Archive for December 2012
The History Business
I see from today’s newspapers that the British Government is proposing a change in the way history is taught in school, by which they mean abandonment of the Pick’n’Mix Method and a return to teaching in chronological sequence. White males are to be included in the curriculum again too, before we reach the point where…
Read MoreSite Report
One of my readers wrote to enquire how the revisions are going and to ask what kind of writer am I? The kind, for instance, who has everything carefully plotted before a single word gets written? No, I’m not. That’s my problem. I’m a seat of the pants writer. Because my novels are character-driven, as soon as I have the character…
Read MoreWriters' Aids
Someone asked me recently why a writer would bother having a website and the best I could manage (apart from the fact that it provides the creative ego with yet another red carpet upon which to strut their stuff) is that readers like to know about their favourite writers. Funny really, because so many of…
Read MoreChristmas Already
Christmas just came early for me. My publishers shouted down my burrow this afternoon to let me know that Kathy Stevenson of the Daily Mail named A Humble Companion as one of her picks of the year. I don’t know who this wise and discerning book critic is but she certainly made my Friday. Revisions of next year’s book are…
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