A lot of writers have day jobs. Making a living from wordsmithery alone is not as easy as it was in the days of Shakespeare, when all you had to do was be one of two local writers that could hold a quill in order to go down in history. These days everyone with a notes function on their phone can have a go, slush piles are the size of the giant redwood, and rather than trawling through them publishers turn to the equally underqualified beautiful celebrities instead. I think that’s how it works, anyway – this précis is brought to you by much reading of articles on the state of publishing today and not through direct experience of having my own work passed over in favour of very tall footballer Peter Crouch. Continue reading “When Writers Commute”
Earlier in the week, a tweet asking the above question made it into my Twitter timeline. This is not my question, hence the fact I have presented it in quotation marks. It was, based on the rules of punctuation, a question asked by BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme. Check this oot: Continue reading ““Do Women Have Too Many Rights?” – A Clickbait Conundrum”
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Happy World Book Night! Yes, it’s back, the annual event that sees volunteers give out free books to encourage a love of reading. However, this year (2017, fact fans) The Reading Agency has approached things a little differently. Rather than distributing free copies of Cloud Atlas willy nilly like a benevolent bookish Easter Bunny, they have stated their intent to be targeted, matching books with specific groups in society who may not read much. Continue reading “How to Recommend A Book”
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As a writer you have to get used to rejection, even if you’re pretty good. ‘No’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘give up, you terrible excuse for a human, and go live in a hole somewhere whilst you think about what you’ve done.’
Continue reading “Four Favourite Rejections”
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Have you ever sat down and made a list of the main characters in books and pop culture you identify with? It can tell you a lot about yourself. Why not grab a bit of paper or the notes function on your phone and do it before you click read more? I’ll wait.
Continue reading “What Do Your Literary Heroes Say About You?”
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When I was about 9, I was involved in an altercation with an authority figure that turned out to be quite formative for me.
Continue reading “Monkey Business”
