Yes, it’s that time of year again The Milford critique week starts on Saturday 12th September. This year we have fifteen writers gathering at Gladstone’s Library in Hawarden, North Wale…

The small print. Hi. If part one The Big Picture, [last week] worked out for you, your story is now a leaner, meaner fiction creature. Can there possibly be any need for more? Well, the points belo…

Edge-Lit makes it a dozen with its return in 2026, once again serving up a wide array of interviews, talks, workshops and more for lovers of genre fiction.

Part One, The Big Picture So you’ve finished your story; congratulations, seriously. Many people never even get that far so you deserve to feel good. For a moment. Now comes the hard part&#82…

There are a few posts coming up on the gentle art of editing, so I thought I’d preface them by explaining the basic steps your book might go through once you’ve finished your first draft. Please no…

When I was sixteen and starting A level English, I studied T. S. Eliot. We were studying the 20th century syllabus, and the modern poets were Eliot or Robert Lowell. None of the English department …

The occasions when we experience something for the first time are precious. Do you remember, for example, how it is to listen to a new album by a favorite musician? It’s just not the same (though i…

Strange Horizons will open to general fiction submissions on October 1, 2026, at 3 p.m. UTC! This window will remain open until we hit our submission cap of 1,000 stories. Our maximum word count fo…

A guest post first published on Sarah Ash’s blog, October 2023 I’ve described The Green Man’s Heir and subsequent books as modern fantasy rooted in the ancient myths and folklore of the Briti…

From where I’m sitting right now, I can see the tops of a line of trees. I’m not sure what species they are: deciduous, certainly, and rounded in outline, but they’re too far away to make out more …

Originally published on Juliet’s own blog in 2011. “But don’t you just make it all up?” That’s a frequent comment when I mention my research for the book I’m working on. I’m an epic fantasy n…

When I got my first book deal with DAW back in 2013 I thought all my troubles were over. My editor, Sheila Gilbert, phoned me and said ‘I want to buy your book.’ And then said those words every wri…

This is an amalgamation of two related posts previously on Juliet’s own blog in 2023 and 2013. Among the photos of fashions at the Met Gala, this is what caught my eye. In 2022 singer/musicia…

As I prepare to publish my debut sci fi novel with a small indie press, the burden of marketing will fall firmly on my shoulders. Do I look forward to this challenge? I don’t. I’m a writer, not a p…

Reposted from Juliet’s blog July 2025 I’m often asked, since I’m on the board of the Society of Authors, why legal action isn’t underway in the UK to hold the big tech companies to account fo…

I like to be organized, but no matter what I can’t seem to expand the practice of having a day planner/phone/computer calendars that contain all my deadlines and birthdays and random events to the …

A while ago, I had a conversation with a friend of mine about time management. Like so many others, she too was struggling to carve out time for her creative work. She was wondering if she would ma…

Part 17 of an intermittent series where I read or re-read the writing books on my shelf to see if they’re worth keeping. See previous part here Returning from the diversion I took last week I’m bac…

My computer’s main hard drive died. The one where I’d saved my work. All of my current projects, my published works: gone. For an author, few things are more terrifying than the loss of your work. …

I’ve been working my way through a backlog of craft books in the mornings. I’ll read for half an hour, sometimes just fifteen minutes, taking notes before I start writing in earnest. It’s a great w…

To me it seems that every writing advice out there homes in on the following mantra: write every day, no matter what. Stephen King states in On Writing  that he writes 2000 words a day. I…

Part 16 of an intermittent series where I read or re-read the writing books on my shelf to see if they’re worth keeping. See previous part here I’ve re-read a few classics, books that you’ll see ov…

My Mum has just gone into a nursing home at the age of 100, so I’ve been sorting out her stuff, taking in what she’ll need and dealing with what she won’t need again. And the redundant stuff includ…

I’d been at Gladstone’s Library for a week and I didn’t want to leave, but the real world and my family called to me and I had to go. I wrote every day, sometimes with more success than…

After getting stuck in a mega traffic jam at Mottram that made me 40 minutes late to pick up Terry at Lymm services, the rest of the journey was relatively smooth, though I always have to remember …