The festive season is usually reserved for the pursuit of cheer and happiness with good friends and family, but sometimes, when they drive you mad, you just want to escape into a different world. Well, I have several different flavours of escapism for you. Something warm with a dash of sharp: My first middle-grade book, …
Tag Archives: reading
Scorch Dearth
Sounds like a Napalm Death album. I write with reference to my on-off, on-off love/hate affair with my Vampire Urban Thriller The Covenant. Last week I tore it to shreds, scrapping a 70,000-word bowl of utter dog water, down to something I could work with. I had just over 10,000 words left. Killing your darlings …
Here’s Booking at You, Kids
Ken, my long-suffering cover designer has come back to me with several prototypes for my new Kids’ book. Although I hoped to have it out for Christmas (Indie Authors can turnaround fast) it didn’t happen that way. I also trawled it in front of fourteen Agents and two publishers, but no dice. Not meant to …
In the Background
Very short and sweet one today Adventurers. Have been working a lot on sorting out jobs and such, attending interviews, sending off applications – one thing I will say, I’m terrible at blowing my own trumpet for the forms. I can do it, but when I do, it seems I either undersell in classic British …
Market Value
I’m pensive due to listening to the excellent Surviving Mars soundtrack, and still turning over the recent experience with the publisher in my head and it has been exceptionally useful to codify my understanding of something I gleaned from David Morrell’s The Successful Novelist, in which he cautions about writing to an existing market, or …
Dried Up
I’ve finished the Synopsis for The Ares Gambit and it’s a whopper – these should only be 500 -1000 so I’m told, or ‘a couple of pages’. Well, I’ve got a 1,600 word monstrosity I need to pare back, shaping and trimming it into something that will appeal to an agent. And yet. I’ve been …
Dead Horse
Nearly quit. I was ready to throw the towel in and then the Dauntless Crew threatened Rebellion! (Gasp) They said I couldn’t stop now, so I agreed – or face their terrible wrath and I am but one humble scribbler. I had to retire to my Chaises-Longue. Then, you lovely people decided you were going …
Touching Distance
Been a hard week at the keyboard on Children of The Glyph, not as hard as the guys out there slaving to keep the world going. Good work and good luck to those people, putting me to shame. Anyway, the days have been full – had to cut 13,000 words in the re-structure, but managed …
Mightier Is The Pen 