Cravats and smut. Writes historical romance, some fantasy. Ex-editor with opinions, especially on books. She/her. European forever. Repped by @millercallihan
Feb 13, 2023 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
So I am on my own in the house for a week. I'm sat having lunch in the kitchen, enjoying the silence, when there is a hissing rattle from the cupboard. No other word. It sounds like a snake. Or a rat got into a bag of pasta. /1
Let me say we have had a live rat in the house before, because the cat brought it in. I had thought he had graduated, first to killing them outside and bringing up the bodies, then to just lying in the sun all day. but, cats. /2
I'm going to miss this place. In large part because pretty much everything I've tweeted in the past week would have required me to do a CW on Mastodon and I just...don't...want to.
Sep 20, 2022 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
I have just seen another post along the lines of "I, the writer, have no control over my characters! They run the show and I just sit here and type it out! I'm desperately trying to make them do kiss/finish this conversation/have a row and they won't!"
Mph. Well. No.
If the characters aren't co-operating, it isn't because they are actual independent people in your head like the Numskulls out of the Beano. It's kind of because you may have fucked up.
Jul 23, 2020 • 12 tweets • 2 min read
Interested in the discussion of the third act break-up in romance, and realising I almost always have a third-act external crisis. (I mean, I have a lot of external crises, let's be real.)
I think if you look at the third act as a test of the relationship, it makes it clearer that the stressor can be internal or external. We've seen a relationship develop, now we see it tested.
May 19, 2020 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
I've just received an email complaining that there's too much consent in my sex scenes, and tbh I'm really struggling with why the hell you'd write that down and send it to someone.
I am 100% on board with authors actively seeking criticism from beta readers and editors. I am 100% on board with reviewers stating their feelings about books exactly as they wish in their review space.
No, you may not personally email me your unsolicited critiques. No.
Oct 14, 2019 • 15 tweets • 3 min read
Cosigned. I can think of...three? four? 1pp books where the tense was part of the book's thematic structure, never jarred me as reader, and didn't get horribly tangled up as soon as the verbs got complicated.
1p present brings significant practical problems once you need to do anything but linear time. e.g. flashbacks, or when the present tense narrator uses what would in past tense be a pluperfect or a future conditional, and the grammar falls apart like poorly constructed knitting.
Feb 19, 2019 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
In light of today's revelations/reminders about plagiarism, cheapjack ghostwriters pumping out substandard novels, KU click farms, genderswapping ripoffs, and all the other scammy, lazy $$-grubbing stuff, real writers may well right now be thinking "Why do I bother?"
I don't know why we bother. Let's go to the pub.
