A New Character
It is always hard to invent stories. First, you have to invent people, who have to feel real, well-rounded characters with lives and motivations of their own. Then you have to create a world in which they can live, and infuse that with logic and atmosphere. Finally, you need to take those people (and the … Continue reading
Conferences – and other ways to waste time!
Yesterday I went all the way up to Bristol to attend a conference with the Society of Authors, all about the weird and wonderful brave new world we inhabit. The main thing was, the Society wanted to brief we authors on how to sell our books more efficiently and achieve better sales. A praiseworthy ambition! The … Continue reading
A Very Belated Apology to America!
This is a terrible confession: after writing a nice piece about America in my newsletter, I completely forgot to put this version up on the web. So, with profuse apologies to all my American friends – here it is at last! America There are times when certain friends of mine make me wince and … Continue reading
The End of the First AsparaWriting Festival!
And so, after a year of planning and working on the basic ideas, the AsparaWriting Festival is finally over. It’s been a really rewarding experience. The whole concept was, and is, to create a festival for unpublished but enthusiastic writers. We wanted to set it up, first: so that aspiring writers could come and learn … Continue reading
Krupp Can Wait
FIRE ON THE RUNWAY by Mel Bradshaw, Dundurn Toronto ISBN 978 1459703353 priced at £11.99 for paperback I was fortunate enough to be invited as the International Guest of Honour at the Bloody Words festival in Toronto this month. It was a huge honour, but more to the point, it was a great joy to … Continue reading
Train, planes and … Well, just trains, really.
I am not good with trains. A few months ago I went visit some excellent friends near Windsor, and then on to stay at the house of some other friends. I had a great evening. Too great, really. Spike drove me into the station the next morning, and the rush hour was not good. When … Continue reading
Toronto – Bloody Words 2014
I really have been inordinately lucky this year. One thing I always wanted to do, when I was young, was to take every opportunity to travel. I was hugely fortunate because my father took us to Austria, Italy and even Kenya. I saw a lot of the world when I was a teenager. Later I … Continue reading
Immigration and Customs – Help!
OK, a brief diversion. I mentioned to a friend on Twitter yesterday that I had a chequered history entering Canada. There was the time I was picked up by the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police to you) and driven off in the back of their cruiser, or the time when I was refused entry … … Continue reading
Tripping again!
Here in Britain, we have a new education leader who has been excoriated in the media and by teachers since he took his job. His name? Michael Gove. Mr Gove is a man who invariably causes fury. He has stopped increasing funding for schools and colleges, he has cut budgets all over, he has presided … Continue reading
The End of an Era
And so we come to the last day of the contract with the Royal Literary Fund. To be fair, it’s not quite the last day, but it’s my last day in the RLF office in Exeter University. The rest of my time will be at home, collating all the data for the RLF for their … Continue reading
writerlywitterings 