Improbable Press Blog

By Ali Coyle The three stories that made it to the final version of Chrysalides have been in my head for a long time, rubbing shoulders and occasionally swapping pieces of themselves with all the other stories that live up there. I have never been able simply to sit down and write a story. I need to think it out first, daydream it, tune out whatever is going on around me and imagine my characters occupying their universe in a myriad different ways. I write it all down, big chunks at a time, when their lives are spilling out of my...

"That's all very well," Lydia said with an exasperated sigh. "But I really wanted someone with their own transport. What if there was an emergency?" As the words left Lydia's lips, a roar blossomed outside and cut off suddenly. Tuli scrambled upstairs to look out the window. Below, a petite figure stood on the gravel drive beside a dirt bike, took off a scuffed red helmet and shook out long, black hair before twisting her tresses up again in a scarf. Tuli almost squealed. "Is that her? I like this one, mum. Mum? Mum!" "She's on a motorbike! Tuli, you...

By Yvonne Knop I met Arthur Conan Doyle for a casual and comfortable lunch in the Oscar Wilde Tea Room of the famous Café Royale. He looked exactly as I imagined him to look, a stout man with a mustache. I knew the moment had come where I had to explain that I had used his famous character Sherlock Holmes for one of my novels – without asking for permission or paying any royalties. "I read your book," he said in an almost unimpressed voice. I sat down and looked at the cup in front of me, already filled with...

Arthur Conan Doyle would be 164 years old on May 22 and we are grateful to all the words he shared with us during his career. While he wrote much – sixteen novels and many, many short stories – Arthur is probably best known for his fifty-six short stories and four novels about Sherlock Holmes. And, as Improbable Press began life as a Sherlock Holmes publisher, we want to celebrate this part of Arthur's legacy by taking 22% off our eleven Sherlock Holmes novels and novellas in both paperback and ebook! Our Holmesian-inspired works include, in order of publication from...

By Yvonne Knop So, do you love writing about the Renaissance yet don't personally know a white witch who lived in the 16th century and recently settled down near you after her retirement? Well, I have a suggestion to make to you: research. Research, research, research. Because you've no doubt read a book about a place you've been or lived, and suddenly a sentence throws you off because this is just not how that place is. I'm not talking about bad representation – we could write a whole book about misrepresentation of marginalized groups, wrongly depicted cultures, and male authors...