*This is a talk I gave a few years ago on World Vegetarian Day. I am not a climatologist. Neither am I a nutritionist. I write fiction. And, occasionally I have the pleasure of giving talks on world vegetarian day. Vegetarianism is something close to my heart and I was chuffed when asked to speak. … Continue reading A Modest Proposal Regarding Eating Animals *
Artistic Life
Notes for a 21st Century Artistic Manifesto
The Place of Literature.Art is the imitation of life by means of signs, symbols and plastic objects. Literature is the imitation of life using symbols and signs to tell stories. To understand what life means we use art as a skeleton key into what has always been the greatest of mysteries and challenges. Here in … Continue reading Notes for a 21st Century Artistic Manifesto
Black Dog and Radio 4: Part 1
Around 2009 I was unwell. I didn't know it, but I was not ok. I had began to feel tired. Looking back now this comes as no surprise. For the previous six years I had been working on a novel called One Inch Punch. I had stopped taking care of myself: mentally, emotionally, physically. I … Continue reading Black Dog and Radio 4: Part 1
Literary Style
What is literary style? Literary style is what you see before you when you open the first page of a book, particularly a literary work. Literary style (or ‘writing style’ or ‘literary voice’ or the ‘writer’s voice’) is the way a writer uses words in sentences. 2. Why do writers employ a literary style? Style … Continue reading Literary Style
12 Rules For Writers
Writing is difficult, but its also something so basic to who we are as intelligent beings, that despite its difficulty, its something literally anyone and everyone can grasp. Art happens when the writer expresses something unique that emerges from the self and says something more than the contents and the tropes and methods learned from … Continue reading 12 Rules For Writers
Let the Good Times Roll
But when people say, Did you always want to be a writer?, I have to say no! I always was a writer Ursula le Guin When I ask people 'So, what's your image of a writer?', usually they talk about a guy. Even the women I ask, they tend to talk about a man. … Continue reading Let the Good Times Roll
The Length of a Piece of String
I am a bit worried about what I am writing at the moment. People see me spend long stretches working, and ask me in a roundabout way actually I am working on, and I don't really want to say. There are two reasons for my uncool evasiveness. Firstly I only have a few … Continue reading The Length of a Piece of String
Interview Day and Keeping Going
Ever since I read Virginia Woolf's A Room of Ones Own I knew I wanted nothing more than a quiet room of my own, a stipend or wage of sorts, and enough time and space to write, or more properly to think. All that seems a little crazy on paper, but it was where I was … Continue reading Interview Day and Keeping Going
Popcorn and Cat Memes and the Passing of Time
Its good to begin with a joke or a parable. I don't like gimmicks, but I got two little stories. This is one I heard today while listening to a website called You are Listening to Deep Thought. I heard it as I was trying and failing to move forward on the latest draft of … Continue reading Popcorn and Cat Memes and the Passing of Time
The Extremely Cool Marcel Proust
There are few extraordinarily gifted people people out there who can also be described as really good people. They exist of course, but Marcel Proust, a true artistic genius, was one of them. Kind, sensitive, thoughtful to a fault, a good and faithful friend and an extraordinarily generous man with his time and … Continue reading The Extremely Cool Marcel Proust
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