Travel has always inspired writing, and the two share a symbiotic relationship. There is something about being away from home which inspires a mania for recording events and impressions. Perhaps it’s the knowledge that this is, in all likelihood, a …
Rebecca Starford, the founding editor of Kill Your Darlings journal, wrote a memoir about bullying at a boarding school. I wrote a memoir about non-monogamy. And yet our books share quite a few themes: unconventional sexuality, the importance of places …
The Writer’s Guide to Giving Unhelpful Feedback
For years I’ve been participating in, and facilitating, writing workshops. I’ve been doing this as a member of writers’ groups, a student and a teacher of writing. These experiences serve as the basis for this guide, which I hope will …
A Guest Post from Virginia Lowe: The Picture Book, the Storyboard and You
So, you’re writing a picture book – not illustrating (you’re not an artist) and you know that publishers prefer to select for illustrations whoever they think would suit the work best. If you’re lucky it will be a fairly well …
Many lovely things happened to The Dangerous Bride recently, too many to list here, which is surprising as the book has been out for more than a year now, but it seems to have quite a long life… My most …
Writing from the Body
When famous writers decide to get grumpy with their fans, one of their popular complaints is being asked supposedly ridiculous questions, such as whether they write with a pen or a pencil, or nowadays – a keyboard. The last time …