Diary
Research Isn’t All Just Trips to Paris (Unfortunately!)
One of the most common questions I get asked at author talks is about the research I do for my books. It always gives me quite a thrill when readers and reviewers praise the research in my books; it's so important to me that the characters and the story and setting...
read moreGetting a Book Ready For Publication
This week, I've been working on the copyedit for The French Photographer. As well as that, there have been quite a few behind-the-scenes things happening with the book, so I thought it might be interesting to talk about the process of getting a book ready for...
read moreThe French Photographer: A Sneak Peek
Those of you who follow me on Facebook will know that I'm currently working on the copyedit for The French Photographer, which will be out in late March 2019. Quite a few people have asked me for me details about the book, and while I can't tell you too much right...
read moreWriting Isn’t a Solitary Profession: It’s a Group Effort
This is a post about support, about the fact that no writer gets a book published because of what they alone did. There are always many other people standing behind that writer who have helped in ways they're probably not even aware of, ways that made a huge...
read moreWriting the First Draft of a Novel
Besides the structural edit, which is a process that adds new meaning to the word difficult, the hardest part of the writing process for me is writing the first draft of a novel. Other writers I know love the first draft and hate the redrafting. We’re all different....
read moreOn Perseverance: Never Let Go of Your Dream
I wanted to talk a little about perseverance. About continuing on against the odds. About doing what you love despite the doubts. About not giving up and holding on to that beautiful shining dream you have even if it seems so far out of reach. My latest book, The...
read moreWhere Stories Are Made: With Lauren Chater
I've known Lauren Chater on social media for a few years and had the absolute pleasure of first hearing her work read aloud at the Historical Novels Society Conference a few years ago. It immediately struck me as unique, lyrical and the kind of writing I wanted to...
read moreFrom an Archive of Fashion Illustrations to an Historic Garment District: Researching The Paris Seamstress in New York
Last week I talked about my trip to Paris to research The Paris Seamstress; this week is all about my trip to New York. A lot of the research books that I read before I went talked about Paris, in terms of fashion, as being the city of art, whereas New York was the...
read moreFrom Ateliers to Theatres: Researching The Paris Seamstress in Paris
One of my most favourite parts of my job would definitely have to be travelling overseas for research. Who wouldn't want to go to Paris and New York and places in between all in the name of work?! And the trip I organised for researching The Paris Seamstress was...
read moreUnravelling Plot Tangles in The Paris Seamstress: Moving From a Historical Novel to a Dual Narrative
As The Paris Seamstress will be published next week, I thought it was a good time to take you behind the scenes and describe how I went about writing and researching the novel. Last week, I published a post about how I got the idea for the book, which you can read...
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