The Cushion Shop
Now that the first draft of The Third Daughter has been – more or less – hammered out, I’m experimenting a little. I look for images from the ancient world which depict everyday activities and use them to improve my descriptions of Junia Tertia’s childhood and upbringing. I am indebted here to websites like the […]
A day in the life
The Qatar National Library writing group has been busy again! This week, the course leader set us the task of writing a spoof of one of those “Day in the Life” columns which usually end up in Sunday newspapers. You know the sort of thing – celebrities treat us to a description of their breakfast […]
Desert Tracks
New from the Qatar National Library’s creative writing group – the first episode of our podcast, “Desert Tracks”. In particular I recommend the story about the lift singer by Greig Parker – it is about 13 minutes in. https://watch.cloudflarestream.com/4c3898a703799c4487cc68358909a2f6 Greig (find him at greigparker.com) is a talented writer who explores many different genres, and has […]
Cleopatra
What a great subject for research! Having decided that I must include a meeting between the protagonist of the new novel and the infamous Queen of the Nile, I am really enjoying this. Cleopatra is so loaded with our preconceptions that peeling away the layers is proving fascinating – and what we really know about […]
PAD – the poetry challenge
So – my online writers’ group does a challenge every February , and I haven’t managed it once in four years. BUT – I have produced some poems. Today’s prompt was, appropriately enough “Apathetic”, surprisingly easy. Second Lifers, why not sign up to the challenge in Milk Wood? Apathetic Life streams away from me. I […]
Winter poems
It’s been a good year for the roses…
A short story, nothing to do with ancient Rome, but free, so who’s complaining? (Warning: I’ve just had this rejected for being too violent….) Once he was dead, she almost didn’t want to bury him: but she had planned very thoroughly and was pleased with the way it had gone, although, of course, there were […]
The Emperor’s Servant
About a week into September, I remembered that I had booked a line-edit from the marvellous Helen Baggott (http://www.helenbaggott.co.uk/). Cue the end of all the research for the as-yet-formless third novel and a scurry of activity as I realised that I couldn’t send off the already-revised and polished manuscript without ONE LAST READ. Mistake (though […]
The House of Augustus and the two Professors
Augustus’ house on the Palatine Hill, at the heart of Rome, makes a couple of appearances in The Emperor’s Servant so I read T.P.Wiseman’s The House of Augustus the moment I saw that it was published. Now I’m having to go back and rewrite my descriptions of the house, the approach, the Temple of Apollo… […]
David Wishart
Currently doing my research for the next novel by re-reading a series I’ve always loved – David Wishart’s Marcus Corvinus books, beginning with “Ovid”. This series features one of the best wise-cracking heroes, the young aristocrat Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus – yes, four names, he really is that posh! Find the books on Amazon: And […]
