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Man! Am I the laziest blogger ever?! Been writing a short story, ‘Branching Out’ which is a prequel to my second novel ‘Broken Branches’. Originally thought it would be 2,000/3,000 words, so far I’m on 8,500 and it’ll clear 10,000 easy (which classifies it as a ‘Novelette‘, apparently). Also, between the last post and the

I recently read ‘Why I Write‘ by George Orwell and within the essay ‘Politics and the English Language’ lie the ‘writing rules’ sometimes quoted on Twitter and elsewhere online. It’s an interesting essay where he points out that jargon, unoriginal metaphors, padding and ‘humbug’ are used increasingly in politics and creeping into other literary arena’s.

I recently bought an iPad, downloaded the iBooks and Kindle apps and started scouting for freebies. What I found was a wealth of copyright expired classics swaddled within the damp, soiled rags of negligent designers. In this day and age, classics should be treated with a little more care and attention…and here is my idea. Amateur, student,

I haven’t blogged in nearly a month because I’m still going through the 2nd draft, nearly finished. Anyway, in the meantime I thought I’d give away this tshirt in a blatant act of whoring to get some more followers on Twitter and blog visitors. I also run a menswear blog and WeAdmire sent through this

It’s all going off in the world of books at the moment! Today is ‘World Book Day‘ and Saturday is ‘World Book Night‘, not on the same day.  I don’t make up the rules. On book night you can attend an event and get given a free book chosen from a limited selection.  If you’re

Sometimes I think, “What the hell am I doing, who the hell do I think I am?” You know those first few episodes of X-Factor or Britains Got Talent where some self-deranged idiot has convinced themself they can dance/sing/act/juggle but are quite plainly rubbish?  If only they’d recorded themself sing, they’d realise! Sometimes I think

I’m in that sweet spot situated between completing the first draft of my second novel and giving it some breathing room before I go back and see if it’s complete jibberish or not for the second draft. I’m choosing to think positive thoughts at the moment…la, la, la! In trying to clear my mind of

I haven’t blogged for a month because I’ve been busy writing and  planning the remainder of the novel.  I’ve started Chapter 17 and sketched out all the chapters up to the end, Chapter 23. A huge sigh of relief, and in my post-coital bliss I thought I’d post the playlists I write to. I say