The whole point about the bad guy is that he thinks he's the good guy. For a great villain, go back to Treasure Island and Long John Silver...
Avast there, ye swabs!
Category: Books
Unpersuaded: a disappointing classic
Last year, on a whim, I decided to revisit Persuasion… and was genuinely taken by surprise: it seemed to me not merely disappointing but actively bad...
Lost Hearts
Ever since I was a child, I have been haunted by M.R.James’s tale, Lost Hearts, in which two murdered children return to exact a bloody revenge...
The book in the drawer
My idea of being an author has always been to write a book, rewrite it over and over until it’s perfect… then stick it in a drawer, take it out a couple of years later, rewrite it… and stick it back in the drawer.
The crap first draft
The end of the first draft is just an excuse to make yourself a cup of tea and treat yourself to a biscuit
The first sentence, part 2: Pariah
Any sorcerer will tell you: once there’s a demon in the room, all bets are off
The first sentence, part 1: Gifted
I’ve been up all night while the cat’s still fresh...
The crap read
It’s the read-through where you realise that this book is a complete and utter disaster and nobody in their right mind could possibly get even to the bottom of the first page…
Fuckin’ up
The process of writing — at least as I practise it — is one of continual failure, and of the subsequent failure of all attempts to remedy that initial failure.
A monster rewrite
Like Frankenstein’s monster, it will shamble to its feet and start to move in a sinister fashion… until it falls over a chair
Donald Hounam 