Blog Posts

  • Sue Townsend

    If anyone ever tells you that women aren’t as funny as men, say two words in reply: Sue Townsend. Sue Townsend wrote the funniest book…

  • Six Tips on Writing First Drafts

    A first draft is about getting it written, not about getting it right. Don’t spend too much time on it Think of an artist painting…

  • The Region of Jennifer

    The Region of Jennifer

    The Region of Jennifer: Analog June 2014

  • Nobody Really Knows

    Earlier this week I was listening to a radio program about the discovery of waves of gravitational energy that confirmed inflation just after the big…

  • Did anyone else read Danny Dunn?

    I’ve just finished answering a set of questions about writing SF, the results of which will appear in a magazine article. One of the questions…

  • Six Tips on Narrative Voice

    Writing in the First Person is harder than it looks: the narrator defines the sort of story you write. Compare the way the intelligent Katiniss…

  • Thoughts on Cosmopolitan Predators!

    Aethernet Magazine Issue #12 was published on Saturday, and with it the last episode of Cosmopolitan Predators! What was the experience of writing a piece of…

  • Six Books Every Writer Should Read

    Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud The Art of Fiction by David Lodge Solutions for Novelists: Secrets of a Master Editor by Sol Stein…

  • A Techy Whinge

    A computer needs an operating system. You buy a PC and about 90% of the time it comes with Windows installed (about 8% of the…

  • Blog Chain: All the Things You Are

    Thanks to Chris Beckett – Arthur C Clarke aware winning author of Dark Eden and too many excellent short stories – I’m a link in…

  • Why I Write

    I can tell when someone I’m teaching is going to be a programmer, I can tell it by the way they lose themselves when they…

  • Creativity 1: Groupthink

    On a number of occasions, usually when I’ve been at work, I’ve been part of a group asked to think up a new slogan or…