Cathie Dunn writes...

Wow! Cosy crime (and fellow Crooked Cat Publishing) author,  David W Robinson , is attempting a gruelling challenge:  Write a novel in a week! When I asked him about it, this is what he had to say: Here’s a stupid idea. I’m going to write a novel in week. So when you’ve all stopped laughing and questioning my sanity, you’ll ask why. The answer is… because I’m bored. It’s not a bet and it’s not for charity, it’s just to see whether or not I can do it. I begin next Monday morning, July 9th 2012, and work through to Sunday 15th , and at the end of that seven days, I expect to have 60,000-70,000 words written. Not a publishable novel, just a good first draft. And if I get there, what happens to the finished project? At some stage I’ll bring it up to spec and Crooked Cat will get first refusal. If they don’t want it, I’ll probably self-publish. Would you like to follow my progress? Aside from writing over 10,000 words a day , I’ll also be bloggin...

Nope, I'm not talking cosmetics here, even though you might find an Avon lipstick in my possession... I'm talking about Avon Romance, and their Impulse ebook line. A good writer friend, Cait O'Sullivan, sent me the link to a blog post,  Write for Avon Impulse , and I've decided to go for it. Never one for easy choices, I've opted for "What walks the halls of Stormclyffe House?"  to write a story about a manor that stood empty for 50 years. I have now created a rough plot outline, setting the story in Victorian Cornwall. A place with a name like that simply must be perched on top of a cliff. Throw in a suicide following a murder 50 years previously, a young, almost penniless heiress, a lord investigating his dark family history, and the dramatic scenery of coastal Cornwall, and I think I have a decent story to go with. It's only meant to be between 15k and 20k words, so I need to focus on the romance (yup, tell that to a history nut like me), wi...