13 December 2015
Reaching for a plot with Lee Child
My fellow writers have long intrigued me with the methods they use for creating the plot-lines of their novels. It is especially fascinating because my own means of devising a plot is probably best described as “let it happen” and I’ll follow along behind. My characters lead me; I don’t lead them or even tell them… Continue Reading
My fellow writers have long intrigued me with the methods they use for creating the plot-lines of their novels. It is especially fascinating because my own means of devising a plot is probably best described as “let it happen” and I’ll follow along behind. My characters lead me; I don’t lead them or even tell them… Continue Reading
Seven weeks ago I walked into my local Barclays Bank with a query about my account. Simple? A customer services officer (first barrier) said I would have to wait to speak to one of her colleagues (second barrier) to make an appointment to discuss my query. Couldn’t she do this? Well, she could but someone… Continue Reading
Another challenging editing job has reached its successful conclusion, and one of which I am especially proud. It was a long time in the overall process with much rejigging, rewriting and tightening of the text. Meticulous and determined research produced a voluminous amount of detailed information, much of it revealed here for the first time, that had… Continue Reading
Bragging time … right out of the blue comes an email from Clare, Author Talent Rep, Literary Fiction Dept. at California Times Publishing, Los Angeles, asking for a copy of my first crime fiction book, Done Deal. She says “I read the summary of your book DONE DEAL and the premise sounds interesting.” I am… Continue Reading
What’s that noise? Ah, its my dyed-in-the-wool (pun not intended) Yorkshire ancestors (workers all in mills and mines) turning in their graves in Dewsbury as they learn of the local lad who left the streets where they once lived to pursue his job of choice in blowing himself and other people to smithereens.This is not… Continue Reading
Coincidental, but nice timing all the same. On the day when yet another unthinking, insensitive young Brit upsets local sensitivities by baring her boobs atop a sacred mountain, it’s good to see a plea to replace the nonsense of gap year jaunts with something more commonplace and meaningful. Sandie Okoro, global lead lawyer for HSBC Global Asset… Continue Reading
At a time when commemorations and celebrations of the end of the Second World War are at their height, it seems timely to record the publication of a book dedicated to the many women who made it possible for men to enlist and “do their bit”. Melbourne writer Jacqueline Dinan has painstakingly tracked down more than… 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
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
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