I’ll be out and about in September and October to launch my new short story collection, The Stone Thrower… Sun 30 Sept – Small Wonder. 6pm. Tickets £9 (£8 Students). Charleston Farm House, Nr Lewes, East Sussex BN8 6LL.Oh I love the Small Wonder short story festival: the only literature festival with its own branded beer, where mooing cows … [Read more...]
You can’t do this with a novel
Cover design – The Stone Thrower
The moment just before you see the cover design of your book for the first time is a tense one. After years of working on all the stuff that goes on the inside (four in this case), here is its face, the thing that everyone will look at first. The thing that people will judge it on. It has a hell of a responsibility, this cover art. So many … [Read more...]
Guest editing the Afterword
All this week, I have been guest editor on the Canadian National Post's book blog, The Afterword. I wrote four posts for them about writing, reading, and the inspiration behind a few of the stories in Instruction Manual For Swallowing. Here are the links: How Paul McCartney taught me to stop worrying and love zombies: on killing zombies with … [Read more...]
Events this March
It feels like I've been holed up in my attic all winter finishing up my new story collection, so I'm looking forward to getting out to do a couple of events this month. The Book Stops Here on Monday 12 March No one does writer introductions like Emma Young (citing bad Amazon reviews and giving general abuse). She’s the best, so I’m looking … [Read more...]
Snowbound!
The first snow of the winter always makes me think of the track 'Snowbound' by Donald Fagen. My first job out of film school was working for Michel Gondry's production company, and in the two years I was there, I must have made a couple of thousand copies of his showreel, which included this video for Snowbound - but I could never get bored of it. … [Read more...]
What a Sunday roast can teach you about editing
Right now, I’m doing a final edit of my new story collection and am spotting faults. They’re not spelling mistakes or character names that change half way through the story, which would be bad, because some of these stories have already been published in magazines and anthologies. They’re not really mistakes, but little bumps in the road that … [Read more...]
The trouble with titles
I have a theory about titles: If the title is the first thing you write, then the story goes like a dream. If the title is the last thing you write, you are screwed. This is the problem I'm having at the moment. My second story collection is almost done, but I don't have a title. I have left it too late, and now I am struggling. If I had … [Read more...]
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