I am reconnected to the world via the umbilical cord provided by Demon, which seems to feed my entire being, not just my (many) computers with internet access. Bless you, Demon, and yah boo sucks to Orange who should sit in a corner and reflect on their appalling customer service. And … –The edits (revisions, […]

Posted by on Apr 9, 2008 in agents, novel edits, writing residencies | 4 Comments

I’m on the Rosneath Peninsula, enjoying a wonderful week’s residency at Cove Park. The preeminent idea of the week is to work on editing the novel in line with the excellent suggestions I received from an agent a couple of weeks ago, and I am indeed getting that done. But I’m also spending a lot […]

Posted by on Mar 21, 2008 in Uncategorised | 5 Comments

Giving birth to squint-eyed babies, or why you should choose first readers with care Much on my mind at present, as I get ready for a residency at Cove Park, is the nature of revision. For most novelists, particularly those of us who haven’t got a first novel onto the bookshelves yet, the first readers […]

Posted by on Mar 14, 2008 in Uncategorised | 4 Comments

Radio 4 short story broadcast Well, I still don’t have any internet access, but I can’t miss the opportunity to drum up listeners for my short story! You can hear Love Lessons from Cephalopods on Tuesday 18 March at 15:30 on Radio 4 which is 92.4 – 94.6 FM or, if you want to catch […]

Posted by on Mar 12, 2008 in Uncategorised | No Comments

Normal service will be resumed … when I have an internet connection again!

Posted by on Feb 29, 2008 in erotic writing, writing about sex | 2 Comments

Erotic Writing – the course Last night was the first night of the five week course, which has a couple of week’s break in the middle for Easter and stuff. I have five truly awesome students and we are meeting in a quite unbelievably kitsch hotel. Only in Brighton … Next week I hope to […]

Less about me – more about writing After all the hoo ha of the past couple of weeks, I’m bored with myself. I think that’s a fairly common condition with writers and may perhaps be the saving grace in a profession that’s otherwise like something out of the masochist’s charter. We have to: • Thrive […]

From the Lochaber News: “The John Muir Trust has announced the winners of its 2008 prestigious Wild Writing competition at this week’s festival. First prize of a place on a writing course at Moniack Mhor went to Kay Sexton from Sussex for her piece, Cleft, a tale about a challenging climbing incident and the relationship […]

Writing fiction for a living: radio stories I’ve just sat in on the recording of my radio story, which will be broadcast in the week of 10 March. What can I tell you? Well, I’m not unfamiliar with recording studios, having friends who are musos or music producers, but I’ve never sat in on a […]

Making money from fiction – erotica I’m pulling together the final elements for the five-week course starting on 28 February. It prompted me to go and have a look a the contribution that erotica made to my income last year, but I’m going to keep you hanging (possibly in a dungeon, with guttering candles, a […]