An article about me in the Chester Chronicle has been amusingly plagiarised by a weird French-Canadian blog that for some reason trawls the internet for anything to do with Waterstone’s...

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Michael Bollen's hilarious SF satire, Earth Inc, was released by Picnic Publishing last year. Mike lives in Brighton and as well as writing novels and having a real job in a library, he is also half of the satirical cut-and-paste band Cassetteboy.

We have a signed copy of EARTH INC. to give away! All you have to do to enter the competition is leave a comment below. The Strictly Writers are not allowed to win, but everyone else's name will go into a hat and we'll announce the winner on Sunday.



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The suggestion of turn-of-the-century 'Upstairs, Downstairs' service, performed by a tradesman so cheerful he'd be singing, seemed incongruous, to say the least. High marks for tapping into nostalgia, though.

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I'm going to annoy myself now, because I hate it when people oh-so-wittily start an article with the phrase “It is a truth universally acknowledged...”

But it is a truth universally acknowledged that debut novelists have so many unpublished manuscripts under the bed that there isn't even any room left for monsters.



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Yup, that's precisely what today's been.

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It's very hot here today, a sharav or hamsin, a hot desert wind, so I am staying in. I shall retreat to my cool cellar/workroom shortly, even though it means navigating the heat of the garden. Wish me luck. In the meantime, fellow Salt author and blogger Elizabeth Baines has an excellent article about the short story in the Writers Guild magazine:

...stories seem to me more like poetry than novels, and, having written both stories and novels, I’d also say that in this way they are harder (but also wonderfully satisfying) to write. And the experience of writing them is very different, I find. Writing a novel feels like an ongoing forwards rush (however non-linear the novel), but writing a story is like dropping a stone into water and watching the ripples as they form outwards in every direction.

Elizabeth ends on an optimistic note about the short story (and mentions me, thank you Elizabeth!). Read her article here.

A few more deadlines:

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Witty and incisive comments on the law today. Any feedback would be appreciated. If you have the time and inclination, please check www.david-osborne.com/blog.

Team Role Theory, as defined by Dr R. Meredith Belbin from his research at Henley Management College, explains the individual’s tendency to behave, contribute and interrelate with others in a particular way. We all have certain strengths and weaknesses, but get the right group of people together with the right mix of strengths and the weaknesses can be managed.



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This is kind of like a Rorschach test, but really, does this look like a normal tree to you?...

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