Yes, as is now becoming traditional in the starry firmament that is Kindle, to celebrate the publication of my new novel writing guide, NOVEL, I’m giving away one of my own, for a limited time only.

What would you do if you suddenly discovered that your husband had been lying to you for years?

Happily married, with two teenage sons, Alex Taylor considers herself lucky. And when she hears her childhood friend Cathy has died, she finds herself counting her blessings. She’s also surprised that she’s been left a bequest. They lost touch with one another almost twenty years ago. Why would Cathy remember her now?

She really can’t imagine but she’s about to find out, because she’s been left something else – something that changes everything. It’s a letter confessing to the two year affair Cathy had with Alex’s husband, Sam. ‘But it’s history,’ he entreats. ‘It’s long over. It meant nothing.’ Surely Alex can forgive and forget?

Should she? And can she? She’s not at all sure. But it looks like she won’t be allowed to. Because it seems Cathy’s left them a third thing as well. A teenage daughter. Who wants to come and find her father.

The Moon Under Water is a novel about secrets, and the ripples that spread when they are suddenly exposed. It’s also about how betrayal not only re-writes the past – it has the power to also re-write the future…

Grab on Kindle right now

Based on my face-to-face creative writing course, Novel Writing Workshop (see Teaching), my new guide is for anyone who has a book currently in them that they’d rather see sitting in a bookshop….

Here’s the blurb:

There has never been an easier time to get your work in front of readers – just look at the millions of self-published books uploaded to Amazon. But if you want success of a commercial kind – i.e. to write a novel that will sell – then you need to take the time to learn your craft. To ask yourself questions: what are the key components every novel needs? How can you make yours unputdownable? How should you approach planning? Where’s the best place to begin? How do you create memorable characters, and build effective plots and subplots? How can you use dialogue to best effect? How should you plan your chapters? How can you make it sing? Where should you end?

But going the distance as a novelist is not just about ticking boxes. Neither is it just about talent. It’s about nailing your theme, maintaining passion, about caring for your characters. It’s also about doggedness and resilience – continuing to write even when everything feels hopeless. How exactly do you find the wherewithal to go the distance with your novel? And assuming you have, how the heck do you find an agent?

Taking you right through the novel creation process and beyond, Novel aims to guide you towards the answers that will work best for you, pointing out the pitfalls that beset so many would-be novelists, and helping you to chart a course through the entire creative process. That book burning inside you – would you prefer to see it sitting in a bookshop? Then welcome – your journey starts here.

15.08.2013  Thistle Publishing  www.thistlepublishing.co.uk

Buy on Amazon

…till the publication (finally) of the first of my ebooks on writing; NOVEL. Plan it. Write it. Sell it. I say ‘finally’ because this has been on the to-do list since around 2010, but my work life has just been a teeny bit manic in the interim. Anyway, hurrah hallooo hallay and all that, because I can at last pop a tick beside it and Get On.

NOVEL Plan it. Write it. Sell it. By Lynne Barrett-Lee. 19/08/2013. www.thistlepublishing.co.uk

There has never been an easier time to get your fiction in front of readers – just look at the millions of self-published books uploaded to Amazon.  But if you want success of a commercial kind – i.e. to write a novel that will sell – then you need to take the time to learn your craft. To ask yourself key questions: what are the components that make a novel unputdownable? How should you approach planning?  Create characters? Develop plots and subplots?  How do chapters work? How can you use dialogue to best effect?

But going the distance as a novelist is not just about ticking boxes. Neither is it just about talent. It’s about nailing your theme, having passion, about caring for your characters. It’s also about resilience –  how exactly do you find the wherewithal to go the distance with your novel? And assuming you have, how the heck do you find an agent?

Taking you right through the novel creation process and beyond, Novel aims to guide you towards the answers that will work best for you, pointing out common pitfalls, and helping you to chart a course through the entire creative process. Got a book burning inside you that you’d prefer to see sitting in a bookshop? Then welcome – your journey starts here.

About the author

Novelist and Ghostwriter Lynne Barrett-Lee has been a full time author since the mid 1990s, and after a successful period as a short story writer, with over 100 published stories to her name, has gone on to pen a dozen Sunday Times Bestsellers.

For two hours a week, however, she also enjoys teaching creative writing, running two popular classes at Cardiff University.

Novel, and its companion guide to writing short fiction, Telling Tales, are both written distillations of those courses.

For more information about Lynne and her published work, visit her websitewww.lynnebarrett-lee.com

Facebook: Lynne Barrett-Lee Author and Ghostwriter    Twitter: @LynneBarrettLee

Yes, it’s that time again – the time when thoughts turn to a bright, shiny, brand new academic year – positively bursting with potential, obviously –  and the promise that, with just a little commitment and application, Very Great Things might just be in the offing.

That sound like you? If so, please pop across to my Teaching tab, where you’ll find details of my upcoming courses….