I’d like to start by apologising to any other books I may read this year, because The Puzzle Wood has set the bar incredibly high. This fast-paced gothic mystery kept …
Book Review: The Puzzle Wood, by Rosie Andrews
Novel
Should Spines be getting authors’ backs up?
Spines came to my attention born aloft on a wave of anger. This new publisher has claimed they will ‘disrupt’ the publishing industry using AI. Obviously, the authors I follow …
Writing…just for the hell of it
The other day I was playing with my daughter. She had instructed me to help her lay some Paw Patrol playing cards in a path across the house. I have …
Protect your drive to create at all costs
Trying to write a book? Well I hope you’re not committing any of the writing sins on this list as long as my leg. And I trust you’ve remembered the …
In defence of being ‘wordy’
Our screen-addled brains can’t cope with more than two syllables, right? ‘Use short, simple sentences’. ‘Never use an uncommon word when a common one will do.’ This advice is everywhere. …
What makes a good opening sentence?
‘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 …
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 …
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 …