Stephanie Cage - Writer

If you've just dropped in now, you might want to flip back to chapters one , two , three and four .  Otherwise, if you're already up to speed with the drama in the office, read on to get a glimpse into Jason's home life...   Terri frowned as her mobile bleeped.   That'd be Jason, then.   Late again.   She didn't bother checking the message until after she'd ladled casserole onto two plates and set them on the table.   She and Jessica would be eating alone again.   Sure enough, once the table was set and a loud shout had summoned Jessica to the table, she flicked open her message folder and saw that Jason had just texted that he was leaving the office.   At six thirty.   The time he'd claimed he'd be arriving home.   For the third time in a week.   Should she start ringing him at four thirty to remind him?   But it'd only elicit a faithfully intended but completely meaningless promise that he'd be leaving, 'In a mome...

What's the best place to write? Where do you write? Where do you usually write? Where do you like to write? Where do you write best?  There are many variants of the question, and I get asked them often, but I still get a slight jolt each time I hear one of them, because each of them is based on a fundamental assumption which I disagree with: that a writer's ability to write, or the quality of their writing, is fundamentally tied to their writing space.  Popular culture often presents writers this way: Kipling at Bateman's, Dylan Thomas in his boathouse, George Bernard Shaw in his shed and Joyce in his Martello Tower.  But few writers really wrote only - or even mainly - in one place, and although some people do find benefits to having one set place to write, many more find it more useful to write whenever, and wherever, the opportunity arises.  Personally, I would probably never get anything written if I had to wait until I could sit down in the same place a...

For a few weeks now I've been blogging my novel, The Crash, and last week things really heated up as we found out that hotshot businessman Jason Jackson-Jones has a dirty secret - he's been cutting corners in the manufacturing process in a way which could cost lives.  So this seems like a good time to interrupt the story for a very important announcement.  The Crash now has a cover! I'm celebrating by getting together with a few writing friends on their blogs.  You can read an interview with me on the blog of Angela Wren, who first helped me introduce Jason to the world: http://jamesetmoi.blogspot.co.uk/ And if you'd like to find out more about serialising novels and how I was inspired by Dickens, head on over to visit Viki Meadows! https://vikimeadows.wordpress.com/ That's all for today - do come back next week for another instalment of the story.

Hello Nancy!  It's lovely to have you visiting again! I interviewed you in 2013 when Shadow of Greed came out, and you said that it was going to be part of a five book series. How did it feel, seeing the whole Shadows and Light series come together? It was such a wonderful feeling, but that doesn’t really express what seeing all five books in a row did for me. For years, I dreamed of being an author, like Nora Roberts or Kat Martin. And here I was with a completed five book series, and in less than two years. It verified in me that dreams come true. Do you think you have changed as a writer over the course of the five books in the series? (And/or) Can you share something you learned along the way? There is no way I’m the same writer who sent In the Shadow of Greed into Crimson Romance with every finger and toe crossed. I think the greatest learning experience I have had is working through developmental edits with my amazing editor, Julie Sturgeon. With each book, she pus...

It surprises me slightly that I recently felt the need to write a blog post about affirmations.   I used to think they sounded woolly and new agey and I couldn’t imagine them working for me. Somehow, though, I couldn't quite give up the feeling that this technique had something important to offer me.  It had worked for Jeannette Maw and Louise Hay and so many other people I admired, that there had to be something to it. The idea of affirmations started making a lot more sense to me once I read a bit about how the mind works, and realised that the work some coaches I admired were doing with affirmations was very similar to the model developed by Harper and Ellis and espoused by a whole generation of therapists. The model, often described as ABC, provides a framework for understanding how an event (activating event, A in our alphabet) triggers a set of beliefs (B) which in turn have consequences (C). I’m grossly oversimplifying here, partly due to my own limited knowled...

In last week's instalment we met Jason's new PA, Gaby, and his potential new Engineering Manager, Brad.  This week we spend some time getting to know them both and finding out some of the secrets of Jason's factory. Chapter Four Gaby looked around at the polished horse brasses on the walls and the faded tapestry seat-cushions in mild surprise.  This wasn’t the kind of place she’d expected to find recommended by a man who surrounded himself with blank walls and modern rectangular leather sofas.  However, a glance at the specials board told her why it would be the lunchtime venue of choice for a man with reasonable taste – which was certainly what Jason Jackson-Jones considered himself.  Brad ushered her to a table in a snug corner near the open fire, and went to the bar to fetch drinks for them both.  “So what brought you to England?” Gaby asked on his return.  He paused while he set down her lemonade and his beer, and then answered slowly, “It was ...

I'm excited that my romance Perfect Partners has been selected to appear in an ebook bundle along with some of my favourite Crimson Romance authors including J Arlene Culiner, who I interviewed on my blog way back in 2015.   The collection features a selection of romances set around the large and small screens, and although I can't help thinking that the inclusion of Perfect Partners  in a Hollywood themed collection may be cheating a little - it's actually based around a UK dance show filmed in London and Blackpool - I'm delighted my book will be in such good company. It's up for preorder now on Amazon UK , and at £1.99 for six full-length stories, it's cheaper than a box of popcorn, never mind a cinema ticket!

I recently introduced hard-nosed businessman Jason Jackson-Jones in  Chapter One of The Crash . After week one saw him waiting for a new PA and Engineering Manager, in Chapter Two he filled the first of those gaps.  But is his new PA exactly what he's looking for, or a bit too good to be true?   Jason pushed open the door of the office adjoining his, and did a double-take.  Sitting at Lucy’s desk, for all the world as if she’d been there forever, was the most extraordinarily stunning, tall, black-haired woman.  When she stood to greet him, he realised that her height was in part due to very high black heels.  She should have looked like a waitress, in a white blouse with a black skirt and jacket, but it was inconceivable that this elegant creature might actually stoop to serving food or drink.  It seemed unlikely enough that she was here to type his letters and do his filing, though that was the only explanation he could find for her presence. “...

Recently I read a post on one of my favourite sites, mindbodygreen, entitled ‘ Why Affirmations Don’t Work and What You Should be Doing Instead .’  I’d started an argument with the author before the page had even finished downloading. A few minutes later I realised that for many years I’d actually agreed with the author, and in some ways I still do. The word ‘affirmations’ is often associated with new age thinking, get rich quick schemes and unrealistic positive expectations.  If by saying that ‘affirmations work’, you mean that you expect to sit in front of the TV eating junk food and affirming ‘I’m rich, famous and beautiful’ and have it suddenly become true, then it’s perfectly accurate to say that they don’t work. But at its root, the word ‘affirmation’ simply means ‘the act of affirming something’, and affirm has two meanings: to state something publicly, and to offer emotional support or encouragement. So affirmations are simply statements of support, made pub...