Leigh Russell's new book, 'Death Bed', is now available for download on Kindle and I'm very pleased to have Leigh as my Boxing Day guest! Leigh has very kindly given us some thoughts on beating writer's block for all those writers out there who need to get back into it after the Christmas lull!

Beating Writer’s Block

Where does the writing bug come from, and will it vanish as quickly as it appeared? Somewhere I wrote that I fell into writing like Alice down the rabbit hole. It’s an apt comparison because my writing career began very suddenly and unexpectedly when the idea for 'Cut Short' struck me, completely out of the blue.

Eight weeks after I started the first draft of my debut crime novel, I was fortunate enough to attract the attention of a publisher who offered me a three book deal. Three years on, and with three bestsellers to my name, I’ve been signed up for another three books in the series. An avid reader for years, I was catapulted into the Wonderland of being an author. Since then I’ve been on a writing roll, discovering the best cure for writer’s block: a publisher’s deadline.

But how do you stay motivated, month after month, year after year, without that compelling external deadline?

As fiction writers, we aim to persuade readers that the worlds we create in our books are real. The power to create illusions is what makes us writers. So you have to set your own deadlines and convince yourself they must be met. Work out your own schedule. Set a date by which your MS has to be ready, allow yourself time to research agents and publishers, and decide on a date when you are going to start submitting the MS. Stick to it as though it has been imposed by a publisher who is paying you to deliver. Following a schedule like that allows no room for writer’s block.

Leigh Russell writes the popular bestselling UK crime series featuring Detective Inspector Geraldine Steel. Leigh’s new book Death Bed is on kindle and available in print 2012.

Details of all Leigh’s books can be found on her website here.

Latest News - The new Geraldine Steel novel has been selected as 1 of 35 crime mysteries included in Amazon Kindle’s 12 Days of Christmas offer @ 99p. Follow the links above to find it on Amazon UK.

It is also $1.54 on amazon.com here.

Tears and Laughter

One of the highlights of this year for me has been my involvement in 'Tears and Laughter and Happy Ever After'. We've all been really excited about some of the great reviews we've had for the book.

You can read one here from the lovely and very talented Teresa Ashby. It means a lot to know that Teresa enjoyed reading it as she is such a fabulous short story writer herself.

Debs Carr has done a round up of some of our other reviews on her blog.

So, what can I say? If you're bored over Christmas and you fancy some short stories to read ... here it is.

Or you could browse our blog and read about how we were all inspired to write the stories.

But whatever you do, I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

Hop On, Hop Off Online Short Story Course

I’m very pleased to be able to announce my new online short story writing course which will start in 2012.

The Hop On, Hop Off Writing Course is in five modules which will run in a weekly cycle from 9 January onwards.

The modules are:

Character – how to build convincing characters that your readers will really care about. (running for the first time w/b 9 January 2012)

Dialogue – how to write authentic sounding dialogue that will move your plot forward and bring your story to life. (running for the first time w/b 16 January 2012)

Plot and Structure – making sure your plot works and your structure supports it. (running for the first time w/b 23 January 2012)

Theme – use of theme to make your story stand out from the rest. (running for the first time w/b 30 January 2012)

Bringing it all together – this module (which needs to be taken last) will help you bring together all you have learnt so far and will include a story critique. (running for the first time w/b 6 February 2012 and thereafter every week that the course runs)

Full details are on my website here. Please feel free to contact me via my website if you have any queries.