A Review and Author Interview: Anthony Riches – THE EMPEROR’S KNIVES
The Emperor’s Knives by Anthony Riches, published by Hodder & Stoughton ISBN: 978 1 444 73191 in hardback for £14.99 and also available as ebook A brief disclosure. I know Tony Riches. That’s hardly surprising. If there is a writer in the crime, historical or thriller market I don’t know, he or she must … Continue reading
And while in the middle of an edit …
I recently received a book to review: Nail Your Novel by Roz Morris. Now, I should quickly state that I don’t know this lady, except as a delightful correspondent on Twitter, so anything that follows you can assume is not biased. It is one of those books that will work for a lot of people. … Continue reading
Writing – Six Faults
I was looking at a blog today, and it sparked an idea. The idea was, thinking of the worst advice ever given to aspiring authors. Where on earth would you start with a piece like that, I wondered. And then I started thinking … So here goes. My favourite bits of dreadful advice. 1. You … Continue reading
Critics – Be Kind
There are many critics in the world. And they have suffered some horrible comments in the past. Tynan said, “A critic is a man who knows the way but can’t drive the car.” Sadly, there are all too many critics around today. The advent of the internet has created an explosion of critical writing as … Continue reading
Persistent, Polite and Persuasive
This weekend I received a new book in the post. Actually I received three, but only one is relevant for this blog post. I regularly get books posted to me. Sometimes it’s a pain, especially when I’m in the middle of a book myself. Why? Because when I’m sitting at my desk trying to … Continue reading
A new pen!
I first heard of the Visconti pen some months ago when I was working hard on my last book. It is the normal way of things for a writer. You would not believe the inventive ways by which an author can avoid writing. There is research, there is reading other people’s books to get a … Continue reading
Slip Ups and Errors
I rarely like to think back to errors made in previous books. Well, not with my own books, anyway. This last weekend, I was very glad to be asked to Scarborough for their annual Literary Festival, and while up there, I was made to reflect upon books past. A lady from the audience wanted to … Continue reading
Review: The Church of Fear
The Church of Fear – Inside the Weird World of Scientology, by John Sweeney (@johnsweeneyroar) – is a stunning read. This book is an in-depth analysis of an investigation into the Scientologists (I cannot give them the title of “Church” because I do not believe an organisation so focussed on money should be given that … Continue reading
Review: The Queen’s Vow – C.W.Gortner
One of the odd things through the year for me is receiving books, unannounced, from publishers who hope for kind words about a book. They’ll often be from a publisher I don’t have any involvement with (like this: Hodder), from people I’ve never met, and with books from people I don’t know, haven’t met, and … Continue reading
The Next Big Thing …
And now: the Next Big Thing – ten questions in ten minutes. Not such an easy concept for an author who spends his time thinking carefully about what he should be writing, revising, editing, and then throwing it away and starting again. Which is actually what happened here, because I carefully wrote what I … Continue reading
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