A Literary Life

A long walk.   There’s nothing like it on a summery day, with the barest of breezes.   Along the beach, and around the breath-taking scenery of the Great Orme, a limestone headland jutting off Llandudno into the Irish Sea.   The gulls riding on thermals.   Strange insects scurrying over stone, sand-spiders hurrying over undulating dunes.   Sitting on grass, looking out over Anglesey and Puffin Island, watching kayakers in the sparkling water below, but otherwise alone.   Bliss. A walk to a writer is about more than just getting exercise (though that is a key factor, as we do spend too many hours sitting at desks, tapping words into computers or running pens over paper that any excuse to get up and move around is welcome, even if it is just dancing along to a Scissor Sisters song and hoping nobody catches you!).   A walk to a writer is about allowing the creative juices to flow.   There is something strangely conducive and seductive a...

I haven’t forgotten about you, dear blog. I’ve just been very busy. So, updates. The Story Engine in Newcastle went swimmingly – very interesting Q&A sessions with David Peace, Denise Mina, Tony Grisoni and the wonderfully self-deprecating Mike Hodges (who signed his novel for me and lamented the state of modern British publishing, agreeing with so much I have already said – can’t break in unless you’re Oxbridge, they won’t market you when you do, and they won’t pay for a proof reader). I met a few lovely people up there whom I spent the conference sitting with – students both, but who knows, they could be the next big things – and then had a far too long coach ride back home. I did read Little Dorrit though, which has jumped to the top of my Dickens’s best of list (with Nicholas Nickleby and Dombey and Son.) The script writing then: The Story Engine left me with a few ideas for a crime series that I came back to Oxfordshire with buzzing around my head. I st...

Today has been a productive day – and it’s still not even five pm. I’ve pretty much finished drafting the pilot of my science-fiction children’s show that is heading to the BBC Writer’s Room at the end of the week. It’s sharp, bright, funny, dangerous and sometimes a little bit mad. The dialogue zings along, and the twists and turns of its narrative will enthral kids and make their parents a little nostalgic. It’s the pilot: and I have the first season mapped out. If the BBC pass I might just turn it into a kids book. But I’d rather the BBC didn’t pass, and it opens the doors I hope it does. I hope it even makes it to series, and is shown later next year as it is set in 2012! More on this series, though, I cannot give right now. I’ve also been typing up the new 1,000 odd words I wrote by hand for my literary novel. Writing by hand? What is this, the 1800s? Well, it’s the way I like to write my fiction, long hand, in ring bound books. That’s my first draft. ...