Dear Character, I love you but I'm going to kill you

Arthur Rackham's illustration of The Three Bears

Have you ever wondered if there was a fourth bear in The Three Bears? And did Little Red Riding Hood have a sister in a blue dress? And what about Peter Pan's best buddy? For every great character, there exists a cast of alternative heroes who never made it to the final book. Authors have to be tough on their stories and sadly, not every character make the cut.

Over on the DFB StoryBlog, I write a letter of apology to the characters who never made it in my fiction. Read To My Character from a Disloyal Author

My Former Life as a Pregnant Cartoonist: Using Comics to Tell Stories

Info ... what?

Over on my other blog Notes from the Slushpile, we've started a new series called the Geek List - geeky tools that can make the job of being an all-writing, all-marketing author much easier.

My first piece is about using Powerpoint to easily create infographics. I got so caught up in it that when I remembered that it was my turn to blog over at my publisher's  StoryBlog (yes ANOTHER blog) I made a comic using Powerpoint!

Storyblogging time again - how I started writing a vampire novel but lost my way in the rain

Over on the Storyblog, DFB authors and illustrators are blogging on the subject of second books.

The subject of course is most significant to me as my second novel is coming out next year. Shine has been almost three years in the making, and I think it's okay to reveal that, frankly, it's NOT the book I set out to write.

Read my Storyblog piece on how my second novel was a tale of the unexpected ...

Interrogation time!

Sarah McIntyre responded to the Q&A in cartoons! Wish I had the idea first!

Over on the StoryBlog, we're all responding to a Q&A! You can read my grumpy answers here.

How I almost drowned and other delightful seaside tales

This is a photo of me on a South Korean beach just before I almost drowned 25 years ago. Over on the DFB Blog, I've been asked to blog on a seaside theme so I thought I'd tell this delightful story.

Do come over and read Almost Drowning and Other Delightful Seaside Tales on the DFB Storyblog. Do leave me a comment (I'm needy like that).