Or: How I think about writing my books, without words getting in the way This is a picture of Isolde. Or at least a version of Isolde. She doesn’t ride a cow at any point in Salt Lick. Making pictures like this helps me write my novels. Not so I know what characters or places... Continue Reading →
Portraits by Pierre Halé
I am very lucky to be able to offer you a portrait by Pierre at the bargain price of £350 - an offer in support of Salt Lick that is two hundred pounds cheaper than Pierre's regular commission price. Here is a little bit more about Pierre and his work. Pierre and I were friends... Continue Reading →
Junk Messages
I’ve added a new page to my website; a collection of what is sometimes called erasure poetry. I think erasure messages is perhaps more accurate. I used to cut up junk mail, to reveal a new message hidden within the sales pitch. I would love to do more of them but have been so good... Continue Reading →
A Language Spoken By touch
Recently I had the pleasure of meeting artist and weaver Imogen Di Sapia in her Brighton studio. It was a lovely meeting that came about because Imogen bought some of my work and I was delivering it. In my current book Salt Lick, as food production has moved overseas, the rural economy collapses and the... Continue Reading →
Down With Striving (I’m heading upstream)
New marketing strategies for old With drawings done by mouse as my tablet and stylus is not working. An enjoyably (for me) crude way of working! I am in the process of developing a radical new book marketing strategy. It’s so radical it doesn’t involve any book marketing at all. It goes something like this: ... Continue Reading →
See What I See?
Poetry, Visual Art and the Good Intentions of a New Year January and February feel like the lowest ebb of the year and thus the worst time to engage with a new project. It is a time for sloping about, perhaps ravelling in the tail ends of the old year. The part of the... Continue Reading →
#MyDayInBooks part 1
10/10/18 in 5 books Today is a day when many interesting books have crossed paths, and I thought I would share them. Book 1: Mary Ann Sate, Imbecile by Alice Jolly In the early hours, long after I had hoped to go to sleep, utterly gripped, I finished reading Mary Ann Sate, Imbecile. I was... Continue Reading →
Writing Tips
(from The Bennet College Reference Library of Electricity) LOOK AWAY NOW bibliophiles - I cut up books. It started with junk mail, when I began looking for hidden messages in unsolicited letters sent in the post. I liked the fact that they had signatures. If I changed the messages, they were still signed, sincerely, by... Continue Reading →
Paint
My manuscript is due back tomorrow. I am going to be a little late. It is difficult, when time divides into mosaic shards to pull a book into focus. I have decided that I need to re-write a chunk of pages. Not too many. A series of clarifications have jumbled up against one another and... Continue Reading →
I just popped in to see what condition the human condition is in
I began this week by thinking of the ways that writing my own work leads me back so often to the books I have read and loved over the years. Following this, I selected a few to share on social media. I thought that what they have in common was an exploration of the human... Continue Reading →
Lulu Allison, contemporary fiction author 