When the question was first posed I wanted to yell “No” at my computer. In fact, I think I did, secure in the privacy of my own home. It is a question that confronts users of the internet almost every day. And one that continues to irritate the pedant in me. Will I accept cookies? No, I will…
Today, like many other Facebook users, I received a request to share a post. It featured a picture of a clean-cut looking young man, neatly attired and with a pleasant, open face. His name was provided, along with a few words alleging that he was visiting animal rescue centres with the specific aim of obtaining…
Relationships are funny things, and not in a humorous way. They are even more difficult and complex than relations and, God knows, they’re tricky enough to deal with. But relationships, they’re a real hornet’s nest. We dive into them carefree and unthinking, full of the joie de vivre of the new and buoyed by expectations…
The thesis is done. Not mine … but that of a truly delightful client (aren’t they all?) who commissioned me to proofread and edit her 72,000-word submission for her PhD. For one whose editing work is predominantly concerned with fiction in all its genres (well, most of them) and a broad spectrum of non-fiction, this…
In the last three days I have re-written the same chapter three times. Each time I’ve cut and added characters, I’ve changed the sequence of events, I’ve added, eliminated and altered the backstory, I’ve had new ideas, discarded old ones and drank x cups of coffee. And each time it’s been a little bit better,…
Ah, the irony of it all. The past few days have seen a deluge of posts on a Facebook group’s site populated by Australian authors. The focus of their attention has been a single word: zephyr. A writer who had penned the line a zephyr of wind caressed the land was asking if there could be…
Eureka! Bingo! Hellsapoppin’ … and other expressions of delight and discovery; I do believe the seemingly interminable search for a British cafe that understands the words “a long black” is at last over. And in one of the more unlikely locations, too. Up and down this cafe-crowded land a request from this caffeine addict for…
The following extract is from a manuscript I was recently asked to assess for publication: ‘All right, I’ll see to changing that, might take a while.’ Eleanor continued with her agenda. ‘Now, what about Security? Personnel? Industrial Relations? Safety?’ ‘Hey, we need those.’ Arthur made a note. ‘Security and Safety have been the contractor’s problem…
Wonder of wonders: the Brits have decided to test all 11-year-olds on the proper use of verbs, nouns, adjectives and adverbs as well as prepositions and conjunctions. They are also to be taught to use punctuation marks correctly with a focus on full stops, question marks, commas, inverted commas and the dreaded apostrophe. One would…
Thanks goodness the Scots have decided to raise the retirement age for their police force. It means Ian Rankin can bring irascible old Rebus back to the mean streets of Edinburgh. Standing in Another Man’s Grave is already completed and due for release in November. It not only resurrects Rebus 25 years after he first…