Tag: caroline hardaker novelist

Journal #27 – Have a cuppa with me

It’s been a little while, hasn’t it? I’ve been working. Writing. Editing. Planning. Mothering. Caring. Cleaning. Tidying. Organising. And living. Trying my best to. I’ve become one of those incredibly stretched people, pasted thin on the walls of their lives. Every wall. Top and bottom. But it’s all so important. All of it. Telling stories….

Read More

How to plan a novel in Microsoft Excel

Trying to write a novel but don’t know where to start? Want to plan your novel in a format that’s accessible and affordable but lack the specialist writing software, like Scrivener or FocusWriter? There’s a way of planning your novel and keeping your notes together that can be tailored to you, and it’s probably already…

Read More

Granite Noir 2024: Unsettling, Unnerving, Sublime

This week, I’m winging my way to Aberdeen to take part in a panel at Granite Noir 2024. Exploring the ‘Unsettling, Unnerving, [and] Sublime’, we’ll be talking bodies, weirdness, and the dark, twisty things at the heart of creepy storytelling. Here’s the event description: Three writers whose books leave you with that brilliant creeped out…

Read More

Current WIP – Faeries & Goblins

As scheduled as ever, a week or two after finishing the final draft of my third novel in August 2023, I began my next project. My baby daughter! The last few months have been a whirlwind of giggles, milk, sibling politics, and baby poop. But I also spent December yearning for the next story; drawing…

Read More

How did I get here?

​I’ve seen lots of writers, poets, librettists, and authors in the writing community share their ‘Writing Journey’, so here’s mine! At least what I remember of it. It’s been a bit of a whirlwind, for sure. And it’s only when I see it all in a list that I realise how far I’ve come, and…

Read More

JOURNAL #26 – The next thing

Here I am again. At the beginning of a new story. Not just a new book to write, but a new fictional world to inhabit for a year or two. And I can’t decide. I’ve long wanted to do something with the sea. For years, I’ve drifted back to tales of selkies, mermaids, abandoned lighthouses….

Read More

Journal #25 – Bumblebee jasper

In my last post, I wrote about how the last couple of months had been a time of transformation. Wrapping up novels, house renovations, body changes, and a new baby.

Even one of those is enough to send your head in a spin. But all of them together? That’s true disorientation.

So what life chapter am I in now?

Stories for Runa

I’ve been quiet, I know. But the last thing I’ve been is still.

Over the last two months…