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
Itinerary US trip 12th – 21st February
I have had a few people asking when and where I’ll be when I go to America this week, so here’s a short summary. I fly in to New Orleans on Wednesday 12th in the evening. I’m honoured to have been invited to be the Grand Marshal of the parade of the Krewe of Little … Continue reading
Blogs and Sales!
I have been a keen user of WordPress for some time now. It’s fast, it’s easy, and it lets me blog without having to worry too much about the sillier aspects of updating computers. In short, I like it. But not always. Sometimes you find little irritations and glitches that get in the way. For … Continue reading
Festivals and Cash!
It surely can’t have been such a long time since my last blog? I had thought I’d be writing up notes much more regularly than once in every eight weeks! Apologies for the long break, but there have been good reasons. Lots of work with the Royal Literary Fund helping students at Exeter university, finishing … 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
A Short Interlude …
Today I managed to really upset another writer. Entirely accidentally. In fact, going through the twitter messages, I still don’t quite see where I managed to hit her somewhere painful, but there you go. I guess that all writers can tend to have soft parts that bruise too easily – but if that’s going to … Continue reading
Where Do Stories Start?
A couple of weeks ago, I was given a firm instruction to write a bit more about the process of writing. So, just for those who asked, here are some more musings on the world of scribbling. Planning a story is a pain. Really, it is. I always characterise my work as being 9/10ths day … Continue reading
Planning Not To Plan!
I was talking this morning to my old friend Phillip Gooden, and he mentioned that he was writing a variation to his latest story. ‘You know how it is,’ he said, ‘so often you don’t know how the story will pan out until you actually start it.’ It’s very true. So often aspiring writers will … 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
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