On writing a book: Writing a book is a weird and highly individual thing. People still argue about how to go about it. Here is what a book is, in one man’s opinion:
1) Writing a book is, or might be, what happened when you stumbled in drunk and decided you had a really good idea and started writing at 3:23am without really knowing where you were going, and what you were going to do either. This book, that you Read the rest of this entry »

Every writer needs to improvise. In order to write creatively a writer will have to make new and exciting connections, use their imagination, and let ideas flow. The trouble is, that many times this is much harder than it sounds. A successful or prolific writer will have a bag of tricks to get into the mood: coffee, cafe, wine, cigarettes, absinthe, a favourite place, pen, pencil, keyboard. Some of them are unhealthy and as we have seen historically, they can Read the rest of this entry »

Shock horror: I don’t think you can review this book by simply saying “I loved it / I hated it” and yes, there are certainly things that are more wrong with it than right about it: like anything that stands the test of time as well as this classic 1954 novel, it’s far more complicated than all that. A small novel that has now achieved legendary status, I find myself wondering how the book would do if it was submitted Read the rest of this entry »