Writing about writing itself; namely my book and other stuff I write
I reported the other day that the Google Checkout function through which you could buy signed copies of Up The Creek Without a Mullet was down. Well, it’s working again! Thanks to Matt, who built this website, a wee tinker under the bonnet has sorted it. There shouldn’t be any problems now, so if any…
Someone who tried to buy a signed copy of my book online via the link I posted some time ago has just got in touch to say there’s an error, to do with currencies. Nothing’s gone badly wrong and nobody’s lost any money, but there was a problem in the… well, I don’t really understand.…
One year ago yesterday, Up The Creek Without a Mullet was published. Very much a process rather than an event, I am still enjoying the thrill and excitement of having a book published, and the range of events, interviews, publicity and more in the past year has confirmed – as if I needed it –…
Delivery to UK – £8.00Delivery to rest of world – £9.00 I’ve been asked by quite a few folk if I can sign their copy of Up The Creek Without a Mullet. Often such people live a long way away and it has obviously not been very practical to do so, especially if they couldn’t…
Having been somewhere, or knowing a bit about a place, always makes it seem a bit more real when it is in the news. This past year, for instance, Haiti has been very much in my mind, what with its earthquake, cholera outbreak, massive rebuilding task and so on. It’s one of the countries I…
Today, we returned home from being away with family for a few days over New Year. It is a funny sort of day – not least because of the looming prospect of going back to work tomorrow. Not normally such an intimidating prospect, but then I have been off for a month. It’s been a…
So, 2010, eh? What a year. Volcanic ash, Nick Clegg, Wikileaks and no doubt other things I can’t quite remember just now. Last year was a pretty monumental year for me, but this year has been just as much so. The first big highlight of the year was the launch of my first book, Up…
Permit me to draw your attention to a typically dry, dark and humorous article from the brilliant Scottish writer Daniel Kalder; the first paragraph of which I’d really like to highlight: “It’s important to seek wonder in everyday life, to retain a child’s fascination for simple things. This is not always simple – the sheer…
Longtime readers will know that I am really not a fan of Facebook. I never really thought it did anything that other things (eg this blog, or email, or Flickr, or – gasp! – talking to people) didn’t do. However, I joined a few years ago to give it a try, and found it tolerable…
At the risk of making you green with envy, I am now finished work for the year, and return in early January. I had plenty leave to take, and so am having extended time off before Christmas, which partly is about some well-earned rest after a busy spell that’s included a lot of work and…
The travel website A Dangerous Business is an interesting read, with all sorts of articles about places throughout the world and various bits and bobs about different elements of the experience of travel. They have a weekly feature called “Thursday Traveller”, and I am this week’s interviewee. I only discovered A Dangerous Business recently, via…
Last week, in fact just a couple of hours before dashing off to catch the sleeper train to London, I attended a book group that had recently read my book “Up The Creek Without a Mullet”. I used to be a part of that book group many years ago, though dropped out when I moved…
The modest flurry of media coverage of “Up The Creek Without a Mullet” in Australia continues. First up I was in the Brisbane Courier Mail on Tuesday of this week. Readers of UTCWAM may recall towards the end of the book me describing an interview with Rod Chester from the Courier Mail, and chatting about everything…
I had a busy day yesterday. I took the dreaded “red eye” 0647 train to Edinburgh for a day’s work, and then had a couple of interesting engagements in the evening. First, due to a chance encounter at a recent Highland Literary Salon gathering, I was invited to the equivalent literary get-together in Edinburgh, which…
I’ve somewhat neglected the blog of late, but my feeble excuse is that things have been busy. Not that busy, really, but enough such that, with a slight motivation gap, has left me not having done much worthy of reporting. Finding the time and motivation to get stuck deeply into writing the sequel to Up…
It’s been a busy summer, what with moving house, going to Spain and work being quite hectic. Therefore I’d been looking forward to this week and next to get some writing done. I’m behind on my own personal deadline for writing the sequel to “Up The Creek Without a Mullet”, and part of the problem…
As you’ll be aware, I’ve had a competition on the go recently for people to suggest a competition, which just recently closed meaning we can start the competition properly now. Yes, takes a little moment’s thought, doesn’t it? The winner of both that competition and the winning competition idea win a signed copy of my…
Blog posts lately have been few and sporadic, due to a number of things, not least our home internet connection only just being set up. This means I can catch up on a whole host of things I’ve been wanting to write and photos I’ve been wanting to upload. I’ve also had plenty writing to…
Right, it’s competition time. I have a signed copy of “Up The Creek Without a Mullet” to give away, and have been racking my brains recently for a fun format for a competition. Should I encourage some sort of challenge of creativity or silliness, such as the weirdest photo of a copy of the book, or…
As announced the other day by my publisher, “Up The Creek Without a Mullet” is now available as an ebook. It’s all rather exciting, not only in terms of the increased focus in the media on the ebook format, but in helping the book’s profile overseas, something I’ll be focussing on in the coming while.…