Bashful Blagger

A blagger is bold and gets what they want by brashly saying things that are not always true. A bashful blagger is the same, but shy with it. Sounds weird? Well, yes: but that’s me, both a bold extravert and a shy introvert, only I tend to tell the truth, even in fiction. Here in the Bashful Blagger blog, I post boldly on my life as a sapphic author writing for a universal audience—anything to do with writing and publishing —and rather more shyly on my real life. Happy reading!

The author with her inhouse editor, Chino

Marketing

Out Now in Canada

Question: What’s black & white and read all over Canada? Answer: Chapters 1–79 of Becoming Janice… fingers crossed! Nice take on an old joke, wouldn’t you agree? But seriously now, because the publisher of Janice, Iguana Books, is located in Toronto, we’ve been...

Marketing, News

Where to find Janice in the Netherlands

Call me silly—better yet, naïve—but only a good year after Iguana Books published Becoming Janice did it occur to me that their global supplier—Ingram Distribution Services—also supplies my local market. Duh! And how did I achieve this earth-shattering insight? The...

Real life

But Is It Artemis?

Were you one of those little kids who couldn’t wait for it to be your turn to do a show & tell at school? Well, I was, but for me it was more a case of show-off & tell.  I just loved the attention. Usually I showed the pictures in the book I was reading and...

Review, Writing

How to Write Good

Were you one of those nerdy birds who loved doing grammar at school? In Form 4 (think St. Trinian’s), I loved parsing lines under the lead of our English mistress, “Creepy” (Mrs Crawley). I’ll never forget how Creepy had us girls chanting “subject-verb-object”...

Marketing

Anne R. Allen on How to Sell Your Book

Anne R. Allen and  Ruth Harris are publishing industry veterans. On their popular blog for authors, "Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris" (Writing about writing. Mostly.) they publish articles on how to avoid the pitfalls of this ever-more complex business....

Marketing, Writing

How to beat the Русский bots

Isn’t it great when a new comment comes in on your lovingly crafted blog? But when you look closer, what a sad disappointment it is to see it's in Cyrillic, crammed with links, and clearly dumped there by a Russian bot. So, how do you counter the spam bots flooding...

Marketing, Publishing

Cover Story

When MJ Buckman (Em) was thinking of what to put on the cover of her new book, she consulted a graphic designer. When he had several drafts ready, Em asked her social media followers which one they liked best. A while later, Em revealed this result. The...

Real life, Review

Becoming a Globetrotter

When your publisher is in Canada and you're in the Netherlands, there’s lots of logical to-ing and fro-ing across the Gulf of Greenland while your book is in production. Back then, did I realize that Becoming Janice would also be trotting over the entire globe? No...

Writing

Two top sites for writers

There is *so* much advice out there for writers! When you’re looking for tips on writing, the massive amount available is overwhelming. Whose tips should you follow? How do you tell the junk from genuine wisdom? Try my two favorite sites, both truly helpful...