If you have managed to miss the exciting news that The Story Collector was reviewed in The Irish Times last weekend, then well done to you because I have been telling everyone I know and many people I don’t! To celebrate, The Story Collector is available to download for 99p all weekend on Amazon and… Continue reading Special Offer
‘There is no such thing as a new idea’, Mark Twain once wrote. Which is bad news for anyone trying to be original! But as he goes on to say, we can create new and endless numbers of new combinations. Still, what if you find that you keep coming up with ideas that have already… Continue reading When Someone Has Already Written Your Book
You know that old cliche – you don’t have to be crazy to work here, but it helps?! Well, welcome to the book business my friend. In the style of Joni Mitchell, I’ve looked at publishing from both sides now – well, three sides to be precise, a triangular perspective with lots of 90 degree… Continue reading Why Writers Are 100% My Type On Paper
Come away, O human child! To the waters and the wild With a faery, hand in hand, For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand THE STOLEN CHILD William Butler Yeats This poem has been knocking on the door of my subconscious for quite a few years now and I’m proud… Continue reading Come Away
A book is a heart that only beats in the chest of another. Rebecca Solnit A very strange thing is happening as my new book, The Story Collector, takes its first tentative steps into the world. Advance review copies are winging their way to people and for the first time in my… Continue reading The Author Is Dead, Long Live The Reader
With the Oscars coming up, I’m reminded of one of my favourite speeches by composer Michael Giacchino for (coincidentally) one of my favourite animation features, UP. Of all the things he could have said, he spoke about the pervading myth/belief that doing something creative is a waste of time. Sure, we honour those at the… Continue reading Be Creative – It’s not a waste of time
I’ve just begun outlining my fourth novel. No-one is more surprised at reading those words than I am! Obviously, I’m still in the honeymoon period, meeting the characters, sussing out locations. There’s nothing like starting back at the beginning to remind you how delicate this process is and how, at one point, writing more than… Continue reading When One Novel Isn’t Enough
