Allie's Blog

I had a wonderful time chatting to Yvonne about writing, and reading three excerpts from The Cottage on Winter Moss. The podcast lasts...

One of the questions I get asked quite regularly is how I come up with my characters’ names. The answer? I take inspiration from...

As we approach the holiday season, my thoughts turn to gifts. I dislike buying 'for the sake of it' or just so that someone will have a...

It's been over a year since I added to my blog, and although no one seems to have missed it much, I feel that I've been slacking. So, I'm...

When you self-publish you are asked to place your book into up to two categories or genres. There are a finite quantity of these and it...

A few years ago someone suggested that I have a go at writing a ghost story. The person in question was of the opinion that my...

Today I am thrilled to host my first guest, Deirdre O’Grady, who was my sensitivity reader for The Cottage on Winter Moss. What is a...

My new book is set in the area where I am lucky enough to live, on the wild northwest coast of Cumbria. Walking along the dunes one day a...

Personally, I love a book with multiple story-threads, especially when each thread concerns a different character. My ‘Widows’ books are...

My new book, The Cottage on Winter Moss, was inspired by my local landscape. I wanted to pour into it all the colour, texture and...

My new book is set in the area where I am lucky enough to live, on the wild northwest coast of Cumbria. Walking along the dunes one day a...

I’ve been busy since November writing a new novel, which is almost ready to go to the editor. While I am writing I like to read books...

St Quentin’s square is somewhat off the main thoroughfare of the city’s streets; traffic is admitted under sufferance and parking is not...

I am an avid reader and always try to write reviews for the books I read. Reading a book - like writing one - can be a solitary business....

About this time last year, during the second lock down here in the UK, I was writing The Lady in the Veil. I was early on in the job...

Eighteen months ago, upon the killing of George Floyd, there was a long-overdue upsurge in calls for proper equality and inclusion in all...

In my book The Lady in the Veil, my villain takes the form of a woman. Lady Jane Talbot is as shrewish as possible, avid for gossip,...

If there are two things likely to hook me in a book it is an old house and a family tree. Norah Loft’s House books were early favourites...

All writers are readers, and I am no exception. I read fairly widely, but the nineteenth century classics are my favourites and I often...

All writers are readers, and I am no exception. Generally speaking I am monogamous - reading only one book at a time. I wouldn’t like to...