Behind the scenes of Polka Dot Dreams

The new Writers' Forum is out - and includes the concluding part of a two-part feature on how I wrote the rock'n'roll romance Polka Dot Dreams.

If you've ever fancied writing stories for womens magazines, there's also a feature in which I talk to four top fiction editors about what they are looking for in new writers... and what will put them off a manuscript.

To read the opening chapters of Polka Dot Dreams before you buy it, click here.

Writers' Forum

The new Writers' Forum is out now and includes a feature on how I wrote the My Weekly serial A Life of Loyal Service about a Buckingham Palace maid despite having never written a below-stairs type of story before... nor even having watched Downton Abbey!

I was also pleased to read in this month's issue an interview with crime writer Peter Lovesey by Joan Moules. Lovesey's Sergeant Cribb series was a favourite of mine in my early teens, having turned to titles like Wobble To Death and The Detective Wore Silk Drawers after watching the TV series based on the books.

Although I don't write much crime, Lovesey's writing was a definite influence and inspiration to me in terms of his crisp, clean style, jaunty tone and sense of humour.

The Art of Magazine Fiction

Detail from Andre Leonard's
illustration for my story Forever Together
in My Weekly

My thanks to Andre Leonard for his fabulous illustration to the first part of my two-part story, Forever Together, in this week’s My Weekly. It’s uncanny how Andre how depicted the heroine, Nicola, exactly as I imagined her, even down to her ponytail which I always pictured her having but never actually described in the text. How spooky is that? And how appropriate for a tale full of weird, spooky goings on at a creepy old theatre?
Andre has illustrated my previous serials Fairground Attraction and A Life Of Loyal Service and it’s such a pleasure to have my work illustrated so classily.
I interviewed Andre for Writers’ Forum last year and was surprised to learn that his beautifully detailed ‘oil paintings’ are actually produced digitally, with a program called Painter.
“It requires the use of a graphics pad - I use a Wacom as it’s the best - and a digital pen or stylus,” Andre explained. “Unlike the ones used on phones they are pressure sensitive and can be programmed to mimic the actions of various types of brush.
“I usually do all my sketching off the computer, then scan the final sketch for painting. The advantage of digital illustrations is the ease in which alterations can be made and the speed of delivery. Re-works used to be a nightmare but now alterations can be done and the job re-sent within hours.”
I can’t wait to see the picture for the second instalment.