Category Archives: Writing & Publishing

If you were harbouring any ideas about the wonders of being a first time novelist, read this. So its a tough world out there. Does this really take anyone by surprise? Are there people out there who think establishing a career as a professional novelist is just a matter of pitching up on an MAContinue reading “Its Tough Out There”

An interesting breakdown of the literary fiction genre by Toby Litt. Its refreshing to see someone usualy heavily associated with LitFic abandon the partisan position and admit that at bottom is just another genre. Toby is in a good place to comment, being represented by the Mic Cheetham agency who happen to also have IainContinue reading “The Litt Fic Genre”

Note to self: send story to Anne Vandermeer, new fiction editor of Weird Tales. Full release here

There is a great little post over at Tobias Buckel’s blog about hustling for freelance work to support a writing career. I’m not sure I’d advise taking out a six month loan (thats about 10 – 12k!) unless you are uber serious, totally confidant in your writing skills and have at least a few publicationsContinue reading “Word Hustler”

Agent and former leading SF / Fantasy editor John Jarrold on the route to publication. More information about John here Or see the original thread at the TTA Press forum here ***** This does vary from company to company, but here is the general route for a new writer: Basically, every editor in London willContinue reading “99% Crap”

I’ve long observed a natural pattern fall into place with each new writing project. Writing session one passes in a haze of bedazzled excitement as the possibilities of the story at hand hand unfold in your imagination like a glorious summer bloom. Session two is usualy tinged by the belief that you aren’t quite getting down onContinue reading “Handling the Hate”

M John Harrison has posted an interesting response to the question of realities within fiction on the TTA Press forum. Believe it or not I’ve actualy spent quite a bit of time debating this issue myself. Not that you could tell that by my contribution to the thread. I agree with MJH, but it doesn’tContinue reading “The World in a Drop of Water”

I’ve had an odd evening. I did the last set of edits on the story for the Beeb (now finished and with producer..yay!). I sent a longer version of the same story to an editor of a US magazine that I had sent a paper copy to months ago but they had lost it, andContinue reading “How Many Writers Can You Fit In A Mini?”

I woke up this morning to discover that the British Library and a collection of their National Trust partners had declared today a sort of national blog day. In an attempt to capture the minutiae of ordinary life our nations bastions of learning have invited the normal everyday of people to toddle along to theContinue reading “British Library Discovers Blogs…And Only a Decade Late”

An idea I seem to have stumbled into three times in as many weeks…the ‘breakout’ artist. Every type of art gets them from time to time. Folk music got Dylan. Kids books just got JK Rowling. Sports get them as well, basketball got Michael Jordan. Something about an individuals work gets them noticed far andContinue reading “The Next Big Thing?”

I wish I could say I left Yahoo! as part of a principled stand against their activities in China, or as a protest against their horrendously corporate identity. Perhaps these things crossed my mind, but the truth is I left because Yahoo! stopped working. There is no doubt that Yahoo! represents the worst of theContinue reading “Evil Yahoo!”

You know how it is. Or at least you do if you spend some small part of your time on web forums as I do. You find repeating themes in the posts you are reading, and in your answers to them. Ideas begin sparking in the tiny mind you (and I) have access to andContinue reading “The SF Genre?”