Seasons' Greetings to all from yours truly.
Remember that the past is a foreign country (according to the first line of L.P Hartley's seminal...
Sunday, 19 December 2010
Saturday, 4 December 2010
Very Honest Motivation
Remember those motivational posters that were so popular in the 1990s? Didn't they get really sickening after a while, with scene after scene...
Saturday, 27 November 2010
Pastel Power
The late Paul Arden wrote in his bestselling book, 'Its not How Good You Are- Its How Good You Want to Be' that if you get stuck, draw with...
Saturday, 13 November 2010
Don't Knock Nanowrimo
Sci-fi author John Scalzi has a fine riposte to all those Nanowrimo haters. You can read it here:
"Nanowrimo and Kvetching"
I used to think...
Wednesday, 20 October 2010
Halloween in Humidity
The other day someone asked to me, "Isn't it weird to celebrate Halloween in the tropics"? Which I thought was a rather bizarre question and...
Saturday, 9 October 2010
The Difference Between Editing and Rewriting
The excellent book, "The Weekend Novelist Rewrites the Novel" by Robert J. Ray (2008 Writers Digest Books) states that editing is, '....a morality...
Saturday, 25 September 2010
Travel-Writing
A piece of my travel-writing appears in Sina Sana (MPH Publishing) to be released in March 2011:
(The following text is taken from Eric Forbes'...
Sunday, 19 September 2010
On E-Books
I never wanted to jump into this debate, but after recently handling a Kindle and an Ipad I will say the following:
1) Paper books never run...
Thursday, 2 September 2010
Haiku BlogFest
A hot sauce or mild relish
Hard to know before
Lips touch edge of spoon
Here's the link to
http://hatshepsutnovel.blogspot.com/2010/08/a...
Wednesday, 25 August 2010
Training For A Debut Novel
Murakami likens novel-writing to long-distance running. But I've tried long-distance running and my mind and body rejected the activity. I...
Monday, 16 August 2010
Wednesday, 30 June 2010
What Are You Conscious Admiring Influences?
The title of this post is taken from this excellent interview with China Mieville - Arthur C. Clarke award-winning author of 'Perdidio...
Monday, 21 June 2010
How to Switch Genres With (More) Ease
Not long ago I had to write some stories in the crime and erotica genres. Genres that I never tried to write before. Sure I'd read a lot of...
Monday, 14 June 2010
Writing Prompt: Ponte City
Yes, it's a real building in Johannesburg, its Ponte City- a looming hollow column of once posh apartment blocks. You may have seen it from...
Sunday, 6 June 2010
Character. Actor #2: Atonement
James McAvoy said that portraying the character of Robbie Turner in the film adaptation of 'Atonement' was very difficult, because Robbie...
Friday, 28 May 2010
Alien-ation
I could buy aliens, but not aliens that
look like Fifties’ comic art. They’re semiotic phantoms, bits ...
Monday, 17 May 2010
Cover Art(illery)
Bang! Pow! Zum Tum Tum! Striking sci-fi and horror book covers that make the maximum (positive) impact. Movie tie-in posters and reproduced...
Tuesday, 4 May 2010
Cover Argh!
Horror book covers used to be a ghoulish delight, now I find them rather abstract and minimalist. In the 1980s, I loved the WH Smiths in Finchley...
Saturday, 24 April 2010
Character. Actor #1 : Michael Biehn and Naming
The first in a series of posts that connect acting and characters in a literary and creative writing sense. (Note: 'Actor' is used to include...
Favourite Authors
In no particular order, not an exhaustive list and not excluded to the following;
Ian McEwan
Joseph Conrad
Aldous Huxley
J.G Ballard
Graham...
Tuesday, 13 April 2010
Obscure Horrors
I thought I might save this post for Halloween, but then again, Halloween is a season for carnivalesque safe scares; you pays your money, enter...
Monday, 5 April 2010
Filler Killer
Here's a problem that I don't really talk about as a writer, because I've never encountered it before.
What do you do when you can't make...
Monday, 29 March 2010
American Independent Film Reviews
Click on the link below to read two of my film reviews in the Directory of World Cinema: American Independent. This handsome tome is available...
Monday, 22 March 2010
Random Music Trivia
"Take Me Home " - Sophie Ellis-Bextor (original lyrics sung by Cher)
"She" - Charles Azanour (covered by Elvis Costello)
"(White Man)...
Thursday, 18 March 2010
Friday, 12 March 2010
Celluloid Rehab
Famed, lie low
that's the best choice for us
Seeking escape at the movies.
For a little more
take a hike, or a cruise
Until you get stuck in...
Saturday, 6 March 2010
This Is Really Not A Love Song.
Bruce Springsteen sang in 'No Retreat No Surrender' that you can learn more from a three minute record than you can ever learn in school....
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