The Story Addict podcast has fallen victim to equipment failure and budget cuts after just three episodes. Managing editor of Seeing the Lighter Side, Rebecca Bowyer, confirmed today that production of the podcast would be suspended, effective immediately. “We fully support the dissemination of verbal book reviews for those avid readers who prefer not to […]
on writing
Review: Writing a Novel (the Faber Academy way)
Writing a Novel is the distillation of nearly ten years of Richard Skinner’s experience of teaching the Faber Academy program of the same name. It answers questions from ‘Where will I get my ideas from?’ through to ‘Should I write in first or third point of view?’. Drawing on advice given by every writer from […]
How to succeed in LIFE despite yourself: Kate Toon’s sage advice
Yes, okay. I know that’s not the actual name of the book up there in the page title. It’s actually a book about being an entrepreneur. Except that I really enjoyed Kate Toon’s Confessions of a Misfit Entrepreneur: How to succeed in business despite yourself and I’m not actually an entrepreneur. I love Kate Toon’s copywriting […]
How to be a writer when you don’t want to write literary fiction
I’ve done pretty much every kind of writing there is, apart from features writing and underwriting. My current day job is digital strategy and web content writing – I translate complex technical concepts into plain English and make sure people can find them when they search in Google. I’ve also done copywriting, article writing, fiction […]
Where novel ideas come from – How I build fictional worlds
I write speculative fiction, which means I build fictional worlds that aren’t quite like the world we live in. Spec fic worlds can be completely different – dragons and white walkers – or just a little bit different – like an oppressive regime which strips women of reproductive freedom a la The Handmaid’s Tale. (Only […]
My manuscript is going to the London Book Fair! – #LBF17
The 46th London Book Fair starts today. 25,000 publishing professionals from 124 countries are meeting in London to talk about books and my manuscript is going to be there. Publishers from dozens of countries (okay, so maybe not all 124 of them) are going to be talking about my novel, Maternal Instinct. I may be just a tiny bit excited. […]