Thoughts about things I’ve written or read or heard or seen. An attempt to stay positive in a turbulent world.
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Searching for the Secret River
I’ve just finished reading Kate Grenville‘s Searching for the Secret River: it’s brilliant, and a must-read for anyone who writes historical fiction (my second, about-to-be-redrafted, novel is one of those). Searching for the Secret River is a kind and wise book about writing and the process, the stumbling blocks and the breakthroughs. It’s about the gradual...Continue reading→
Personal best
It’s the stories behind the gold medals at London 2012 that have intrigued and heartened me because they apply not only to sport, but to anything we each choose to do or to be or to become. In writing, it is in the rewriting (which often means many many drafts) that the real work begins:...Continue reading→
Beyond the Border …
… is the name of a magical storytelling festival held at St Donat’s Castle in south Wales every other year. It takes its name from Dylan Thomas’s Poem in October. Here are the second, fourth, fifth and seventh verses: My birthday began with the water – Birds and the birds of the winged trees flying...Continue reading→
The London Literature Festival …
… looks absolutely wonderful. It runs between 3 -12 July and Noo Saro-Wiwa and Mark Haddon I’d love to hear, but there’s so much, including a debate about last year’s riots in London, writing classes and much much more. And the thing I would like to have made, this month, is the present series of programmes on...Continue reading→
And now for the third novel …
… which I’ve just begun. Its working title is FOR THE LOVE OF LIFE. That’s to say I’ve begun thinking about it, dreaming on it, planning it and writing a chapter or two (mostly because the writers’ group I belong to is meeting soon and I need some work to submit for their wise attention. Otherwise...Continue reading→
On this centenary of the tragic sinking of RMS Titanic
My great-grandmother, Noël Rothes, set sail from Southampton on RMS Titanic on 10 April 1912. She was one of 2,224 passengers and crew bound for New York. She was also, very luckily for her, one of 712 who were saved. She boarded lifeboat number 8 at 1 am in the morning on 15 April 1912....Continue reading→
No news … is good news?
My agent sent my second novel out to publishers on the 3rd of February and has given them until the 29th (that leap year day) to respond. So, perhaps an editor will ask me, or more to the point my novel, to marry her (or him) on that day. It would be good if s/he...Continue reading→
A new novel for a new year
And so, in the days between Christmas and the dawn of 2012, I reread my second novel and revised it (yes, again, it is truly necessary and all part of the work of a writer) and then, on Sunday, 8 January, 2012, I submitted it to my agent. At lunchtime, by email, if you want...Continue reading→
I don’t teach creative writing …
… I teach patience and stubbornness. So said Richard Bausch, who writes as well as teaching writing. Without patience and stubbornness a writer of fiction would die (fictionally speaking). We need patience while we dream up our characters and discover who they are. We need, as I heard Jeanette Winterson say at the London Book...Continue reading→
Rewriting WRITTEN in WATER, Part 2
I thought perhaps my wonderful editor might have sent me her report on the final draft of WRITTEN in WATER by the beginning of this week, but because she is a careful thoughtful editor it won’t be with me until the end of this week now, to give her the time she needs. But she...Continue reading→