Tales from the Garret

This one’s really more of a ‘livre de bois’ (‘Prententious? Moi?’). Given how little time I have to read, I probably wouldn’t have tackled Neal Stephenson’s latest doorstop if I haven’t read – and loved – Cryptonomicon. Because I’ve also read – and not loved – the Baroque Cycle (that’s two months of my life […]

All writers, especially those who write fantastical literature, get asked the following question: ‘Where do you get your ideas from?’ The short and somewhat glib answer I usually give is ‘Everywhere’. It’s true though: the germ of story might come from something I heard on the radio, or read in a book or on the […]

This week I’ve been considering what I might talk about during my guest slot at Picocon. It’s likely to touch on the fact that the main way I make sense of this crazy mixed-up world is to write stories about it – not that I’m in any way claiming my fiction contains useful or original […]

I’m quite good at feeling guilty about writing. When I did it as a hobby I used to feel guilty about writing when I could be doing something more useful like overtime at a paid job, working on a game, cleaning the house etc. These days I feel guilty about not writing, because it is […]

I don’t do detailed writing metrics like exact number of words written, number of short stories submitted etc. This isn’t because I’m not interested in such matters; on the contrary, they’re fascinating and diverting and a lot less effort than actual work – which is why I don’t do them. However, I estimate that in […]