October 11th, 2009
November approaches and the question “Are you doing NaNoWriMo this year?” starts to flutter through authors’ blogs, twittering and conversations.
For those of you not familiar with the growing annual online event, NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is a challenge for anyone with the desire to write a novel, to start writing on November 1, and [...]
August 18th, 2009
There has not been much going on here recently, and for good reason.
Persistent Spirit is undergoing a re-write. After having been away from it for a few months, I have returned to write the third full draft. I now fully understand the necessity of the breathing space to allow time before returning to the editing [...]
June 7th, 2009
Yesterday’s series of seminar sessions put on for writers by The Writer’s Handbook, was, unsurprisingly, a mixed bag of great and worthless information. Thankfully, the good stuff more than compensated for the bad.
Our immediate impression was of a room filed with people who do not get out much. But what else might you expect of [...]
June 6th, 2009
Today we are attending a day of seminars put together by The Writers Handbook.
The very reasonably priced day (just £30) appears to be packed with informative sessions tailored to the fledgeling writer.
Sessions cover specifics of the publishing business, talks from literary agents, and appearances by authors willing to share their personal experiences on [...]
February 26th, 2009
This week saw an important step in Persistent Spirit’s development: three volunteers have offered their time to read, edit, and comment on the first ten chapters, and they currently have the text.
For the first time, eyes other than mine are looking over the words I have been poring over for well over a year. I [...]
February 3rd, 2009
As I have discussed fairly recently, plans for TableRappers invariably involve keeping a keen eye on the distant horizon. Last week came the idea for another book in the series.
Book one is in the early stages of its third draft. Well, to be more accurate, it’s second novel draft as the physical second draft was [...]
December 27th, 2008
Just over a year ago and with a very rough, hand written first draft, I decided to start writing and producing a regular audio book series of my first novel, Persistent Spirit. Now that I have struggled through a year of working this way, is it something I would repeat?
There are pros and cons to [...]
October 23rd, 2008
The history of TableRappers is one of planning. Like nothing I had tackled previously, the concept grew from simple ideas into an expanding universe of possibilities. Even after several years, the expansion continues.
I posted on the TableRappers site yesterday an announcement about the fifth book in the series. The concept I have had hanging around [...]
September 28th, 2008
Just a few days before our two week vacation and I have finally managed to select some reading matter to fill up those endless days doing very little. But in these times of writing my own novel, and wanting to take only my Sony Reader, selecting a book was less than straightforward.
Avoiding disappointment
First criteria is [...]
September 15th, 2008
I have been on the search for stories that scare me as much as those I read during my formative years, and I’m struggling to find anything that satisfies.
In addition to the big writing project (TableRappers) and its supplementary tales featuring its characters, I want to create some old-style scary stories. By old style, of [...]