Melanie Fraser

What a lovely place and beautiful countryside, Richard. I’m not surprised you like it. I can’t comment on St Patrick, being very ignorant when it comes to saints, but I enjoyed watching the re-enactment and the story of the Romans.

So many mining areas have been returned to nature that it’s now impossible to fully imagine what they used to look…[Read more]

I use reviews too. They’re not my only resource when making choices but they let me know what’s out there in general – what some of the trends and hits are, and the interesting new names.

Then there are the books I want to read because I’ve read the author’s previous book(s).

There are the usual chance factors: browsing in bookshops both new and…[Read more]

That’s brilliant, Sandra. I still have a couple of books on my TBR list from last year’s festival.

In the end I didn’t sign up for this year’s Edinburgh events as I diverted my money to doing the School — Galley Beggar Press critical reading course.

Thank you for a fascinating blog, Richard.

I don’t know that things improved when coal was nationalised. The Aberfan disaster suggests not but I don’t know the details. It seems that in general workers in all industries had to wait for health and safety legislation and that the general public sill has a long road ahead of applying pressure when…[Read more]

Hi @Daedalus

Thanks for taking time out to answer my thoughts.

I hadn’t thought of it that way before, that film/video is better at placing significant information in the background of shots. That’s something that can be difficult in writing — at least I find it difficult — and often requires a setting to be introduced earlier than the.…[Read more]

Brilliant news, Richard! Many congratulations.

And Kate too. Really good.

Is that yours in second place, Richard!! Huge congratulations.

Hi Knicks – what sort of editorial review are you looking for. There is the pretty standard book doctor report, a deeper developmental edit that I’ve heard of offered by Jericho, or mentoring.

I’ve recently gone down the mentoring path, because I wanted the opportunity for some personal back and forth with an editor, rather than just a book…[Read more]

Congratulations @alex . Well deserved.

I loved Ath’s and Knicks’ stories too. So atmospheric and full of life’s complications.

Congratulations to both of you. Good luck for the shortlist.

I think ‘potentially static’ probably referenced one of those generalised statements that crop up when creative writing is discussed. There could be a nugget of wisdom in there but as shorthand it’s too cryptic to decipher and I couldn’t reverse engineer it to anything that might be a pitfall we should be aware of. It doesn’t seem to be like the…[Read more]

It is odd. Almost as if the commentator was doing a list for a creative writing course: what are the pros and cons of etc etc. But among the reasons I have for not enjoying a novel or short story, static-ness (?) isn’t among them. Slowness, yes of course, and an apparent lack of narrative thread, and straightforward dullness, but I don’t think…[Read more]

I find the idea of present tense feeling static quite odd. Because you are in the moment, I think it’s hard to pause in a way that is possible in past tense. So I’d say the opposite of static.

Like Sandra, sometimes I’ll find a book jars a little initially in present tense, but I’ll quickly cease to notice as I adapt to the books style.

I read a…[Read more]