Musings: 7 Years Ago Today. And a Free Book Too

Seven years ago, my first book was published. (Happy birthday, book!)

This post was going to be one about what’s changed, for me about writing, in those seven years but now I come to think about it the answer is: mot much. It’s still fun and it’s still hard. Very hard. If anything writing now, with three books behind me and a bunch of short stories out there, is harder than it was before. There’s more pressure for one and, as (luckily!) people have mostly liked the things I’ve done there are things to live up to.

One thing I have noticed over the past couple of years – and I think this is because I mostly write magic realism, is that it’s quite easy to write something that can easily be read as a parody of a Nik Perring story, and that’s a very dangerous thing. Stories need to feel fresh. They need to feel new. They need to read as though they’re saying something that either hasn’t been said before, or haven’t been said that way before. And I think that the more you write the more difficult being fresh becomes. There’s no point in repeating yourself.

And I think, as well, that my own standards are higher, which is no bad thing, although it does make my output less prolific.

Not that I’m unhappy with my output. I’ve been writing a lot (I don’t really tend to stop for too often) and I’ve got a whole bunch of stories I’m really pleased with which, as I mentioned in a post a little while ago, I’m starting to send out to places again (after becoming a little lazy with submissions).

So there you have it. With writing, in my experience, nothing really changes, other than the stories.

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And as it’s a book’s birthday how’s about a little competition. Leave a comment (here or on facebook) and I’ll drop you into a hat. The winner receives a signed copy of one of my books. (I’ll make the draw at the end of the week.)

Hello

Hello. Yes, I am still here and alive. Apologies for the lack of action here of late, September seems to have been and gone without me noticing.

So, what have I been up to? Well, the usual, to be honest (so no real excuse). Mostly writing, editing, teaching, and reading. Enjoying watching the summer slip into autumn and the trees shedding their leaves. And celebrating my sister’s birthday. She’s 30 now, which is scary.

Back to matters at hand – in case you might be interested, there are still a few days left to take advantage of my back to school offer on the online short fiction course I run (£85 if you sign up before the end of the month – see previous post). May your autumns be fruitful ones.

And here’s a song.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjPau5QYtYs&w=480&h=360]

Back To School Offer

Well it’s that time of year, all right. I hope all uniforms are named and labelled and that new pencil cases have been bought.

As you’ll probably know, I run a six part online short fiction course. Well, a couple of places have become free and I thought that, as it’s back to school month, I’d do a little offer for any lovely readers of this little blog who might want to do it. So, if you sign up before the end of September, then you’ll not pay a penny more than £85 (it’s usually £111). Details here.