MaAtt Haig's latest novel, The Humans, is a simple yet moving story that will have you weeping at the beauty and futility of it all.
'Legs like lead, legs like lead,' I panted, like a sort of tortured mantra, as I pounded along the footpath, ducking under branches. The dog streaked ahead, loving the wind and the gentle rain, as light on its paws as I was heavy on mine. My legs, that is.
Dan Brown has sold 200 million books in 52 languages, penned the global phenomenon The Da Vinci Code and was named one of the 100 Most Influential Peo...
The last month has been completely bonkers, Sealed with a Kiss was still number one in the Amazon romance chart. I hadn't really had any thoughts about what would happen next. And then the emails started arriving from agents. My instinctive reaction was to steer clear - I was quite liking the whole going-it-alone self-publishing thing.
We often see this with readers who believe poets have hidden messages in their poems. This is the kind of reader who has been taught - often in school - that meaning is something that poets deliberately and sadistically withhold, and that what we have to do to the poem is ... batter a confession out of it.
With the Goldsmith's Prize we have another literary showpiece and if it can unearth, then shine the spotlight on talented authors like many others do, it will surely be a good thing.
'I mean, it's not as if we don't have it,' she said hurriedly. 'Our savings account is very healthy.' I nodded, forgetting for a moment that she couldn't see me and then hoping that she'd sense my understanding. I felt saddened that like so many others, she felt that the love affair she was having with writing wasn't worthy of her time and money. That she didn't deserve to have this passion in her life.
Catching the Comet's Tail features author Rosie Fiore. Her second novel, Wonder Women, is a brilliantly observed, multi-layered story about three women at a crossroads in their lives. Through her engaging, realistic cast of characters, Fiore tackles important issues such as motherhood, marriage, female friendship and ambition.
Whether you're writing an essay, editing a novel, or just cleaning the flat, procrastination is always sure to rear its ugly head. Procrastination occupies the middle ground between work and play, but doesn't really count as either. Like watching an Adam Sandler film, you've got to work hard to pretend you enjoy procrastination.
One day, books will be like antiques. A standard paperback will cost hundreds of pounds depending on the year and edition. War and Peace will be out of print. And I will be an old lady with only dreams of ghosts of cats, telling the illiterate kids on the block how these same streets were once paved in books, each one costing less than a halfpenny.
We're a band that has barely left the touring circuit since our formation, so it's very natural that the seeds of songs find themselves being planted in hotel rooms, bus lounges and the backstages of venues across the globe.
An athlete, an MP, a jailbird for perjury and a best-selling author, published in 97 countries, in more than 37 languages, with international sales pa...
U.S. author Maggie Stiefvater has sold over two million books worldwide, with hits including the Shiver series, The Scorpio Races and The Raven Boys - YA stories with a fantasy twist.
Stand up is my catharsis, a way to express my view of the world, and remind myself that nothing is what it seems. Even that statement. A lofty idea, but that's what happens when you spend a lot of time in small pubs steeped in the rich musk of wood polish. Sweet mind bending wood polish.
What are the chances of really becoming a commercially and critically successful author in 2013? For me personally, the idea of being a down-and-out writer living in a bedsit hasn't had to become a reality just yet. This is due to still living at my parents' home.
Read this book not to become filthy rich, nor to learn about an apparently rising Asia, but to admire the chutzpah of a gifted writer having fun with history.
In a nutshell, this is a book that resonates as it asks the unknowable question - how well can one person really know another? *Suspiciously looks over at boyfriend*
Winston Churchill called it the 'Black Dog'. Every year, thousands of people in Britain die because of it. One in three people will suffer from it at some point in their life. Why, then, are we so afraid to talk about depression? The problem is particularly striking amongst my own demographic, young men under the age of thirty.
We sat in the kitchen for our writerly discussion. He held a sheaf of A4 paper, covered in typescript while I was armed with my favourite pen and my kitchen reading glasses. I slid them onto my nose, squinting around the scratches and food smudges. Two mugs of tea and a plate of just baked flapjacks sat on the table between us.
The close down of Posterous was a sad moment for me. In as much as it seemed to officially mark the end of what had felt like a brave new approach - I'm not sure to what but certainly new - in an instant world of publishing to large audiences that seemed to hold powerful potential in the right hands.
The Welsh poet Susan Richardson was teaching a course on 'Intrepid Women Travellers' at Cardiff University when a reference to a Norse woman named Gudrid piqued her curiosity.
Whenever you write something - anything- a crucial question may come up at some point, (regardless of whether you want to be published or not), that is: have you really got what it takes to be a writer? I will never be tired of repeating it: we are all born writers.
'L'appetit vient en mangeant,' said a wise French person once. This tasty little sentence translates very smoothly into 'Appetite comes with eating,' ...
David Crystal has been unprecedented. Arguably the greatest linguistic shepherd, Crystal has a penchant for presenting language issues in a reader and listener friendly manner that will never leave you dry as you close one of his books or walk out of the hall where he has been lecturing.
Procrastination is not a crime. Embrace it and enjoy it, because soon you'll be agonising over every word of your novel, short story or screenplay. Procrastination should be enjoyed not endured, if only in small controlled bursts.
