A good writing partnership is like a marriage; and so is a bad one. By Issue 8, a new possibility had arisen which neatly illustrated the difference in our approach. I saw an ad in Private Eye and through that, David and I started writing topical comedy for the Treason Show. David is an artist …
Month: February 2010
brought to book – part 2
Where were we? Oh yes, I was talking about drawing the line somewhere. I did get one rapid response from a MAN UP submission, from a Chief Editor no less. She said her publishing house could see the market potential and liked my work but, in the current economic climate, they would need a financial …
brought to book – part 1
Someone recently asked me about my membership of the Society of Authors. ‘How come,’ they said with an arched eyebrow, ‘You’re a member of the society but you’ve yet to have any of your novels published?’ Well, seeing as you asked … For years, on the quiet, David French and I have been producing our …
Keeping it real
I was in the Co-op today and I got the munchies. Luckily, a packet of chilli crisps caught my eye, primarily because of its proud boast: made with real ingredients. I’m sure we can all remember the bad old days of counterfeit ingredients in our savoury snacks. Once I’d emptied the packet – and scanned …
Project Management for Beginners
Back before I was released into the wild – at the edges of a forest called Freelancing – I was a project manager for one of the corporates. This is a sample piece I wrote for a professional article / essay company. A successful Project Manager may be likened to a juggler. Aside from the …
spare a thought …
… for those oft unsung heroes and heroines of the book world – agents and editors. I had a rejection back from Piatkus today. It was your average, bog standard, unsigned rejection. And I started to wonder what it must be like on the other side of the glass. Imagine coming into work everyday, to …
paper chase
There’s nothing quite like misplacing an important document for encouraging you to clear out old paperwork. After you’ve searched through it unsuccessfully, of course. Rejections from 2006 sat cheek by jowl with reader reports from 2007. And, by the time I’d gone through them all, the shelves weren’t the only thing groaning. Did I actually …