Jul 27 2011
Hey, guess what? Songs of the Earth got a mention in the Sunday Times! Unfortunately, that mention turned out to be little more than a single line of internal dialogue quoted out of context†, with the admonition that lines like that aren’t going to do anything to make fantasy cool. Um, what? Who says a …
Dec 09 2010
It’s hard enough being an unpublished writer, struggling along with the rest of the teeming multitude, trying to get noticed, so why the heck do we make things harder for ourselves by perpetuating myths, misunderstandings and downright untruths about the process of being published? Hang about in any writer’s community, be it online or in …
Mar 03 2010
…for I have sinned. I’ve never read George RR Martin. Don’t ask me why, because I really couldn’t say. I adore the title of the series “A Song of Ice and Fire”. I’ve just never found myself motivated to pick up one of his books. Actually, tell a lie, I did pick up a copy …
Oct 24 2009
The unsung ones, now quietly dropping off their respective perches and we never know anything about them until their obituary shows up in the newspaper. And you read it, and you think to yourself: “Bloody hell!” and sit there, quite stunned. Freddie Spencer Chapman is one such. Worked behind enemy lines in the Malaya campaign …
Sep 30 2009
Quite a lot, actually. A lot of to-ing and fro-ing, trying to find one that looks right, sounds right, balances well on a book cover and isn’t too hard to pronounce (so you don’t end up with lots of confused readers in the bookstore who want to buy your book but don’t know how to …
Aug 17 2009
…I entered a short story competition organised to celebrate the author Douglas Reeman‘s 25 years in print. Somehow, I won, with a rousing Napoleonic War frigate action in the Med. This was 1984, and I was a whole 15 years old. I got to meet Douglas for lunch in Mayfair and was thoroughly charmed by …