Christmas is coming, the shops are covered in lights and there is a Christmas tree on every corner. I’m in Bangkok and I never expected it to be this festive here. But it’s great – I’m loving all the good cheer and the decorations. The Thais love Christmas – I think mainly because it’s just […]
Nanowrimo: Was it good for you?
So nanowrimo is nearly over. I only have 25,000 words left to write and 2 days to write them in. Hmmm….. I think I can conclude this is a fail. But is it? Last year I managed to complete the challenge to write 50,000 words in a month without too many problems. In fact, I overshot […]
Five Stop Story iPhone and iPad App Launch
It’s been a busy month. The Five Stop Story iphone and ipad app is up and running and I’ve been in London putting flyers in bookshops, coffee shops and local libraries to encourage people to download it and discover new writers. We’ve crammed the app with features and you can browse the stories by author, […]
Amy Winehouse: The Curse of 27
It was sad to hear the news this weekend that Amy Winehouse had died. Partly because her life was cut short so young and partly because the path she was on almost made the outcome almost inevitable. It seemed the “curse of 27” had struck again and Amy Winehouse added her name to a long […]
UK Literary Agents – Some Help from the Writers’ Workshop
The great thing about the internet is that there is so much free content that can help writers and that is accessible to everyone. I wanted to share a great spreadsheet (I know what you’re thinking the words “great” and spreadsheet” aren’t a natural fit, but stay with me) that I found online today. The […]
The perils of starting a new novel
I’m about to start my third novel. Well, to be honest, I was about to start my third novel two months ago, but since then I’ve been busy down by editing my other novels, speaking at the literary festival and running Five Stop Story. I may have been procrastinating about starting. You see this time […]
Five Stop Story
Five Stop Story is the short story website I run to discover new writers. I’ve recently launched a new competition with a “travel” theme. The Five Stop Story mobile application is due for launch in September and will showcase the best short stories by up and coming writers. I thought now was as good a […]
Bangkok Literary Festival
Last weekend was the first ever Bangkok Literary festival. Organised by the Neilson Hays library, the day provided a chance to mingle with fellow writers, hear a range of informative talks about all aspects of writing and participate in writing workshops. I was very fortunate to be asked to speak at the festival. My talk […]
Is a good book always memorable?
Since starting my time off work, I’ve relished the prospect of having more time to read. A couple of weeks ago, I studied my bookshelf, savouring the possibilities. The shelves were creaking under the weight of books I hadn’t read – books I bought from Amazon when I got distracted browsing the internet, gifts from […]
An Olympic Opportunity
The time has come to pay up for our Olympic tickets. Across the UK, between now and the middle of June, money will start disappearing from accounts and people will start speculating about which tickets they might have been awarded. For us, this will be a complete guessing game as we applied for the cheapest […]