This one's a tough one: and if you don't get it, you can just f**k off. Offended by that directional suggestion? You're in the right place... The first bout of indignant outrage I remember feeling about criticism of my writing probably dates back to being about 11. (You can see already I don't handle... Continue Reading →
In light of an upcoming talk I'm giving on 'Introduction to Film' I thought it might be useful to put up a couple of posts to give an idea on the movies I like... * As with the previous Horror films list, many of these movies are not 'underrated' exactly- a number of them received... Continue Reading →
Do you know an author? I don't mean you live next door to one of the big guns like James Patterson, Lee Childs or Jordan. I mean a humble, self-publishing/ small press/ indie publisher author? Do you get sick of them: a) asking you to read their stuff (preferably by buying it...which you feel obliged... Continue Reading →
Once more into the Yikes of Yesteryear... Because Joe was too tied up in School work (ahem) we took a different approach, as he was introduced to some of the classics which formed his list. Oh, and my true feelings for Claudia Winkleman were nearly exposed for the world to see.
“Once upon a time…” - Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm * This morning I was reading an article on the best opening lines in the history of the novel and got to thinking about how important they are: be it in a novel or a short story. After the cover, after the back-copy... Continue Reading →
As should be fairly obvious by now I love a good story (and can stomach, even write, a mediocre one.) I also love music - I generally have something playing in the background when I'm writing, driving, cooking, whatever. And sometimes I even listen to that music - I mean properly listen to it. This... Continue Reading →
* That aren't actually Novellas. So, having defined in overly simplistic terms the novella in part 1, and discussed five books which could, sort of in a general kind of way, be considered to be novellas in part 2, this post blurs the line even further by looking at 5 short novels that all fall... Continue Reading →
So, in an earlier post I wrote about what a Novella was, in broad terms. With those thoughts in mind, here are five great novellas according to that 17.5 to 40k word count definition* . (*Except where one of them isn't...) This list is not obscure at all; the chances are they're all familiar to... Continue Reading →
Writing my most recent short story - a submission for a forthcoming print anthology - I raced past the minimum 7k and at some point realized I'd passed the 13k maximum with half of the story left to tell. I ended up with a 24k beast. I'll reduce it down - it certainly needs it,... Continue Reading →
Following on from part 1 of the underappreciated/ underrated comedies here are another five movies I think deserve to be seen more. As always, no claim that these are the best of all time, but films I went into knowing little about or having limited expectations and being very pleasantly surprised by. Most of these are... Continue Reading →
