Done, and Done

I don’t really talk about the writing and such very often on here, but sometimes it’s worth noting certain milestones. So, I finished the novel. And I think…cautiously…that it’s okay. The interesting thing is the routine I managed to settle into in order to get the last of it done. I’d wake up, get out […]

Perserverence Makes Prizes

Just heard that Tamar Yellin’s “The Genizah At The House Of Shepher” has won the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature.Couldn’t have happened to a nicer, or more dedicated, person. The book was a long time in the making, but it just shows you what you can do when you perservere. I’m so excited for […]

E-books are beginning to tempt me

And that’s something I never thought I’d say. Generally I haven’t traditionally enjoyed reading from a screen, but book reader displays are getting higher and higher in resolution, and I have a feeling it won’t be so very long before publishers are going to be faced with a pretty persuasive commercial and environmental argument that […]

It’s a Book? A Film? And a Song?

So, it’s been a busy old week that’s hardly seen me in the house. I don’t normally like having so much stuff happening at once, but sometimes it’s just unavoidable. So, what’ve we had? Monday : Band rehearsal ahead of the year’s first gig later in the week. Blasted through the set first time with […]

Munchies

This week I allowed myself to read fiction. Just a little bit, cos even though I’m on the wagon for the duration of the nov, the urge is sometimes too much. Just a short story, maybe a magazine, but nothing stronger. Nae books or nuthin‘, gov. You know what’s the ideal size for the fiction […]

Talking of Mr Duncan

On returning home from work tonight I was delighted to find that the postie had delivered Hal’s Sonnets For Orpheus. This is a gorgeous little volume, a beautiful artefact in its own right, and for Vellum fans the thought provoking contents echo in sonnet form one of the main concerns of the novel – the […]

Written On The Skin : Context For Vellum

“Written on the skin Tattooed with a pin In ink as black as sin The future flows.” You can’t have read much genre fiction in recent months and not heard of Hal Duncan’s “Vellum”. It was published just a smirch over a year ago on a wave of strong publisher backing and word of mouth […]

Ghosts

Lately, I’ve been thinking about ghosts. Two reasons. The first? Well, Mr Wilson and I are in discussions about a proposed editorial project that might well involve spooks, spectres and other supernatural occurrences. We both love the traditional ghost stories of MR James and his ilk, all dread and gaslight, lonely academics, cursed landscapes and […]