Well, recently, I haven’t done as much writing as I would have liked to. I’ve just seemed to be really busy all the time…
But, I have been ploughing through the first draft of Blood Of The Phoenix (Spirit Of Fire #2), and I’m absolutely loving it! The first draft of a book is… Continue reading...
So, just a quick post to point you towards the interviews that my twitter-friend, Cheryl Headford and Rivka Spicer, have done with me, and the interview by Skelat.com
I love taking part in interviews, but normally I’m the interviewer. And these last three times, it was the other way round. And it was great… Continue reading...
So, I was nominated for this award by my good twitter-friend, Cassandra Janey. 
Thanks! (I’ve never actually done one of these before!)
You Are My Sunshine Award
The rules are simple:
(1) Thank the person who gave you the award in your blog post… Continue reading...
So, today I’m lucky enough to do a post all about Cynthia Woolf’s latest release: book two in the Matchmaker & Co series, Heiress Bride. And, not only can I show you the wonderful cover, but I can also give you a small excerpt AND a mini interview with the author!
‘Goldfish As Pets: The Secret Life Of Goldfish’ is the fourth title in the Mad On Animals series.
The Official Amazon Kindle description:
Goldfish are one of the most popular pets around, but do you know how to correctly… Continue reading...
New Release Alert!
Marie Fostino’s novel, ‘The Silver Locket’, will be available to buy in paperback from the 22 feb 2013 (that’s this Friday) onwards. If you haven’t already read my review of this book (but, be warned, there’re a few spoilers…) then head over here to check it out.
And take… Continue reading...
So, today, I finished the first draft of Forbidden Embrace, the second Forbidden book. The total word count was just over 73,000, and I’d thought I’d share my word count graph with you.
Okay, so the quality of… Continue reading...
Good question. And quite a tricky one too.
For as long as I can remember, the ambition to be a successful writer has always been within me–even if it was subconscious. I realised this when I tried to work out how old I was when I first started writing–which I soon found… Continue reading...
For Christmas I was given a nice pair of Inline Skaters (Rollerblade Women’s Spark Pro, to be precise) and I was desperate to try them out outside, so, today, I did just that.
We found a nice empty car park, and in the semi-dark I proceeded… Continue reading...
Yes, you read the title of this post correctly; it’s the final of the ‘Blogger of the Year 2013′ award, and I’m still one of the contestants! So, a huge, HUGE thank you to everyone who voted for me.
And, I’m sure you know what I’m going to ask you to do now! Yes… Continue reading...
So, the other day, I found out that I’ve been nominated for Blogger Of The Year 2013! It was quite a surprise as I didn’t know that anyone had nominated me (and I didn’t even know about Blogger Of The Year either!), but I was flattered when I discovered it.
You can see the… Continue reading...
‘Rabbits As Pets’ is the third title in the Mad On Animals series of animal-care books.
Amazon Kindle Official description:
Guinea Pigs As Pets (#1)
As I’m sure you know, the Mad On Animals series is my non-fiction collection of books about animals–hence the series title.
All of the following Mad On Animals books are… Continue reading...
So, these last few months I haven’t updated this site anywhere near as much as I would have liked to. And that’s because I’ve been crazily busy. In November I took part in NaNoWriMo and wrote the first draft of ‘Forbidden Hearts’, which was just over 70,000 words. There’re still loads of changes that I’ve… Continue reading...
Yes, that’s right. It’s day 24, and I have completed the first draft of my NaNoWriMo 2012 novel, Forbidden Hearts. It’s wordcount is at 71,249 words-so, on the short side compared to my first novel, Spirit Of Fire.
I have now begun work on Forbidden #2, Forbidden Embrace, which I’m really excited about. I… Continue reading...
Look everyone! I’ve done it! I have written over 50k for NaNoWriMo–and just in two weeks too!
Okay, so I’m crazily tired, so this is just a quick post. But, Forbidden Heart’s updated word count in 50,028 words. And I’m into the last third of the book now. I’m… Continue reading...
Okay, so I haven’t been keeping you as updated as I should have. Having just finished my morning session of writing for today, my word count is going well. Already I’m at 40,074 words. I think that the finished book will be around 75k.
In case you didn’t know, the book I’m writing, is… Continue reading...
So, yes, I’ve decided to participate in NaNoWriMo (National November Writing Month) this year, and day 1 is going pretty well. Already, I’ve hit the daily target, so that’s pretty cool.
The novel I’m working on is a YA dystopian… Continue reading...
Today we have an excerpt provided by Carlie M. A. Cullen from her latest book, Heart Search: Lost.
“What are you making doe eyes at him again for?” Dayna sneered, placing her tiny hands on her hips.
“P-p-pardon?” Jasna stuttered in surprise and a look of confusion marred her
When I read a book, if I find a lot of grammar errors, spelling mistakes or formatting issues in the opening chapter, then I’m unlikely to read on. There’s just something about such errors that annoy me. And I doubt that I’m not the only one.
Not only do mistakes make it hard to… Continue reading...
I’m always up for writing guest posts for fellow authors, so perhaps we could exhange them? If you’re looking for a guest post for your own site, then let me know!
What I propse is that you contact me through the form on this site, or my twitter (@MadelineDyerUK) and we each set… Continue reading...
Ok, so recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about characterisation and te importance of making a character seem real to the readers. Before I write, I like to know as much about my characters as possible; after all, if they don’t seem real to me, they haven’t got a chance with the readers.
Today, we have a guest post by author Carlie M. A. Cullen as part of her blog tour for her debut novel, Heart Search: Lost.
So, as I got to set the topic of this guest post I decided on characterisation, for two reasons. The first is that I believe that good characterisation is… Continue reading... | 1 Comment
Yes, I’ve been thinking about how quiet I’ve been recently here, and that got me thinking…. I should do a MASSIVE update, because, really, there’s a lot of stuff I need to update you about.
On the 8th October my novel, ‘Spirit Of Fire’, was submitted to Harper Voyager, the fantasy and science fiction… Continue reading...
So, as I’m taking part in Carlie Cullen’s blog tour for her debut novel, Heart Search: Lost, I’m going to be getting a lot of cool things to share with you. Some of the things that we have coming… Continue reading...
Like most writers, I try to write every day. But due to other commitments, this isn’t always possible. Instead, I have allocated ‘extra’ times when I have to write. And these are those times:
Monday – About 7.30-8am, I’ll be planning some plot twists. I then try to write them down and exband on… Continue reading...
Just a quick post to tell you that my twitter username has changed from @MadelineDyer_ to @MadelineDyerUK.
I decided to change to this name as many people forgot the underscore, so hopefully having ‘UK’ will be more memorable. As someone on twitter pointed out, my username’s now screaming that I’m british 
… Continue reading...
Ok, so my spring and summer projects were finishing drafts 1-5 of Spirit Of Fire, and planning out its sequel, and two new books. I have achieved all of this by the 4th september 2012. Which means that I have now started my new project.
Today I drafted out the synopsis, and blurb, for… Continue reading... | 1 Comment
OK, so this review was requested by one of my twitter friends, @EponaReviews, who has just bought herself a copy of this amazing book, and is (I believe) awaiting its arrival.
[I have tried to keep this review as spoiler-free as possible].
‘The Clan Of The Cave Bear’ is the first book in… Continue reading... | 2 Comments
Marie Fostino was kind enough to send me a free ebook of ‘The Silver Locket’, in exchange for a review, so here it is:
Review Of ‘The Silver Locket’ by Marie Fostino
[Warning: This review contains a few spoilers].
The first sentence of any book is hugely important. It is the first thing that readers will read (apart from the title, author’s name, blurb and dedication etc), but most likely, the first sentence will play a part in making your readers decide whether to buy the book.
First sentences have to be engaging… Continue reading...
Yesterday, I was reading a very interesting post, that I was linked to from twitter, and it was very, very inspiring.
Most people think of writing a book as a very long-winded process that takes years to finish properly. Well, of course you do need to do more than one draft, and loads of… Continue reading...
This is my first fantasy and science fiction short story collection. At the moment, it is still in the writing process.
Currently, I have twelve stories to include in this collection, however I will be writing more.
More info coming soon!… Continue reading...
The Spirit Of Fire Series
This is my first YA fantasy series, and so far I’ve loved writing it so much. I’ve planned for there to be 6 books in this series, all told from the first-person perspective of the main character, Jade. However, there will be epilogues and prologues in a third-person narrative… Continue reading...
Guinea Pigs As Pets is the first ebook in my new animal-care series, Mad On Animals. As the title suggests, this book is all about guinea pigs.
The Amazon Kindle Official Description:
Guinea pigs make brilliant pets
So, recently I’ve been very busy. VERY busy, in fact.
In just a few days, my first non fiction ebook, Guinea Pigs As Pets, will be released.
I’m still going strong with draft 2 of Spirit Of Fire… Continue reading...
Very, very shortly my first non-fiction ebook, Guinea Pigs As Pets, will be published on Amazon Kindle.
Guinea Pigs As Pets is essentially a how-to guide about guinea pig care.
I have been writing this ebook on and… Continue reading...
Yes, you read the title correctly; I still can’t quite believe it!
This weekend, 23-24th June 2012, I have received three short story acceptances, all from Midwest Literary Magazine. The stories are:
• Caught Out
• The Lost Baby
• The Day The Darkness Returned
The first story, ‘Caught… Continue reading...
So, just a quick update this afternoon to let you know the latest with my work in progress: Spirit Of Fire.
I’ve been working on this novel since February 2012, and I’ve nearly finished it! Indeed, today I hit the 100,000 word mark. To be precise, I’ve just finished writing Chapter 24 and the… Continue reading...
Well, today it is exactly one month from my deadline by which I have to complete draft 1 of Spirit Of Fire. At the moment I have an approximate word count of 90,000 words, with only about 30,000 left to write, so I’d say that I am on track. When I sit down and write… Continue reading...
So, I thought I’d write a quick post about my favourite YA books – books that you should definitely read if you haven’t already.
First off, is the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead, starting with book 1, ‘Vampire Academy’. I absolutely love these books! The main character, Rose, is a very strong, independent… Continue reading...
Well, this morning I’ve been feeling somewhat nostalgic and have been looking back on my writing achievements.
It was only really last May (2011) when I decided to attempt to get some of my short stories published. And it all happened so fast!
In early June I had my very first piece of… Continue reading...
So, I now have the deadline for the first draft of Spirit Of Fire #1 to be written by: 30th June 2012. And I’m pleased to say I’m on track, with only about 40k words left to write. Eeek!
Indeed, the more I write of this draft, the more excited I get… I simply… Continue reading...
My Shetland pony, Morjoy Tulip gave birth this morning to Goldsytch Bluebell. And Bluebell is very cute.
In fact, I couldn’t quite believe it when I went down to the field this morning and saw Tulip standing in the rushes with a… Continue reading...
Well, on wednesday night, I rescued a little, tiny baby rabbit from my cat. Poor little Clover, pictured to the left, had ran away from my cat straight into my cat’s stable, and had been chased into the small gap between the tea-chests… Continue reading...
Just a quick update about my progress with writing the first book in my new fantasy series, Spirit Of Fire. In case you haven’t already heard, I’m writing a new YA fantasy series – called the Spirit Of Fire series, the first book… Continue reading... | 2 Comments
Just a quick post, informing you of the latest regarding my new fantasy YA series which I announced a couple of days ago via twitter and on this site. I have started writing my new series: The Spirit of Fire Series. Check out the series page here. — Yes, I made a quick page… Continue reading...
Well, this trilogy has to be one of my all-time favourites! These books are absolutely amazing. So I thought I’d write a quick post about why you should read them (and also why you should go and see the Hunger Games movie!)
So, the Hunger Games trilogy consists of three books: The Hunger Games… Continue reading...
Well, quite a lot recently!
On 10th March 2012 my seventh short story was published at Daily Love. It’s a fantasy/romance short story. Well, to be honest, it’s more of a vignette. Very short. If you haven’t already read it, you can read ‘It Doesn’t Matter Now’ here for free.
My next… Continue reading...
Often when I write I listen to music. And most often the songs that I listen to have to match the mood of the scene that I’m writing. So I thought that I’d share with you some songs from my playlist for this month.
(If you like the music, please buy it so that… Continue reading... | 1 Comment
