Review: Living With Shakespeare: St Helen’s Parish, London 1593-1598
History, as I learned at school, even at its very best and most exciting can, if a teacher or writer tries hard enough, become dull and tedious in the extreme. Which is why I picked sciences for A level and dropped history. I loved history as a subject, and had studied the medieval period, Victorian … Continue reading
Review: EMPIRES OF CRIME by Tim Newark, published by Pen And Sword History
ISBN: 1526713047 I have to admit, I picked this up with a degree of trepidation. There are so many books published which blame the British Empire for everything from famine, slavery, warfare and xenophobia, that I am forced to select my reading with care, just to avoid damage to my blood pressure. I need not have … Continue reading
Tips for Submitting Manuscripts
I was asked yesterday on Quora about how to present a manuscript for an editor. This is not intended to be a fully-detailed example, but it summarises my own experiences over the last 25 years of professional writing. Since it is pretty much the same whether you are looking at fiction and non-fiction books, I … Continue reading
Nose to the Grindstone
Yes, I know I said I was going to be writing more regularly … but just now the main writing has to be the work on the next Jack Blackjack book, which has to be complete by end November. It’s been a very bitty year, this. Little bits of work on so many different projects, … Continue reading
Beginning a New Story
This week I’m embarking on a new novel, and I’m going back to my roots. Yes, it’s a crime novel. I’ve had a few people ask me how I actually get started with a book. The simple answer is, I don’t know. The ideas begin when I have a basic concept occur to. Sometimes that … Continue reading
The Things That Get in the Way!
When the words are flying, writing novels is the best job in the world. Authors live other people’s lives for them. We imagine our own worlds, invent horrible situations and throw our characters (victims) into them. All just to entertain readers. But sometimes the work doesn’t go so well. All writers have their own pet … Continue reading
Morris – an Introduction
There are some elements of any culture that cause embarrassment or difficulties when trying to translate them to people from other countries. I daresay some Scots find explaining why men wear kilts (and do or don’t wear anything beneath) as tricky, let alone the attraction of the noise of a series of pipes fed by a bladder … Continue reading
A New Week
It was just as I finished my last video, which was all about Conway Stewart’s demise, that I had a contact from a wonderful couple of guys who have set up a new company. This firm, called Bespoke British Pens, has been dealing with Onoto and other pens for some time, and now they have bought up … Continue reading
Editing and Paper
I had a question today from a lovely lady in Japan asking whether I usually edit my books on paper. I had put up a photo of my morning desk (which was embarrassing, but I can cope), and prominent on it was the pile of paper that will be my next novel: BLOOD ON THE … Continue reading
This Week Won’t be Easy
This week was always going to be a pain. Phew. A short story to write urgently. A book I’m really enjoying writing (modern -day, quite gritty but fun). Then last week I received a copy edit for the next Hundred Years War book, BLOOD ON THE SAND – and that’s going to be a good … Continue reading
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