Fi Phillips

The writer Iain Broome first drew my attention to ' Creative Mornings ' when the CreativeMornings chapter in his home town opened. Have you heard of Creative Mornings before? I hadn't. Here's what it says on their website . CreativeMornings is a breakfast lecture series for the creative community. Our free, monthly events feature a short talk and breakfast! CreativeMornings are held in over 170 cities all over the world, from  Sheffield  (Iain's hometown), to  New York , to  Barcelona  and  Johannesburg . Click on the links to see the chapters for those cities. What is CreativeMornings? Now, unfortunately, there isn't a meeting near me but what's great about CreativeMornings is that each lecture, from all those cities, is accessible through the CreativeMornings website . Here's a recent lecture, by Mr Bingo, that I love - 37 things that I have learnt . Each month there's a theme. The theme for June is ' Survival '. ...

From a reader's point of view, I love book trailers. They not only give a preview of what the book will be about but they also give an idea of how the writer wanted their book to be portrayed. One of the many things I'm looking forward to when my first children's novel is published (traditionally or self) is making a book trailer of my own. I haven't decided yet what form the trailer should take. I could use images from the book and quotes with some accompanying music like writer Kelly Hashway . I could have actors portray events in the book like my friend Suzanna Williams did in her book trailer. I could give clues to what the book will contain with beautiful photography and questions like another friend Heather Blanchard . Animation is quite costly but a series of drawings, like in Neil Gaiman 's book trailer, could work effectively with a voice over from the author. Alternatively, I could put my own face on the trailer and tell you what the book is about a...

The intention of making new year's resolutions has always been to start anew but seeing as 2014 will be more of a continuation for me (working on my novel, writing more plays, losing more weight), I decided to make just one new effort. I'm constantly reading (on my bedside cabinet at the moment are Titania Hardie's The Rose Labyrinth and the first S kulduggery Pleasant novel) but in 2014, I've decided that I'll step away from my usual genres and authors and support some of the writers that I follow, know and converse with. So my reading list for the first half of 2014 looks something like this: Ninety-Five Percent Human by Suzanna Williams : a young adult alien adventure inspired by the 'Welsh Roswell', an alleged UFO crash in the Berwyn Mountains in 1974. A is for Angelica by Iain Broome : his debut novel, "Gordon Kingdom struggles with the fate of his seriously-ill wife while patiently observing and methodically recording the lives of th...

This week's Tuesday Choice Words post is a little different. Rather than listing links to pages on blogs and websites, what I have for you  is a range of podcasts from Iain Broome, author of A for Angelica . All of the podcasts last between approximately 30 and 45 minutes. So turn on the speakers and have a listen. Decisions, decisions and author websites Call yourself a writer? Making money from your side project Being a confident writer