I’ve seen all sorts of query letter templates over the years, and most of them have been pretty dubious: but this one is marvellous, and comes to us courtesy of Joel Bruns at The Hub. It only really works for a certain sort of YA fiction, but I’m sure that given half an hour and…
Category Archives: diversions
Stacia Kane Isn’t Feeling Her Best
I was very sad to hear that my lovely writer-friend Stacia Kane is in hospital, although according to the updates her husband has left for us on her blog, she is now out of intensive care, which has to be a good thing. As I can’t track down the name of the hospital that she’s…
Kerning Game
Good grief I love this kerning game. My lowest score on any one game is a miserable 67% but I have hit 100% a couple of times. I’m not sure I can stop playing so if you don’t see me again, you’ll know why.
What Brings You Here?
Since I moved from Blogger to my own WordPress-based website, I’ve had access to all sorts of interesting details about the people who visit my blog; and one of my favourite things is the list of search-terms which brought people here. I feel for the people who landed here after having Googled for “i can’t…
Happy Mothering Sunday
Every year I ask my children not to buy me a present for my birthday, Christmas, or Mothering Sunday; and most years they ignore me and turn up with a box of lovely Thornton’s chocolates (continental selection–mmm) which, much as I enjoy them, are soon gone and add inches to my hips that I really…
Authors For Japan
What are you doing here? You should be looking at Authors For Japan right now where some of the best reading-and-writing packages I’ve ever seen in a charity auction are up for grabs right now. You want Nicola Morgan to critique your opening chapter? Put in a bid! You want a signed proof copy of…
Gravatar Avatars
You might have noticed, if you care about such things, that whenever I comment here a little picture of a peacock appears next to my name in both the comments to the original post and in the “most recent comments” widget over there on the right-hand side of the blog; but whenever anyone else comments…
My Christmas Message To You All
In a rare moment of shared enthusiasm, Nicola Morgan and I have decided to use Christmas as a time to address a problem which affects so many of us these days. If you visit her blog today you’ll see a similar but different message: do try to look at Nicola’s effort as well as mine,…
I Can’t Believe It’s Been So Long
Twenty years ago today I went to a good friend’s Christmas party and my life was transformed. I met a young man who had only just moved from Chesterfield to London. He was quiet and funny and clever and kind and although I’d like to be able to say that I recognised all this from…
Great Gods Of The Internet: Please Explain
I am a bear of very little brain and rarely venture out of the little corner of the internet that I know and enjoy. So when I discovered that I apparently have a LiveJournal account and copy all of the blog posts I make here to that LiveJournal account, I was confused and bemused. How…
Talkback Bites Back!
I used to regularly join in with some of the discussions on Talkback, the message board of Writers’ News and Writing magazine: but earlier this year, a thread I began there about a reputable charity auction attracted several negative comments (I’m afraid you’ll need to be a member there to gain access to most of…
Talli Roland Takes On Amazon!
I first met Talli Rowland on Twitter, and then at a couple of the RNA parties I’ve been to since. She’s a gorgeous woman, a fabulous writer and a lovely friend to have. Today, Talli is taking on Amazon, hoping to push her debut novel The Hating Game up the best seller lists, and here’s…
On Internet Justice–Or The Lack Of It
I’ve been thinking about that unwieldy thing, internet justice. When the Cooks Source episode first came to my attention I was appalled by Griggs’ arrogant and cavalier attitude to copyright. But as the story spread across the internet I became just as appalled by the spite and malice expressed in some of the comments about…
Congratulations! The Carnegie Medal
Here is how the Carnegie Medal is described on its website: The Carnegie Medal is awarded annually to the writer of an outstanding book for children. “Outstanding”. So any book which is longlisted for this award is going to be outstanding in it’s own way, right? I am thrilled that two of my internet friends…
The Downside Ghosts, by Stacia Kane
I’ve known Stacia Kane online since she was a sweet little newbie unpublished writer, printing her manuscripts on pink sparkly paper and putting a cupcake in with each new submission just to give all those hard-working agents out there a better day.* My, how she’s grown. When I read Unholy Ghosts, the first book in…
Don’t Forget To Listen To ME!
As if you didn’t know already, I’ll be taking part in the live (gulp!) radio programme The Write Lines between nine and ten o’clock tonight, staring in a bit of a fan-girl way at all the other guests. Enjoying the canapes and the excellent chocolate brownies will be Nick Harkaway, who wrote the brilliant The Gone-away…
Writing In Edinburgh With Your Jackboots On
Look what I found! A seven minute movie about the Edinburgh International Book Festival in which the lovely Ian Rankin discusses and reads from his work, and Edinburgh is shown off in all its glory. If you watch closely, you might spot our favourite crabbit old bat Nicola Morgan doing the same: she pops up…
The Write Lines Returns!
I’m pleased to say that a new series of Sue Cook’s The Write Lines starts on BBC Radio Oxford on Sunday 5 September, with a stellar line up of publishing’s best, and one or two of its worst. It goes out live from 9pm, for one hour and as soon as I find out the…