My daughter Lilian is a dancer. She’s curious about the human soul, insightful and intelligent. But she doesn’t read books. It’s a bit heartbreaking, and believe me, is not for want of me being encouraging/nagging/moderately unhinged about it. She is mildly dyslexic, primarily affecting the way she is able to deal with large blocks of... Continue Reading →
#MyDayInBooks – 13/08/19 in six books
Book 1, Ducks, Newburyport, Lucy Ellmann Before I got up I read pages 803 - 856 of Ducks, Newburyport. This is such a wonderful book. A place to be both lost and adrift in sweet recognition. I felt so much for teenager Stacy, her clumsy, scary courage, her sullen and awkward groping for her adult... Continue Reading →
Walking Words
My hand writing is getting worse. But no matter. I am doing more of it. Just as I came to realise that the bump on the side of the second knuckle of my right middle finger, the biro bump, earned through tedious hours of school essay writing and solipsistic teen-journal keeping, has all but gone,... 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 →
Come and meet my new book
I have just finished my second book. A well sifted draft. Parts have been ditched, pinched, pulled, turned around, thrown about, discarded and re-written and I think I am happy with it. I am deciding what to do about it, where to try and find a publishing home, and I will take a little break... Continue Reading →
Dropped Pins on the Beauty/Catastrophe Slider
This is a piece I wrote when I was predominantly a visual artist, before I started writing for its own sake. I realised on re-reading it that as an artist, I was interested in the same, exactly the same things, as I am when writing. The book I am working on now is in part... 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 →
Reviews – please!
In an age when algorithms set the agenda, it becomes crucial for authors to get reviews on sites such as Amazon. I have heard that fifty is the magic number. I am delighted with the dozen or so reviews I have, but would love to accumulate more - several three star reviews will do more... Continue Reading →
Lulu Allison, contemporary fiction author 