We Write!
It's dusk, and all I can see is tattered, shredded dark clouds against the last dusty orange-pink of a sky paling into purple blackness, with the flat line of a dark sea and the silhouette of dark cape thrusting out into it, with a solitary point of light near the end of it. Working, as... Continue Reading →
Proofs... I think I'd rather write about alcohol. I always fancied the gunpowder method of testing proof - and think setting fire to my own proofs would test them... At the moment I am wading (and I mean wading - chest deep I reckon) through proofs for Cloud-castles. Now, don't get me wrong, proof-readers are... Continue Reading →
In some ways, it really is the roaring back of the Dickensian moment in literary history. If you want to make it as a self-published writer, writing one book will not do it. Even a great book won’t do it. The whole game is to gain some audience with a really good book, then continue... Continue Reading →
I'm going to use a couple of gastronomic examples that I hope will carry over into books, literature, and the process of creating them. I was astonished to read an article a few years ago about how some millennials were taking the "cult of the avocado" to extremes. Avocados have officially jumped the shark... Continue Reading →
Trust is a valuable coin. One we seldom think about when we have people's trust, until we don't. Regaining that trust is very, very hard task. All too often, too hard. And even if you regain part of it, well, doubt remains, and you'll lose even that trust, really quickly. The second time... it's like... Continue Reading →
We've all heard of software designed to help us produce a fully-fledged book rather than just a document. Scrivener is one of the best known; it has tools to "manage the writing environment" rather than just write. It seems there's a new product on the market. I haven't tried it yet, but it sounds promising.... Continue Reading →
I was intrigued to read this article a couple of weeks ago. Substack, an online subscription platform for popular writers like Glenn Greenwald and Andrew Sullivan, appears to be setting its sights on disrupting the book publishing world. Former Forbes media and entertainment writer Zack O’Malley Greenburg has revealed to Media Ink that he has... Continue Reading →
It's been a long, strange, fascinating week and it's not over yet. I sat here blinking at the screen for some time before I wrote that first sentence, and what you've got in front of you is the product of a very tired mind. I started out the week in the company of friends, and... Continue Reading →
I've been reading, recently, in an attempt to urge my brain towards creativity, and simply because this is what I do when I'm tired, stressed, and overwhelmed. As is my usual (in both writing and reading) I'm working on more than a single book. In no particular order, that would be: Handbook of Formulating Natural... Continue Reading →
I think the news is so dire and nasty all round these days that we need to look at the lighter side of life for a while. Courtesy of a link provided by Cold Fury, I was led to a wonderful collection of quotations from the books of P. G. Wodehouse, creator of Bertie Wooster,... Continue Reading →
Mad Genius Club 