in droves. This book shows that you can make a huge difference to the health of your child, and it all starts in pregnancy. Pregnant women have more power than they realise.

While some of the research is not helpful to everyone- eating organic food is not within everyone’s range- I found the advice in this book invaluable. I would recommend it to anyone who is having a baby, or even thinking about getting pregnant. It is a truly great book and a triumph for the authors.

 

When lifelong asthma, eczema, and allergy sufferers Michelle Henning, a certified Nutrition & Health Coach, and her husband Dr. Victor Henning decided to become parents, they were well aware that half of all babies born today will develop allergies and up to a third will become asthmatic or suffer from eczema. Using their combined backgrounds in nutrition and science, they began investigating a mountain of medical literature on how to prevent chronic illness so that their baby would grow up healthy.

In their honest and enlightening new book Grow Healthy Babies, the Hennings share their research by distilling the latest medical evidence into a practical, easy to read guide that provides expecting parents with clear and simple steps to lower a baby’s risk of developing a chronic condition by up to 90%. With the goal of empowering parents-to-be or those planning to get pregnant with information about simple choices that improve their health and their child’s health, they cover a multitude of topics including:

  • You can make a difference: By making different choices during/after pregnancy, you have the power to shape your baby’s health for life
  • How your baby’s immune system develops, and how you can strengthen it to prevent chronic illness
  • How friendly bacteria, your microbiome, shape both your and your baby’s health, and how to protect and improve your microbiome
  • Which food choices and supplements during and after pregnancy make a real difference to your baby’s health, according to scientific studies
  • Why environmental factors and certain household products can trigger chronic disease, and how to choose healthier alternatives
  • How birth choices and breastfeeding can influence your baby’s long-term health

 

Grow Healthy Babies: The Evidence-Based Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy and Reducing Your Child’s Risk of Asthma, Eczema, and Allergies is available for pre-order at bookstores nationwide and online retailers such as Amazon.

How To Appear Successful In A Business Environment

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Creating a successful image of yourself is a big part of excelling in the business environment. 

When you look the part, you’re more inclined to feel the part. You’ll have the appearance of someone who knows what they’re doing, coming across as being confident and sure of yourself. Even during tense negotiations or important client meetings, you will still appear as if you are in control.  

Some workers have even found a way to look busy and successful without actually doing anything useful at their place of work. There is a power in a look, and one would be foolish to underestimate it. Of course, we are not recommending putting style over substance; only to fuse the two together in a mutually complimentary fashion.

Therefore, here are a few tips suggested by UtilitySavingExpert.com that will help you appear more successful in a business environment. 

Practice Good Hygiene

A successful image starts at basic hygiene. 

It might seem obvious, but no amount of fancy clothes or bottled odours can mask what is undoubtedly poor personal hygiene. Cleanliness is the starting point from which you can create your perfect persona, from which you can add more touches of character to polish up your air of success. 

Successful people have money, and money buys showers and soaps. Use them both well, because if you skip the wash, then every other effort you make to look successful will fall decidedly flat. Floss your teeth, trim your nose hairs, clean your hair with shampoos and conditioners, and keep your nails trimmed or clipped to a presentable standard too. 

If you can’t perform the basics of day-to-day life, then who can say that you can represent the interests of a company? The essentials can’t be missed, so commit yourself to them for the best results possible. 

Wear Luxury Accessories

It’s the extras that communicate real success, showing your ability to go the extra mile with your money. 

Desiring a quality timepiece? Certified Nomos watches sold by Chronext are all brand-new, backed up by a flurry of great reviews. Fast delivery times are also available, and you can search for over 7,000 excellent watches until you have found one that speaks to you. Such a range of choice is not only to be commended but utilised to the full also. These watches are a fresh update in the industry, being incredibly elegant thanks to their minimalist design, all of which is the will of a younger company. 

Accessories always lend extra dynamics to an ensemble, and the more depth your look has in the business environment, the better. It tells people that you pay attention to details, that you have an appreciation for tradition, and that you’re familiar with making good decisions. 

It’s not crass to celebrate the fruits of your labours, either. There’s a fine line between showing off and enjoying your success, and most accessories can help communicate the latter. Additions such as the watch have practicality as well as style, as do things like glasses, headbands, and bags, all of which have incredibly stylish variations if you search hard enough. Flaunt your success – you’ve earned it! 

Develop Your Body Language

Anyone can wear a fancy suit and flashy accessories. The real question is – will your demeanour help or hinder you in wearing them well?

A suit can only ‘suit’ you if you have the charisma and swagger to pull it off. One glance at the models who adorn them in the broadsheets will tell you that their attitude sells it. The character comes through the clothes, not from them. Adopting your body language when you’re wearing your business attire is what lets people know that you’re not only stylish, but serious about being so. 

Your success shines through in every movement you make. Great body language may include: 

  • Keeping Your Head Up: Averting your gaze to the floor might be perceived as a sign of weakness. Look everybody in the eye, and face everything in your working day head on. 
  • Holding Your Shoulders Back: Slumped shoulders will drag down the rest of your posture with them, likely stooping your back also. Keep them back to a degree, so that they can better accentuate a confidently bold pose. 
  • Uncrossing Your Arms: Many people interpret crossed arms as a sign of tension or confrontation. Keep your arms at your side, and you will have an air of openness about you, which is attractive to all your colleagues in clients for business-related enquires. 
  • Maintaining Handshakes: Much can be communicated in something as simple as a handshake. Early withdrawal can indicate nerves, too late an end might flag an overbearing nature. A strong grip and 2-3 shakes is the best way to land a positive first impression. 
  • Controlling Your Facial Expressions: Business can often be like a game of poker, whereby you don’t want to give away your true feelings on matters so easily. Maintain a pleasant demeanour, smile and schmooze, and master suppressing frowns or contorted expressions. Successful people are never broken. 

There’s a great deal of subtly in body language that can influence what direction things take in business. Some of the tips above may not be particularly revolutionary, but they can be reasons why people fail job interviews or land a bad impression with potential clients. Textbook ideas are textbook for a reason, so keep them in mind. 

Practice Your Speaking

You might think you have been able to speak since you were a small toddler, but business environments require something a little extra in the speech department. 

Clear diction, pronunciation, and a wide vocabulary are all incredibly useful assets. The ability to articulate yourself properly is vital in circumstances such as presentations, performance reviews, or any important series of meetings. Not only are you discussing the topic at hand, but you’re also using persuasion to subtly demonstrate your worth to the clients and colleagues around you. 

Short, minimal responses won’t impress anybody, neither will long-winded speeches that lead to nowhere. Try to land your own speech patterns somewhere in the middle, where you use every sentence to full effect. An aptitude for crisp storytelling and charming turns of phrase could serve you well also. 

Public speaking is now required in many fields. In 2016, Jeannette Nelson who serves as head of voice at The National Theatre, said that “your voice […] carries your history as much as anything”, and that people tend to become more self-conscious when told such a thing. If you embrace that side of things openly, though, you can appear more successful as your confidence radiates through your speech patterns. 

Help Your Colleagues 

It might seem like a rather cheesy point to make but making time for others can be a great way to signpost your success. 

There has been an increase in schemes whereby colleagues can tip each other in “peer-to-peer micro-bonuses”, with small cash rewards being used to build team dynamics and boost performance. Therefore, it could be a good idea to recommend the scheme to your employers or participate in it if it exists in your firm already. 

Using your success for the betterment of others speaks volumes of your character. It shows that you’re a team-player, and that you value the performance of the business more than covering your own back and going home early. If you can sprinkle some of your own good fortune on those around you, you’ll be looked to as a leader, and that’s true success. 

 

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My Writing Process – Emma Eker.

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I’m a searcher – always have been, potentially always will be. I’ve questioned the status quo from the moment I had the capacity to do so – finding myself dissatisfied and unconvinced with the answers I was given. I mention this so you may understand that I spent my whole life pushing boundaries, rebelling against ‘the machine’ and searching for the Truth. This quest came with a restlessness that ensured I couldn’t stay still for any substantial amount of time, moving from place to place, job to job and person to person for as long as I can remember – I was always trying to get ‘there’… destination unknown. 

What you have written, past and present.

Apart from writing a teenage diary, essays for my psychology training, helping friends formulate emails and blogging through social media, my professional writing CV, up until this point, has been limited! Until recent years, although with a great love for writing, I am not sure that I considered utilising this in any particular way, either professionally or for any paid or altruistic offering – it simply wasn’t in my consciousness awareness to do so.

What you are promoting now.

My book is called “Liberation”. It has been a labour of love and is predominantly a solution-based memoir, highlighting my journey through life – moving through addiction, heartache, temporary loss of Self and many of the trappings of the human experience. I have always been solution-based, always aware that life is magic and benevolent and therefore I could not, would not, write a book relating to struggle without presenting the reader with a solution. Too many books in the mainstream point to the ‘problem’, providing identification but little or no hope for the eradication of that which the reader may be battling with. I believe we are all whole and perfect, but for our belief systems and this is what Liberation allows the reader to see. 

3. A bit about your process of writing.

If anyone is looking for ‘good advice’ from me in this area, they may be disappointed! My writing process has been totally haphazard. Some days / weeks I would be in ‘the zone’, writing flowing, immersed in the creative process and other times, my laptop would be left unattended whilst I found it more important to do absolutely nothing at all! Many a time I have found myself in judgement around my process, but I have come to see that everything happens perfectly and in divine timing. What I will say is this, I have learnt to hear and to listen to the still quiet voice within me that taps gently in order to gain my attention and nudges me in the right direction. When the ‘knowing’ comes knocking, I know it’s time to put fingers to keyboard. 

4. Do you plan or just write?

Absolutely no planning whatsoever. I truly trust my writing process and I go with what feels right, rather than what I could have set out in black and white with regard to a structure. I have never worked logically, despite being thrown into a system that required it. I must be honest and say I don’t think I ever planned any of the book at all. Everyone’s process is different though and we need to find what works best for us which is simply a matter of trial and error. I know that when I sit down in front of my computer with the intention to write, the words will flow through me and if they don’t, I recognise it isn’t the right time. For me, the trick is to take my thinking mind out of it and go with the (creative) flow.

· What about word count?

With “Liberation”, there was no specific word count. I made the decision to self-publish rather than write for a traditional publishing house who may have required a certain length of manuscript.   

· How do you do your structure?

There was no specific structure, although, before I made the decision to self-publish, I was in discussions with a traditional publishing company who had asked me to draw up a synopsis and provide a rough chapter breakdown. I did, on some level, find this helpful to refer to as the writing process began. I held the structure loosely, understanding that the ‘story’ would unfold and become clearer as time moved on. Therefore, the format continually changed as the writing flowed and took on different directions, but it was useful to at least know the direction in which I was headed.  

· What do you find hard about writing?

At many times, thoughts, ideas and words would flow into my mind incredibly quickly and leave just as quickly making it difficult at points (not to mention incredibly frustrating) to grab hold of and capture them. Because I have a perfectionist within me, I would find myself continually editing, editing and re-editing some more which again, can be incredibly frustrating. I have however learnt, that if there is something that needs language which I temporarily ‘forget’, it will revisit me again to make its way onto the page. Moving out of my own way to make way for the creative process has also been a challenge for me, left vs right brain – practice is the name of the game. 

· What do you love about writing?

It’s an interesting question. Is it enough to say that it feels like an extension of who I am? I love putting words together and creating something that touches or resonates with another human being in order to gain identification and understanding. The ‘writing zone’ is a very real thing and I love getting lost in here.

· Advice for other writers.

If you feel there is something you have to offer and have a desire to write, trust it. Do not give up. It does not always feel easy to take what is inside of us and give language to it ‘out there’ and at many times you may feel you are in a battle with and up against yourself, but you must trust your heartfelt desire to do it. For if it wasn’t yours to do, you would not have the desire in the first place. And remember, everything has its ‘perfect’ time, so trust that too!

 

Liberation by Emma Eker is out by Spiffing Covers on 28 January. You can buy a copy of Liberation by Emma Eker via her website or Amazon.

 

My Writing Process Terence Gallagher

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My writing routine:

I spend a lot of time working out in my head what I am going to write before I commit anything to my iPad which is my preferred writing tool. Only one to two hours a day is spent typing. I like to work out phrases and dialogue while I’m out walking my two Irish Setters or riding my bike. I also do a fair amount of research while I’m on the go. I use my iPhone in coffee shops to surf the web as I nail down the details of locales I am using, or to check historical facts. 

A bit about me:

I am Irish. I grew up in Dublin in the sixties. I am a proud graduate of  Trinity College Dublin. After College I went into management consultancy and ended up working in a wide variety of cities and countries worldwide. I am married with three grown children and split my time between Naples Florida, and Howth, a small fishing village north of Dublin. In both cases I live by water. I find it therapeutic to look out on a seascape whether it be the Gulf of Mexico or the Irish sea. My hobbies include, biking, working out, and walking. I am a music lover with a particular affinity for classical and Blues. My home in Howth  stands on an acre and this has made me a reluctant gardener.

What I have written, past and present:

So far I have published two novels, Fujita 4, and Analyst Session. Both of these are available as ebooks and in paperback. I also had Fujita 4 professionally narrated and it is in audiobook format. I found it very exciting to have my characters brought to life and given a voice by a skilled actor. I am currently working on my third novel, A Coup in Makati.

What I am promoting now:

 Analyst Session was just recently published and I am busy with promotional activity. It’s quite a juggling act to stay on top of PR for one book while trying to make progress on the next.

My writing process:

I use Scrivener word processing software to structure the outline of a book before I begin writing in earnest. Scrivener is specifically designed for authors. I create a summary of each chapter. I also use it to store sketches of  all the major characters and to keep research notes. I then methodically work my way through from start to finish of the book. This means that each day I know what I have to work on next and I can keep from being overwhelmed by the magnitude of my task.

What about word count?:

As regards word count I go in aiming to create a work of between sixty and seventy thousand words. If I know how many chapters I have outlined, I roughly know how many words a chapter. This helps  me figure out where the plot is light or I need to do more with characterisation. I run work in progress through Grammarly. This is a decent software package that will catch typos and many grammatical errors. 

How do I create my structure:

It starts with the central character. I have to really know and understand him or her. Its as if they stand alone on an empty stage. I then like to create life situations which test my protagonist’s moral belief system. The milieu in which this plays out will be a place where I have lived or spent significant time in my own life. It’s easier to have the settings for the story be realistic. Other characters whose actions will precipitate the moral conflict then come to life. 

What do I find hard about writing:

The most challenging aspect of writing for me is communicating the interior emotional life of my characters, particularly my female characters. The daily word output slows dramatically when I am wrestling with this. 

What I love:

What I love about writing is conceiving a cast of characters, placing them in my fictional world, and seeing how they react and evolve. They tend to take on a life of their own. It wreaks havoc with the plot-line a lot of the time but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Advice for other writers:

Advice I would have is take advantage of some the great software out there to help with the writing process. I have also used a variety of professionals to help edit and polish my work. I have used Reedsy and Fiverr to hire these and by and large it has worked out well for me. 

Georges Simenon, the author of  the Maigret stories was able to crank out a book in eleven days! It took Flaubert five years to write Madame Bovary. Every writer has their own pace. Writing is a solitary activity. It requires self discipline. All sorts of distractions can get in the way if you let them. It is important to have some sort of routine and schedule when setting out to write something.

Analyst Session is available as an ebook or in paperback from Amazon.