I couldn’t help but respond the other week to a person who left me a comment on my website, a comment assuring me that what they had to say may look like spam but assuring me it wasn’t. All I could do was protest loudly that their site looked like…well, spam. Having disapproved of the [...]
Archive for the ‘writing’ Category
No, you may not copy, sell, or loan our work.
Posted in Sharon Bidwell, writing on August 10, 2009 | 6 Comments »
Another One Bites the Dust
Posted in Sharon Bidwell, writing on March 12, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Please note, this is a slightly edited version of a short article I wrote a few years ago, highlighting the plight of small press magazines. It has appeared as a reprint no less than seven times. Even though it was a reprint, both print and electronic publications kept snapping it up every time I subbed [...]
What’s in a name?
Posted in Society, language, life, writers, writing, tagged exit, Exit Pursued by a Bee, names, Nelder on March 7, 2009 | 1 Comment »
By Geoff Nelder
I laughed the other day because I received a request from a baby naming site to link with my writing one. Initially, I thought this was a curious variation of a Nigerian bank scam, but once my stomach subsided I realized there was some sense here.
When I started writing fiction, characters’ names appeared [...]
What the *@#%* is a radgepacket?
Posted in Britain, Fiona Glass, writing on February 25, 2009 | 9 Comments »
The mysterious radgepacket…
I’m in a slightly weird position here. A few weeks ago I had a short story accepted by Byker Books for their latest anthology, which has the utterly unforgettable title of ‘Radgepacket – Tales From the Inner Cities Volume 2′. Of course, I was delighted – but I was also slightly baffled. And [...]
Public Lending Right
Posted in Erastes, life, writing on February 18, 2009 | 4 Comments »
‘PLR’s aim is to provide an excellent service to all our stakeholders making annual payments to writers and other creators whose works are freely available in libraries. We will achieve this by maintaining a highly skilled team and making efficient use of all our resources.’
Basically, if your books (or [...]
Dear Grauniad…*
Posted in Alex Draven, language, writing on February 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I must recommend the Guardian’s style guide – - it’s such a excellent combination of useful information, useless information, British-ness, self depreciation, and more wit than one would normally expect from an internal office document, even one intended for writers.
Change of Plans
Posted in Britain, Erastes, Scenery, writing on December 31, 2008 | 6 Comments »
Ok – made some kind of decision about my next novel, “Hangingstone Hill.”
I had originally planned it to be set in Dartmoor but I’ve changed my mind. This, for a start, will make the name redundant as that’s a place name of a tor in the Dartmoor area.
It seems silly to me to live in [...]
ITIN–How NOT to do it
Posted in Erastes, writing on December 10, 2008 | 9 Comments »
For the correct and painless way of obtaining your Individual Tax Identification Number – please see THIS POST by Alex Beecroft. To see exactly the way NOT to do it, read on.
March 2008. Your publisher supplies the W7 to fill in. The form looks relatively straightforward but has about 12 pages of “goobledegook” attached to [...]
A tour of the Cosmic
Posted in Sharon Bidwell, writing on November 26, 2008 | 4 Comments »
I toddled off to my page at Loose-Id yesterday to see my book up for sale. It’s always an interesting moment. There’s that thrill of seeing it available for the first time. There it is! It’s up, it’s up…it’s out! Eeek. Then it’s interesting to see what excerpt the publisher has chosen — something I [...]
Separated by a common language #2
Posted in Fiona Glass, writing, tagged grammar on October 23, 2008 | 12 Comments »
Pretty much everyone these days knows about the obvious differences between British and American English – the sidewalks and pavements, the faucets and taps, the gottens and gots. What fewer people know, and I only found out from working with American editors, is the occasional gulfs in grammar between the two languages.
Take passive, for [...]
