After the year that was, I expect we are all looking forward to a different 2021. I hope that, for you, 2020 wasn’t too hard. I hope that you’ve managed to keep safe and well and those who you love have done so to.
Category Archives: books
A Very Sweary Dictionary
When I’m editing or proofreading, I’ll use a variety of tools and reference materials in order to get things right. Along with spelling, one of the biggest things to watch for is hyphenation, closing up or opening up of words.
Self-publishing skills: Writing with grit and determination
It’s said that everyone has a book in them. And that’s probably true. More than one, possibly. We dream, we imagine, we say “what if?” and play out lots of scenarios in our heads.
Book review: United Queerdom
Part memoir, part queer history book and part instruction manual, Dan Glass’s United Queerdom brilliant explains the struggle.
Fact in fiction
Just because the characters and the story have come from your imagination, there is still a place for fact in fiction. Getting that right is key – and is also just one of a number of things that your editor will be checking.
Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook 2021
I’ve blogged before about some of the essential tools of the trade. And this is another vital book for any writer, editor or anybody else who regularly works with words.
Book review: Lie With Me
“He taps on his cigarette to make the ashes fall, but he hasn’t smoked it enough. It’s a gesture intended to convey composure, but it only makes him appear more vulnerable.”
Don’t cause a distraction
Every time I walk into a branch of a, well-known, discount chain, I am distracted by the massive sign they have above one of the aisles. It tells me that I can buy “DVD’s” there.
For the love of books
Authors have a great skill in crafting worlds that we, as readers, slip into so easily. We invest in the characters: feel their emotions, want the best for them.
So why then, did I become an editor and not a writer?
Book review: Shadow is a Colour
Cézanne, the artist, holds together the strands of multiple narratives in this ambitious debut novel.
