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November 20, 2017
The noir of Fury
No Fury Like That is the reason I started investigating noir. As I mentioned in my intro piece, I was a little taken aback by the fury in Fury! And I wondered, is it noir? And, if so, what kind of noir ...
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November 17, 2017
The noir playing fields of YA
Today we'll leave the scotch-soaked detectives of noir at the bar and move on to the dark playing fields of YA! We have the great pleasure of chatting to the über-talented Evan Munday, author of The ...
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July 30, 2018
The Part of It You Don't See
If you’ve been reading my dispatches over the last month, you might have inferred that making a go of it as a writer is hard. Bending reality, memory, knowledge and experience into believable fiction, ...
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November 08, 2018
The Persistence Needed to Publish
In my first post I talked about finding the motivation to write. The second post was about having the patience needed to get through the writing process. If you managed all of that and are now thinking ...
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September 18, 2023The Places I Write, Rated
I’ll write anywhere but not all writeable spaces are equal. My latest novel was written all over the place (see: How to Write a Novel in a Month) and if I learned anything from that experience it’s ...
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July 24, 2020The Power of a Great Title
We all know about the power of a good cover, but what about the power of a great title?I’ve worked in publishing for nearly fifteen years now and attended upwards of seventy-five tradeshows across ...
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June 26, 2017The Pram in the Hall
There is no more sombre enemy of good art than the pram in the hall. – Cyril ConnollyMy son Gabe and his wonderful partner Anna got married on the weekend. It was a joyous wedding, a moving ceremony ...
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July 30, 2016The Problem with First Books
In an interview with New York magazine’s Vulture blog, comic book creator Brian K. Vaughan makes clear his feelings about his early work:Do you go back and read many of your older books?Oh, God, no. ...
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October 29, 2015
The Problem with Working for Free
When I first started writing, I took any opportunities I could.First, I interned at a magazine for a high co-op program. Later, I wrote CD reviews for free, got a few poems published in some zines, and ...
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December 16, 2011The Pros (and Sometimes Pratfalls) of Giving Your Books to the Library
In a fit of pre-Christmas cleaning I decided to donate some unwanted books to a good cause. My bookshelves were weeded out and a giant bag of donations was duly packed, ready for transportation to my ...