Excitement! There’s a package awaiting me in the mailroom. What can it be? Such a substantial object yet so light. Couldn’t recall any online orders of recent date and of such a size. Then memory clicks in; there was a purchase of a small item a couple of days back. From Amazon – where else?…
“I’m assuming that if she buys a £1000 dress, she’ll probably want a butterfly marbled armchair to sit on and some parrots on her wall,” says Manchester designer Matthew Williamson of his typical customer. Fair assumption, I suppose, if you inhabit a world of freaks, cranks and show ponies.
It seems I was right on the money when, a few weeks ago, I adversely commented on the work of the theatre world’s would-be wunderkind, Emma Rice. Since then there has been a steady flow of mostly adverse comments about the work of La Rice, especially her treatment of one of the stagings of A…
Among the more puzzling posts to my Facebook page was the recent clearly admonitory “Why is it all about you?” My immediate reaction was a Simpsoneque “Doh!” Was it really necessary to explain that the millions of FB users worldwide are there to let others know what they are thinking, doing, feeling, planning and even…
What is happening to parental responsibility? Indeed, what is happening to taking responsibility for one’s own actions? A mother found her 19-month-old daughter ripping open a packet of Ibuprofen tablets while they were waiting in a queue in a branch of WH Smith. Does she upbraid the child – teach her that such behaviour is not…
Once again we poor slaves of the written word are being categorised as an endangered species, especially those of us who devote our energies to long-form fiction and non-fiction. The Society of Authors is blaming the subsistence level of writers’ earnings on publishers who fail to pay adequate recompense for works that end up as…
My fellow writers have long intrigued me with the methods they use for creating the plot-lines of their novels. It is especially fascinating because my own means of devising a plot is probably best described as “let it happen” and I’ll follow along behind. My characters lead me; I don’t lead them or even tell them…
Seven weeks ago I walked into my local Barclays Bank with a query about my account. Simple? A customer services officer (first barrier) said I would have to wait to speak to one of her colleagues (second barrier) to make an appointment to discuss my query. Couldn’t she do this? Well, she could but someone…
Another challenging editing job has reached its successful conclusion, and one of which I am especially proud. It was a long time in the overall process with much rejigging, rewriting and tightening of the text. Meticulous and determined research produced a voluminous amount of detailed information, much of it revealed here for the first time, that had…
Bragging time … right out of the blue comes an email from Clare, Author Talent Rep, Literary Fiction Dept. at California Times Publishing, Los Angeles, asking for a copy of my first crime fiction book, Done Deal. She says “I read the summary of your book DONE DEAL and the premise sounds interesting.” I am…