Hubris, gratefulness, politesse? I’ve spent a couple of days now, staring at the little heap of my books that was delivered on Monday. They stare back. I am paralysed by knowing what it is good, or fair, or right to do in this situation. I am sending books to people who have been instrumental in […]

Many writers are nicer than many other people That may not be true – it may simply be that I meet writers, and as a result, know how nice they are, but – as a swingeing and ugly generalisation that I will not be able to defend in any sensible fashion – I find writers […]

Promoting the literary life for all Nik Perring tagged me with this and although I don’t usually do these, I’m sort of interested in the question here – from a different angle, I’m always wondering why people do the various literary things they do, and this is another way of exploring that question. So I […]

Okay, so what’s been happening? • Ren received a kindly review of ‘Lords of Light’, recently published in SF Waxes Philosophical – you can read it here, and signed a contract for a novella ‘Miss’ to be published• Carmel sold a story to Forum and another to Scarlet• Kay discovered what her new novel is […]

Tag, tag, tag … First, and most interestingly, the excellent Sandra Scoppettone tagged me with this exercise, which is to promote books of recent publication that might be sliding from the public eye. It was the brainchild of Patti Abbot and I think it’s a great idea. My choice is a novel by Jill Dawson, […]

I am a bookmother! Seriously. The inimitable Bunny Goodjohn stayed for a couple of nights on her way back to the USA, and we had a wonderful time. Well, I had a wonderful time and I hope she did too. Her novel, Sticklebacks and Snowglobes, will be published in October and she brought me the […]

Congratulations! The past few weeks have been marvellous ones for writers I know personally and I want to congratulate (in alphabetical order): Vanessa Gebbie – who has beaten literally thousands of writers to be one of five finalists in the Telegraph Novel Competition Bunny Goodjohn – whose novel, Sticklebacks and Snowglobes, has been picked up […]