I was lucky enough to be invited to facilitate a session at this weekend's Newcastle Noir Literary Crime Festival, held in the Central Library in my old home town of Newcastle. The session was entitled, 'The Men in Black' - due to the fact that the authors interviewed write novels firmly entrenched in the 'real... Continue Reading →
Ok, not a Top 10 of New Fiction of 2018 because, quite frankly, I'm not sure I read 10 books that were originally published last year. That's not to say I didn't read...I did - a lot. But one of my resolutions of the previous year had been to start reading the stuff I actually... Continue Reading →
Given I have been so damned nice about pretty much everything and everyone I have written about on this blog so far, I think I should get a pass for one day of grumpy-middle-aged-man. So, it's a beautiful bright autumnal Sunday morning - perfect for a long countryside ramble or, if you're like me, to... Continue Reading →
This afternoon, Sunday 4th November at 4pm UK time, I'm going to try something different: I'll be appearing on an internet radio show entitled Stratford Words : (http://www.welcomberadio.co.uk) I've never done a radio show about writing in general, or my writing in particular. It's going to be a one hour interview with the show's host, Nick... Continue Reading →
A bit of a random post today...but one I wrote for RagTagMagpie some time ago, and, in these post Halloween days thought I'd share here... * Mary Shelley, born in 1797, had a life as Gothic as her novels: her mother died when she was less than a month old, she engaged in a romantic relationship... Continue Reading →
So it's that time of the year again, and once I've finished scaring the bejesus out of the local kids (I'm on a strict warning to tone things down, after 'the-night-no-one-came because 'what the hell was that you put in your window?-incident-of-2016....') and doling out enough sweets to push Cadbury's shares up by another 2%,... Continue Reading →
A short one today because there's a whole lot going on and coming up... But given we're now at October 13th, I thought it might be time for the Halloween countdown to begin. (You know, reverse the numbers...or something?) Over the next couple of weeks I'll be posting up some Halloween stuff: movies, novels, shorts,... Continue Reading →
This list of a hundred resources is, as I've previously written, going to be a mixed bag of stuff. Many websites will tell you the classic writing manuals you should have in your possession, and there's a fair chance a few of them will appear in this list at some point. But as I get... Continue Reading →
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (2008) The tag line in the poster above sums up as much as you should know about this documentary: On Nov 5 2001, Dr. Andrew Bagby was murdered. To memorialize him, his friend Karl began making a documentary film. Then the killer revealed she... Continue Reading →
Today while clearing up my writing space I came across my old Macbook, last used approximately four years ago...(my son loved the Mac, I've never really got on with them myself but did use it occasionally for movie editing and sometimes a bit of writing...) Anyway, I found some interesting things on there (if interesting... Continue Reading →
