The opening of Mudbound, by Hillary Jordan was almost enough to put me off. “Henry and I dug the hole seven feet deep. Any shallower and the corpse was liable to come rising up during the next big flood.” The corpse is the narrator’s father and it looks like he didn’t die in his sleep. … Continue reading Mud, not so glorious mud
When Nathan Bransford asked his reader’s this week which fictional world they would like to live in, the responses were, I thought, a bit dull. The question, I suppose, was weighted towards realms of fantasy, rather than geographic or historical location and so maybe it’s no surprise that Hogwart’s and various bits of Middle Earth … Continue reading World View
As a writer, it’s easy to be seduced by those stories of instant success into thinking that there are short-cuts to the holy grail of getting published, and I have to thank people like Jane Smith (check out her nice new website) and Sally Zigmond for reminding me that even in this techno whizzy age the traditional … Continue reading Mythbuster
I’ve written before about Zoe Fairbairns but the only book of hers I actually possess is Daddy’s Girls, which I picked up this week when thinking about our book group theme of brothers and sisters. I’ve really enjoyed rereading it, although it has provided a couple of surprises. First of all, although I must have … Continue reading Daddy’s Girls
Last week Nathan Bransford invited his blog followers to be agents for a day. The idea was similar to that of Pitch Parlour (one of my erstwhile haunts but sadly now in intermission) in allowing writers to judge their peers on the strength of a pitch letter and sample pages. (Most U.S. agents work from a … Continue reading Mind over matter
Ali Bacon, Author 