misc.
A Pile of Paper Covered With Wrong Words
I posted Dorothy Parker’s telegram to her editor last year, but she bears reposting for all the dark nights of the writing soul that lie ahead for 2012. Happy New Year to all my writing and reading friends.
How To Write A Book
1. For your first book, have no idea whatsoever until the very last minute, then sit down and write it effortlessly in three months (before, during and after work, and after your small child has gone to bed). Do very few revisions. This book will be a bestseller. 2. For book two — have a [...]
Surefire last minute Christmas presents.
Give your parents the gift of serenity. Tell them you’ve decided not to write that misery memoir after all. Your editor doesn’t want expensive perfume. Why not write a bestselling series a la Harry Potter instead? It will cost you nothing and bring years of happiness. Christmas is a time for embracing thine enemy. Wrap [...]
Two nations divided by a common language.
When I came to live in London, way back in 1989, I learned a lesson early on about the difference between British English and American English. Running into a stationers in a terrible hurry, I asked the salesperson for a Week At A Glance diary. ‘No, don’t have ‘em,’ he said, as I scanned the large [...]
How I Live Now Film News
I wasn’t the last to know, but I’ve been offline for two days, and came home to find a few hundred emails, many of them demanding to know whether it’s true that Saoirse* Ronan has been cast as Daisy in the film of How I Live Now. I’m not sure it’s 100% official yet, but [...]
Eck the Halls.
Well, it’s clear what this year’s top Christmas gift is, and it’s not the pooping dachshund. I’ll give you a hint: God Eck ye merry gentlemen. Oh little town of Ecklehem. We three Ecks of orient are. Yes, you guessed it, it’s a genuine bonafide soft stuffed Eck, direct from There Is No Dog, created [...]
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