Nature’s hatstand I love a good back story. Now we’ve decided to shorten the third thriller in the Bladen series (giving it more of a pulp novel feel in my opinion) I’ve busy doing some pruning. It’s entirely possible that some scenes, flashbacks and dialogue will live again in another form, but they’ll more likely …
Tag: Covenant
The Value of Feedback
It’s said that a true friend is one who will tell you what they really think – and why. For a writer, getting reliable feedback is invaluable. Just as a good proofreader can spot those rogue apostrophes and homonyms that you read past without noticing, so a good reviewer can tell you the essential and …
A critical mass
The purps of being a wallflower. In the last seven days I’ve had three really useful pieces of feedback. Okay, you could call them criticisms – as if that were necessarily a bad thing – but that wouldn’t do them justice or reveal their true value.Allow me to elaborate…I talked before about how writers largely exist …
Room for a Review
All writers love feedback. Granted, some of those early nuggets of insight may have stung like a somersault into a wasps’ nest; and even some of the later, apparently well-meaning critiques were as welcome as a phone call to discuss your gas supplier when you’re desperate to reach the loo.But a review that gets the essence …
One year on
It’s tempting to see the world of publication – and self-publicaton especially – as purely a numbers game. That makes for a simple equation: ‘n’ sales = ‘n’ success. Likewise, using that logic, small sales = small success. But is that always the case?It’s a little over a year now since I took the plunge …
What is a blog for? Over to you.
If blogs were logs and my computer were a garage. As some of you know, I recently experimented with a giveaway for my fantasy novel, Covenant. Around the same time, I decided I needed to review the way I use social media and evaluate what I give to it and what I get back in …
On the campaign trail
Feeling like a number one. As Twitter reminded me today, according to Albert Einstein, doing the same thing over and over, while expecting different results, is a sign of madness. Or it could have been Rita Mae Brown. Anyway, whoever it was, they had a point. Self-publishing is half of an ‘A frame’ and without the …
Fundraising on Facebook
Keep those donations coming in. I visited a bookshop back in early December to promote my novel, Covenant. At the time, the proprietor said he was fully stocked and suggested I return in a few months. So, as it’s June now…ta da! I handed him a photograph (a real 6 x 8) of Covenant’s cover, …
Once upon a tome…
Hang out the flags, I’ve got an idea for a story. We tend to see events and perspectives from the beginning of things, without always appreciating the beginning (or the ending) before the beginning. Sometimes, it’s the ‘why’. Why was the ‘wicked fairy’ in Sleeping Beauty wicked? What drove Laurie Lee to start his journey …
Wow! Really‽ Thanks!
That ought to cover it. Next week is Thanksgiving in the US and also, coincidentally, the launch day for Covenant in paperback form. As it happens, I used to commemorate Thanksgiving even after coming back to Blighty (I’m not sure how much you can celebrate an overseas festival on your own), although my form was probably …