Want a writing boost this summer? Everything I sell is half-price until the end of Thursday 22nd July only. That's: Get Writing (a guided introduction to four areas of writing – freelancing, blogging, short stories, and novels – plus tips for going further with each)...
Feeling in need of a writing boost? I’ve got a couple of new things to share with you today. Here’s the very quick version: Supercharge Your Writing Environment and Supercharge Your Writing Progress, the final two ebooks in the Supercharge Your Writing series, are now...
Happy New Year! I hope your decade is off to an excellent beginning. It's been an exciting start to 2020 for me, because on Monday I started work with Awesome Motive, the company behind a whole lot of website-related sites and software: WPBeginner, OptinMonster,...
I'm working on some new things for Aliventures ... and I thought you might like to know what's coming up over the next few weeks. The Annual Aliventures Survey About once a year, I run a survey to find out what you want from Aliventures (and then I do my best to...
Do you ever wonder if you should be writing at all? Maybe: You secretly think you’re not really any good at writing You doubt anyone will ever pay you for what you write You’re afraid of receiving rejections or negative feedback You feel guilty about...
Just in case you’ve missed the news over the past couple of weeks ... ... Writers’ Huddle is currently open for new members. If you’ve not heard of Writers’ Huddle before, it’s a private members-only community of writers. We’ve got novelists, bloggers,...
A huge thanks to everyone who took part in the recent Aliventures survey. It’s been really helpful for me to learn more about you, your writing, and what you’re working on (or struggling with) right now. I thought you might like to see the overall results...
The redesign is now underway. Please bear with me! In case you’re wondering: I’m not having another baby! But for some time now, I’ve been thinking about giving the Aliventures blog a bit of a revamp (and hat-tip to Charlie Gilkey for...
As of yesterday, my community / teaching site, Writers' Huddle, is now open for new members. 🙂 The last time I took in new members was before I headed off on maternity leave in November, so if you've been waiting eagerly since then to join, head on over...
Baby bump at 35.5 weeks. It's been a little under two years since my last blogging break ... and, as many Aliventures readers know, my husband and I are expecting our second child, a little brother for Kitty, due 15th December 2014. Once again, I'm taking...
Note: Get Inspired, Get Creative, Get Writing is off the virtual shelves while I'm on maternity leave. Make sure you're getting blog updates and/or the Aliventures newsletter (sign up in the sidebar) so you hear from me when it's back on the market. If...
I’m celebrating six years (!) since I quit my day job and became a full-time writer/blogger. So, until Tuesday 12th August, you can get all four of my Blogger’s Guides for just $33. (They normally cost $29 each, or $66 for four.) Sounds like just what you...
If you've been an Aliventures reader for a while, you might remember the On Track ecourse I launched back in 2011. It was one of my favourite projects, and over the past couple of years, it's only been available to members of Writers' Huddle, because a...
Well, the title and photo probably gave the news away. 😉 My husband Paul and I are expecting our second baby in December, a little brother or sister to Kitty (who turned one in March). This is really exciting for us; right from the start, we wanted to...
![Memoir: Truth or Fiction? [Guest Post]](https://www.aliventures.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/IMG_1266-e1399373165576.jpg)
This is a guest post by Tracy Wilson. Tracy and I have been friends for several years (she's one of Kitty's godmothers, too) and I asked her to write a post for Aliventures about memoir ... something that I don't have any experience with, but that I know...
Super-quick version: All four of my Blogger’s Guides are half-price from Mon 9th – Sat 14th December All the money raised in that time will go to Divya Shanthi, a small charity in Bangalore, India Details of the guides are towards the bottom of this post...
You might have seen the news on Twitter or Facebook, but in case not ... I'm now Head of Content over at the shiny new relaunched Zen Optimise (which is now Tribe SEO) ... a fancy way of saying that I'm running the blog there. Normally, I'll be posting...
Long-time Aliventures readers might remember that back in October 2011, I briefly offered blog critiques and reviews. If you missed out that time, or weren’t around then, or want a critique of your new / updated blog, now’s your chance. 🙂 When you buy a...
My community / teaching site, Writers' Huddle, is now open for new members. 🙂 If you've been waiting ages for me to reopen it, head on over there now and join! And if you'd like to know a little bit more, read on... What is Writers' Huddle? Writers'...
I’m back! And the picture above hopefully gives you some idea what I’ve been up to... Our little girl, Kitty (Katherine Constance Luke), was born on Saturday 9th March 2013, weighing 8lbs 6oz. She’s two months old now, and a big, healthy baby. I’ve been...
If you're on the Aliventures newsletter, you'll have heard about this yesterday ... my newest ebook is out, the fourth in the Blogger's Guide series. Last summer, when I was planning what to write next in the series, I ran a survey here on Aliventures,...
Thanks so much to everyone who purchased the Blogger's Guides at half-price between December 6th and December 11th. We raised $508 for Divya Shanthi, which is one of the nicest birthday presents I could ask for. 🙂 This is more than enough to sponsor Ayshu for...
Just a couple of days after opening this year's sale, I got a lovely letter from Mrs. Cheryl, one of the wonderful teachers at Divya Shanthi in Bangalore, India. She wrote to update me on Ayshu's progres (Ayshu is the four-year old girl who Aliventures' readers...
Quick version if you’re in a hurry: All three of my Blogger’s Guides are half-price from 6th – 11th December All the money raised in that time will go to Divya Shanthi, a small charity in Bangalore, India Details of the guides are towards the bottom of this post Read...
If you’ve been reading Aliventures for a while, you might have heard me mention Writers’ Huddle before. It’s my teaching / community site for writers, and the doors are open for new members to join this week. (Want the full details straight away, or ready to join...
![How Do Self-Publishing and Traditional Publishing Compare? [Video + Transcript]](https://www.aliventures.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/self-trad-pub-slide1.jpg)
Announcement: Writers' Huddle is now open for new members! You can get all the details here. Update: I've added the transcript to this post, and improved the volume level on the video. Something a little different today! I gave a presentation at a Society of Young...
Are you a blogger ... or would-be blogger? Can you get to London in the UK for a day? (Sorry to all the international Aliventures readers, I know this probably rules you out!) I've teamed up with the fantastic Joe Williams of Joe Wills to run day-long training...
The first ever pictures of Baby Luke (not Hale ... the hospital had my old records!) I'm thrilled to announce that my husband Paul and I are expecting our first baby. We had our 12 week scan yesterday, and the baby is doing just fine. Our due date is February 21st,...
First, a bit of Aliventures (and Ali!) history... Back in 2008, when I started blogging and freelancing, I got into personal development writing. I began blogging at Dumb Little Man and Pick the Brain (and have been a regular on those sites ever since). When I started...
Last month, I had a wonderful time at BlogWorld in New York. I spoke on Four Simple Steps for Editing Your Own Writing and had some great feedback from attendees. If you struggle a bit with editing, or if you're not quite sure where to begin, I hope you'll find the...
Good news! I've completed the final stage of my For Dummies book (reviewing all the edits and requested changes) and it's on track for publication in September. 🙂 I'm very excited about it ... but I'm also excited about having time to tackle some on-hold projects,...
Look what I made! (Thanks to moo.com.) These are mini-cards, half the size of regular business cards. I'll be handing these out at BlogWorld New York next week, but if you can’t make it to BlogWorld, I hope you enjoy looking at them here. 🙂 I’d love to hear...
I've finished my tour of the blogosphere! It's been a fun, if pretty tiring, few weeks. Here's the last third of my journey, so you can catch up on any of my posts you missed. You can also hop back and read the list of April's posts and the first part of May. If you...
Whew! My virtual book tour is drawing to a close ... and I wanted to give you a round-up of where I've been and what I've been posting about. (As before, you can find the full list of tour posts here.) Here's where I went in early May: (All links open in a new window,...
My virtual book tour for Lycopolis is going really well, and I thought I’d update you on where I’ve been so far! In April, my tour of the blogosphere took me to: Tuesday 24th April – The Creative Penn (Joanna Penn) Six Great Reasons to Write Your Novel It was...
Photo from Lorna Fergusson, fictionfire You might already know that I live in lovely Oxford, famed for its dreaming spires. It's a great city for writers ... and if you'd like to spend a day (or more) learning something new alongside other keen writers in...
If you've been following Aliventures for a while, you might remember that I published my novel Lycopolis back in November 2011. It's been getting some lovely reviews on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk, and I've decided it's time to spread the word a little further. From...
Ever wanted to meet me in real life? You’ve got a few opportunities coming up... and I’m letting you know now so that you can book well in advance, and make any necessary travel plans. Here’s what I’ve got in my diary for May and June: 26th - 27th May 2012:...
Back at the start of January, I asked you about your writing goals for 2012 – and I promised that I’d talk about mine. Last week, I was able to reveal one of my two big projects for the year: Writers’ Huddle, a community and teaching site for writers. It’s not solely...
For a long time, I’ve wanted to create something new. I love writing here on Aliventures: there’s such a friendly and supportive community of readers and commenters here (thank you!) I love running ecourses: I really enjoy teaching people about writing and blogging. I...
Happy New Year! I've got several exciting writing goals for 2012 – and I'll be sharing some of these with you over the next few weeks. Today, though, I wanted to give you the chance to tell me about your writing plans and hopes for the year ahead. Just type in the...
A huge thank you if you bought an ebook, gave a donation or retweeted my post during the Blogger's Guides sale last week. We raised over $1,000 ($1,010.80) for Divya Shanthi: that's £631.75. Last year's total was $600, so I'm thrilled we raised even more this year....
You might remember that in early November, I was in L.A. talking at BlogWorld about ebooks. The lovely BlogWorld folks told me that I can share my session recording here on my blog – hurrah! This is the first video I've ever posted on Aliventures, so I hope you enjoy...
Quick version if you're in a hurry: All three of my Blogger's Guides are half-price from 6th - 11th December All the money raised in that time will be going to Divya Shanthi, a small charity in Bangalore, India And now, the slightly longer version... Back in 2010, I...
You might have noticed that I've been a bit quiet recently. I was away at BlogWorld (and had a blast!) and I've also been busy putting the finishing touches to my novel, Lycopolis. This novel has been over three years in the making. It's gone through seven drafts....
One of the highlights of my (admittedly nerdy) calendar is BlogWorld Expo. It’s a conference about blogging and all things social media ... and it’s full of people like me. Yeah, that might well put off anyone normal – but as I’ve mentioned before, writers aren’t...
I’m going to be away for the rest of September, travelling round Europe (Bucharest, Brasov, Budapest, Vienna, Venice and Rome!) I’ll have sporadic internet access, but I won’t be blogging. I will, however, be sending out newsletters. Yay! So ... if you’re not already...
Last week, I tackled shorter paragraphs. Today, I want to take a look at sentences. Whether you’re writing fiction or non-fiction, sentence length matters. Short, snappy sentences (or even sentence fragments) create a very different effect from long, complex,...
If you follow me on Twitter, you'll know that I've been busy working on a new ebook for a while... ...and it's done! Hurrah! I'm thrilled to unveil The Blogger's Guide to Irresistible Ebooks: (You can click on that image to find out more and buy the ebook.) To...
This week, the Aliventures blog celebrates its second birthday. (Hurrah!) It's been a fantastic couple of years, and I've been lucky enough to gather a wonderful band of intelligent, articulate, engaged readers: I appreciate every single comment and email. Thank you!...
[guestpost]This Twitter party happened a while ago now! If you're interested in help with sales pages, I suggest checking out Naomi Dunford's handy Marketing Templates (which include lots of nifty tips for sales page layouts and content). Or, stick around here on...
Tomorrow (Friday), at 23:59 PST, I’m going to be closing registration for my newest ecourse, Blog On. It’s an eight-week course delivered online, so you can read the lessons at any time of the day or night. There are plenty of members in through the doors already, and...
My newest ecourse, Blog On, is now open for registration. Huzzah! You can get all the details on the Blog On page, but here’s the quick run-down: Eight week course, delivered online Step-by-step guidance to take you through four key types of blog post ... so that you...
I’m working on a couple of projects right now, and wanted to give you a heads up (especially as both involve some freebies...!) Big Course: World Changing Writing Workshop The fantastic Pace and Kyeli Smith run an annual online writing workshop, focusing on helping...
Back in January, I was excited (and a bit nervous) as I launched my very first ecourse, On Track. A bunch of fantastic students signed up, and we had a brilliant six weeks: starting new projects and restarting stalled ones, working through lessons and assignments,...
This post is in honour of Naomi Dunford's birthday. Feel free to eat cake while reading it... The IttyBiz front page I buy a fair few ebooks on biz-related matters. And I take online classes. I read blog posts. I hang out on Twitter. It's only recently that I've...