Category Archives: Writing & Reading

Writing Wednesday with Emma Bennet: Utilising YouTube.

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I am very happy to welcome author Emma Bennet to my blog for an interesting #WritingWednesday post about utilising YouTube as a writer. Over to you, Emma …

I discovered YouTube years ago for tutorials on how to fix stuff and productivity videos (my slightly weird obsession), but it was only after watching for quite a while that I stumbled upon the little corner of YouTube known as Authortube. About six months after that, I started my own channel and haven’t looked back!

Authortube is home to videos made by writers for writers and is the most amazing free resource. It costs absolutely nothing to subscribe to any of the many channels on YouTube and yet there are many benefits to checking out at least some of them.

The most obvious sort of video that will help you as a writer is how-to videos. These can really be divided into how-to videos concerning writing craft, and how-to videos about actually publishing your book.

In terms of writing craft, Brandon Sanderson’s lecture series is probably the most famous video available on YouTube, but you’ll also find writing advice from best-selling authors on hundreds of channels. YouTube University at its finest!

How to publish your book videos are possibly the most useful resource on YouTube for aspiring authors. Authors who have been there, done that, and got the t-shirt share their wealth of knowledge in both traditional and self-publishing, with both general advice and step-by-step tutorials, helping you to avoid the many pitfalls in the industry.

The next form of videos for writers are vlogs, where other writers share their experiences, either with their actual writing or with writing-related activities like author signings for example. Writing can sometimes feel like a lonely old business, and these vlogs show you that others are going through the same things and maybe offer some ideas of stuff you can try. I particularly enjoy a good writing challenge vlog!

Finally, we have live writing sprints. These are usually scheduled so you can plan which to join, but replays can also be enjoyed. There’s generally some chat from the host and cohosts, if there are any, and then timed writing sprints take place. You can comment on live chat, and it’s a great way to get accountable for your writing.

What I love most about Authortube is the community. The support I have found there since starting my own channel, particularly during live writing streams, is unparalleled and I have made writing friends for life from all over the World. We cheer each other on and help one another out and I don’t know what I’d do without them now.

My own YouTube channel, which is a mixture of tips and tricks for writers, book recommendations, author life vlogs and live writing streams, can be found here.

About Emma’s latest book:

Sometimes life doesn’t go exactly to plan . . .

London accountant Sophie unexpectedly becomes the stand-in mum for her estranged sister’s eight-month-old baby, Alana. She didn’t even know she had a niece! She’s wildly out of her depth.

Then her life is turned upside down all over again by the appearance of a Thor lookalike on her doorstep. Apparently, six-foot surfer Samson is Alana’s father. And he also just discovered the existence of this adorable baby.

Sophie is not prepared to hand over her niece to an equally clueless stranger, so they come up with a plan: Sophie and Alana will move into Samson’s spare bedroom in Brighton until they work out what to do.

As they settle into changing nappies and nighttime feeds, Sophie finds it hard to ignore the way her heart somersaults whenever Samson looks at her. But he already has a girlfriend, who’s made it very clear that Sophie and Alana are in the way.

The more Samson and Sophie bond with little Alana, they can’t ignore the obvious attraction between them. But can they put their feelings aside and stick to the plan?

Discover more and purchase here.

About the author:

Emma grew up and lived in London, before falling in love and moving to Wales to marry her own hero. Emma now lives with her husband, four children, and many animals a few miles outside of a small Welsh market town. She can often be found in rivers attempting to control two overexcited chocolate labradors.

Discover more about Emma Bennet and her books here: website | Instagram | TikTok | Facebook | Twitter 

Thank you so much for introducing me to Authortube, Emma. I am sure other writers will benefit from your great post, too. (Oh, and I also adore Labradors; next time you stop by, I would love to hear about yours.) xx

Morton S. Gray: Writing Romance.

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This week, I am delighted to be joined by my good friend Morton S. Gray as she talks about writing romance. Over to you, Morton…

Thank you for having me on your blog, Carol. My seventh romantic novel, A New Arrival in Borteen Bay, was published on 23 January 2024 with Choc Lit Publishing, an imprint of Joffe Books.

I sometimes find it quite funny that I’m listed as a romance author. Very often, when I’m writing, I get so carried away with the mystery or the plot of a book that when it comes to the editing stage, I’m often asked to make it much more romantic. I guess it’s the other relationships that make up the story that interest me most.

It’s also a source of fascination to me that we only see people as they appear in front of us, as they are right now and not their history or backstory. We all have our own path through life that makes us who we are, and I think that’s what intrigues writers.

For example, someone looking at me will see a happily married woman with an older son with a lovely partner who has just made me a grandma and a younger son at university. The fourteen years as a solo parent working full time after my divorce from my first husband isn’t visible on the surface at all, and yet those years have had such a huge influence on who I am as a person. But then, taking that a step further, my second marriage is why I believe romance is possible and second chances do come along. I personally have probably lived the plot of many a romance novel!

To give a bit more insight into my take on romance, I thought I would share my favourite romance film, novel, and song. However, it’s tough to choose just one for each of these, so I will give you a selection for each.

Film: Finding You, The Holiday, The Wedding Date.

Novel: Wintercombe by Pamela Belle, Lost Dogs and Lonely Hearts by Lucy Dillon, Starting Over by Sue Moorcroft (I’ve read all of these titles many times over).

Song: Breathless by The Corrs, Wildest Dreams by Taylor Swift.

Thank you for your post, Morton. Despite watching a lot of films, I haven’t seen Finding You, so I will check it out. I do remember you recommended Lost Dogs and Lonely Hearts to me, and I greatly enjoyed reading it, too, as I have each of your romance novels.

About A New Arrival in Borteen Bay: 

FALL IN LOVE WITH AN UTTERLY IRRESISTIBLE, BRAND-NEW ROMANCE ABOUT FRESH BEGINNINGS AND LETTING GO OF THE PAST.

Skye knows it’s now or never. It’s time for her to reveal herself to the father she’s never met.

So she hops on a plane from Dublin to the English seaside town of Borteen.

But between the father she’s just getting to know and her worried mother, Skye realizes that the past is never that simple as a whirlwind of secrets turns their world upside down.

And now Skye has Adam, the hunky guy next door, to contend with. He’s determined to show her there’s room in her life for love.

Skye thinks they’re better off as friends, but Adam has other ideas. Even when she reveals a secret of her own.

Will Skye allow history to repeat itself? Or will she let go of the secrets of the past and open herself up to the future?

This uplifting and feel-good romance is perfect for fans of Beth Moran, Shari Low, Jessica Redland, Sue Moorcroft or Isabella Connor.

Purchase or discover more here: A New Arrival in Borteen Bay

My review:

I enjoyed returning to the enchanting setting of Borteen Bay and spending time in the company of Buzz, Skye and Adam. While Adam’s actions sometimes seemed impetuous, I felt this was explained as I discovered more about his character and motivation. For me, Buzz was the real star of the story, emerging as a compelling figure with his poignant creation of a labyrinth on the beach, only for it to be erased by the tide – encapsulating both the fragility of life and the enduring spirit of optimism (something he certainly embodies). As the characters come together, the narrative weaves their individual stories, creating a tapestry of resilience, healing, and acceptance. It’s a lovely, gentle read to cosy up with.

Morton’s books are a delight to read and always have a great hook. If you are looking for a new series to fall in love with, I recommend checking them out: The Secrets of Borteen Bay

About the author:

Morton S. Gray lives in Worcestershire, U.K. She has been reading and writing fiction for as long as she can remember and penned her first attempt at a novel at the age of fourteen. She is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and The Society of Authors.

Morton worked for many years in the electricity industry, developing and training staff. She is a qualified hypnotherapist and Reiki Master. She enjoys crafts and history and loves tracing family trees. Having a hunger for learning new things is a bonus for the research behind her books.

You can find out more about Morton and her work here: website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

Meet Three Characters from The Broken Vow.

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I am delighted to welcome Luisa A. Jones to my blog as she discusses three of the characters from her latest novel, The Broken Vow. Congratulations on the new book, and over to you Louisa …

The main character in this book is Charlotte Fitznorton, a spoiled girl of nineteen and the rather obnoxious stepdaughter of the heroine in the previous book, The Gilded Cage. I was keen to explore Charlotte’s story further, as despite being so unpleasant in the earlier book, I felt she deserved a chance to become a better person. The most plausible way to bring this about was to make Charlotte suffer – we authors can be so cruel! Charlotte could only come to a better understanding of the world and of other people by experiencing loss, hardship and responsibility. By ensuring that her comfortable existence was tipped upside down, I could teach her some valuable lessons and bring out a more likeable side to her character. However, she needed a reason to truly change. Charlotte’s initial motivation for action is selfish: she’s desperate to save her plans to marry into the aristocracy. It’s only later on, with help from her friends, through hearing differing perspectives on her family’s past, and through hard work, that she comes to question whether she’s actually on the right path.

Another important character in the book is Maggie Cadwalader, also a minor character from the previous book. As a working-class girl, Maggie’s life is very different from Charlotte’s, but in the course of the story, their paths come to cross. In The Broken Vow, as in The Gilded Cage, I was keen to explore the lives of ordinary working people as well as the rich and to show how the Great War changed people’s lives, whatever their class. Women on the home front made a vital contribution to the war effort, a contribution which, in my view, hasn’t been adequately acknowledged. In creating Maggie’s story of dangerous work in a munitions factory, I hope I’ve been able to offer some recognition of what so many women might have experienced.

The third character I’d like to mention is new to this book: Charlotte’s friend and role model, the formidable Venetia Vaughan-Lloyd. Like Charlotte, Venetia is a young woman of means. However, her experience of a disability, past heartbreak, and political activism, as well as charitable work, means that Venetia’s awareness of the “real world” is much more developed than Charlotte’s. She’s kind-hearted, forthright, witty and generous, and a character who seemed to take on a life of her own as I brought her into the story. She first starts to influence Charlotte by taking her to a lecture by the suffragette leader, Mrs Pankhurst, which was tremendously fun to write. Venetia likes Charlotte for who she is, but constantly challenges her naïve views and really brings out the best in her, speeding her personal growth.

I hope readers of The Broken Vow will come to love these young women as much as I do!

Thank you so much for introducing your characters Luisa, I am looking forward to reading The Broken Vow and learning more about them. x
About the book:

Marriage was what Charlotte had been brought up to. After all, it provided a happy ending for all the heroines in the novels she sometimes read. So it would be for her… right?

Born into luxury, Charlotte Fitznorton has always known a life filled with lavish parties and a line of suitors, all part of a future neatly laid out for her by her father, Sir Lucien. She is to marry well and continue the line at Plas Norton, the family seat. When Eustace Chadwycke – son of a viscount – proposes just before leaving to fight in France, it seems Charlotte’s destiny is perfectly falling into place.

Then, tragedy strikes. Her father dies unexpectedly, and her future hangs in the balance – threatened by her hated stepmother Rosamund’s surprise pregnancy. News of Eustace, returning from the war broken by its horrors, leaves Charlotte fearing her engagement may be as fragile as her inheritance.

Determined to at least save her impending marriage, Charlotte pours her energy into turning Plas Norton into a healing place for Eustace and other war-weary soldiers. But small-minded townspeople, a bossy head nurse, and her newborn baby sister’s arrival push Charlotte to her limits.

Just as hope is slipping through her fingers, a mysterious stranger arrives at Plas Norton. This newcomer holds the power to upend everything Charlotte has fought to preserve. Will she have the strength to protect her legacy, or could this unexpected visitor awaken a desire in Charlotte for a different life altogether?

A beautiful and heartbreaking historical novel, if you loved anything by Fiona Valpy or Lucinda Riley, this book is for you.

Click here to discover more or to purchase.

Also by Luisa A. Jones:

1897. Rosamund bows her head and steps slowly down the aisle. The satin of her gown whispers against the stone floor and a single tear falls into the bunch of yellow roses twisted in her trembling hands. Despite rumours of his cruelty, Rosamund has no choice but to become this man’s second wife.

After her wedding, Rosamund finds herself trapped in Sir Lucien Fitznorton’s lonely country estate. As she wanders the chilly halls, made shadowy by drapes of heavy velvet, she longs for the lost comforts of her childhood home, where she was the beloved only daughter to a doting father, now buried miles away. As a young woman with no fortune of her own, only death can release her from this misery.

Until she meets Joseph, her husband’s gruffly handsome new chauffeur. With his mop of salt-and-pepper hair and lilting accent, Joseph is from another world. One of clambering children and tea at scrubbed kitchen tables, the hollow scratch of hunger and long hours of hard work. Despite their differences, they find themselves increasingly drawn to one other.

But Sir Lucien is not only cruel, he’s devious too, and soon Rosamund finds herself caught in a dangerous web of secrets and lies. Is Rosamund’s fragile marriage nothing but a golden cage, trapping her between two men who desire her… and to what end?

One holds her captive and the other offers a hope of escape… but who really holds the key to Rosamund’s gilded prison?

A gripping and emotional historical novel, fans of Lucinda Riley and Tracy Rees won’t be able to put this book down.

Click here to discover more or to purchase.

About the author:

Luisa A Jones lives in South Wales, and takes inspiration from the Welsh countryside, towns, history, and of course its people. Her writing explores the dynamics within relationships, the pressures that mental health issues can exert on people, and how these can be overcome.

Luisa studied Classical Studies at Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, University of London. Her previous jobs have included tour guide in an historic house; teacher in both primary and secondary schools; careers adviser; and corporate trainer/assessor.

Luisa loves using her creativity for crafting and baking, as well as writing historical and contemporary fiction with romantic elements. She and her husband are the proud owners of Gwynnie, a Volkswagen camper van built in 1974, which inspired the story behind Luisa’s first book, Goes Without Saying. They have three children, a dog, and two cats.

Becoming an author fulfilled a lifelong ambition. Her first historical novel in The Fitznortons series, The Gilded Cage, was released by Storm Publishing in 2023, followed by the sequel The Broken Vow in January 2024.

Discover more about Luisa A. Jones and her work here: website | X (Twitter) | Facebook | Instagram | The Broken Vow | The Gilded Cage

Location, Location, Location with Jan Baynham!

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Today, I am joined by fellow Choc Lit author Jan Baynham. I love Jan’s novels and the locations her stories take me to, so I am delighted to hear there is another coming soon. In this post, Jan reveals the setting of her forthcoming novel and shares her wonderful research; over to you, Jan…

My novels are all partly set in rural mid-Wales, the area where I was born and brought up, and partly in a contrasting location. Creating a sense of place and an authentic world for my characters to live in is one of the aspects of writing I enjoy. As well as visiting beautiful Radnorshire in my latest novel, readers are transported to the Mediterranean island of Sicily with its stunning scenery, magnificent ecclesiastical buildings, fascinating history and, of course, its wonderful weather. It’s where my character, Carlo, an Italian POW who is interned in a camp in the heart of the Welsh countryside, is from. He’s left behind a secret, and after his death, his daughter travels to Sicily to find out why her father could never return. I’ve tried to capture what it was like for Claudia visiting the island for the first time.

Last summer, my first visit to Sicily proved an excellent way of experiencing what it was like for Claudia. The city of Porto Montebello is fictional but based on the real places I visited, with the presence of Mount Etna in the background. As Claudia walks to find the pensione where she’ll be staying, she’s struck by the city’s straight streets and their tall buildings with shuttered windows and balconies so different from her home village.

The area has stunning architecture and churches everywhere you look. In the novel, Claudia has enrolled on an art history course so I made sure I visited the beautiful duomos in Catania, Taormina and Ortigia where I found examples of the type of paintings she’d be studying.

In the early part of the novel in WW2, Carlo’s mother shelters from the bombing in tunnels under the duomo. A highlight of my research was to visit one such shelter and try to experience how she must have felt night after night. The tour guide, Roberto, was excellent in giving so much information about what life was like down there for the inhabitants of Ortigia.

Another tour I booked in advance was a visit to Casa Cuseni in Taormina. The villa was built at the beginning of the twentieth century by Englishman, Robert Kitson and became an international artistic centre hosting celebrities from the world of literature and painting. This stunning villa is the inspiration when I imagined Casa Cristina in my book. The garden was full of symbolism in its design and the sea views from the villa were amazing.

No visit to Sicily would be complete without a boat trip. After the underground tour of the tunnels, I ended my day with a trip around the island of Ortigia. Our boat man pointed out places of interest, the heart-shaped cave and took us to admire the stalactites, stalagmites and corals in another. This experience inspired how Claudia feels when taken on boat trips.

I hope that being on location in Sicily will have made the setting more real for readers. Visiting the places that Claudia does, eating the same foods and enjoying the hot sunshine as she did all came back to me as I wrote those scenes.

About the book:

With the working title of A Tale of Two Sisters, my fourth novel is due to be published by Choc Lit, an imprint of Joffe Books, in July.

Set in rural mid-Wales and Sicily in different eras, the novel deals with secrets, forbidden love, sibling relationships and forgiveness. There’s an immediate attraction between young widow Sara Lewis, and Carlo Rosso, an Italian POW, even though fraternisation between the POWs and local women is forbidden. At the camp, former artist, Carlo, is tasked with leading a team of prisoners to create a chapel in a disused Nissen hut using scrap and found materials. He busies himself with that intending to forget about Sara. Can he succeed? Prisoners are given more freedom in September 1943 when Italy capitulates and is no longer an enemy of the Allies, but a relationship between Sara and Carlo is still not allowed. After the war, when it’s eventually safe to leave Wales, Carlo stays on as he’s harbouring a secret that means that he cannot return to Sicily. After his death in 1968 and finding letters he’d kept from his mother, Claudia travels to the city where he grew up to find out why. She is shocked by what she finds out but discovers that Carlo has been framed for a crime he didn’t commit. Can she succeed in clearing his name? Who does she get to help her?

This sounds like another great read, Jan. I wish you every success with it and look forward to it landing on my Kindle in July. xx

All of Jan’s novels are available on Amazon. Click here to find out more.

Her Nanny’s Secret is also available at all good bookshops.

About the author:

Fascinated by family secrets and ‘skeletons lurking in cupboards’, Jan Baynham’s dual narrative, dual timeline novels explore how decisions and actions made by family members from one generation impact on the lives of the next.

Setting and a sense of place plays an important part in all of Jan’s stories, and as well as her native mid-Wales, there is always a journey to a contrasting location from the heart of Wales, where my characters are always from.

Originally from mid-Wales, Jan lives in Cardiff with her husband.

Find out more about Jan Baynham and her novels here: Website/Blog | Twitter | Facebook |

Writing and Mental Health with Ella Cook.

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Today, I am delighted to welcome Ella Cook to my blog as she talks about the importance of writing for mental health; over to you, Ella …

It’s not too much of an exaggeration to say writing is one of the most important things in my life: it’s how I make my living (in the business world), how I met my other half, and how I stay sane.

I was only a teenager in my first year of study when the proverbial rug got yanked from under my feet as I was handed the diagnosis of bipolar. Initially, the treatments and therapy were difficult and confusing. But, as luck would have it, the degree I was studying was Communications, Authoring and Design – so lots of writing was required. And it was that writing which gave me a focus, a place to be, and feel safe amongst all the crazy going on around me.

Writing has brought me through the hardest and worst parts of my life: through stresses, family illnesses, bereavement – and, yes, covid lockdowns. While other people were struggling with the idea of restrictions, I’d disappeared off into a fictional world filled with love and magic and sparkle.

Working in Health & Social Care, where mental health and emotional wellbeing is a specialist interest topic for me, I’m very aware of how useful writing can be from a therapeutic point of view. Research shows that writing can enhance self-awareness and self-understanding, which ultimately decreases depressive symptoms, anxious thoughts and how we experience stress.

Below are a few of the key techniques:

Expressive Writing: Often used in therapeutic settings to encourage people to write about their emotions and stresses and face them in a safe environment. You could think of this as the angry letter you write – to get the feelings out – but maybe never send. Or creating a character to face the scary things in life, so you can ‘try out’ options ahead of time (I do this one a lot!)

Creative Writing: Links very strongly to expressive writing and can give people a way to explore topics that might be too complicated or too overwhelming to put into words – J.K Rowling famously commented that her Dementors were a fictional manifestation of depression (which explains why happy memories in the form of a patronus, or chocolate can beat them).

 Reflective Writing: Regularly used in professional settings to explore self-performance and learning. It’s about asking questions of yourself and seeing how you can learn from experiences. You may well have already done this in supervisions at work or when putting together a CV. It can be a great tool for improving personal and professional relationships.

Getting Started

For a lot of people, there can be a lot of worry about how/where to get started writing, what to put down on that blank page, and whether or not what you write is good or interesting enough. Some people worry about how they can possibly write anything without having built their whole (fictional) world first.

It shouldn’t be that pressured. You can start with a single scene or image. Or one character. Or pick one question. These are called writing prompts. If you go onto any social media platform or search engine and type in Writing Prompts, you’ll get plenty of inspiration. But as it’s mental health week, how about opening a document or beautiful notepad (or, in my house, finding a random bit of paper to scribble on and a not-too-blobby pen) and just spend 5-10 minutes looking at the pretty picture below, and writing down whatever pops into your mind. You might be surprised.

The book I’m currently working on started with the image of a lighthouse. Now it’s heading to 50,000 words and growing!

Thank you so much for the great post, Ella. xx

Ella Cook’s novel Summer’s Christmas is currently available in paperback, ebook, audio and is free on Kindle Unlimited.

Bringing the spirit of Christmas to a summer’s day …

Summer by name and summer by nature – that’s how people describe Evelyn’s happy, outgoing daughter. Even if her favourite time of year is actually Christmas!

But Summer has gone through more than any eight-year-old ever should, and that’s part of the reason Evelyn is leaving everything behind to return to her childhood home in the village of Broclington; just her, Summer and Summer’s best friend – a Shiba Inu dog called Tilly. Unsurprisingly, Evelyn is hesitant to let anyone else in, although local vet Jake MacPearson seems intent on winning her trust.

When Evelyn receives the news that every mother dreads, it’s Jake who comes to the rescue. With the help of the Broclington community, could he be the man to bring festive magic to August, and make all of Evelyn and Summer’s Christmases come at once?

About the Author:

Ella is one of those people who is addicted to the written word. She’s been obsessed with books since before she could walk. She decided to become a writer as soon as she realised that stringing letters together in the right order could actually be a career.

She grew up in the outskirts of London, where fairies lived at the bottom of her Grandma’s garden, so it isn’t surprising that she still looks for magic in everyday life – and often finds it.

When she’s not living in a fantasy world of her own creation, she writes bids and develops programmes for children’s services and lives in rural Warwickshire (where there are probably more fairies). She shares her house with two small parrots, one of whom likes to critique her writing from his favourite spot on her shoulder, and her husband, who is ever-loving and understanding and makes her gallons of tea in magical cups that can keep drinks warm for whole chapters.

Discover more about Ella and her work here: Ella Cook Writes.