I'm sure if you have any writing in print, you will have already have done this. However, if not, joining ALCS UK ensures you receive payment if any of your work has been photocopied/reproduced for use in schools/colleges/work seminars etc. I got a significant payment this year. Join ALCS, it is worth it. As you can see from the image, it comes at what - for me - is the worst month every year, March (no idea why). Oh, and join PLR too, which...

Writers have a need to understand words, to gather them like flowers in a literary garden of colorful, pungent, blooming, budding words. They carefully pick them to tell a story, structure a tale, by placing those words in a way that brings the reader in. Characters light up with specific details and become dimensional. Some writers tell you that characters, once fully formed, can take on a life of their own. When you know your character, you'll...

PostSecret is a collection of anonymous postcards people sent to Frank Warren, who in 2004 printed 3000 postcards with his address on them, inviting strangers to fill them in and tell him their secrets. The response was so great, he didn’t have to print any more postcards. People sent their own, in various languages, including Braille. ‘Like fingerprints, no two secrets are identical.’ Reading is a kind of voyeurism. We always want to know more...

Sebastian Barry (2009) The Secret Scripture. You should never step into the book you’ve read before (or something like that). Sebastian Barry is a terrific writer. This book won the Costa Book of the Year 2008. The Secret Scripture is in many ways the story of Ireland after the Famine, with a centurion Roseanne McNulty providing the handwritten shape of her life played out against the Civil War years in Ireland and the world wars that also came...

https://descendingthemountain.org/ Descending the Mountain is monks on acid. I’ve never taken acid or magic mushrooms and I’m pretty old, so unlikely to do so now. But I’m not as old as Vanja Palmers, a Zen monk and the central character in the experiment. Palmers took acid in the swinging sixties. He found himself as an incarnation of the Buddha presence in the same way I’d missed the last bus home. It enlarged him. But he stopped taking drugs...

I was nervous, I'll be honest. I was standing in the gym to give a talk to two groups - 5th year & TY years - about not only how important books are today (perhaps even more so now), but also my journey as a writer and my processes. But I had nothing to worry about; after my spiel as to how I became a writer, a very lively Q&A from the students kept me on my toes. And I found their enthusiasm infectious. I was also very honest with them...

This Friday (8th March) sees the start of a brand new Undertakers adventure, 'Dead Reckoning' , featuring Josiah and Archibald, fresh from their Spanish triumph in ' Bring Out Your Dead'. This time, Oakshott and Underwood are facing tough times and difficult choices may need to be made. Can Archibald avoid the Job Centre? Hope you'll join us for another mystery tour with plenty of jokes and jeopardy along the way!

I’d an online meeting yesterday with The Psychic Fairy Queen , Jan Murphy. We share the same publishers. I suppose in a world in which there are synchronicities, Spellbound would publish The Psychic Fairy Queen . I’m just the smelly mate that tagged alone by coincidence, even though there is no such thing as coincidences. If by coincidence you’re reading this then you’ve probably read my book Beastie . That’s a gently nudge. Yes, I’ve read a...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001w9pm/aftersun https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aftersun We’re all ghosts in someone else’s dream. Here eleven-year old Sophie (Frankie Corio) travels to a Turkish holiday resort with her young father Calum (Paul Mescal). It’s just the two of them. We find out that Calum has split up from Sophie’s mum. This is one of those make and break holidays. She’s becoming a woman and he’s becoming an ex-dad. Sophie...

CARELESS Oops! Got to be Mo, freeze frame. Shit's all the same: but who’s blaming? Rabbit chasing tortoise down a rabbit's trail; in slow motion. Checks and balances for dividends policyholders stake their claim. Cost-effective, from data retrieved; a moment in shock, almost in Disbelief, this sensitivity vocal mute, spinning a sigh of relief. Considering the source of choice, of course. Since the damage has been done, flashes of urgency take A...