We are deep into what I believe is the most important electoral cycle of my lifetime. Unsurprisingly, a lot of people are engaged, fired up and motivated in all sorts of ways. I am seeing this on my Twitter account, where people who self-identify as writers are posting tangentially or directly political tweets. This, of course, leads to a spectrum of reactions from “nah, not my scene” to “HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT ABOUT MY […]
Writing and politics Read More »
From time to time, I find myself reading books that, for whatever reason, lack interest and stop engaging me. One particular type of book where this happens is autobiographies. There are a number of interlocking reasons why this can be true: The person in question is writing a hagiography, and therefore it is all “I am great and I did this” content, with nothing remotely complete, rounded, or informative about their life The person does
The disappearance of interest – autobiographies Read More »
One of the interesting aspects of writing fiction is that, unless you decide to use existing locations, you have to invent stuff. For Books of Loukas, I decided fairly early on that although the locations would bear more than a passing resemblance to places I have visited or which I know about, I would not, except in the broadest geographical sense, use real places. Instead I would invent places, although I wanted them to be
Inventing Stuff – Archipelagos Read More »
I thought I would share my thought process behind the working cover for a novelette that I (Belem, not that staid and more conventional Rupert guy) wrote over the Christmas period. Synopsis: Nikki is invited to a very different type of Christmas party where she and her friend Carole, among other people, will be the Christmas gifts, to be presented to other party guests for their delectation and delight. The photo: I purchased this from
Anatomy of a Belem Knight Novelette cover Read More »
I was involved in a brief discussion this morning about whether one should revise an ebook after publication. My answer was: Of course. One of the supposed massive advantages of a digital publication medium is that you can update ebooks. At least one ebook that I purchased some time ago, APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur by Guy Kawasaki, was updated a few years after its initial publication. I was notified by Amazon that the book had been
Revising your book after publication Read More »