Smoke and Mirrors: Post-Postmodernity.
Haven’t blogged in a long, long time. Perhaps because I haven’t been annoyed enough. Rage is the fission required to motivate passion. Passion is the seed of creation. Flowery, I...
Throwaway Technology
Three days ago, I switched on my main work PC and heard one long beep followed by three shorter ones. The machine booted but the display was blank. Checking a...
The Booker Re-Run
In 1971 the Booker switched from being a retrospective of the previous year’s pile of letters to the cutting edge taking of the literary pulse it aspires to be. So,...
Breaking into Writing
How do you break into the literary world? In an interview with Wired, Paolo Bacigalupi, tells us it’s 85% graft, 5% inspiration, and 10% reading lots of fantasy and SF magazines… sort...
Print is Dead, Long Live Print
I wonder if 2010 will be the year that mainstream marketing starts to understand the reach of online publishing. A recent exchange I had doesn’t bode well for it: “Hi...
Gadget of the Year
My pick for gadget of 2009 is a lightweight reading device, containing between 60,000 and 600,000 or more words of text. The catalogue of titles beats every e-reader out there, with...
They’re Plotting Against Me!
People (tutors, writers, other students) have told me the same thing in different configurations: “Characters drive the narrative!” I nod. I agree. I go back to quietly and tightly plotting...
Holden Back the Years
I’m reading The Catcher in the Rye for the fifth time – following on from a week dipping into Borges’ short story collection Labyrinths, The contrast between these two experiences...
I Love Spotify
I love Spotify. No one has paid me to say this. I am free to say “Spotify is as rancid as an old plum that’s been stored for ten years in...