Tag Archives: hero

Heroic professions : why not a plumber?

Lately, I’ve been involved with various tradespeople — the plumber, the electrician and so on — following a number of domestic …er… difficulties.

Technology seems to have been ganging up on me, these past few months. Weird electrical faults that don’t repeat themselves when the electrician is on site.
And incidents with animals.

Don’t believe me?

The dog ate my homework?

dishwasher not working, plumber needed

Dishwasher image by FotoRieth from Pixabay

Well, a mouse ate my dishwasher, for starters.

No, I kid you not. This is not a “Please, miss, the dog ate my homework” kind of fabrication, even though it may sound like one.
It happened.

I live in the countryside.
There are mice here. Continue reading →

Apostrophe Rules!

This is the tale of how an apostrophe changed my life. It made me open my mind, in spite of deeply entrenched prejudices, and endowed me with hours of reading pleasure I would never have expected in a million years.check that apostrophe

 

Don’t like thrillers

Some years ago a colleague whose taste in books hardly ever chimed with mine, recommended a thriller he’d just discovered. “Fantastic plot”, he said. “Great writer. None of that stodgy grammar and fancy image nonsense. Just a plain man speaking plain thoughts.”

Two little kids reading book under blanketI groaned in spirit. “Lots of action?” He nodded enthusiastically. That meant dead bodies. Continue reading →

Finding Your Hero: Guest Blog by Louise Allen

louise allen author writes about finding hero

Louise Allen

Today, our guest blogger is Louise Allen, award-winning author of historical romances set in the Regency period and creator of many a gorgeous romantic hero. But she’s also written books set in the 17th and 18th centuries, plus one set back in AD410! She’s clearly been bitten by the history bug, big time, and her many fans are more than happy to follow her into any period she chooses.

Louise writes non-fiction about her historical interests, most recently the story of the first tourists to the Waterloo battlefield, in their own words. There is also a fascinating guide to walks in Jane Austen’s London — a boon for visitors and much recommended.

Given Louise’s very wide interests, we did wonder what she would choose to blog about…

Louise Allen finds her Hero

Where does a story come from? As a novelist I’m often asked that question and usually the answer is, “I have no idea, it just arrived.”

For one book, however, The Dangerous Mr Ryder, I am very clear where it came from, although the origins of the hero still elude me. Continue reading →