Romance Goes Dark
Love, Thunder, and Locked Doors Heathcliff on the moors looking for Catherine There is a definite raunchy vibe to today’s romance writing, but the darker side was there at the beginning and should not be denied. Let’s take a little turn down the shadowed lane of the romance genre, shall we? Candle in hand, skirts…
How to Lose a Kingdom Without Really Trying
Once a queen. Now an exile. Soon, a reckoning. Once upon a time (or possibly next Tuesday – time is slippery where elves are concerned), I decided to write a novel about a world where royal power is just another illusion. The kind of illusion that looks very impressive from a distance, like a tapestry,…
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Becoming The Story
Persona-Based Branding for Fiction Authors In an age where authors must be visible to be read, it’s no longer enough to let the work speak for itself. Readers want connection – not just to the characters you create but to the person who created them. That’s where persona-based branding steps in. It’s not about inventing…
The Binding Woods
It is a little-known fact – mainly because everyone who tried to document it was eaten by metaphor – that all forests have opinions. Most of them are quite vague opinions, admittedly, along the lines of “Sun good, fire bad” or “This squirrel is mine.” But there are some woods that are old enough, twisted…
Diamond Dreaming
Every Diamond Tells a Story – by Lily Milner I love stories about diamonds, and that’s probably why I’ve written two novels based on diamond mysteries. Although The Tallisbrook Emeralds is not specifically about diamonds, it was prompted by one of my favourite books by Anthony Trollop, The Eustace Diamonds. In that story, a woman is fighting for an…
Unicorns
The Enduring Magic of Unicorns Few mythical creatures have captured the human imagination quite like the unicorn. With its iconic spiral horn, flowing mane and tail, and aura of purity and grace, the unicorn has symbolized so much across cultures and eras. At its core, the unicorn represents the innocence, beauty and magic we all…