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Category: Blog

Keith Talent

Of all the anti-heroes in modern literature, Keith Talent has to be the best. He plays darts, drinks beer and watches pornography, secure in the knowledge that life is too short to work and pay taxes. His criminal enterprises are dogged by failure and a sense of impending disaster that taints all the other aspects of his life, including his beloved darts. Martin…

Duncan … I’m in!

I’ve just finished Duncan Bannatyne’s book Anyone Can Do It. His central premise is simple. You set yourself a goal and work ceaselessly towards it. In Duncan’s case, the goal was to become a millionaire from a background of nothing. Along the way he encountered belligerent naval officers, snotty, middle class bank managers and closet entrepreneurs who failed to disclose the true value of…

Here lies a man…

Sebastian Faulks didn’t fire a single shot during World War One. In fact, the lad hadn’t even been born. And yet he managed to dramatise the event with such authority that critics were astounded. But how does his achievement stand in the light of cold, hard writing advice? We’re always told write about what you know. But does this mean avoid anything outside our personal…

The Last Word

The book is dead. Word on the street is the pillars have fallen. The humble bookseller -beloved of previous generations – is no more, crushed by the advancing wheels of technology. What’s next – a world of gunmetal grey and libraries stocked full of kindling? How utterly depressing. And what of the lowly browser, who spends all day trawling websites for misinformation, his eyesight drastically…

Life on Mars

The scientists have declared that God is dead. And after decades of painstaking investigation, they’ve concluded that the only thing out there worthy of note is … dark matter. Now, most of us lesser mortals don’t have a clue what this obscure phenomenon is and, provided the National Grid keeps running, don’t much care either. But to the fertile, enquiring mind, dark matter is – if…

Enter Title Here

The titles are usually no problem. It’s the content that fazes me. When you’re tired and your eyes have taken a battering from the harsh glare of the laptop, there’s a dearth of brain cells left to work with. What’s needed is a dose of lateral thinking. What’s a blog for but to entertain? Everything is entertainment. The news, the weather, the bloke walking…

Blogging in outer space

I sit alone in an empty room, assisted by the gentle hum of the fridge and the passing of traffic. No, this isn’t the opening of a novel but the poor excuse for a blog, from a man with nothing better to do. This morning’s theme is – how to increase one’s presence on the web. How do I, the…

Black and White

The Stranglers made the greatest concept album of all back in 1978, called … you guessed it – Black and White. But, hey, that’s not the subject of this post. I’m talking movies (films if you’re English). I’ve just watched the hugely entertaining and utterly compelling King Rat (1965), written and directed by Bryan Forbes. A ragged bunch of British…

When the well runs dry

Many writers believe in writer’s block, that strange virus that creeps up on you while you’re sleeping and steals your creativity. I’m not all that convinced. The average human processes thousands of thoughts per day. To find yourself staring at a blank page with nothing to say for weeks/months/years on end would seem highly unlikely. But, on the other hand … The…