The advice most often offered to an aspiring writer is to be concise, to use as few words as possible to convey meaning. To that end, I think we need a campaign to adopt a bunch of words from other languages. After all, English has grown largely by this process, we should simply focus our … Continue reading Concise [ kuhn-sahys ]: Expressing or covering much in few words
Writing
Believe Your Own Eyes
Having written a little about Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, it's time to turn the spotlight on another work by the Renaissance genius. This is the cartoon of The Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John The Baptist, formerly known as The Burlington House Cartoon. It hangs in the National Gallery in London. … Continue reading Believe Your Own Eyes
The Mysterious Mona Lisa
'All Visible Things' narrates the fictional tale of the discovery of the diaries of one Paolo del Rosso, assistant to Leonardo da Vinci. Along the way, the book also exploits the complicated saga of the Mona Lisa. There is fairly compelling evidence that the painting in the Louvre, La Gioconda or the Mona Lisa, is … Continue reading The Mysterious Mona Lisa
Another one on its way
Just uploaded the corrected file for 'Empress' to CreateSpace. Should be available on Amazon in a couple of days. Always an exciting, and nerve-wracking moment!
The historical background to ‘Empress’
It's been a while, but I have been busy. After the usual busy Dordogne summer, I got back into writing with 'Empress', a novel inspired by a true story. While researching a project about the history of Glasgow, my hometown, I came across the tragic and enigmatic story of the 'Empress of Britain'. Launched by … Continue reading The historical background to ‘Empress’
Why I write
I just learned a few minutes ago, that the reason I write is my characters. I've just finished defining, creating one of my key characters, who I KNOW I'M GOING TO KILL! I am truly, really sad. Five days ago, he barely existed; but now, he is a real, breathing person. And I'm going to … Continue reading Why I write
Amazon cultural imperialism
Since launching 'Bunco' at the beginning of May, it has had 10 Amazon reviews, 8 on .co.uk and one each on .com and .fr. Because there is only 1 review on Amazon.fr, the review from the US shown. On the UK site, with 8 'native' reviews, Amazon just includes a link to the US site. On the … Continue reading Amazon cultural imperialism
Writing Tools
The great thing about writing is that all you need is a pen and paper. Except my writing is largely illegible, even to me. So I use my laptop. And then, of course, there is the matter of publishing, which adds more complexity. So all in all, I used quite a few bits and pieces … Continue reading Writing Tools
What did I learn?
I learned several things in the process of writing 'Bunco'. I'll try to generate a series of posts focussing on the main lessons. This one will be about the relative weight of some of the various elements mentioned in this graphic by Christopher LaPorte on his extraordinarily beautiful website. I'll touch on grammar in another … Continue reading What did I learn?
First blog post
My first blog post. The screen really does look very empty and white! About six or seven months ago, I started to write a novel. I actually forget what its working title was, but it soon became 'Bunco'. This wasn't close to being the first time I had decided to attempt writing a novel. I … Continue reading First blog post
Aiming for a Writer's Life 