Yay, I’ve finished the first draft of a short story. To be honest, I don’t think it’s very good, but I’ve got something I can improve later. More importantly, it’s the first new story I’ve finished for a while. I’ve done plenty of non-fiction and submitting, but very little fiction writing.
Support Roberto Saviano!
Roberto Saviano wrote a book about the Camorra – the Neopoltan Mafia. So they say they’re going to kill him by Christmas. That was a bit dumb of them really, because it’s the main reason I bought the book, and I suspect it’s the main reason it’s a best seller. It hasn’t arrived yet, but I see it’s getting very mixed reviews on Amazon. I get the impression from the…
Wired jaw.
For some time now, my son’s been having dental treatment to straighten his teeth and correct a severe under-bite. First he had a thingamy to wear at night to pull his jaw forwards. Then he had to wear it during the day, too, which caused rows. Once he grew up enough to wear it properly, his jaw gradually slid into place. Then he had traditional braces to straightent he teeth…
Advantages of Writing: #1
One of the advantages of being a writer is that they can’t put you in solitary confinement. Wherever they put me, my whole cast of characters comes too. When you talk to God, it’s called praying.When God talks to you, it’s called paranoid schizophrenia.When a headful of imaginary people talk to you, it’s called being a fiction writer. So I’m a writer because the voices tell me so. Which is…
El Hierro again
I spent the weekend visiting a friend on El Hierro. We went for a holiday this summer ( see The End of the World) and shortly afterwards, my friend took a job there. So I abandoned my family on Friday lunchtime and got on the plane. The landscape around Isora looks a lot like the Yorkshire Dales – lots of dry stone walls and short grass. And then you notice…
The Cat’s Meow
Part of the secret of absorbing fiction is to make it vivid. After all, you’re more likely to remember that you’re just watching a TV programme if you see it on a black and white portable instead of a wide-screen colour TV. As writers, we don’t have colours and screens to work with, we only have words. And words or phrases the reader has seen a million times before get…