Double Standards Recycling Angst

Why does disposing of a book feel so personal?

Have Book, Will Travel

I’ve asked Clare Wallace, fellow alumna of the 2010 Bristol Short Story Prize, and now a rights manager at Darley Anderson literary agency, to answer some of my questions about foreign rights sales…

Pub/Lit Roundup (2)

It’s another lit-tastic ‘Top 20′ Links and resources for writing, publishing and more…

Layers not Lines

I’ve been trying to explain how I write – without formalising a plot (I think this makes me what is called a Pantser) – to writers who are more used to devising their plot before they start (Plotters). So here goes.

Pens at Dawn

“Have at you scurvy knave, with thy grandiose vocabulary!”

“You cad! You scoundrel! I shall put to death at once all those foul words with which you tarnish my literary delights.”

“Literary delights? I scoff at your arrogance, you mendacious varlet! Thy feet are stuck in the swamps of the past.”

“You are a turncoat and a …

10 Things Children Don’t Say to Writers

My children never ask questions like “Have you got an agent yet?” If I say I am a writer they accept that because they are too young to have forgotten that I’m a super hero.

The Other Side of the Fence

Rejection from a competition or publication is not the same as getting a poor mark at school. Great work will get rejected until it finds the right home.