20 April 2015
A writer’s marathon
It’s a numbers game. How quickly a writer’s emotions can change. There I was, a couple of weeks back, with a novel stuck for months at slightly less than 40,000 words and struggling to find time or inclination to press on. Today, with a smile on my face, I note the tally has now passed… Continue Reading
It’s a numbers game. How quickly a writer’s emotions can change. There I was, a couple of weeks back, with a novel stuck for months at slightly less than 40,000 words and struggling to find time or inclination to press on. Today, with a smile on my face, I note the tally has now passed… Continue Reading
19 April 2015
Beyoncé and Pavarotti: what have you done with my ‘at’?
It seems that the long-standing two-letter preposition at has been dismissed as irrelevant by these two superstars and thousands of lesser lights throughout the English-speaking world. No longer does Beyoncé play at the Rose Bowl; she merely plays the Rose Bowl, a phrase that suggests an uneven contest in the extreme. Similarly Maestro Pavarotti has ceased to… Continue Reading
There are days when this already enjoyable job provides additional pleasure. Such as today with my ongoing mentoring of a writer’s work in progress and the arrival of another two chapters. It is such a joy to read. The writer combines lovely descriptive passages with taut and cliché-free dialogue to paint a seductive picture of… Continue Reading
15 February 2015
A Lesson in Writing
I have long been a fan of Louise Welsh and her slightly offbeat tales – always intriguing, striding across genres and never less than enthralling and entertaining. It is, of course, all to do with the writing – economical, concise, never a wasted word and yet having maximum impact. But she really excels in the latest… Continue Reading
Let’s have three cheers and a quick spin of the Zimmer frame for Ms Justice Simler. The High Court judge has decreed that age alone is not a reason to remove a person’s driving licence. It is a decision for that rare quality known as commonsense. There has never been any understandable logic behind the… Continue Reading
Welcome note in today from a writer whose book(s) I am editing. He writes: “I’m loving what I am seeing. I think finally I’ve found an editor who understands what I’m aiming for in style and tone and who knows just how to make it shine and breathe that extra level of life into it.”… Continue Reading
It seems fame and fortune – like money – cannot buy happiness. Not even for an A-lister as well-heeled as Jack Nicholson. Regardless of his big bucks, big house and even bigger ego he is now just one of the lads. The ageing lads. The guys who, as the saying goes, may have snow on the… Continue Reading
Could this be the light at the end of the tunnel? Is this the turn-off on a long and winding road? Maybe it is one of those blips that tend to rattle forecasters before the status quo returns … but the news from the ubiquitous UK bookshop chain, Waterstones, is that sales of Amazon’s Kindle device… Continue Reading
Could it be that among the many words that have become overused, abused and exaggerated beyond all meaning, “bestseller” is the most misused of all? Screaming at us from the shelves, tables and remainder bins of our bookshops are covers proclaiming that what lies within is a “No.1 Bestseller” or that it has been written… Continue Reading
A whole hour … and just one song. But what a song. Absolutely fascinating viewing from BBC Four with the screening of Danny Boy: the song that bewitched the world. There was not a minute of boredom or padding in this wide-ranging analysis of Danny Boy, its beginnings, its history, its performers and, above all,… Continue Reading
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