After two weeks and industrial amounts of red ink, I have finished a first paper edit of my book. There is still a lot of work to do, but the gaps are slowly being filled in, or at least identified. The next step is to get back on the keyboard to take in the many,… Read More Book report: red and read
This is what 94,000 words of a manuscript look like. It’s surprisingly heavy: I have cheated a bit because this thing is rife with notes in the copy like THIS MAKES NO SENSE! and EXPOSITION!! Plus there’s at least one chapter that still needs to be written from scratch once I get a better overview… Read More Book report: words and more words
Progress! I have had such a writing block recently, but a WhatsApp chat with some writer friends over the weekend has given me a fresh perspective. They were discussing the use of index cards to organise/rearrange the chapters of a WIP. One person said that if they can’t sum up what happens in a chapter… Read More Book report: psychics and nannies and Post-its
I hope you’re all well, regular readers, and occasional ones too. From my writing friends, I gather that everyone is experiencing the same difficulty with concentration. I suppose we all just have to trust that it will return in time. My MS is currently moving at a snail’s pace, though it is moving. I’ve completed… Read More Book report, week who knows: heaven and earth and Youtube
In honour of Star Wars Day – May the Fourth – I thought I’d share a nostalgic short story that was published back in 2016 in the Sunday People newspaper. It’s one of the few stories I’ve written where the title came first – and it amused me. Sadly, the title was shortened to something… Read More Waiting in line for The Empire Strikes Back
[UPDATED 25/6] I generally update my competition listings as I see new opportunities pop up, but I thought I’d do a new post because the last one was a while back. Quite a few competions have extended their deadlines or amended their prizes due to the Covid-19 crisis, so there may be a few things… Read More Short story competitions April-December
It’s been a while since I’ve had something published, but today a flash fiction of mine has appeared in UK literary journal Ellipsis zine. ‘Saviour’ is a theatrical tale about the joys of auditioning, told with something of a Greek chorus slant. It originated as a writing class exercise on voice, and I was interested… Read More ‘Saviour’ in Ellipsis zine
Three blog posts. That was the extent of my writing week, three blog posts. Two were author interviews with excellent writers – Laura Besley about her debut flash fiction collection The Almost Mothers, and Nicola Cassidy about her third historical novel Adele, based on the life of Fred Astaire’s fascinating sister. I also entertained myself… Read More Book report, week 11: Porgy and Bess and Strout
Today’s Irish Times has a feature about humorous, uplifting books to see us through these troubling times. I couldn’t resist the urge to put together my own list of suggestion, if only to dodge the WIP I’m sitting in front of. It isn’t a definitive list, just some things off the top of my head… Read More Laughter in a time of corona
Most of the author interviews I do are with writers celebrating the release of their first books. Today I’m delighted to welcome back Nicola Cassidy, who I interviewed back in 2017 about her historical debut December Girl. This month sees the publication of her third novel, Adele. It recounts the real-life story of Adele Astaire,… Read More Adele Q&A
