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12 Books in 12 Months

writing books and blogging about it

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May 2013

Edinburgh Literary Salon

By Kyle Bean (http://www.kylebean.co.uk/)
By Kyle Bean (http://www.kylebean.co.uk/)

This evening I am going along to a literary salon in Edinburgh to talk about 12 books in 12 months as part of a literary blog themed event.

I think this sounds rather grand for two reasons.

  1. If you know your history or have a Wikipedia tab open you’ll know salons started in 17th century France as a way to gather lots of very bright types to talk about literature and philosophy. 
  2. I have been known to read a few literary blogs, and they are often maintained by very knowledgable people, far better read than I, who discuss worthy books in a sensible way. 

Then there’s me, struggling for weeks to get through Life of Pi but cheerfully staying up all night to read George R. R. Martin in a hostel in Ljbljana.

Continue reading “Edinburgh Literary Salon” →

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How To Sell An eBook

eotstumblrPeople often ask me, ‘hey Ali! Whaddya do when you’re not writing books, blogging about writing books or blogging about books written by other people?’

Continue reading “How To Sell An eBook” →

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Good News, Everyone

Worst. Conan. Everrr.
Least convincing Conan ever.

My first contribution to The Working Barbarian is now live! You have just under a week to read it and vote on what happens next. 

To explain  – I recently became involved with an online Choose Your Own Adventure story.  Every week someone writes a section, You The Public vote on what happens next, and the baton is passed on to the next writer who writes their bit of the tale based on the results.

Continue reading “Good News, Everyone” →

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How to write a fight scene

fightclubOne of the most difficult things I’ve had to write recently was a guest post for the Fight! Fight! Fight! blog – a website dedicated to pondering what would happen if fictional characters did battle with one another. Yes, it is a niche market.

Part of my issue was that the page is run by my boyfriend, so I knew that when he gave me a deadline he actually had a few posts in hand and there was no real sense of urgency.  If I missed my deadline, something else would take its place.

The other problem I had was that it was not like anything I’ve ever written before.  I had a lot of false starts, because it turns out I’ve never written a proper fight scene – my stories and articles are generally pretty light hearted.  I had no idea how to make it convincing, so in the end I didn’t bother.

It turns out, therefore, that I don’t actually have any helpful advice to give on the subject of writing a fight scene.  Sorry for the misleading title of the post.  Still, if you want an example of how not to do it, you should probably check out the site.  FYI, you may benefit from familiarity with Pride and Prejudice and a thick skin in terms of creative language, as my fight is between Mr Darcy and Malcolm Tucker.

If you want to write a fight, by the way, he is always looking for contributors – you’ll find contact information on the top right of the Fight! Fight! Fight! page.  Hooray for the internet!

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Vote Now, Or Forever Wish You Had

Jala by Eoin Hurl (http://ultimatehurl.tumblr.com/)
Jala by Eoin Hurl (http://ultimatehurl.tumblr.com/)

You may remember a post I posted at the beginning of April, explaining that one of my internet friends had concocted A Brilliant Scheme to pay homage to Choose Your Own Adventure Books via the power of the internet.

The Life And Times of A Working Barbarian is now live, with a blog and a Facebook page to prove it (social media being the only way to gain any clout these days).

Continue reading “Vote Now, Or Forever Wish You Had” →

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Weekly Photo Challenge: From Above

My interpretation of this week’s photo prompt (from above) involved standing on the bed for an aerial view of some of my book collection – something I now regret, because it means having to put the books away again and in my enthusiasm for creating ART I forgot where I picked some of them up.  Also I am staggeringly lazy about tidying.

IMG_0261

If you’re interested, the books are (starting at the top right and going clockwise, as per Sarah Rosso’s original cheese post) : Moranthology by Caitlin Moran, The Luminous Life of Lily Aphrodite by Beatrice Colin*, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon, Return of the Last Gang in Town (a biography of The Clash) by Marcus Gray, Supergods by Grant Morrison*, Dawn of the Dumb by Charlie Brooker, The Digested Read by John Crace, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers*, The Infinite Plan by Isabel Allende, The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson*, The House on Falling Star Hill by Michael Molloy*, Labyrinth by Kate Mosse*, Science in the Twentieth Century and Beyond by Jon Agar*, The Complete Novels of Jane Austen, In Your Dreams by Tom Holt, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon*, The Blue Book by AL Kennedy, Game of Thrones by George R R Martin, Flora Segunda by Ysabeau S. Wilce*, The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, Collected Folk Tales by Alan Garner*, Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murukami, The Penguin Edgar Allan Poe, and The Children’s Book by AS Byatt.  In the middle are Forest of the Pygmies by Isabel Allende, Postsecret by Frank Warren, and a box of Puffin postcards of children’s book covers I bought to decorate my spare room (which also occasionally masquerades as an office/home studio for the recordings of DanDanDan).

Titles with asterisks, by the way, are ones I haven’t read yet.  One of the many reasons I could do with an eccentric millionaire patron is so I can take a year or two off to catch up with all the books on my to read list – these are but the tiniest fraction of the collection.  I buy books like that Sex And The City woman bought shoes, if you need an outdated pop culture analogy.

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