What if you wrote something for burning, or for burial? Perhaps it would be the most beautiful or important thing you ever wrote. You would be your only reader, and you would read your words only once. Your text would be designed not to offer understanding or illumination but would simply reflect some truth about…
At some point last year I realised I had become afraid of too many things. It wasn't rational. I don't know how it began. But this is how it ended: I started running, which meant I strengthened the body of which I had become too protective. I ran without company, which meant I learned to enjoy…
When authors meet publishers for the first time, they always ask me: What are they expecting? Should I say X? Will they expect me to know Y? May I mention Z? I tell them what I know but it always ends with the same advice: Just Be Yourself. Of course, I mean to offer the…
I'm just going to say it: I love contracts. But that's not enough. I want you to love them too. Contracts are not a dull, essential adjunct to our activity. They are the sure ground on which our business is built, the tracks along which the publishing train steams. All the creative, innovative work you…
Writers draw on and play with their memories constantly, as a way of mining themselves and the world; not in order to write memoir necessarily, but because they need to log each human impulse, foresee every scenario, inhabit all the multiple versions of life they could have lived - the decisions they might have made.…
Last week, my son sat in an unfamiliar school, waiting to take the entrance exam. "So many days pass us by, without us even noticing. And then there are the special days - the landmark days, on which your journey changes direction," the head advised the fidgeting room kindly. "Whatever happens next, today is Important:…
It's Christmas; the season of The Hardback, commencing with our worship on Sacred Super Thursday and continuing through the discovery of rocketing sales numbers behind every window of the Advent calendar thereafter until the 25th, Kindle Day, which Amazon bought from Coca-Cola in a deal behind closed doors five years ago. And then, once the…
I wrote once before about why I don't drive any more. The advantages of walking - of taking one's time when moving from A to B - are still as present in my life today as they were then. When I travel, even if by train or bus as opposed to on foot or bicycle, there is…
Where were you last night? At the pub with friends? Reading a fantastic new book by the fire? Watching some enjoyably trashy TV? At the theatre or cinema? I was home. I spent last night drinking really nice ale and writing a memo to a publisher about royalty statements, and how they could be improved.…
Making new friends, as an adult, is a marvellous thing isn't it? It's so fun, to discover new partners in crime. It doesn't happen all that often; by a certain age, we usually have enough friends to get by and tend to put new good people into an Acquaintance basket. Then, every now and then,…