Who doesn’t love a good literature festival? For bookworms and writers like you and I, they can be a great way to meet some of our favourite writers, hear snippets of upcoming works and get to ask them questions. They’re also an opportunity to attend writing masterclasses and get tips from leading writers. Continue reading “Marlborough Literature Festival 2015”
Category: Useful Websites
Useful Tool for Writers: Grammarly
Most people have already heard of this, one of the best spelling and grammar correctors available on the web. I’ve used grammarbase and several others, but none of them are quite so easy to use as Grammarly. There are two options to the Grammarly service; a basic package is free, but there is an the upgraded version which is a subscription service. Continue reading “Useful Tool for Writers: Grammarly”
Essential Kindle Fire Apps for Writers
Remember a few years ago when I wrote features on BlackBerry apps, Android apps and NE White kindly followed up with some essential apps for iPhone users? Well, now I have had a Kindle Fire for six months I feel it is time to revisit the app store to give you some of the essentials for your Kindle Fire. Continue reading “Essential Kindle Fire Apps for Writers”
Who Wants Free / Discounted Book Alerts Every Day?
I discovered Book Bub only recently so apologies to anyone who has been using this for years. I stumbled upon it quite by accident a few weeks ago and subscribed to the daily newsletter. I admit I didn’t expect much, really. I expected largely self-published work as we do, but rather at the obscure end – perhaps a list of stuff that nobody has bought and with low ratings while the authors desperately try to raise awareness of stuff that isn’t very good. Continue reading “Who Wants Free / Discounted Book Alerts Every Day?”
Help I’m Stuck for Blogging Ideas!
This blog features book reviews, essay discussions, sample work, articles on linguistics, stories about books in the news, when writers die, advice for writers, information on self-publishing, how to write effectively, book recommendations, website recommendations, personal updates, articles on themes and so on and so forth. Yet I do sometimes, simply, run out of ideas. Continue reading “Help I’m Stuck for Blogging Ideas!”
Images and Copyright – Do I “Public Domain”?
Addendum: Amended to include sources courtesy of Daily Post
How do you get people to come to your blog without promising free cake and then disappointing them a la Portal? You need a good headline for starters or people are not going to be enticed to read it. Most amusingly, that particular post proved my point about how important a good headline is (the post itself contained no details or tags to aid the SEO of the post) and the experiment came to an end quicker than expected. Continue reading “Images and Copyright – Do I “Public Domain”?”
Blog Tour – Honourable Mentions :)
It’s always a good idea to connect will fellow writers and I would recommend WordPress as a great place to do that. I have met some interesting writers from across the breadth of the fiction and non-fiction worlds. One of these is Sarah Grace Logan of A Slice of Imagination. A fellow Brit and fellow nerd (I’ve seen the Portal t-shirt Sarah but I’m glad to see your cakes are not a lie ;-) ), earlier today Sarah kindly mentioned my blog as part of a blog tour. Continue reading “Blog Tour – Honourable Mentions :)”
Writer’s Relief – Another Useful Site for You
Back when I was doing the Site of the Week, I eventually ran out of ideas and stopped doing one every single week. I didn’t come across many “places to get your stuff published” web resources and those that were a small part of a larger website. Either that or they were specific to one or two genres. Writer’s Relief is a blog / website dedicated purely to helping you find your market – whether you write fiction, essays or poetry. Continue reading “Writer’s Relief – Another Useful Site for You”
Websites for writers: Powerthesaurus
What happens when you know what you want to say but the right word doesn’t come to mind? You need a thesaurus. There are many out there, a lot of glittery and some don’t stand up to quality checks. Basically – they have style but little substance.
A couple of weeks ago I was sent this useful little tool by somebody who stumbled upon my blog. Power Thesaurus might not look like much (and graphically it is very simple) but enter a word and you are presented with, actually, quite a lot of information. Continue reading “Websites for writers: Powerthesaurus”
Useful Websites for Writers: English Stack Exchange
This is a very simple site that means you don’t have to go searching the internet for correct spelling and clarification on grammar and punctuation. English Stackexchange is not a new premise. In fact, it is very similar to the Yahoo! Answers page but obviously it is focussed on getting answers to your English language needs. Plus, you can guarantee you are not going to get any stupid answers, insulting responses that are misspelt or adverts asking if you would like to have your genitalia enlarged by going to a certain website. Continue reading “Useful Websites for Writers: English Stack Exchange”