Category: The writer’s life

The fourth line, and then the fifth line …

As you know, I’m on a George Saunders kick at the moment, and this email closes a trilogy inspired by his Swim In A Pond…

Harry 9 April 2021

23 Comments

Members | Exciting changes are coming to Jericho Writers

Exploring your membership is about to get a whole lot easier  The newsletter this week is a little different. You might have spotted our recent…

Esther 6 April 2021

2 Comments

The click of billiard balls

I mentioned last week that I was reading George Saunders’ A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, a book about reading and writing. It’s…

Harry 1 April 2021

33 Comments

LOOKING FOR FRIENDS

Hi – anyone want o be my friend? Im new to Townhouse, and maybe there’s a section where we apply to find members of our…

roisin.maguire 27 March 2021

0 Comments

White chairs, green terraces

A few weeks back, one of you excellent people recommended George Saunders’s book on reading and writing, A Swim In A Pond In The Rain.…

Harry 26 March 2021

115 Comments

Building it bad to build it right

One particular joy I have as a writer and a reader is sentences that work, because they don’t. Here’s an example (from Dodie Smith again,…

Harry 19 March 2021

9 Comments

The scent of coffee and the market for lemons

Imagine opening a fresh jar of instant coffee. Think about popping through the film that seals the jar and smelling the aroma underneath. What do…

Harry 12 March 2021

10 Comments

Ambiguity and how to make the reader work

As youse know, I’m reading Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle at the moment. (I’m three-quarters of the way through and still enjoying it.) And…

Harry 5 March 2021

5 Comments

The idea of a lute

My wife doesn’t often recommend books to me, but she did recently. The book is I Capture The Castle, by Dodie Smith, written in America…

Harry 26 February 2021

11 Comments

Why genres don’t matter

Plenty of writers stress over genres: What genre is my book? Yes, there’s a death, but it’s not really a crime story. And there’s a…

Harry 19 February 2021

10 Comments