If you’ve ever walked up a steep hill, or climbed a mountain, or run a marathon, or triumphed over seemingly impossible odds, you’ll know about the moment. It’s hard to define, but it’s a silent sense of wonder and awe and relief and inner joy all rolled into one. My mountain, which became a steep …
Tag: Covenant
What goes around
Not the prettiest image, unless you’re a jobbing writer. I’ve said in the past that I’m a big fan of short story competitions. You are usually presented with a theme, a word count and a deadline – and all for no more than a nominal entry fee (we can have that debate some other time).Even …
Aqueducts
I was chatting over email today with writing buddy Rosen Trethivick about Kindles, ebooks and the joy of self-publishing (well, editing and formatting at this stage of the game). She asked me about my ebooks and I mentioned my e-publisher Musa. Having passed on some useful info about KDP Select, she asked me, not unreasonably, …
I’ve got it covered!
As the edit to end all edits trundles along, I’m finding that those old project management skills are worth their weight in spreadsheets.One of the trickiest activities has been choosing the cover design. Now, thanks to the generosity of my former editor and designer at Saga Whyte Press, Annemarie Skjold, that’s no longer an issue. I …
Time and Tide
One of the great things about being in touch with nature is witnessing the flow of the seasons and experiencing it in a tangible way. You can do this through the seasonal food you eat or by paying attention to what is growing in the wild. Right now, elderflower is in abundance an that can …
The End of the Affair
With few exceptions, most of the posts you will ever read about the practice of writing, anywhere on the Internet, will be positive. Sure, there’ll be the occasional I submitted my novel to 11 agents…’ but the punchline will usually be, ‘and the 11th submission came up trumps’. This post will be a little bit …
Stand by your plan
So, in one of my replies to a comment last time (You mean you don’t read those?), I mentioned turning some opportunities down. Naturally, someone has asked me to explain and I never like to disappoint an audience on a Thursday. Here’s the thing though, and by all means sing it along with me. Ready? …
Keeping a Promise
Somewhere back in the Cretaceous Period (i.e. in my late teens), I had an idea for a long story. In essence it was about two friends who followed very different paths in life and how those paths crossed in the future. It was set in a sci-fi / fantasy context and drew on my emerging …
A Lovable* Rogue at the Halfway Point
It’s that time of the year when many writers see one of their seasonal offerings thrust out into the world. I’m talking of course about today, June 30th, being the halfway point in the calendar year. It’s a good opportunity to pause and reflect and, as every ex project manager knows, it pays to review …
Base camp
It happened a couple of nights ago. It was quite sudden; no great fanfare. One moment I was scribbling away in my writing pad (admittedly I’d been scribbling for over an hour) and the next – at approximately midnight – I stopped and looked at the page. The End stared back at me. That is, …