Gallows humor for writers

I see I haven’t posted an item since 17 March. Excuses range from “I’ve been too busy to blog” and “I’m suffering a multi-tasking deficiency” to “I’ve sustained a fit of sanity, wherein I see no percentage in posting elaborate messages into the Void.”

Mostly, though, I’ve been in thrall to a fiction project, a series of speculative novels. The Muse, revealing herself as a dominatrix this time around, has shacked up with me big time. (I speak only figuratively, … Read more

Rules? I don’t need no stinkin’ rules

Well, maybe just a few.

A writer should find a good chair, e.g. Install it right there in front of  computer, pencil & pad, whatever, and then sit in it for extended periods, writing stuff.

Here’s a real lode of good advice from The Guardian10 rules for writing fiction from each of a bunch of prominent writers.

And here are five tips of my own, something I recently added to advice emerging from a Clarion Science Fiction and Read more

*Bangkok Noir* – Official launch Thursday 17 March 2011

Come meet the authors (seven of them, at least).

Bangkok Noir

(press release)

Book launch, open to the public

8pm: FCCT (Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand)


Maneeya Building, Penthouse Floor; enter the building from the Chidlom BTS Station, southwest exit.


Official book launch

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand (FCCT)

8.00pm, 17 March 2011

Book signing

Kinokuniya, Siam Paragon Branch

3.00pm–6.00pm, 2 April 2011

For more information, please visit  www.bangkoknoir.info.Read more

Writerly occupational hazard: New frontiers in creative foreplay

In the old days, writers sharpened pencils, checked the mail, experimented with melismatic renditions of “I’m a Lumberjack, and I’m Okay,”  polished the piano (the rich writers, I mean) and so on. Classic avoidance behavior, right? Anything’s better than actually getting down to the hard business of writing.

Maybe not. Or at least maybe not entirely. I’m not the first to suggest that all the screwing around may well be a vital part of the creative process. … Read more