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But it is a truth universally acknowledged that debut novelists have so many unpublished manuscripts under the bed that there isn't even any room left for monsters.



Read Full Post

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

Read Full Post

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:

Read Full Post

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.



Read Full Post

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

Read Full Post

Writing, he said, as well as reading, developed ‘the transformative act of generosity that is the moral basis of fiction – the willingness to enter into the lives of others'.

He wasn’t going to get any arguments from an appreciative bookshop audience.



Read Full Post

Everyone involved with the photo book has been amazingly generous. And it gets better because Jilly Duffy-Unwin (whose amazing work is up with ours at the exhibition) told me earlier that she wants to donate a big percentage of anything that's made from her work at the exhibition to the Alzheimer's Society too.

Wow.

And thanks.

Aren't people just lovely!

Read Full Post

This afternoon was spent in the company of the lovely and talented Katherine Lewis and the lovely and talented Jilly Duffy-Unwin (who doesn't have a website but really, really should). We were at the Cafe Waterside to set up our exhibition of stories and photos which we're sharing with Jilly's brilliant paintings and textiles. And it looks brilliant. I'm very, very pleased.

Read Full Post