More Congo reading

Two more for the springboard reading list. Jeff suggested Ishmael Beah’s A Long Way Gone, Memoir of a Boy soldier. There’s an interesting controversy about this. The newspaper The Australian claims that the events described in the book happen two years later than Beah says they did. This would mean he was fifteen, not thirteen. [...]

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Springboard Reading, or Chain Letters.

While I was reading last night (The Mission Song, John le Carre) I daydreamed my way into a reading project for the year. Springboard reading.
In essence, it goes like this. Once I have read a book, I pick up one of the things touched on in it and follow it up with the next book [...]

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Furst things First

I’m still reading Night Soldiers, and loving it. It’s becoming one of those books that make you hope your bus will be a bit late so you finish the chapter. In some ways it is dull, but I’m still hooked on it. I’ll rephrase that: I don’t find it dull at all, but if someone [...]

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Alan Furst and the Likely Lads

There used to be a sit-com made in England called The Likely Lads, about two guys who had a bit of difficulty leaving their past behind them and growing up. In one classic episode, they have a bet with someone. They have to get through a whole day without hearing the result of the England [...]

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Rules: Bend, Break or Follow?

Think for a minute about sport – any sport. Your favourite one. Curling, hurling, kabbadi or soccer – let’s go with that since it’s the most popular. Imagine a player, the best you’ve ever seen, dribbling round the pitch completely unstoppable. A once-in-five-generations phenomenon. Now imagine two teams playing with a ball the way toddlers [...]

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Ones you might have missed

The Guardian has a list of contemporary novelists’ selections for books which they feel are very undervalued. How many have you read? I haven’t read any, I’m embarrassed to say.
Also in the Guardian, a look at the actual mechanics of books: http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/06/the_hard_truth_about_hardbacks.html
I have to say, I disagree with the writer in this piece. I find [...]

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First lines

George Benton choked during a mince pie eating contest to raise money for Battersea Dogs’ Home. When a passerby tried to execute the Heimlich manoevre, his eyes popped out.

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Youth Imperialism?

There’s one theme that pops up again and again when I’m writing, even if it’s not a central subject of the piece: aging and being old. Although I’m only in my 20s, I seem to have an affinity for the old. Many of my characters are elderly, and often the narrator in a first person [...]

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Tintin racism furore

A campaign to have a Tintin book withdrawn because of racist content has possibly backfired quite spectacularly. From The Guardian:
“A spokesman for Borders confirmed the book would be moved to the adult section but it would not be withdrawn, adding that the company stood by its commitment to let customers make the choice.”
What better way [...]

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Re-drafting

I’ve just had quite an educational hour or two, re-drafting something I’d written a while ago. It illustrated the importance of editing and doing a second draft like a lighthouse flashing a warning in the night.
It’s amazing the details that you miss while writing them sometimes. While you concentrate on one aspect, others slip past. [...]

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