To plot or not to plot
Further to my last blog about the enormous advantages of being on board a cruise ship in terms of time to write, no phone ringing, no shopping to do, lack of distractions, etc, etc, I suppose I should also have added the one obvious disadvantage. Unless you pay the quite high charges for Internet access […]
Wearing my other hat …
Quite a few years ago I found myself on a cruise ship heading up the Baltic in the general direction of St Petersburg. In fact, that’s a somewhat trite statement. I ‘found myself’ on the ship because I’d exchanged quite a lot of folding money for the privilege of being on board. And I wasn’t […]
I often think I should write a book
I’m sure most authors have had this sort of experience: I’ve lost count of the number of times when I’ve been at some kind of social gathering where most of the people are strangers to me, and when the conversation has, almost inevitably, shifted to a discussion of the various participants’ modes of employment. The […]
Communication – get me a phone!
I was thinking about mobile phones this week, which probably means I need to get out more, but there was a reason for it. We’re all familiar, probably far too familiar, with the NHS Covid 19 app which is allegedly designed to identify people near you who might be carrying the virus so that you […]
Chef-speak and the demise of the English language
A tiny bit of a rant that’s been festering for some time. Illiteracy now appears to be the norm in Britain. Thousands of children emerge from what passes for our education system apparently barely able to read or write and incapable of doing even the simplest arithmetic without recourse to the calculator app on their […]
News – Two promos this month
My publishers have organised a couple of new promotions running this month. On BookBub today in the UK, Australia and Canada you can get a copy of Cyberstrike: London for less than the price of a cup of coffee! And on Apple there’s a three-week promo of the same book, again starting today. Read and […]
BLOG – Booker winners and bestsellers
Going off at a slight tangent this week, I thought it might be instructive to do a quick survey of the sales figures of some of the winners of what is arguably the most prestigious literary prize of them all – the Man Booker. First, a bit of history. Originally, the award was called the […]
BLOG – THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS
Accurate research can be crucial, and poor or no research can destroy an author’s – or a book’s – credibility. One classic example is The Da Vinci Code, where the albino monk escapes from prison in the Principality of Andorra and walks down to the railway station in Spain. Well, he was obviously very fit, […]
news – kobo promotion 16-19 April
My publisher has just told me there’ll be a Kobo promotion for the ‘Paul Richter Omnibus Edition’ for four days from 16th to 19th April. So if you’re looking for a bargain, check it out.
Blog – Do appearances matter?
It’s become almost the norm these days, especially with hardback books, for the dust cover to feature a photograph of the author looking dangerous, brooding, amused, serious, sexy, irritated or whatever, depending upon the gender of the writer and the genre the book occupies. Presumably publishers have decided that sales might improve if browsers liked […]