My Blog
How Stephanie Meyer Wrote Twilight
For the third in my series on authors talking about how they get their ideas I've chosen the current doyenne of teen books, Stephanie Meyer. The story of how she got the idea for Twilight in a dream is well known but what I found interesting are the steps she took...
Writing for Children
Alongside my series of posts on how authors get ideas I've decided to write up my own, slightly anarchic take on writing for children. This series of tips and thoughts on the subject will be entirely random. It's intended for both wannabe and more established authors...
Is the Brit Lit Scene Lowbrow?
An (American) friend shared a link to a New York magazine article on which literary scene is more stuck up - the British or the American. In reality, the article was referring to London and New York, both of which consider themselves the default setting for their...
Margaret Atwood on Oryx & Crake
For the second in my series on great authors talking about how they get ideas, here is Margaret Atwood on fabulously witty form discussing Oryx and Crake:
Authors and Ideas Part One: Stephen King on Duma Key
One of the most frequent questions I get asked as an author is where I get my ideas from. It got me thinking - not only about where I get my own ideas but how other writers dredge them up from the murky soup of the subconscious. I thought I'd do a series of posts on...
Gurkha Injustice
It goes without saying that the government ruling on the Gurkhas' rights (or not) to live in the UK is a shameful slap in the face to men who served the country with the utmost valour. My dad served with the Gurkhas. Gurkha soldiers helped teach me to ride as a...