In my upcoming debut novel, FREEDOM FOR ME: A CHINESE YANKEE, I told a fictional story based on the life of a real person and placed him in the historical setting of Civil War America in 1862–1863. After years of writing and revision, I learned several do’s and don’ts about writing historical fiction for middle grade readers. I wanted to share my checklist for future projects with other authors who love historical fiction as much as I do!
 
1)    Don’t get lost in the weeds of history. Although my protagonist, Thomas, is a fictional character, he is based on a real-life person named Joseph Pierce who served in the Fourteenth Connecticut Volunteer Infantry. I spent many hours with the regimental history ensuring that troop movements were accurate and battle accounts for Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Gettysburg were true. While this research was key to writing my story, I was also trying too hard. While the historian in me was attempting to be perfect, the writer in me was getting bogged down with unnecessary words, sentences, and even chapters, which were not central to the story.
 
2)    Pay attention to period language and modern day idioms. As I underwent the editing process, I found myself pausing at many of my word choices. Did I adequately and succinctly define military terms like “reconnaissance” without bogging down the story? Are the references to “Minie ball” and “accoutrements” clear to a middle grade reader? Making sure that words can be determined by context is particularly important for middle grade readers who are still developing vocabulary skills.
 
I also had to make sure I removed any modern references, to get rid of any anachronisms. Many 21st century phrases found their way into my early drafts. I rewrote phrases such as “friendly vibe” and “dial it down,” which seemed vanilla enough, but would not have been understood in 1862. I also used the word “zoo” to describe the traveling zoos that visited nineteenth century American towns, but realized that my first treatment of the word “zoo” did not provide enough explanation, and as such, conjured up an entirely different idea for a modern reader.
 
3)    Provide enough, but not too much setting. Historical fiction typically allows for longer descriptions of setting, but it’s tempting to provide too much. To keep my readers’ engaged, I followed a general rule of not allowing more than a paragraph or two of setting alone to ensure I got them quickly to the action of each chapter. Editing for use of all five senses helped me to whittle down too much telling versus showing.
 
There is also a unique challenge inherent with writing a novel for middle grade readers set during a war. I did not want to gloss over the carnage and misery of battle, but I was careful to write those scenes with the readers’ sensibilities in mind. After my protagonist’s first battle experience, he came face-to-face with the outcome. Instead of describing horrible scenes of blood and dismemberment, I instead showed Thomas violently vomiting at the terrible sight. Thomas’s intense physical reaction gave the reader sufficient information to understand the devastation without having to read all the gory details.
 
4)    Don’t assume the readers know the history. As adults, we may presume that middle grade readers have at least some idea about why the American Civil War was fought and its outcome. At the very least, they may have learned that it was the war that ended slavery. I worked to provide enough context so that my readers could immerse themselves in the story, but I did this by having my protagonist come to understand the war’s meaning in his own way thereby bringing the reader along with him.     
 
5)    Make it new. The American Civil War ended more than 150 years ago, but that doesn’t make the story “old.” In fact, a character’s journey can be as exciting as any new adventure because it’s being experienced for the first time through the story. In the case of FREEDOM FOR ME: A CHINESE YANKEE, this is the first time a story about Chinese Civil War soldiers has been shared with the middle grade audience. While the book has a familiar subject for many readers, it’s different and fresh enough to keep them interested. It’s a new angle on a familiar topic.
 
I found writing historical fiction for middle grade readers to be a challenging and immensely rewarding experience. My love of American history began as a fifth-grade student when I had a teacher who made it come alive through her storytelling. As I still remember those stories, I channeled that “wow, I learned something and it was fun” feeling when writing FREEDOM FOR ME.

​Stacie Haas is an award-winning professional and creative writer with background in business communications, public relations, and reputation management. She is the author of FREEDOM FOR ME: A CHINESE YANKEE, a historical fiction book for middle grade and young adult readers. It will be out this November from 50/50 Press along with a FREEDOM FOR ME Curriculum Guide for teachers. Her other writing has appeared in St. Anthony Messenger and Skipping Stones and in Indies Unlimited’s 2016 Flash Fiction Anthology. Stacie has a degrees in English and American History and is a graduate of the Institute of Children’s Literature.
Find her on Twitter @staciehaas, Facebook @authorstaciehaas, LinkedIn, and online at www.staciehaaas.com. Her publisher’s website is www.5050press.com.

Are you a first-time or emerging children’s author wondering what to write about? Perhaps it’ll be something Harry Potter-like? Or along the lines of Andy Griffiths’ Treehouse series? Will you write about ponies? Fairies? Aliens? Or maybe you’re going to look at the bestseller lists, see what’s doing well at the moment. (In NZ, that means you’ll be writing picture books about kiwis.)
 
There’s nothing wrong with this approach – ponies and dinosaurs (and kiwis) will always be popular, and you need to keep track of what’s trending and what publishers are looking for. But if you’re wondering where to start, I’d say forget what’s worked for other authors and try, instead, a spot of introspection. Think about what really matters to you. Because if you can pin this down and build your story around it, then you will have a story with heart.
 
What does it mean, when we hear the phrase ‘a story with real heart’? Is it one that elicits an emotional response; a story that makes us cry? One with a feel-good ending? I’d say it’s more than that. A story with heart, one that really connects, is more often than not a story centred around something the writer cares deeply about. Therefore to write a story with heart, we first need to ask ourselves, what really matters to me?
 
Dig deep! Perhaps it’s family, or the environment, or you may want to send a strong message about inclusion or bullying. Perhaps what’s most important to you is to kick-start a love of reading in the reluctant reader, so you’re aiming for a page-turning adventure or a belly laugh that will let them know that books aren’t boring. When you’ve put your finger on whatever it is, this can be your starting point.
 
Next, think about how you can mesh what you care about with your subject. This of course should be something that floats your boat (in my case it’s ghosts and history) and here you should also take account of what kids are into reading at the moment, whether that’s wizards, princesses, aliens, vampires or unicorns. Put your own twist on the time-honoured favourites. If anti-bullying is your thing, maybe write about the dinosaur all the other dinosaurs all picked on; if it’s learning to cope with failure, try a story about the fairy who couldn’t fly.
 
When I was writing the third book in my middle-grade ghost story series, there was a great deal of debate happening in New Zealand around immigration, in particular from China. My story features a ghostly goldminer (or two) and takes place near Queenstown where, during the gold rush, there was a large community of Chinese goldminers. They were treated fairly appallingly by miners from Europe, the US and Australia. While making it as subtle as possible, I wanted to draw parallels between immigration then and now, hoping that the way the Chinese miner in my story was treated would make children think about their own relationships with migrant children in their classes at school. It wasn’t the main thrust of the book, but it was something that was important to me.
 
A story without heart is a cold thing. As an editor I can tell if an author doesn’t care an awful lot about the theme of their book; it feels formulaic, as if the author’s writing ‘to order’, and the reader will probably pick up on that too, even if they can’t put their finger on why they’re not connecting with the text. Why should the reader care what happens if, deep down, the author doesn’t? We have to be writing from the heart – a book without it inevitably lacks emotion, whether that’s a feel-good ending or a few tears.
 
Heart goes hand in hand with that other thing that’s so hard to pin down – voice. Your author voice is key, but at no point should it intrude into your story in a way that overwhelms, that detracts from the characters and the plot. Like the paradox of a brilliant actor who is totally immersed in character and yet is still very much that actor, and that’s why you want to watch them time and again. How do you do that? For writers, the answer is that if you’re writing from the heart, your voice comes through all by itself, without you having to think about it. It’s all about authenticity. A strong author voice shines through as the puppeteer behind what’s happening to those characters.
 
Have you ever listened to an author speak, or met an author, and thought, ah, it’s all making sense now? Their actual voice – what they say – is somehow, though you can’t quite say how, the same as the voice in their books. This is how it should be – you should be able to recognize the author from their books. As an aside, this is why authors need to be brave – it’s like holding yourself up (possibly naked) for everyone to see and judge not just your writing, but your very self and your beliefs. Yes, even children’s authors.
 
So, writers … don’t hold back! Pour your heart and soul into your writing, let your voice shine through, care deeply about your characters, your themes, your work. Children deserve your hearts.

​Sue Copsey is an award-winning author of middle-grade fiction and non-fiction, and a freelance editor specialising in children’s and YA. She grew up in the UK, and was a press officer at London Zoo, then a senior editor at Dorling Kindersley Children’s Books, before moving to New Zealand. In 2016, her middle-grade novel The Ghosts of Tarawera won a Notable Book Award from the Storylines Children's Literature Trust of NZ. The third in the series, The Ghosts of Moonlight Creek (2016) was a finalist in the Sir Julius Vogel Awards, Best Youth Novel category. Sue also wrote the UK Times Educational Supplement award winner Children Just Like Me (1995) and Our Children Aotearoa, which received a Notable Book Award in 2012. Sue lives in Auckland with her husband and two children.
 
Sue's Website
​Sue's Twitter

One of the things I love about writing middle grade novels and stories is finding the unique voices for middle grade characters.

Children’s books often have a very straight-forward point of view and use more simplistic language. In contrast, young adult novels feature darker themes, complex subplots, and more introspective characters. Middle grade falls… well, somewhere in the middle, and getting into the mindset of a middle grade reader or character is not always easy.

As a publisher with 50/50 Press, I receive a lot of middle grade queries and manuscripts, and I find that many writers seeking to publish for this age group make the same mistakes over and over again. So, I wanted to share some tips I’ve learned as both an author and a publisher about writing for that gap between childhood and adolescence.

1.     Understand some basic rules
 
Before getting started, there are a few things you need to know. Middle grade books often run from 15,000 to 40,000 words. If you have an upper-middle grade book (more on this later) or a fantasy novel with rich world building, you can get away with a bit more, but writing 100,000 words isn’t a middle grade novel. It’s more like a trilogy.
 
Middle grade books are primarily purchased by librarians, teachers, and parents. Because of this and the ages of your tween readers, you need to keep the material clean. I know librarians who flag and dismiss books because there is swearing, sex, graphic violence, and other age-inappropriate material.
 
Your book can deal with subjects like divorce, conflict at home, drug use (by an older character), etc. But you should keep a lot of the rougher material off page. For example, maybe the protagonist’s parents are divorcing, but he doesn’t know why. Or perhaps a violent event occurs, but the narrator does not describe it in gross detail.

2.     Know your audience
 
Are you writing for upper middle grade readers in grades 6-8 or are you writing for a younger middle grade audience in grades 3-5?
 
I think it’s best to know this upfront before you begin writing, but sometimes characters take you in a different direction than you first imagined. If that’s the case, at least know what audience you want before you edit the manuscript and before you query agents or publishers.
 
Why? Because a third grader has different vocabulary, needs, wants, and interests than an eighth grader. Think of how much you changed in that period of time. At the age of eight, I was still playing with Barbie dolls and playing dress-up to put on plays for my parents. By fourteen, I was babysitting, wearing makeup, and going out on dates.
 
3.     Understand developmental stages.
 
Some of this goes back to the first two points because reading needs change as children grow. Similarly, the needs of an eight or nine-year-old protagonist will be quite different from that of a thirteen-year-old.
 
Developmentally, kids ages 8-11 still think in concrete terms. They are interested in school, they are closer to their parents, and they have either one best friend or a small group of three to four very good friends. In terms of communication, they are more self-focused and their emotions may be strong, but bouts of anger, frustration, and worry rarely last long.
 
In comparison, tweens ages 11-14 begin to focus outward. They have larger groups of friends. Peer-pressure and peer influence become more important. Their reliance on parents diminishes, and their feelings become more complex. They may become moody or angry without understanding why. You should reflect these developmental stages and changes in the characters you create.
 
4.     Realize that kids often “read up”
 
Kids are often drawn to a slightly older character. So, while readers in middle school may not want to read about a third grader, a third grader may want to read about kids in middle school. I used this principle in my upcoming middle grade novel The Misadventures of Marvin Miller.
 
Marvin is written for grades 4-6, but the main character, Marvin, has just finished seventh grade. If you read the book, you’ll see that Marvin often acts and sounds more like a kid going into sixth grade than a young teenager going into eighth grade. I did this deliberately so that the material is age-appropriate for the reader I had in mind.
 
5.     Read, watch, and observe
 
Reading and observation are key factors to being an author or storyteller. This is one reason I think that some of the best middle grade books are written by teachers. They’re around these kids every day, so they know exactly what they sound like!
 
If you’re not a teacher or a parent, you can still find ways to observe middle grade voices. The first is to read before you write. Have your local librarian or bookstore owner help you. Look at the middle grade section. Pick up some books that are best-selling and some that are not. Figure out what your comps (comparable titles) are. Read books that are well-written and pick up a few that aren’t so great. Analyze each book’s point of view. Listen to how the characters sound. Audio books are great for this, by the way!
 
You can also check on Amazon or Barnes and Noble for specialty categories like Juvenile Literature ▬ Social Issues ▬ Bullying  or Juvenile Literature ▬ Fantasy ▬ Dragons. 
These can help you find specific titles with themes similar to your manuscript.
 
The most important thing to keep in mind is the date when the books were written. If you’re reading only books from the 1950s like the Betsy-Tacy books or Charlotte’s Web, you’re reading amazing classics, but you’re not going to get a good idea of what kids today sound like.
 
And if you’re burnt out on reading, watch some TV. Find television shows featuring kids in your target age range. Watch comedies and dramas and maybe even a cartoon or two. YouTube is also great for this, by the way. Lots of tweens are YouTubers with videos talking about all the things they love and hate.
 

Many people who aren’t authors say things to me like, “It’s so easy to write for kids. I think I could write a book for a third-grader over the weekend!” I almost always laugh and try to explain to them why it’s not as easy as it sounds. Middle grade readers are unique and they need stories that reflect their voices and experiences. This is not always an easy task, but it is a rewarding one.

Megan Cassidy is an English professor and the author of books for middle grade, young adult, and adult readers.
 
Coming out this June, Megan's second book, The Misadventures of Marvin Miller, is a middle grade novel recounting one boy's hilarious summer as he tries to impress the girl he likes. Megan's first novel, Always, Jessie is a YA novel charting one girl's recovery from an eating disorder and exercise addiction in a diverse recovery community. She also writes for adults under the name M.C. Hall. Smothered, Megan's adult epistolary mystery, will be published in the Fall of 2017.
 
Megan's other work has been featured in Silver Blade Magazine, Pilcrow & Dagger, Bette Noire, Fiction on the Web, Flash Fiction Press, Dying Dahlia Review, Citron Review, and the Centum Press One Hundred Voices Anthology.
 
My website: http://www.megancassidyauthor.com/
50/50 Press: www.5050press.com
My Twitter: @MeganEileenC
50/50 Press Twitter: @fiftyfiftypress
Facebook: www.facebook.com/5050press
And YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqr50j6EqNdpRBEFPPBWO7w
​

I'm delighted to be a part of the fabulous Keith W. Willis' cover reveal today, for book # 2 in the KNIGHTS OF KILBOURNE series. Check out DESPERATE KNIGHTS! Then be sure to scroll right through so you can enter the GIVEAWAY!

Coming summer 2017 from Champagne Books
http://champagnebooks.com/
 
No time… No plan… No options…
No one said saving the world would be easy.
​

Morgan McRobbie and Lady Marissa duBerry swing back into swashbuckling action, facing old enemies, new threats, and a diabolical conspiracy. Not to mention a more personal battle, one with hearts and pride at stake.
 
As the pair escorts Prince Robert to the dwarf king’s court, a fiendish scheme is unfolding, intended to hurl men and dwarves into a devastating war. Morgan ends up sidetracked by a kidnapped dwarf and a centuries-old feud, while a mysterious wizard’s revelations shake Marissa to her core, throwing into question everything she thought she knew about her past and future. And the advent of a rival for Marissa’s affections threatens any hope of a happy ending—if they survive.
 
Once again the desperate knight and indomitable damsel must hazard everything on a single throw of the dice, gambling on untested allies and unimagined weapons to save their world. And the odds have never been worse.  

Praise for TRAITOR KNIGHT (Book 1 of Knights of Kilbourne)
 
“…well-told story with a witty heroine, a noble-yet-flawed hero, and a colorful set of secondary characters. And a dragon! Let's not forget the dragon!” –Tegan Wren, author of Inconceivable
 
“…a witty and action-packed page-turner that takes the classic fantasy land and adds depth, character, romance and political intrigue to brilliant effect.”  -- SFF World
 
“I recommend Traitor Knight to anyone looking for a good fantasy with just a dash of romance.” – Long & Short Reviews
​

Keith W. Willis graduated (long ago) with a degree in English Lit from Berry College, Georgia. He now lives in the scenic Hudson Valley/Adirondack region of NY with his wife Patty. Keith is certain those rumbling noises attributed to Henry Hudson's crew are really just the dragons grumbling. He began writing seriously in 2008, when the voices in his head got too annoying to ignore. When he’s not making up stories he manages a group of database content editors at a global information technology firm. TRAITOR KNIGHT (Champagne Books) is his first published novel, and has won awards for both fantasy and romance. The second book in the Knights of Kilbourne series, DESPERATE KNIGHT, is slated for a summer 2017 release.
 
You can find Keith:
 
On the Web:    http://www.keithwillisauthor.com
 
On Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/keith.willis.581 (personal)
                          https://www.facebook.com/TRAITOR-KNIGHT-191368320972613/ (books)
 
On Twitter:     https://twitter.com/kilbourneknight
 
 
And last but not least:
 
THE GIVEAWAY:
 
Go to http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/6f03957e2/?  to enter to win a $10 Amazon Gift Card!

It's book birthday time! And today it's rather special for me as the book in question is by my wonderful friend Emma Wicker. We've been mates for some time now and I've been lucky enough to be a part of Emma's BEARWOOD series as well as this brand new contemporary romance THESE SIMPLE SCARS. I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves a heartfelt romance with a bit of dirty thrown in for good measure. Check it out!

Sometimes, the worst scars are the ones that can’t be seen.

After fleeing her abusive father, Faith’s goal is to find a job and earn enough to finally be able to live in safety. When she ends up stranded in the sleepy town of Silver, Georgia, it’s not long before she meets sexy mechanic Garrett. His willingness to help her one minute then dismiss her the next, leave Faith confused by this guarded and irresistible man.

Although Garrett has left the military, the war returned home with him. An attraction to the new girl in town takes him by surprise, but if he’s to keep his scars hidden, Faith is no-go. His heart tells him to trust, but his mind is determined to get the better of him.

As the pair deal with their wounds, tragedy threatens to rip them apart. Supported by new friends, Garrett and Faith wrestle with their pasts and an unexpected love they fear won’t last.
​
Goodreads / Amazon

Born in Dublin Ireland, E.L. Wicker moved to England when she was nine years old. There she attended Coombe Girls School and her love of writing developed as she began to win literary competitions. A graduate of the Social Science’s at University of Essex, E.L. Wicker uses her knowledge of human nature to craft interesting characters and emotional relationships.
​
Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter

Woohoo! I'm delighted to be a part of the release day book blitz for the fantastic new contemporary romance DADDY'S BEST FRIEND! Check it out... Be sure to read right to the end so you don't miss the Rafflecopter giveaway!
​

She’s temptation personified
Nathan had always been more than just my dad’s friend. I never thought he’d see me as an adult, especially not after avoiding me for so long. But one hug, one moment feeling every inch of him against me, shattered that illusion. Consequences no longer mattered—I was eighteen, and I was willing to risk everything for my shot with him.
 
He’s not going to resist anymore
I never should’ve seen Eve as more than my best friend’s daughter. As a cop, I knew it was wrong. It was my job to protect her from guys like me. Chasing her could cost me my career—not to mention the only family I’d ever known—but I couldn’t hold back another second. One taste, and I wanted her. To hell with the fallout.       

Go buy it now!
 
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ABOUT LONDON
​
London Hale is the combined pen name of writing besties Ellis Leigh and Brighton Walsh. Between them, they’ve published more than thirty books in the contemporary romance, paranormal romance, and romantic suspense genres. Ellis is a USA Today bestselling author who loves coffee, thinks green Skittles are the best, and prefers to stay in every weekend. Brighton is multi-published with Berkley, St. Martin’s Press, and Carina Press. She hates coffee, thinks green Skittles are the work of the devil, and has never heard of a party she didn’t want to attend. Don’t ask how they became such good friends or work so well together—they still haven’t figured it out themselves.
 
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EXCERPT

How in the fuck had we gotten here? All I’d needed was an escape so I could get my dick in check. Just some goddamn peace and quiet so I could get my head in the fucking game again—remind myself why I couldn’t snatch Eve away from Shithead and claim her right there in front of everyone.
But I’d wanted to.
Christ, more than anything, I’d wanted to wipe that smug grin off his pretty-boy face. With my fist. Break every one of his fucking fingers when he’d wrapped his arm around her and tugged her into his side.
And now here she was, on her knees in front of me, and I couldn’t do anything but stare. I should’ve stopped her. If I were a better man—a stronger man—I would’ve. Instead, I watched with rapt attention as those full lips kissed the tip of my cock, her bubble-gum tongue flicking out to lick at the head.
“Let me,” she begged.
And I was gone.
I was so fucking gone for this girl.
I fumbled to set my beer bottle on the counter, then reached out and brushed her hair back from her face, gathering the long, dark strands in my hand as she continued to tease me. She licked me like a lollipop, her tongue eager and clumsy, her unpolished enthusiasm only illustrating exactly how young she was.
That thought alone shouldn’t have tightened my balls the way it did.
Mad at her for putting me in this position—mad at myself for not having the willpower to stop it—I tightened my hand in her hair. “If you’re going to do it, do it. Open up and let me slide my cock between those pretty pink lips.”
She groaned, her eyes flashing up to mine, a flush covering her cheeks. Reaching out, she rested her hands on my thighs, balancing herself. And then she did as I told her, engulfing the tip of my cock in her mouth.
“Jesus.”
The sight alone was enough to make my knees weak—her lips stretched taut around me and her sky-blue eyes staring up into mine—but combine it with the heaven that was her mouth, and I didn’t stand a fucking chance. I’d had all of seven seconds between her lips, and I already needed to go off down her throat. I was a grown man—a grown man who hadn’t gotten a blow job in months, but a grown man nonetheless. And yet I felt like I was no better than those little douche- bags she went to school with who didn’t know the meaning of delayed gratification.
I knew plenty about delayed gratification.
Watching her prance around in her tiny dresses, her perky tits taunting me even in my dreams, but not letting myself do anything about it. I’d had a full year of wanting but not taking, and the deprivation was bubbling under my skin, threatening to boil over at any second.
I was so tired of wanting. I needed to have.


​Click the image below to enter the giveaway!

I'm delighted to introduce you to a fellow indie author, Michelle Dennise today, and invite you, on her behalf, to her upcoming Cover Reveal Party. In true indie style, Michelle is making this celebration not just about her and her book, but is sharing the party with six other fantastic indie authors. There will be giveaways, competitions, interviews, and bunch of other cool stuff. It's informal, fun, and relaxed, so please do pop along.

​Here are all the important details!  

I have yet another fantastic guest blogger with me today, this time discussing a super important issue I know a lot of memoir writers need to hear. They might not want to, but it's essential. So, please welcome author Ruth Clare to the blog!

Narrowing the Focus of Your Memoir

Many people want to write a memoir because they have a big story to tell. But there is a big difference between needing to write something for personal reasons, and crafting a story that will find a home in the market place.
 
Most memoir writers do not struggle to find material, rather to get rid of it. But get rid of it you must. If you want to create a publishable book, you have to be able to separate yourself from content that is important to you as an individual to bow down to the story you are trying to tell.
 
But when so many moments of your life seem worthy of attention, how do you narrow your focus?
 
My advice on this boils down to two essential points.
 
1. Kill your darlings
I am sure most people have heard this little gem before, but for those who haven’t, this idea relates to getting rid of any wonderfully shiny or brilliantly entertaining pieces of writing that you may deeply love, but which don’t advance the story you are trying to tell. This can be especially hard when writing a memoir. The darlings you might be killing may be deeply personal events. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t write about them. It does mean, if you are serious about creating clarity for your reader, putting them into a separate folder and using them in a different way at a different time.
 
When I was writing my book, there was one analogy I thought showed a depth to my poetic soul that would blow the minds of people reading it. I tried about twenty different ways to weave that sucker into my writing, but alas, the language of that piece just didn’t work with the voice I wrote in, so I had to let it go. I still think it is the perfect way of describing what happened, but as I would have had to change the entire voice of the narrator to make it work (something I seriously considered doing as I loved it so much), I ended up burning it as an offering to the Writing Gods, and having a memorial for it on my website instead.
 
2. Your life as argument
I heard a piece of advice (from a podcast I listened to years ago and can no longer find) that helped me enormously when it came time to edit my manuscript. The wise person being interviewed said she saw memoir as a piece of non-fiction writing where you are making an argument for something, and your life story just happens to be an illustration of the point you are trying to make.
 
The example she gave was that someone could write a memoir making the argument: life is better when you share it with a cat. With this as your structural backbone, you could then draw examples from your life that demonstrated the point you are trying to make.
 
When I went about applying her idea to my own book, it took me months of driving myself bananas to come up with something that worked. I had stories from my childhood, stories from veterans I had interviewed about their war experience, research into PTSD, The Vietnam War and the psychological impact of war. Every day I asked myself, how the hell does this all fit together? What do I want people to understand after reading my book?
 
I decided the ‘argument’ I was trying to make was: If we don’t look after veterans, it is not just them, but their families who pay the price.
 
This was a very effective way to separate out the stories that needed to be included in my book from the ones that didn’t. That’s not to say it was easy, but I loved the way this concept stopped my memoir from being only about myself as an individual and broadened it into something larger and richer.
 
 
A memoir is not a journal. It is something you are writing for an audience. If you can’t make tough decisions about what belongs and what doesn’t, you will never create the clarity necessary to transform a bunch of stories into a book.

Ruth Clare has been a professional writer since 2004. Her memoir, Enemy: a daughter’s story of how her father brought the Vietnam War home was published in March 2016 by Penguin Books. She has also recently completed the manuscript for a young adult novel called Hiding in Plain Sight.

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Woohoo! I'm delighted to bring you a fab cover reveal today for the even fabber London Hale. Check it out...

I am super ridiculously late to the party (actual cover reveal was April 11), but nevertheless I am here! And I'm delighted to share with you the gorgeous, dribble-inducing cover of my wonderful friend Emma Wicker's forthcoming novel These Simple Scars! This book is amazing and any contemporary romance lovers should definitely go pre-order it now because it's only 99c/p!

​Anyway, here it is...

These Simple Scars 
by Emma Wicker 
Publication date: May 8th 2017
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance


Sometimes, the worst scars are the ones that can’t be seen.
After fleeing her abusive father, Faith’s goal is to find a job and earn enough to finally be able to live in safety. When she ends up stranded in the sleepy town of Silver, Georgia, it’s not long before she meets sexy mechanic Garrett. His willingness to help her one minute then dismiss her the next, leave Faith confused by this guarded and irresistible man.
Although Garrett has left the military, the war returned home with him. An attraction to the new girl in town takes him by surprise, but if he’s to keep his scars hidden, Faith is no-go. His heart tells him to trust, but his mind is determined to get the better of him.
As the pair deal with their wounds, tragedy threatens to rip them apart. Supported by new friends, Garrett and Faith wrestle with their pasts and an unexpected love they fear won’t last.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34807332-these-simple-scars

Pre-order: 
(99c preorder only, going up to 2.99 upon release)
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06Y4DTRL9