How to write a blurb…
There’s an old saying that a lawyer who defends himself in court has an idiot for a client. Similarly, I don’t think writers should write their own blurbs. We’re too close to what we’ve slaved over for months or years. Better if someone else does it for us.
Last Sunday a fellow writer was asking me about blurbs, and I showed her the one I’d written on Amazon for the forthcoming book 88 North, as an example of how not to do it.…
On writing the third book in a series
A heroine in a thriller has to overcome many hurdles. But an author writing a series does too! I’m nearly done editing 88 North, the third book in the Nadia Laksheva series, and it’s been quite a task! Here’s the Big Three challenges I had to face:
- How to keep the two main characters – now in a relationship – fresh?
- How could I ‘up the ante’, going bigger in book 3, when book 2 involved a threatened nuclear attack on London?
37 Hours – the myth behind the story
The original title of 37 Hours was One-
way dive. It was based around a story of three divers who saved Europe from being irradiated by a secondary explosion from the Chernobyl reactor during efforts to get it under control, back in 1986. As with many urban myths, at first I believed it was a true story, but as I dug deeper, I realized it was indeed much-exaggerated.
Nevertheless, I used it in the book, as it is heroic, and fits the moment.…