How Do Authors Over 60 Define Career Success? by Marylee MacDonald Career success for writers over 60 looks quite different from the success of writers profiled in such places as The New Yorker’s 20 Best Writers Under 40 or Granta’s Best Young American Novelists. Writers in their 60s, 70s, and 80s can’t enter these literary ... Read More
“Feelgood ” refers to films or books that portray people and life in a way that makes us feel happy or optimistic. “Uplit” – a new term which I found in The Guardian and which is derived from “uplifting literature” – seems to mean the same thing. It works best when there is some sadness, some realism, to ... Read More
Does anyone recognise this? If you do, please let me know. Years ago I used to perform it as a sort of party piece, but I’ve no idea where I got it from. A Russian peasant is trudging through the snow. He finds a poor little frozen bird, still breathing – just. He picks it ... Read More
(First published in Humanist Life, July 2016) ‘It’s as though a door opened and someone beckoned; I didn’t respond, and the door was closed for always. I was still a non-believer, but not so militant now – perhaps because of that little Madonna, or because of my friend Maria who trusted in that God of ... Read More
Ladies and Gentlemen, I hope you have enjoyed your tour of our renowned university city. And I do hope you have not had difficulty in understanding me. Yours is not a language we teach in our schools, but once we had found out that you still exist a few of us have endeavoured to learn ... Read More
My novel Timed Out is usually classified as ‘mature romance’ or ‘women’s literary fiction’. (I snobbishly prefer ‘literary fiction’ though I know that doesn’t sell books.) It is about an older woman trying to turn her life around after she retires, doing Internet dating and also pondering again the Big Questions. On its book page Amazon.co.uk lists ... Read More
John Crace Being Dead. Begins with a gruesome murder and then traces the victims’ lives leading up to that moment, and describes in detail the putrefaction of the corpses. I was too squeamish for this, though John Crace as a writer of beautiful and evocative prose is second to none. Margaret Drabble The Dark Flood Rises. A ... Read More
Before you can post a review you need to have an Amazon account that has been used to buy something from them (not necessarily a book). You do not need to have bought the book you are reviewing from Amazon. How to do it: Go to product details page. Click on Customer Review. Rate.Write.Submit. You ... Read More
When they say they have never heard of your publisher, smile sweetly and express surprise. ‘Oh, haven’t you?’ And don’t call Driven Press ‘a small global press’ – call them ‘a global press’. When they ask what happens in the end of Timed Out, don’t tell them – just suggest they’ll find it interesting. Don’t ... Read More
One person’s witty, eloquent brainwave is often another person’s cliche. We are urged to avoid them: story cliches, adjective-with-noun cliches, metaphor cliches, phrase cliches. And how we hate being caught using one. After all, we writers call ourselves creative and we think we are original, daring, imaginative. And that’s especially true of those who have ... Read More
