Priorities

I just found out that, that money is about to be restricted. Not that we have enough to begin with… But more medical bills! It…

shelbylynnesullivan 20 August 2019

3 Comments

When to break the rules in writing

The first time one of my Fiona Griffiths novels went to a copyeditor, no one had thought to check with me what I actually wanted…

Harry 16 August 2019

11 Comments

How to market your book

I’m going to talk about marketing. That’s a conundrum for: Self-published authors, because if they don’t market their work, then no one else will. Traditionally…

Harry 9 August 2019

4 Comments

The internal and the external

You all know about outer jeopardy and inner conflict, right? So if you have a protagonist with some great fear of spiders, you sort of…

Harry 26 July 2019

14 Comments

The probable and the plausible

I watched a film on TV the other night. The film was Denis Villeneuve’s Sicario, a thriller dealing with the drugs trade on both sides…

Harry 19 July 2019

10 Comments

Stick or Twist? Those first novel dilemmas

As it happens, it’s the Festival that gives me my entry to today’s topic. A few year’s back, our keynote speaker was the brilliant Antonia…

Harry 12 July 2019

5 Comments

Why bad reviews make me happy

August 4 2017, I got this terrific review from a reader named Anne Hill in the US. THE MOST BORING BOOK EVER WRITTENI’m afraid this…

Harry 5 July 2019

0 Comments

How To Title a Book

Of all the writing habits I have, one of the worst – the worst from good financial sense point of view – is that I…

Harry 28 June 2019

111 Comments

The power of the list

Here are two facts about this ambition / profession of ours that can look daunting: It’s damn hard to write a good book It’s damn…

Harry 21 June 2019

2 Comments

New York Gets Daunted

Usually, on Thursday afternoon or so, I start pondering what I’m going to write about on Friday. This week: no pondering. There’s only one thing…

Harry 14 June 2019

6 Comments