Confessions of an Author

 My Review of Camber Sands Well, our holiday at Camber has finished, and Mum and I both survived. We had a nice routine, with me working (inefficiently) for the morning, then meeting for lunch. We then ‘did our own thing’ until 4pm, when we went to the beach, followed by tea, then Netflix until bedtime. All very civilised and relaxing. It was also nice to spend time with just Mum, to properly listen to her stories about the past, without having to rush off to do things. Camber Sands, out of season, is ideal for this. We stayed in a holiday cottage on the White Sands estate, and this was ideal. Mum called it ‘Toy Town’ and with all the little houses, I know what she meant. We walked around, guessing which ones were rental homes and which ones were lived in. I’m assuming that most people don’t, by choice, have ornaments of sea-gulls and anchors in their normal homes. Many of the gardens were full of lavender, and it’s all very pretty. There are a few places to eat in...

If you are an author, especially a self-published one, you know that the hardest part is not the writing, or editing, or rewriting - it is the selling. For most of us, selling does not come naturally, and we need all the help we can get. I was therefore, thrilled this week when I read the following review of CLARA - A Good Psychopath? The review is gradually being shared via social media (perhaps you could help here?) and sales are beginning to follow. Please click the 'Review' link, read, and respond... Many thanks. Anne Review

Lexus LC 500 We went to look at sports cars. You can do this sort of thing when you get to a certain age and are bored. When you’re younger, the sales person asks lots of awkward questions about why you want to change your car, and what your job is, so they can check you aren’t just messing about. But at our age, they simply ask what you currently drive (to check, I assume, a certain income level) and then they are happy to let you play, accepting that one of you must be having a mid-life crisis. We had been out for brunch at Marcos in Sevenoaks (best place locally for brunch) and drove down to the outskirts of Tunbridge Wells, where there is a whole road of car dealerships, so you can walk along comparing cars. We started in the Lexus garage, looking at the LC 500. It’s a very pretty car. It has nice rounded corners, and lights which are shaped like slitty eyes, assessing the road. It’s very low profile, and hugs the ground (so would probably make it to the end of our dr...

Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough Book Review (No spoilers!) Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough I met Sarah Pinborough at a luncheon. We were both invited to talk about our books, and afterwards I received a copy of her latest – at the time unpublished – book. To be honest, I had never heard of Sarah Pinborough before. If you research her on Wikipedia, you’ll find she writes both Young Adult and Adult thrillers, and has published 20 books. She also writes for television, and has had her work adapted for films. So quite well known. Not sure how I had managed to miss her. Anyway, I loved her book. I was also given one of her YA books (13 Minutes) and that never appealed – but then I was a young adult a very long time ago. However, ‘Behind Her Eyes’ was brilliant. If you enjoy books with a lot of suspense, where things happen that you think you ‘almost understand’, then find at the end that everything you thought you knew was wrong, this is a book for you. There was als...