Writing & Publishing

Stories help us understand each other. Reading fiction builds empathy by allowing us to experience life through another person’s perspective. A powerful reminder of why books matter—for children and adults alike.

Progress often feels invisible before it becomes obvious. The Plateau of Latent Potential explains why persistence matters and how breakthroughs actually happen.

Shiny object syndrome can derail your goals when every new opportunity looks exciting. Learn how to set priorities, create strong boundaries, and stay focused on what matters most.

Ready to write your own paranormal romance? Here are ten prompts to get you started. Giving it a historical twist adds a whole new layer of intrigue and excitement.

A year after publishing The Chic Crone, I’ve learned that writing isn’t just about finishing a book—it’s about continuing through mistakes, discouragement, and uncertainty, and building something meaningful one imperfect step at a time.

For a long time, I treated my sales dashboard as a measure of how well I was doing—not just as an author, but as a person. A good day meant progress. A slow day meant doubt. It took stepping back to realise I was watching results instead of building the work that creates them.

Ever revised a scene that was technically fine but emotionally flat? Here’s how to spot and fix the subtle problems that keep your story from landing with readers.

For a very long time, I treated writing as a referendum on my worth. Not consciously, perhaps — but emotionally? That was often the system running underneath everything. Lately, though, something has been changing. I’m still ambitious. I still want readers. But I no longer want to build a creative life fuelled entirely by pressure.

Most readers only ever see the finished book — the cover reveal, the launch announcement, the polished novel sitting beautifully on a shelf. What they don’t see is the enormous iceberg beneath it: the revisions, technical problems, newsletters, graphics, scheduling, emotional resilience, and hundreds of small invisible tasks required to build a creative career over time.

What if the way we pursue success matters just as much as the result itself? Tonya Leigh defines elegant success as “achieving a desired result in the simplest and most effective way possible”. It isn’t about abandoning ambition or lowering standards. It’s about removing unnecessary struggle from the process.