Three novels written and now I’m at that beautifully naive stage; the very beginning. Anything is possible. I was last here about 3 years ago – Novel 3 is Go, Go Go! – so it’s been a while but the feeling overwhelming me the most is not the dread of the blank page but not having
CategoryBlog
How To Get Your Book Into The British Library
I recently got this handsome letter from ‘The British Library‘ informing me the paperback version of ‘In A Right State‘ is now taking up valuable space on their hallowed shelves. Well, it’s deposited, not yet indexed, so it’s probably propping a door open or straightening a wonky table leg. So how can a self-published slice
Interview in The Worthing Herald
I was featured in last Thursday’s ‘Worthing Herald‘ on the ‘World of Words’ page which features local writers, poets, groups, events, etc. 10 questions to delve deeper into my writing life…leaving a few questions left over. btw, my girlfriend’s son is not called ‘Hannibal’. The comma and apostrophe’s make it look like her son’s nickname
An Alternative to Word Count Targets; Writing Legacy
I’ve never liked word counts. The pressure if you’re not on your game, grinding out words as you push your story uphill, or, blasting past your target easily but with the nagging feeling that tomorrow might not be such a cake walk so should you stop and save some momentum for tomorrow or carry on? If
My vote for Helsinki to host Worldcon in 2017
I recently spent a weekend in Helsinki and someone I follow on Twitter, Crystal Huff, is involved in the sci-fi community plus she’s Finnish! She gave me some great pointers of where to go and also let me know about Helsinki’s bid to host Worldcon in 2017. Crystal also tweeted… @b3n3llis Yay! If you blog about
My Writing Goals for 2015
Everyone else is at it so I thought I’d write a post about setting goals too. I was also inspired by Sophie Playle’s post on ‘Writing Goals – What Are They Good For?’ which talks about how to set goals and what goals to set, eg. be flexible and don’t aim for the impossible. I’ve always had yearly
Attending the Will Self ‘Shark’ Book Tour
On Tuesday evening I went and saw Will Self at The Ropetackle in Shoreham as part of his book tour for ‘Shark’. I can’t remember how I heard about it but it was sold out when I checked the website at the weekend. I phoned Tuesday afternoon and it was still sold out so I
Through the doors of perception: A writing trip on acid
I’m betwixt and between writing projects at the moment. ‘In A Right State’ has gone to my editor for copy-editing and I’m not going back to my 3rd novel, ‘Blindsided’, for a second draft until I’ve released In A Right State into the wilds of Amazon, iBookstore, et al. Saying I’ve nothing to write isn’t technically
Blindsided playlists
I thought I’d whip up a quick post with links to a couple of playlists I created in iTunes as a follow up to this previous post back in December 2010, ‘Some of my writing playlists‘, but iTunes appear to have totally destroyed that facility. So, instead, you’ll just have to do with a screenshot
I’m a grammar panda eating bamboozling word rules
I’m not a full-blown grammar Nazi so I’m going to refer to myself as a grammar panda since recently reading ‘Eats, Shoots and Leaves‘ by Lynne Truss, mainly in preparation for redrafting one novel and self-publishing another, thinking I need a refresher in all this boring, technical stuff. I have a basic knowledge of punctuation and