When I’m writing through another sleepless night, eager to macramé a dozen intertwined plot threads into a finished manuscript, I regularly remind myself that there’s no excuse for taking so long. The American writer Nora Roberts has penned over two hundred novels, most of which have laid siege to the New York Times bestseller list. … Continue reading A Video: Writing’s Ups, Downs and Turnarounds
Poetry is my go-to. If I'm stuck writing, I read it, from W B Yeats to Murray Lachlan Young, T S Eliot to George the Poet; all hail Stevie Smith and Wendy Cope. If I'm still stuck, I write it (nowhere near as well as they do): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdFs_hihmVU&t=66s I’ve been writing poems for as long … Continue reading My Poetry: Ayres and Disgraces, you Betcha (man)
I am a functioning bookaholic. As such, my summer reading list is inevitably ambitious. This year, as I piled BOGOFs in my arms in my local bookshop and one-clicked Daily Deals online, I reassured myself that I could race through twenty novels and several memoirs between Leavers’ Assembly and Back to School. Isn’t that what … Continue reading Bonfires, Blackberries and Bikinis
A sneak peak extract from next year's book is now on my website – just head across to The Comptons page to read it. The novel focuses on peace-maker Pax whose life is turned around during a month's close confinement in the Cotswolds with enigmatic Irish horseman Luca. This one has been a real thinker, … Continue reading Murderous thoughts make for magnificent endings.
It’s summer! That means rain-washed bunting and steamy marquees, painted toenails and flipflops, horseflies, citronella, Pimm’s and baps. Not the circular baked bun in which we cram our egg mayonnaise and cress, nor the lady protuberances we release from bikinis for an all-over tan, but Big, Addictive Paperbacks. Baps are the sort of … Continue reading June’s a blooming, flaming lovely month for a big new paperback…
Like many authors, when I’m stuck writing a particularly difficult section of a novel, I displace. In the good old pre-WiFi days, this involved watching daytime television and cleaning around the loo – anything to avoid tackling the twisted plot – but then the web became our all-consuming lifeforce and I joined the creative tribe … Continue reading A Video: Writing Inspiration, Displacement and Gregory Peck
In February, I blogged about the photo-shoot for the paperback jacket of The Country Set, which was enormous fun and heroically warm-hearted despite a very cooold day. Not that you’d know the Beast from the East was just over the horizon from the gorgeously classy and just slightly steamy finished cover, starring two ravishing real-life … Continue reading Tweeds, Tails and Paperback Jacket.
If you live anywhere near Blackpool, love going to Blackpool or – like me – have amazingly never visited Blackpool and think it should be on your bucket (and spade and kiss-me-quick-hat) list, then please come along to join in the fun on Tues 15th May. The brilliant organisers of Wordpool Festival are throwing a … Continue reading Royalty, Romance and a Little Stick of Blackpool Rock…
This week, in a remote corner of Shakespeare Country, an intrepid team gathered to shoot the Compton series’ paperback jackets. The brief was straightforward: bottoms, horses, countryside, good spirits, laughter, dogs and more bottoms. Hero of the hour was dashing photographer, Hugh Dickens, the most charming man you’ll see adjusting an aperture in a lifetime, … Continue reading Cover Story
