Colds do two things to me. They make me bad tempered in a grouchy kind of way. And they make me want to take shelter from all things in a book. Today I hid out in the audiobook of Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (Read very well but not by Bradbury unfortunately. Note to authors:Continue reading “Show me the risk taking writers”
Category Archives: Writing Journal
Writing Sci-Fi Short Fiction
I’ll be teaching a five week course in Writing Sci-Fi Short Fiction here in Leicester from 12th January. I was recently challenged to come up with reasons to attend this course on Twitter. My answer? By the end of five weeks you will have written, edited and submitted a complete short story. And I keepContinue reading “Writing Sci-Fi Short Fiction”
Pub Grub
Ate the most amazing beef stew (with mustard mash and kale) at The Pub this evening. Their new chef previously cooked for Gordon Ramsay in London, and oh my good god can the lad cook. A well cooked pub meal on a cold December night is one of the most comforting things I can imagine.Continue reading “Pub Grub”
Speculations
I’m live blogging from The Speculators writing group here in Leicester. We are sitting in silence, writing. I’m taking a few minutes away from working on The Hundredth Master of Ninja Assassin. Writing in a group is one of my favourite things. The Speculators meet every Wednesday and write for two hours (with occasional outburstsContinue reading “Speculations”
Keep them doggies rollin’
I’ve developed a taste for finishing things. Finishing things has long been my problem. Of Heinlein’s Rules, number 2 is the one I break time and again. There are reasons. I’ve been learning to write, many of my unfinished stories will stay that way because I’ve learned what I needed to learn from them. AndContinue reading “Keep them doggies rollin’”
At the heart of the maze i will find
I finished a rewrite of Clocks over the weekend. The result were many corrected misuages of the noble apostrophe and a new title ‘At the heart of the maze i will find’, the lower case i being a deliberate feature to fox autocorrect software. I’m starting to reach a pattern with titles, where the usualyContinue reading “At the heart of the maze i will find”
Clocks, bookshops, gothic fairies and Wolfes
I finished a new short story this evening. Its one of those stories that isn’t so much written as grown. Its been sitting on my desktop for a year. Every so often I add anything from a few lines to an entire paragraph. I think of this as writing by accrual. The story builds upContinue reading “Clocks, bookshops, gothic fairies and Wolfes”
Ask not what your ‘zine can do for you
I spent most of this Sunday evening planning out a talk I’m giving tomorrow on the subject of The Entrepreneurial Writer. Part of this talk could be called ‘How to get ahead in the cut throat egotistical world game of being a writer’, but mostly I am talking about how writers are important to communities,Continue reading “Ask not what your ‘zine can do for you”
Writing on the Hoof
Writers do not live in sync with the rest of humanity. Normal people have free time. Writers have time when they should be writing. This weekend I have been trying to combine the two. I’ve been on a tour of the new cultural institutions around my city, including the Fabrika independent arts centre, Phoenix SquareContinue reading “Writing on the Hoof”
Phoenix Square
Today was the official public opening of Phoenix Square, Leicester’s new independent cinema and digital media centre. As a mobile worker my main demand of any new cultural centre in my city of residence is that it provide a decent place for me to sit and answer emails, and I’m happy to say that PhoenixContinue reading “Phoenix Square”
Story McNuggets
Today I observed a pattern in my writing. I have been working on a story that goes by the working title of Clocks for some months now. It is one of those stories that emerges by accumulation. Every so often I add another paragraph, or a sentence, or even just a word. It is nowContinue reading “Story McNuggets”
Leicester vs. Nottingham
It’s just over mid way through NaNoWriMo and my home city of Leicester are down 1,101,763 words to 1,471,111 against nearby Nottingham. Come on Leicester…just write fish over and over again! I made the sane choice of not doing NaNoWriMo this year, I have another writing target that takes precedent which I will reveal atContinue reading “Leicester vs. Nottingham”
Damien Walter 