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, publishing and marketing books—and rather more shyly on my real life. Happy reading!
The author with her inhouse editor, Chino
Good job, writer
This wonderful new review has just landed in my inbox. “After reading Ragini Werner’s Revealing Philippa, I enjoyed her second novel even more. Becoming Janice made me feel Janice’s connection to the world she lives and works in, her loneliness,...
Length Matters
No bones about it, we all know length matters. Given the choice between the long and the short, I know which match I’d pick, any day. Long is safe, it’s seductive, it’s impressive. The longer,...
How TO DO self-editing
This week’s blog showcases Valerie Fuqua (sounds like Few-kway), an indie author/artist who’s worked as a freelance developmental editor for over ten years. Valerie is deeply immersed in several...
Finding a Fiction Editor
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Always an Ally
Em Buckman is the award-winning author of Bent Is Not Broken (LGBTQIA+ history/memoir). She is currently working on a new novel, Women Of Note (historical fiction). In this guest blog, Em...
Five Fresh Ways to Beat Writer’s Block
If you’ve never been hit by writer’s block, either by luck or because you’re stuck in… a river in Egypt, this blog is not for you. For the rest of us, read on! Here some survivors of the block,...
A Taste of Janice
Do you have music on while you work? I usually play instrumental stuff cos I find lyrics distracting. Either way, as editor or author, I’m focused on language and the Wernicke’s area in my brain...
Psst… Wanna buy a book?
Hey indie author, do you suck at selling your book? Come on, be honest. You’re a writer so, ipso facto, selling is not your favorite pursuit. If you’re like me, you’d rather get on with writing...
The “guildy” pleasures of writing groups
One of my favorite advertising slogans is The Economist’s “Great minds like a think.” I like it not only because it’s clever wordplay, but also because the familiar phrase it plays with applies...
Making SENSE of gobbledygook
Back when I was editor of eSense, a magazine-style newsletter published by SENSE, the society for English-language professionals based in the Netherlands, one of my colleagues posted a question...
CAPital pleaSURE or PUNishment?
One capital pleasure of my real life is the license my day job—English language editor for Dutch academics—gives me to goof off on Google. Or, to put it in terms the taxman will accept: the time...