Tag: Reading

  • Queen of Rubies

    I’m manically busy at the moment. My next-next book winged its way to the RNA’s New Writer’s Scheme this week, I’ve written 21k words of the one to follow that since the start of the month, while simultaneously revising something from long ago which I hope might be the start of a series. This leaves me…

  • A life of its own

    There’s Magic in them there words! There’s something magical about writing. Well, yeah, I would think that, wouldn’t I? – but it’s true. However badly written a book, I’ve never yet found one that didn’t convince me that its story was true. I might condemn the characters for being one-dimensional or acting irrationally or stupidly.  I…

  • Book Lovers Rock

    Okay, so we all know that books are fabulous and the people who read and write them are brilliant, too. This isn’t something new, I’ve just been particularly reminded of it recently. Firstly, I’d run out of things to read. Yeah, I know, my TBR pile is always huge, but nothing on it leapt out…

  • Character is King

      I picked up something new to read this week. Well, something old, actually – in a lull between books I grabbed any old something from my bookshelf and started to read. The writing wasn’t the best. Well, no, I’ll be honest – the novel simply wasn’t written in the style I prefer. I like…

  • Seasonal energetic disorder

    I love the long days of spring/summer. I’m sure I’m not alone in that, but it’s not so much the sunshine, or watching the flowers come into bloom that makes me smile. It’s the amount of stuff I get done. The only things I’ve ever read about the seasons and the affect have on people…

  • The Fussy Reader

    If you’re a writer, you must read. That’s the one piece of advice that’s universal – every writer you meet will tell you that reading widely is key to developing your writing skills. And I completely agree. What you aren’t warned, though, is that reading to improve your writing can make you an incredibly fussy…

  • The end isn’t in sight

    I’m cross and crotchety today. I feel like I’ve wasted my reading time this week on two books that didn’t end. Now, I don’t mean they were long, nor that they were dull. They didn’t end because their writers (and their editors and big, commercial publishers in turn) had failed to comprehend the fundamental requirement…

  • Share the love

    Books are wonderful things. I love reading them, I love writing them, I love enthusing about books, and over time I’ve grown to love reviewing books, too, which I do with other YA-loving friends on the Paisley Piranha site, as well as posting to Goodreads and Amazon. I read an interesting piece this week (Jenny…

  • Spoilt for Choice

    I was in enough trouble yesterday when I drafted this post. Then I went to the library. I didn’t need any more books, I wasn’t going to get any more books … but I thought I might as well have a little look, just in case. Yeah, well, all readers know how that one ends.…

  • School milk memories

    Today’s planned blog was derailed (in a good way) by a tweet. A twitter friend tweeted about plans in Scotland to return the “milk break” to all primary school children. (You can read the article here if it’s a topic of interest.) As one of the generation whose milk was “snatched” by Maggie Thatcher, this brought…