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
The importance of plain language
My dear old Dad loved language. Besides Dutch, he was fluent in 15 other tongues, from Hindi to Hungarian. But his all-time favorite was hifalutin English. He loved using English, so rich compared to Dutch (EN = 755,000 vs. NL = 400,000 headwords; estimates vary)...
Blurb your enthusiasm
Wouldn’t you love to get a blurb for your book as nice as the one Groucho Marx bestowed on Dawn Ginsbergh’s Revenge, by his fellow humorist S.J. Perelman? Short, sweet, and killer conclusion. Groucho was famous for adding unexpected, often funny endings to his...
Fiction: fake or real?
Don't get me wrong. I’m not opening this post with a clever cartoon just because I love the artwork. Nor is it because I’m bratly comparing my sapphic tales (say hi to Philippa and Janice) to a feminist classic. Nope, it’s what the famous writer is yelling—nay,...
On “chronicles” and the craft of writing
Can you remember when you discovered the word “chronicles”? For me it was when I was about ten (I think) and a weekly visitor to the Dunedin Public Library in New Zealand. There I came across Clive Staples Lewis’s classic series, The Chronicles of Narnia. An...
Abi Daruvalla teaches writers how to KISS
Would I ever have become editor of ES World, the in-house magazine of the biggest science publishers in the world, without Abi Daruvalla? No way. She was my first 'real' editor. Recently Abi and I chatted about her career as a journalist and professional trainer,...
Media for the Mass Age
Forigve me Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980) for riffing on your famous line to head this post, but (true confession time) i couldn’t resist. According to Wiki, the Canadian communication theorist coined the title ‘The Medium is the Message’ for the first chapter of his...
Getting a grip on that “glint of light”
Everyone quotes the Russian playwright and short-story writer, Doctor Anton Chekhov. “Medicine is my lawful wife” he once said, “and literature is my mistress.” But perhaps his most famous quote for writers is: “Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint...
What I don’t know about social media marketing
Spoiler alert! This post states the obvious. It unashamedly presents stuff you already know with brass knobs ON. It is written to fit maybe any author (sapphic or otherwise) trying to market a book on social media. Read on if you dare…. Let’s start with some small...
Connecting with Janice
Loving couple John & Gabrielle—together for over 50 years—connected with their copy of Becoming Janice at the time of Matariki, the special occasion in the Aotearoa/New Zealand calendar which marks the start of the Māori New Year. Matariki takes place in the...
Becoming Janice and the Book Club Experience
This June I had the honor of sharing Becoming Janice with the Groningen Book Club. The club is run under the umbrella, or should I say parasol in this stunning summer weather, of the International Welcome Center North, aka IWCN. The IWCN supports international...
