Rough Love I’ve just been over on Goodreads and that, in combination with a book I’ve picked up, has exercised my mind no end. The subject being discussed at Goodreads (join up if you haven’t already – it’s wonderful) is how you treat your books. Well, I treat mine bad, and they stick around … […]

Caveat emptor – Cold River Review I’ve heard recently that a second writer of my acquaintance has had work republished in Cold River Review. Hurrah for them, you might think – but it’s not. You see, neither writer had given permission for their work to be used, or even been contacted to ask if this […]

The Brighton Reading That’s me, waving my arms around and pulling faces, as usual. The reading and launch went really well, I thought, and I’m extremely thankful that we did it on Thursday, because by Friday we had small rivers heading down every road to Brighton sea-front, and nobody would have wanted to plough through […]

Brighton Reading tonight! This is where we’ll be tonight, well, downstairs actually, in The Cella at The Sanctuary, in Brighton. It’s a venue I’ve read at several times, and really love; it’s intimate and very sophisticated, and of course, the food upstairs is superlative. So apart from the perennial fear that nobody will turn up […]

Posted by on Jul 17, 2007 in first drafts, notebook, Will Self | 3 Comments

Notebooks … Just before I head off for the latest reading for Two Tall Tales and One Short Novel, I wanted to sing the praises of notebooks. Not snazzy little laptop computers, but the real deal. Paper – and pens. One of the things that we may be about to lose, unless we’re Will Self […]

Two Tall Tales and One Short Novel The first reading, at Foyles, went amazingly well! My fellow novella-ists (hideous coinage, I know) turned out to be accomplished readers and it was a pleasure to listen to them. The audience – dare I say crowd? – was supportive, charming and purchased lots of books, and it […]

If you want to be a writer … some writing rules Me and Heinlein. We agree on stuff. But there are caveats. The wonderful Heinlein had five writing rules: Rule One: You Must WriteRule Two: Finish What Your StartRule Three: You Must Refrain From Rewriting, Except to Editorial OrderRule Four: You Must Put Your Story […]

Final reminder! The launch of Two Tall Tales and One Short Novel will take place on Tuesday 10th July, 7pm, at Foyles Bookshop, The 2nd Floor Gallery Space, 113-119 Charing Cross Road, London WC2H 0EB. There will be readings, wine, and book signings. If you’re a blog reader, please come along and introduce yourself – […]

One of the truisms of life is that you never know what a chance meeting might deliver. A couple of years ago a writer came to one of my NaNoWriMo meetings – three or so years on, that writer, Fiona Wallace, is about to launch a fascinating new magazine, and because we’ve kept in touch […]