Us creative types, especially those of us who spend most of our time working alone, can become a bit self-obsessed at times. Or maybe I should have said, completely self-obsessed. When this happens I have

When I first started writing stories it seemed all there was to do was, well, to write stories. But time and experience has shown that is not quite true and that I do, in fact, have to be a man who wears

I’ve been really good about staying disciplined and writing for about 2.5 hours every morning since I went full-time with my writing last autumn. But there is a persistent problem that’s been bugging me,

Yes, it’s true, I had the desperately unsettling experience the other day of opening a book I had bought second-hand from a well-known on-line market-place only to find a previous owner had scribbled notes

Do you ever have that realisation that you can’t remember what books you’ve read? I did and it started bothering me. So I decided to do something about it. Image It seems to me that, given the amount of

I noticed the other day that I have now written and posted nearly 26,000 words to my blog. That’s a fair few words and certainly enough for a novella. It also takes time to put all those posts together,

Thought I’d share a new fifty word short with you this week, Who Knew. Makes a change from my usual wanderings. Image She knew my shoe size, my dentist and my banker. She knew my favourite foods and my

Writing is a wonderful experience when things are going well and the words pour from your fingertips like water over a fall, but what about those times when you realise you’ve got it wrong? Image The great

I sometimes see discussions about writer’s block and I wonder what they’re going on about because it’s not something that ever seems to afflict me. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t other things that

I noticed the other day that there are longer, special edition releases of the Lord of the Rings films doing the rounds and that got me to thinking. It’s quite often the case with successful films, especially

I couldn’t believe my luck. I was reading a post the other day that said something wonderful. Something that put a smile on my face for the rest of the evening. Image I am, by nature, a perfectionist.

OK, so an unusual post this week. I’m looking for your help. You’re probably thinking something along the lines of “Hey, Ben’s an author and he’s asking me for help. Must involve encouraging people to

It's the first Monday of the month, so it's time to share a cover from one of the books in my collection. Published by Hutchinson in 2018. The jacket illustration is by Chris Wormell and jacket design

One of my favourite things about Spring is the appearance of the white-headed Cow Parsley (Latin name Anthriscus Sylvestris), which looks especially beautiful growing in long sweeping drifts on roadside

I was working up an idea I had for a new story the other day and it occurred to me that it didn’t seem to matter when it was set nor whether or not I made the period in time clear to the reader. But am

I started reading a Barbara Vine (aka Ruth Rendell) novel, The Brimstone Wedding, a couple of nights ago and it reminded me at once of one thing in particular that makes for a really excellent fictional

It's the first Monday of the month, so it's time to share a cover from one of the books in my collection. Published by Allen Lane in 2014. The cover illustration is by Millie Marotta and cover design by

As the years have advanced I have found myself increasingly unwilling to persist with reading a book that I’m not enjoying and this has cropped up big time recently. Image Once, in a time that now seems

Today I returned to the nearby Badby Woods, which I visited last month. This time I was there to wander amongst the sea of bluebells that flower at this time of year. I took a different path into the woods

I guess we’ve all had moments in our lives when some unexpected event has triggered memories we had forgotten were even there. Perhaps the smell of some stranger’s perfume that ignites memories of a much