Best-Seller for a… Couple More Days

Last weekend (was that just three days ago?) I had a free book giveaway on Amazon for my time travel thriller, TimeSplash (that’s it in the left-hand column if you want to pick up a copy). As my previous post says, it was an exciting moment. A book that had spent almost two years [...]

Is Being Ignored Worse Than Rejection?

Lately, four of the self-published authors I follow (on their blogs and Twitter) have said that they are giving up. Some are giving up writing altogether, some are giving up their attempts to be successful. Four is quite a rash and I wonder if it is a sign of things to come. The three [...]

Sunshine

Sunshine is inimical to writing. The grass grows and has to be cut. The weeds grow and have to be killed. The fruit grows and has to be coddled like a baby. The dog staggers to the shadows, and drops. That seat among the tress beckons like a favourite vice. You take your laptop [...]

The Kindle App on My Smartphone

A profound change has come upon me. No, it’s not the male menopause, although I’m long overdue for a red sports car and a dab of Rogaine. No, this change is based on the realisation that from this week onward, whatever I’m doing, wherever I am, I will never be without a book to [...]

Interview Monday

Interviews are clearly like buses: you wait ages for one and then two turn up at the same time. That’s what happened today.

An Interview with Alaskan Bookie

You will remember the Alaskan Bookie site recently gave my time travel thriller, TimeSplash, a five-star review. Well, afterwards, Dorothy, who runs the site, asked me [...]

TimeSplash the Audiobook is Available Now

Well, it was a long and strange journey, but my time travel thriller, TimeSplash, is now available as an audio book – thanks to my newest publisher, Iambik Audiobooks. So, as we speak, TimeSplash is on sale as a self-published ebook and as a commercially published audio book, and it is in production at [...]

Yasmin needs brain surgery but can’t afford it

It is a sad and terrible indictment of the society in which we live that a woman like Yasmin McKillop might die because she can’t afford the surgery that could save her life. Yasmin is a young woman, a nurse who cares for old people at my local hospital. She’s one of those lovely [...]

Writing Novels Is Hard, But I Enjoy The Struggle

I’m 24,000 words into my new novel and I can’t help thinking about the process I’m going through as I hammer this story out, word by word.

Novels take a long time to write. Well, they take me a long time. Some people bang out several in a year. I’m happy if I can [...]

Is This Goodbye?

Ah well, better luck next time.

After all, it’s the Rapture tomorrow. This could be the last anyone hears from me. Which gives me such a cool idea. What if I just disappear tomorrow – take no luggage, no credit cards, leave no note, just vanish. I could then sit on a beach [...]

May the Fourth (3 GWC) Be With You

Yes, it’s that time of year again. For the many people who weren’t around on May 4th 2008 when I posted my first “hello world” from my brand new writing blog – that is, all of you – May 4th 2008 is the date from which I reckon my writing career began. So as [...]