Back in March, before my dad passed away, I’d started the Vintage Links project in order to put some structure around clearing my overstocked “To Read” folder. At time of writing, there are about 600 of them remaining, and I’m going full Marie Kondo on those fuckers: everything is checked, thanks, and either deleted or […]
Warren Ellis is going through a run where he posts content from his late, lamented Morning.Computer site to his shiny new WarrenEllis.ltd home. Which means I got a chance to revisit one of those posts where every writer I know feels incredibly seen: …never ask anyone who’s just finished a book if they’re happy with […]
Finished reading Dan Blank’s Be The Gateway last night. Immediately flagged it as a book to re-read and annotate when I’ve got a little more time up my sleeve, as it’s one of the more clear-headed tomes out there about art and being on the internet. One of the more resonant moments: Blank is talking […]
I’m reading Dan Blank’s Be The Gateway at the moment, a book about author platform and writing that is probably as close to my own philosophy that I’ve come across thus far. There’s a focus on identities and how they shape reaction to our work, and why “just telling good stories that entertain people” is […]
Angela Slatter has written a post about writing the third book in a trilogy and figuring out structures for the Always Trust In Books blog. It amuses me because a friend of mine recently commented that I do not seem to like geeky things, citing the fact that I rarely seem to talk about Star […]
Criag Mod recently did a six-week walk across Japan during which he purposefully removed himself from the phone as a tool of social media. Of course, such things aren’t new these days. 2019 seems to be the year everyone stopped and looked at social networks with a critical eye, evaluating the space they occupy in […]
I’m 90 words off hitting my fiction target for the day, and getting to tick the left-hand box on my monthly streak tracker. It’s occurring late today, but my partner is asleep and there’s an evening of work before me…and I’ll be stopping once those 90 words are written. As I mentioned in my last […]
I’ve been exploring the archive’s of Austin Kleon’s blog recently, and spend a lot of time falling down rabbit holes as one interesting post expands out into multiple links and thematic obsessions carrying on over time. For the first time in years, I’m leaving a series of open tabs on my computer, waiting for things […]
One of my projects for 2019 is clearing the archive of unread links tucked away in the “To Read” folder of my bookmarks bar. At time of writing, there are about 600 of them remaining, and I’m going full Marie Kondo on those fuckers: everything is checked, thanks, and cleared away so I don’t have […]
Readers love to talk about the piles of unread books they’ve been accumulating over the years, breaking out plans to put a dent in the pile if only so they can justify purchasing new books to fill the gap. We can take a certain pleasure in what that unread book signifies, in both the look […]
DAEMON VOICES: ESSAYS ON STORYTELLING is a collection of Phillip Pullman’s writing on the subjects of writing and writers. I was tempted by this collection despite never having read Pullman’s fiction–in my head, he’s catalogued as that guy who wrote the YA novel that was turned into the film with the polar bears. I haven’t […]
In Winifred Gallagher’s Rapt, she talks about focus as a means of overcoming our instinctual fear. We read books and plug into phones on public transport to tamp down on the fear that we’re travelling alongside strangers, a source of physical danger and possible contamination as flu season begins. We set aside places like bathrooms […]
