September 25th, 2008
As a reader, discovering new writers and learning to trust them can sometimes be a toe-stubbing, root-riddled ramble. Having had my time stolen far too frequently by disappointing reads, I try to explore the potential based on recommendation or general background hum. Just this week, and despite the general hum sounding distinctly positive, I had [...]
September 19th, 2008
Hollywood endlessly remakes old movies, bringing them up to date, polishing them with modern dialogue, swanky sets, and more than a splattering of special effects. But this kind of star-spangled resurrection doesn’t happen with books.
I am currently reading Algernon Blackwood’s The Damned (1914), which Wikipedia describes as “A highly original haunted house tale in which [...]
September 15th, 2008
I have been on the search for stories that scare me as much as those I read during my formative years, and I’m struggling to find anything that satisfies.
In addition to the big writing project (TableRappers) and its supplementary tales featuring its characters, I want to create some old-style scary stories. By old style, of [...]
August 27th, 2008
Bear with me while I pop back in time a handful of years to when I messed around with stand-up comedy.
For the first few years as an aspiring stand-up comic, one must tread the rocky paths of the open spots. These are the 5 minute - or if you are lucky 10 - slots that [...]
August 25th, 2008
How many complaints regarding a book would a publisher require to justify editing and reprinting what some may regard as an offensive word? 5,000? 500? How about just one…
Dame Jaqueline Wilson’s My Sister Jodie, a book aimed at the 9 to 11 age group, has sold around 28,000 copies since its release in March this [...]
August 25th, 2008
CHAPTER 26 - Merrick faces Keynes and confronts him over the previous night’s seance. But Keynes has other, far more deadly, ideas.
August 22nd, 2008
I wrote on my personal blog about how work - that’s the bit that actually pays the rent right now - overshadows pretty much everything else, including the creative writing. When writing has to be squeezed-in to available hours, it can be tough to summon up the inspiration.
The day-to-day demands of working in the UK [...]
August 10th, 2008
CHAPTER 25 - Keynes finds himself face to face with the threat of Nathaniel at the seance. The following day, Merrick is looking for a confrontation.
August 6th, 2008
There has been a fair amount of discussion in this household this week about our personal processes in writing. Novels do not write themselves, and are a vast undertaking. So how would you get from scribbled inspiration to 100,000 words worthy of someone taking the time to read?
How you would achieve this, I have no [...]
July 13th, 2008
AbeBooks have quite a unique item listed for sale right now: A first edition paperback of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, plus Douglas Adams’ typewriter.
[The typewriter] bears an anti-apartheid sticker on one side of the object and is boldly signed across the front casing by Adams in his unmistakeable hand. It comes housed in [...]
