So, Christmas is Approaching …
In the past I’ve spent ages wittering on (as I do) about the difficulty of getting a book into print. Now I’ve had an idea. I’m working on a new literary festival (more on that later) with some friends, and one of the jobs we’ve had to do is find a decent small printer who … Continue reading
Crooks and thieves
I’m going to have to be careful here. This week I received (yet again) another mailshot from British Telecom, or BT as the company prefers to be known. They want me to agree to move my phone and broadband accounts to them. In return, they’ll give me a large discount. Which is nice, isn’t it. … Continue reading
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
I have been growing more and more alarmed by the way that the police in Britain appear to be operating as a more and more paramilitary, unregulated force. And it is not a force for good. When I was young, I wanted to join the police. In fact, I tried to (my eyesight wasn’t good … 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
Back to the Edit
Today I have settled down to work on the edits of my next book, Fields of Glory, which will be published next summer. Luckily there’s not too much to do, other than remove some unnecessary scenes and tighten some others. I say luckily, because as you can see, this isn’t the shortest book I’ve written! … Continue reading
Back to editing
Watch out for a new blog post on http://www.writerlywitterings.com today!
Where Do The Characters Come From?
Continuing the theme of professional tricks of the trade, I thought I’d comment on characters I’ve used – and those I have read. Some authors are really not happy unless they’ve planned out every person in their book in a forty page synopsis. Many professionals do work in this way, I know. Recently I read … Continue reading
Endings
Today I was going to write about ending a story, but then a few other ideas came to me. So, first, if you don’t mind, I’ll just talk a little about the writing life. For now, I was at a delightful evening last week, and a good friend who has recently changed his job told … Continue reading
Editors and Editing
Yesterday I had to give a talk to the Society of Editors and Proofreaders – and I had great fun! It is a constant source of astonishment to me, how many people say that they hate editors and all their kind. One friend of mine routinely tells how his was trained by the Gestapo, while … Continue reading
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writerlywitterings 
Editors are Good!
I am just getting the editor’s comments back on my latest manuscript. Hmm. I value editors – the work they do is absolutely essential. They can radically improve a piece of work with what can seem like tiny changes. Still, those tiny alterations can be incredibly difficult to get across to the author sometimes. The … Continue reading →
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