The first time I thought my Brit thriller, Standpoint, might have legs was when I had an argument with the main character in a car. Yes, I know how ridiculous that looks on a screen, but it’s what happened. It was during a novel writing summer school tutored by Jane Pollard at University College Falmouth. …
Tag: Scars and Stripes
July 4th
Every item tells a story. That’s right folks, it’s an on-the-hoofer…Well, of course I wasn’t going to let US Independence Day pass without a blog post. After all, as someone once said, parodying a comment allegedly made about Billy Connolly and the shipyards, I spent one year living there and 25 years talking about it. (To …
Sign of the Times
I believe it was the Roman philosopher, Tacitus Bloggas, who decreed that the 31st of December (or whatever they called it back then) should be marked with a blog reflecting on the year that has been. Also, let’s face it, list pieces are easy on the eye.Like many writes I start each year with a …
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 …
It all started a couple of weeks ago.
I don’t know whether there was finally enough sunlight in the morning to adjust my circadian rhythm, if it was because I was able to set Scars and Stripes aside with something approximating a smile, or even if I’d just managed to write a few decent jokes for greetings cards. But whatever that thing was, I …
Grace Kelly
Occasionally, caught in the slipstream of social media, our own voices can be drowned out by the baying of a crowd that yells, “Like me, follow me, review me, add me, and friend me.” And ‘friend’, last time I checked, isn’t even a verb. How close a relationship can it be when someone wants me …
Achievement without tears
It’s always a very strange time when you finish writing a novel. There’s a mixed bag of emotions – part of you is sad to see the end of the adventure, part of you is still focused on whether you did the story and characters justice, and part of you is just plum tuckered out …
You Put Your Whole Self In…
You know that feeling, when you’ve just finished reading a book and the characters are still rattling around your head? Or the plot holes are making swiss cheese of your afterglow? Or even that you’re desperate to re-immerse yourself in the world of the characters you’ve just spent time with? Well, imagine all of that …
Lost & Found
I’ve spent a little time this week scanning in photographs for blogs-to-come and as memory joggers for Scars & Stripes. Following feedback from Anne, Susie and Monika, I’ve decided (I think) that S&S works best when it’s 1st person and more honest than the first draft appears to be. Warren was definitely right that 3rd …