There is a progression in a successful artist’s career. First, toiling (for several years, sometimes) in the trenches to reach base camp, then beginning the climb up the mountain of fame, then reaching a point on the gradient where a magic elevator suddenly appears and creates an inverse tipping point that starts to hurtle the […]
The Artist’s Career Progression Read More »
There was a time when bosses used to say to employees who were having a hard day at work, “Don’t bring your personal life to the office,” or “I don’t want to know about your personal life, get on with the job I’m paying you to do.” That message has changed over the years, and
Does the Corporation own our personal life? Read More »
When I think about all the hours that I have put into writing, all the novels and stories published, and an equal amount unpublished and probably never to see the light of day, I wonder whether it has made one dint of difference to the oceans of literature that surround us and keep increasing exponentially
Our contributions to literature – a feed into the collective consciousness? Read More »
As publishers narrow the number of titles they select to put their promotional dollars behind, there is a disturbing phenomenon that is distorting the allocations of funds in book marketing, and consequently, influencing what we read. Let’s talk about the manuscript auction. Typically literary agents resort to an auction if more than one publisher is
Manuscript Auctions are anti-literature Read More »
I wrote a novel in 2007 based on a trip I took to Peru in 2002. The country had intrigued me; emerging from a revolution that had recently ended and that still showed traces in bombed-out buildings, the underlying vein of poverty that intruded despite the bright colours of the clothes and ponchos worn by
I use the term “Flogging” loosely as it was coined by one of my writer-friends. And this refers to the parasitic practice of attaching links to other people’s posts on the internet to deflect traffic to one’s own peddling, moral or immoral. I stumbled on this phenomenon when I began to receive an unusually high
Flogging is a nuisance and a looming economic disaster Read More »
Blogging went mainstream in the late ’90’s and started a tsunami of self-expression. Many writers, felt that they could have their voices heard instantly, without having to weave through a bureaucracy of gatekeepers. Some turned blogging into a subtle form of marketing and self-promotion. And now, for some, it appears to be a magnet for
Blogging is becoming a dangerous activity Read More »
I review books, and have a few hundred posted in the public domain. Writers constantly request me to write reviews of their books. Of late, I have resorted to writing reviews only of the books I like and politely turn away many that I don’t, author notwithstanding. Why? Because reviews sell books, I’m told. But
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Book Reviews Read More »
Books take a long time to be born, we know that. I’ve had stories published after 30 years. Two of my novels took seven years between their writing and their publication. My other books have averaged three to four years in that pipeline. That is usually par for the course if one is not writing
From writing, to publishing, to being read – a long journey Read More »
They say that we are born alone and that we die alone. Though there may be many gathered around us at these two seminal events, we are the ones being born and who are doing the dying, the rest are spectators. And between these two bookends of life lie the many people whom we encounter
Your life as a novel Read More »