‘It was the day my grandmother exploded.’ I haven’t gotten around to reading Iain Banks’ The Wasp Factory yet, but that opening line (read somewhere else) will stay with me …
What makes a good opening sentence?
Enjoying an uncharacteristic bout of confidence in my fiction
I submitted two pieces for competitions and I’m actually feeling…positive? Two competitions entered in April. Guess those strategies for overcoming self-doubt paid off. And weirdly, I seem to have swung, like …
How to beat the fear of submitting your work
I want to enter some writing competitions. Now would be a great time to doubt myself, right? There are two competitions I want to enter in April, and just thought …
The loudest voices aren’t always the, er, correctest
There’s a very good film called Spinal Tap about a fictional rock band. One of the (many) iconic ideas to come out of this film is the idea of ‘turning …
Pause.
Sometimes you’ve just got to step back and recharge. It’s what allows you to keep going. Recently I’ve been firing on all cylinders; writing or rewriting 15,000 words on my …
How sabre-tooth tigers (probably) helped invent comedy
One of my kids is currently at the age where they’re just starting to make up their own jokes. However, and I say this as kindly as I can, they’re …
5 thoughts that kept me going when confidence in my novel collapsed
The world suddenly seemed so vast, and I felt so small. The situation was laughable; how could I possibly have believed I was ready for this? This year I’ve challenged …
Book Review: The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Dispossessed was the first book I read in 2022 – and what a way to start the year! Although in terms of review, it poses quite a challenge. It’s …
Why climb TBR Mountain if it’s such a challenge?
There must come a time in every mountaineer’s life, where they find themselves shivering in a windswept tent, thousands of miles away from and above civilisation, and they think to …
A flash review of every book I’ve read in 2021
2021 was a great year for me in terms of reading. Here’s a super-short review of all the books I read in the past 12 months, and which was my …