Concept to hard copy takes time

And here’s a nice physical illustration of that. Drew Gummerson’s new novel Me and Mickie James starts out in a room with a view (but with no loo) at the top of St Pancras station. When he started it I don’t know, but St Pancras has certainly seen some changes in the interim. As I arrived at the station last week I noticed that Mickie James’ one time illicit bedsit will soon be a £10m penthouse suite. The novel came out this week, incidentally… 

The author interview: what is it for?

Do you read author interviews? And if so why? Is it partly to get to “know” the author? If so, then Writer’s Rooms does a good job with its photographs of writers studies (like that of Russell Hoban, above). Or do you hope for some insight you’d never get by reading their work? I was thinking about this when I did an author interview this week. I asked Bernardine Evaristo about her life and her novel Blonde Roots. Then I thought, isn’t all this “about the author” stuff just extra? If it was you, what would you hope to be asked? Or would you just want people to focus on the book?

They’d “like to see more”

Isn’t that a phrase from poker? I’m probably not meant to get too excited over this, but it beats sending letters or emails into the void.

Writing and waiting

This blog is meant for news about my writing but right now I’m waiting to hear back on some stuff I’ve sent out. One hour can be a long time.

Other than that? Bit of day job, bit of hustling to find a new day job, a lot of why spend so much time in a city anyway? I mean I love it, but. You know…