Why write at all? It’s hard work – the hardest work I’ve ever done. It’s not a way to earn a living. It’s hard to get published – and although self publishing is now an option that’s more hard stuff you have to learn and do or pay for… Yet lots of us do it. …
Be aware that this is long and chock full of spoilers. There’s no way to write about the stuff which interested me in the novel without them, and I couldn’t find a way of minimising them. Still, if you’re planning to read it and you’re the kind of person for whom spoilers actually spoil the …
I’m working on the second draft of my memoir/fictionalised autobiography – keeping to a straight forward chronological structure, from earliest memories until now. At the same time, I’m doing a lot of thinking about a better structure. One of the problems with my current linear approach is that the first twenty thousand words are in …
It’s hard to know when to give up, especially on a piece of work which has taken years, but I’ve reached that point with my second novel. Another rejection arrived today, and it confirmed a decision I’d already made. Compared with the first novel, it collected a lot of personalised rejections, with praise for my …
Yesterday I discovered my memoir piece, “If…” was shortlisted for the Fish Short Memoir Prize. I am so encouraged by this – for a couple of reasons. First, when I wrote it, I instinctively felt it was a piece of writing I could be proud of, and I submitted it unusually soon after I wrote …
This meme surfaces on Facebook with depressing regularity. I wrote about it on my expired blog back in 2015, but I saw it again earlier this week. There seem to be a never ending stream of people who like and agree with it, and every time I see it, I argue. It keeps me out …
An eggcorn is a misheard word – eggcorn itself being a mishearing of the word acorn. I’ve always enjoyed the misheard lyrics – from Gladly the cross eyed bear in my childhood Sunday School days, to the more adult collection from Peter Kay which you can watch on YouTube. There’s something just a little bit …
Spoilers everywhere, so do read the book first. It’s only a very intense seventy pages or so… I read Max Porter’s Grief Is The Thing With Feathers at the end of last year (thanks Graham) and I immediately pre-ordered Lanny. I was nervous about Lanny because how could it measure up to such an extraordinary …
I watched Part One last night. I don’t know if I’ll be able to watch Part Two I had wondered why the parents, the mothers especially, would have looked the other way. Starstruck, yes. But really? Why would any mother let her child sleep in the same bed as a grown man? This made it …
Back at the beginning of February I compulsively watched the whole of Russian Doll in one day. I loved it. I loved Nadia, and Alan. I cared about what happened to them. It broke my heart and mended it, both. I’m still thinking about it – partly because it seems so relevant to what I’m …