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12 Books in 12 Months

writing books and blogging about it

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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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Public Service Announcement

If you are a Facebook user (and I do appreciate it is not everyone’s cup of tea), this post may be of interest to you.

I recently found out via the always helpful Nicola Morgan’s author page that the site now requires page admins to pay them cash dollars to promote status updates to folk who already ‘Like’ something.  Essentially, if I don’t give them my money (which I haven’t, because come on) 10% or fewer ‘likers’ will receive 12 Books page updates in their news feeds.

What this means is that you are missing out on some super hilarious memes I’ve been scheduling, like this: Continue reading “Public Service Announcement” →

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