How writing short stories can improve your novel writing skills ...

Advice from a rising star ... Fiona Sussman Fiona was named an Amazon UK Rising Star in 2014, and her novel Shifting Colours was also listed on Sainsbury’s Best Debut Novel Collection.  Fiona was born in South Africa and moved to New Zealand in 1989. She worked as a family doctor for a number of years, before pursuing a long-held dream to write. Her first novel, Shifting Colours, is set against the violent backdrop of apartheid South Africa and the calm of late-twentieth-century Britain. It traces the lives of Miriam and Celia – a mother and daughter separated by land, sea and heart-rending circumstance. Shifting Colours will be released in the USA in October 2015 under the title, Another Woman’s Daughter.  A former student of Creative Hub director John Cranna, Fiona also writes short stories. A number have been broadcast on radio, and her writing has had success in local and international writing competitions. Read Fiona’s account of how writing short stories can make your novels better here …