What Authors Should Write in Their Notebooks

Hi all,

I know what it's like to have too many notebooks. I used to hate writing in them as I felt like I was ruining them. But I've come to realise that it's okay to use your notebooks! I thought I'd give a few tips on what you can use them for.

Character Names.

If you come across some great character names while you're researching you can always add them to your notebook. Having a nice list of character names is always good when you come up with new book ideas or short stories.

Doodles.

I use one of my notebooks for doodling designs related to my books. I've drawn the marking designs for the Elemental Dragons series and a few bits and pieces from Curse of Anubis and Celestial Plague. Having something visual can help you when you come to writing about it.

Book Ideas.

This is an obvious one, but jotting down notes for stories, characters and plots is always a great way to use a notebook. You can have a rough notes version and then a more detailed version in a different notebook if you prefer.

Lists.

If you're planning on doing events where you sell books, making lists is a great way to plan. You can tick stuff off as you get it done or keep an inventory of what you're selling.

Book Titles.

Writing down a bunch of book titles is a great way to use a notebook. You can even mix and match some of the titles if there's one you like more than the others.

Planning.

I think the best way to use a notebook is to plan or set goals. If you want to keep track of your writing progress or think about what you want to write next, then a notebook would be a great use for that.

That's it for this week, I hope you enjoy reading! See you next week. 

PS; don’t forget to check out these book bundles to find your next read:

Young Adult Book Giveaway

Lengedary Lores (All Genres)

Who is Mother Earth?

Hi all,

It's been quite a while since I've done a blog post on Years, but I've had a few questions about it recently that I thought I would answer.

If you've read Solar Child, then you'll know that Mother Earth is a lioness from outer space who arrives on Earth to see that the planet is in ruins. She comes across several children who she gives her power to. But when she comes back years later, the children have been experimented on by other humans and their power stripped from them.

Mother Earth is an alien, but she didn't create the Earth. She adopted it as her own as she flew through the cosmos one day. She recharges and rests in suns, and came across the one in our galaxy millions of years ago. Humans weren't around yet and she fell in love with the lush forests and animals on the planet.

So, she decided to become its protector.

But what she didn't expect is for humanity to start polluting the planet, speeding up its destruction. When she discovered this, she wasn't happy with humanity. They had killed millions of creatures and cut down so many forests in their expansion. Now, the entire planet was suffering because of their behaviour.

As she's an alien, she doesn't understand why humanity are destroying their own home. The planet that she's watched evolve over millions of years is special to her and she doesn't understand why humans won't treat it the same way.

If she had never come across Earth, she would continue to float through the cosmos, without a purpose. She's the only one of her kind, forged from a star. She has zero understanding of other species and planets, which is why she fixates so quickly on the first planet with life that she comes across.

Her solar storms are to make humanity change their ways. But then they make the machines, which disrupts her power and uses it against her.

For her, there is nothing worse than losing this planet, as she'll lose her purpose. She doesn't want to just fly around space and risk not finding another planet like Earth. So, she does her best in reclaiming the planet so it can go back to what it once was.

The Gaia Children are souls that she frees from the planet, allowing them a chance to explore the universe for themselves. Even though she could join them, she doesn't want to. She's too attached to Earth.

That's it for this week, see you next Sunday! 

PS; don’t forget to check out these book bundles to find your next read:

Young Adult Book Giveaway

Lengedary Lores (All Genres)

The Final Book in the Original Elementals Series

Hi all,

I know I teased you about this in my wrap up for Original Elementals #9: Arcturus, but I think I've left you in the dark long enough.

There will be a tenth book in the series, which I'm sure you've already figured out by now.

This book will follow Melissa, the first metal Elemental.

If you've read Elemental Dragons, then you probably remember when Hazel and her friends come across giant vats filled with elemental serum. One of those is labelled as the metal element, but they don't get much chance to investigate.

The tenth book, Ironclaw, will tell the story of the forgotten Original. Born a few years after the others, she is in her first year at Aria when Stella graduates. She has not met the Originals in person, all she knows about them is from her first edition books that her father let's her read.

Melissa and Ironclaw want to be like the other Originals and she's desperate for her own book to tell her story. But her father, a lead scientist, refuses this because the stories of the Originals have been tainted. He's also worried about anyone knowing her element, so she has to hide her markings and tell everyone that her dragon died.

But Melissa is stubborn and desperate to go down in history with the other Originals. She contacts Jaime, who is now a disgraced author, and pleads with him to write her book. Seeing that this could be a comeback for him, he agrees.

And that's all I'm going to tell you so far! This book will most likely be my July project, finally ending the series.

I'm still deciding what to do regarding a Patreon, as I keep flipping back and forth on the idea. I've asked my newsletter subscribers to give their feedback, and I'll see what they say.

That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading! See you next Sunday. 

PS; don’t forget to check out these book bundles to find your next read:

Young Adult Book Giveaway

Lengedary Lores (All Genres)

I Skipped a Writing Day for the First Time in a Decade

Hi all,

For the first time in over a decade, I skipped a day of writing during one of my writing months.

When I was writing Original Elementals #9: Arcturus last month, I missed a day of writing. The reason that I didn't write is because I had so much going on during the day that I hadn't planned for, so I had no time to write. By the time everything was over, I was too overwhelmed and overstimulated to even think about writing.

This is the first time that I've ever done this, and I felt a lot of guilt throughout the whole day. I felt like I was letting myself down by not doing it. That I was setting myself up to fail by leaving a day. But after a few days, I realised that nothing had changed.

I was still writing for the rest of the days and the story was still going on as normal. By the time the month was over, I only needed to write one extra day to finish the story. I was annoyed that I could have finished the whole thing within the month, but eventually I came to terms with it.

If I had forced myself to write that day, it wouldn't have been good writing. I would have been writing for the hell of it, to get words on a page. But it wouldn't have been quality writing. I would have to go back and heavily edit every single word because I made myself write when I didn't have the energy to.

This whole thing has made me realise that I can take a day off and the world won't end. Everything will keep going as normal when I finally get back to it. Sometimes I just need a break and that's okay. Sometimes I just need to be kind to myself.

Now, I don't regret that one day off. I'm hoping it won't happen too often again in the future, but if it does I know that nothing will happen.

That's it for this week! I hope you enjoyed reading, see you next week. 

Plymouth Writer's Group Anthology

Hi all,

The writer's group that I'm part of, Plymouth Writer's Group, is launching submissions for a brand new anthology! Check out more details here: PWG website.

For any writers out there that are interested, submissions opened February 14th 2026 and closes 14th May 2026. If you're sixteen or over, feel free to submit your piece!

The theme of the anthology is Endangered Species. Pick any species you like, as long as it hasn't been taken by any of our members. Please all make sure you read the submission guidelines carefully before submitting your work.

My species for this anthology is the Snow Leopard, my favourite animal! My story, The Fire Leopard, will be featured in this anthology.

If you're interested, make sure you check out the anthology and submit any stories you think might fit! Here’s the link one more time for those interested: PWG anthology.

That's it for this week, see you next Sunday. 

PS; don’t forget to check out these book bundles, all books are free to download!

Free Science Fiction / Fantasy Stories - March 2026

FREE Fantasy & Paranormal

My Trip to Dartmoor Zoo

Hi all,

My partner and I recently went on a trip to Dartmoor Zoo. I haven't been there in years but we both wanted to go and see all the big cats.

Both of us agree that our favourite was the tiger, with the lynx as a close second.

The longer I watched the tiger, I realised that I'd never really included one in any of my books. There's a lioness in Years and Curse of Anubis, a panther in Celestial Plague, a lynx in The Severed Pantheon and a cheetah in Curse of Anubis. But I've never added a tiger.

One day, when I find the right story, I'd love to add a tiger character in. I still don't feel like I've found a story that could include a tiger. But that doesn't mean that I don't want to write about one.

At the zoo, I loved watching the tiger, Dragan and it was amazing to see him up close. He's a good mix of fierce and elegant and I could imagine what a tiger would like in a story.

I'm hoping to plot more books this year, so maybe a tiger can fit into one of those stories. I think it's a shame I haven't written one so far.

Seeing a lynx was great too and I got a plush one from the gift shop on the way out. Now that I've seen one in real life, I can mould the lynx in The Severed Pantheon to be more realistic.

That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading! See you next week. 

PS; don’t forget to check out these book bundles, all books are free to download!

Free Science Fiction / Fantasy Stories - March 2026

FREE Fantasy & Paranormal

My First Dragon Book

Hi all,

The first dragon book that I wrote was not Blood and Water. I actually wrote about 30K words for a different dragon book when I was fifteen.

This book followed Russet, a dragon hatchling that escaped a petting zoo. She was born into it and didn't know anything other than it, but she always dreamed of running in the forest. One day, when she was a few months old and able to use her wings, she escapes.

At first she loved exploring the forest and all the animals there, until hunger set in. The forest was scarier at night, with predators such as foxes and badgers which attacked her for getting too close to their dens.

Eventually she went back to the zoo to start stealing food and water, which went on for months. Then she met a baby dragon called Lily. Lily was only a few days old, but kept calling out to Russet whenever she saw her. When Lily was old enough to talk, she asked Russet to help her escape. She said that she was special, and was destined to find six unhatchable dragon eggs to learn elemental powers. These elements were fire, water, air, earth, electricity and light.

Russet helps Lily escape and another baby dragon called Xerxes uses the opportunity to escape with them. From there, the three of them travel across the continent looking for the eggs to help Lily achieve her destiny. But the humans know what Lily is, and they desperately want her back. They follow the group on their quest, hoping to stop Lily before she reaches the final egg.

As I'm sure you've realised, some of the elements of this story did carry over to Elemental Dragons! Russet, although not in the main story, has her story told in the Short Story Collection. This time instead of escaping the petting zoo, she is forced into it when her companion dies.

Fire, water, earth, air, electricity and light all made it into the Elemental Dragons series as well. Air was renamed Wind and Dark and Ice were added as elements as well.

This story had the dragons as the main characters, rather than humans. They couldn't understand human speech but knew that they wanted to capture the dragons again. Along the way they meet more dragon characters, all of different types who help and hinder them on their quest.

I eventually stopped writing this book because I came up with the idea for Element Dragons instead. I borrowed a few ideas from the book and decided to write a brand new story. As much as I liked writing the initial story, I fell in love writing Blood and Water and knew that would be my first finished book.

That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading! See you next week. 

PS; don’t forget to check out these book bundles, all books are free to download!

Free Science Fiction / Fantasy Stories - March 2026

FREE Fantasy & Paranormal

Round Robin Stories Volume Four

Hi all,

This week I'm going to let you know how you can get an anthology that I've participated in! It's another one from Strong Women, Strange Worlds. It's the next one in their Round Robin Stories collection. This one is volume four.

This time I helped write two stories, which was extra fun! The stories in this volume are:

Family Time

The Guidance of Pigeons

Comms Down

The Mermaid's Curse

I helped write The Guidance of Pigeons and Comms Down. Last year I wrote a fantasy story, but this year I got to help with two Sci-Fi ones! It was a nice change and a genre that I probably write the least in. I'm glad that I got the opportunity to work on both stories and bring both stories to life.

If you would like to read this anthology, you’ll need to sign up to my mailing list, which you can do by clicking here. I’ll be sending out the anthology as a thank you to all my subscribers on March 1st, so make sure you’re signed up before then! In the meantime, you’ll get access to five FREE enovellas based on my books! Sign up here.

This was an amazing opportunity thanks to Strong Women, Strange Worlds. I would really recommend checking them out if you’re looking for new books to read.

That's it for this week, if you check out the anthology, I hope you enjoy it! See you next week. 

PS; don’t forget to support indie authors by checking out this promo:

Support Indie Authors

What I Would Tell a Child That Wants to be an Author

Hi all,

This week, I'm going to talk about children who want to be authors when they grow up. I thought I'd hand out a bit of advice for any teenagers out there who feel the pull to write books.

Practice often.

Even if it's short stories, flash fiction or fanfiction, just write. The more you write, the more your style will develop. You'll also get a good feel of what genres and stories you want to write. I started out writing stories about cats when I was younger.

Read.

Reading is a great way to learn other writing styles and pick up on new words. It doesn't have to be in the genre you want to write in.

Get feedback.

I used to write Warrior Cats fanfiction and it was a great way to get feedback on my writing from my peers. I'd highly recommend writing fanfiction as you'll meet a lot of people who already enjoy what you read and will want more of it. If you don't want to do that, you can ask family or friends about your writing. But they might not give you any negative feedback, so keep that in mind.

Research publication methods.

Look into how they published. Did they self publish or go through a publisher? Do you want to publish your own work or attempt to get through the slush pile of agents? Each method has its pros and cons, you just need to look into which will be better for you.

Write on the side.

Don't attempt to make writing your full-time job straight away. Especially if you're self-publishing, you'll need funds for editors, cover designers, ads etc. So I would recommend getting a full-time job and treat writing as a hobby until you earn enough to live off your book money.

Don't give up.

It can be daunting when you're first starting. There are so many hurdles to jump through and success still isn't guaranteed. A lot of the time you will feel like giving up. But persevere. If this what you want, then you have to make it happen.

That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading! See you next week. 

PS; don’t forget to check out these book bundles before they disappear:

Long Live the Queen: Amazing Women in Fantasy & Science Fiction (Dec 2025-Jan 2026)

New Year, New Monsters 6: From the Skies

Four Original Standalones Completed!

Hi all,

This blog post is a celebratory one! The four standalone books that I originally first came up with years ago are now all drafted! These are:

Street Rats

Game of Air and Lightning

The Severed Pantheon

Cloud's Core

Years ago I put up polls asking for my readers to vote which book they'd like me to write first. Street Rats won, which took a few years to complete due to my depression, but I eventually got it done.

Game of Air and Lightning and Cloud's Core were featured in my cat competition last year, and both cute winners are included in their respective books.

The Severed Pantheon was one of my writing projects from 2025 which was drafted in a month.

It feels so good to get all of these books done finally. But at the same time I'm sad to move them out of my ideas folder. They've been there so long that it felt wrong to move them all into my completed folder.

I'm hoping to fill up my ideas folder again this year, with hopefully some more standalones to add to it.

The next standalone book that I'm hoping to write will be a horror one, which I will either write in either March or July this year.

Although I like writing a series, I find that switching to a standalone is a good palate cleanser. I feel refreshed going back into a series after writing a standalone book in a completely different universe. You can dive into the head of a different character and their experiences, rather than one that feels familiar because of a series. It's exciting and I love expanding on the world for another book that I've never written before.

That's it for this week! I hope you enjoyed reading. See you next week. 

PS; don’t forget to check out these book bundles before they disappear:

Long Live the Queen: Amazing Women in Fantasy & Science Fiction (Dec 2025-Jan 2026)

New Year, New Monsters 6: From the Skies