Jan Kozlowski is a freelance writer and web consultant, who lives in Connecticut with her husband of 24 years, a neurotic German shepherd mix named Louie, and 8 rescue cats. She chatted to me about her new book, why e-books are the new pulp fiction, and why you should write what you love.
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I am taking the weekend off, as I’m sure you are too, to watch Game of Thrones and read books and eat chocolate. This is what public holidays are for. However, if you want something else to entertain you, why not try online Madlibs? Yeah, you read right, Madlibs. Remember them? That may depend how old you are… but basically you stick in a bunch of verbs and adjectives and the like and it rewrites a piece of literature for you, like Hamlet’s third soliloquy:
To be, or not to admire, – that is the chocolate;
Whether ’tis nobler in the magic to suffer
The slings and kittens of tasteless fortune,
Or to take eggs against a sea of eggs,
And by giving end them. To die, – to compete, –
No more; and by a compete to say we end
The turkey and the five billion natural shocks
That flesh is taxidermist to, – ’tis a raven
suddenly to be wish’d. To die, – to compete,-
To compete! perchance to precede! ay, there’s the popcorn;
For in that compete of death what muffins may come
When we have radiated off this raspy coil,
Must give us jellybabies….
It’s hours of literary fun, I tell you – not to mention, like, totally wacky.
If you want to make it in a creative industry, I am told, you have to network.
Gone are the days of the reclusive author who is read but not seen; your Salingers, Pynchons and Becketts. Writers must put themselves out there if they want support for their output, because contacts in the right places get you paid work. I’ve even read in several places that if you want to be a hack or write comedy, you should find out where your favourite journalists, editors or producers drink then hang around the same pub till you get chatting. Because that’s not creepy or weird, especially for those of us commuting from Edinburgh to London…
Continue reading “How Not To Network”
A Literary Death Match is a wonderful thing.
For some reason I had assumed that everyone would have heard of it by now, but apparently not, so I shall explain. Literary Death Match is an event where writers compete against one another for the adulation of their peers, or failing that the approval of a live audience and panel of judges. Four writers read their stuff for up to seven minutes (any longer and they get shot) and are whittled down to two according to the criteria of literary merit, performance, and intangibles. They then go head to head in a final round that doesn’t involve reading, but is in some way literary – for instance Tuesday’s champion was ultimately decided by spelling bee.
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Steve Augarde is an author, illustrator and paper engineer who has written four novels for older kids and over 70 picture books for younger ones. He also provided the artwork and music for Bump the Elephant, a cartoon you may remember if you were a small person or parent in the early 1990s. I spoke to him about designing pop up books, 30 years of writing for children, and the possibility he may be responsible for electronic birthday cards…
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Occasionally, the fact I sign my name as the fairly androgynous ‘Ali’ leads people to assume I am a man. This belies the fact that however peppered with links to my online endeavours my email signature may be, most recipients of my missives can’t be arsed clicking them.
Continue reading “Should You Choose a Pseudonym?”
12 Books in 12 Months 