I can’t help but get excited when I see an old book with this kind of traditional font. It doesn’t really matter what it’s about, the very feel of it adds gravitas and a suggestion of learning. It’s a bit like old people being deserving of respect, they may have been useless nutters in their youth, so you should listen to them. I think old...

The Old Man His long, bony fingers reached out, quivering with age. He picked up the metal tin and the unsecured lid fell to the floor; spinning faster and faster as it clattered to a halt on the tiled floor. With a long sigh, he dipped his fingers into the almost empty tin, scraping what he could from the edges with his brown nails. Putting the tin down with painful...

My keen eyed reader will have noticed that I recently mentioned my first tentative steps towards a new novel. Being far more of a techy than a writer, I obviously spent far more time worrying about how to organise the writing process rather than doing much writing and thinking. Clearly I could have repeated my previous process, write in Word and backup via FTP to...

A new year and some new fun to have. After much faffing, I’ve started writing another book. Under the sagely advice of Stu, I have stopped working on the plot that has been kicking about for ages now and, with his help, have thrashed out something entirely different to have a go at. Something different is the key point I think. If I’m honest, I’m...

During one of my endlessly entertaining blethers with Obverse Books supremo Stuart Douglas last week, I realised I had been remiss in playing my part in the promotion of the latest in the Obverse Books series of Iris Wildthyme books, Iris Abroad. The 4th in the Obverse Books Iris series, it has the distinction of featuring a story by yours truly. I should point out...

A final wee quiz for 2009. I generated this word cloud from the entire text of a novel**. If you can guess the novel you can win a copy of the book. Second prize is 2 copies If you like this kind of Word Cloud type quiz there are another EIGHTY over at www.bimbogami.co.uk based on music and movies. All free and fun. And if you play you’ll make @manicmorff...

Today started much like any other. The evilly sequenced set of alarms clattered into life. Each leaving sufficient time for me to return back into a dreamy doze before blowing the whistle to urge me over the top. The morning evolution begins. Hunched simian gives way to an upright and scratching Australopithecus. A large stretch reveals something more hominid in form...

When it comes to reward for effort, writing a book has to feature at the very lowest reaches of the league table. Months of effort and toil on The Beatle Man and I get 46p for every copy sold on Amazon (or other sites). I’m not complaining, such is the way… Recently, I was playing about with the Amazon Affiliate widgets (as is my wont, I like a widget)...

I would like to take a few moments to suggest you check out the most excellent NewsBiscuit book, Isle of Wight To Get Ceefax. If you’re not familiar with NewsBiscuit it is a UK focused satirical website (much in the style The Onion). This book contains the best from the site and is a perfect gift for Xmas in that coffee table book style. The book itself is...

Two steps forward, three steps back. I’d made some progress on TerraExitus. Not much, but enough to give me a feel for where I was going. And there’s the problem. I passed a few chunks by Stuart and we both arrived at a pretty similar conclusion. It was a bit too hard to read. I know what I was trying to do, but Stuart put it best: “I still wonder...