Sheila's Guests and Reviews

A friend was told she shouldn't write for teenagers as she didn't live with any. But she was a mother of teens, now grown, and a teen herself, not so very long ago. Why shouldn't she set her tales in the teen-hoods she knew for today's teens to read? After all, we're not a different breed; we're not even history. We're just the same people growing in different worlds. That, of course, led to my wondering about historical fiction - not that my teen-hood is history yet. Some authors build on family records and letters; they know, or knew, the people of the time and words they used. Others write of distant lands, and ages only remembered in history. Do we have to read all those ancient documents to write? Do we have to carry certificates around to prove we've done our research? Or can a wary mathematician develop a love of history in later life, then write her tales of Bible times? Science fiction might need some scientific consistency of course. Histor...

Once upon a time I wrote a novel in which two timelines intertwined. In one, the protagonist was middle-aged, trying to resolve the issues she still had after childhood abuse. In the other, the abuse was yet to take place, and readers followed along with the child while innocence headed to betrayal. I was told the novel would never sell - it never did - and that writing multiple timelines was a strict no-no, especially for relative unknowns. The novel truly never sold, but it's been rewritten since then. The later, much better version is called Infinite Sum and I'm eagerly awaiting its release from Indigo Sea Press. Meanwhile, I've snatched some very enjoyable moments from the (also very enjoyable) time of my mum's visit, and read some excellent books that do, in fact, blend more than one timeline successfully and enticingly. I dream and hope my novel might be up to the quality of these. So, grab a coffee; remember the rating is just to tell the blend of coffee to c...