Posted by on Jun 30, 2006 in Uncategorised | 2 Comments

Columns – the fun of writing regularly Yeah, yeah, I love my column at Moondance! It’s a great opportunity to explore themes that I wouldn’t necessarily have chosen for myself, to look at other people’s responses to the same theme, and to generally kick back and share my wisdom (such as it is) with the […]

Posted by on Jun 29, 2006 in Uncategorised | No Comments

Submit – or suffer! It’s the season of the year when most journals and magazines stop reading – for those of us who live or die by the SAEs that drop through our letterboxes, this is a drought time, a period when our self-belief is eroded and our neuroses rise up to mob us. If […]

Posted by on Jun 28, 2006 in Uncategorised | 4 Comments

Language and how to use it I’m reading a bunch of American stories at the moment and two of them have used the same phrase ‘he could care less’ to mean ‘he couldn’t care less’. Now I’ve heard this said myself, in Texas, and while I have no objections to it in dialogue (or even […]

Posted by on Jun 27, 2006 in Uncategorised | 2 Comments

Tales of the DeCongested Anthology Launch and Exhibition Opening 29th June 2006, 7pm 2nd Floor Gallery Space, Foyles Bookshop Come celebrate the launch of a new independent publishing company, Apis Books, together with its first publication, Tales of the DeCongested, Volume One. There will be plenty of wine, plus readings, book signings, and the Tales […]

Posted by on Jun 26, 2006 in Uncategorised | 2 Comments

If you want to be a writer – read! I’m always surprised (and saddened) when I lead a workshop only to discover that though I have anything from six to thirty writers in the room, only two or three will be subscribers to literary magazines. Yet those writers will want – and maybe even expect […]

Posted by on Jun 23, 2006 in Uncategorised | 3 Comments

Fragment files No, not fragmented files – I’m not going to tell you to defrag your computer! I keep a fragment file; it contains all the little bits of stuff I want to write about but haven’t fitted into a story yet like: 1 the line of conversation I overhead at a wildlife park ‘So […]

Posted by on Jun 22, 2006 in Uncategorised | No Comments

New market Zines come and go – and are a fruitful source of publication for new writers. One new zine that I hope will be around for a long time is Cezanne’s Carrot, a fresh and delightful new venture with a very open approach to the role of spirituality, in the widest sense, in literature […]

Posted by on Jun 21, 2006 in Uncategorised | No Comments

How long do you wait for good news? A long time This week has been a good week (yeah, I know it’s only Wednesday, but good is good, whenever it happens) Scarlet have taken a piece of erotica for their September issue. I’m thrilled to have cracked this sassy British market. And Carve have just […]

Posted by on Jun 20, 2006 in Uncategorised | One Comment

Reading aloud I have two readings in the next couple of weeks – the Tales of the DeCongested Launch at Foyles Bookshop in London on 29 June and a second ‘south coast’ reading for the same anthology in Brighton on 10 July. I love readings and get a buzz from audience reactions, particularly if I’m […]

Posted by on Jun 19, 2006 in Uncategorised | 3 Comments

I hate these conversations … ‘What do you do?’ asks the man at the business dinner. ‘I’m a writer.’ ‘Ah … what do you write?’ ‘Fiction.’ ‘Would I have read anything of yours?’ ‘Almost certainly.’ ‘Great! What are they called then, your novels?’ ‘I haven’t had any novels published yet.’ ‘Ah … so what might […]