Colouring the Classics

We may gloss over the kinds of colours used in the novels we read, but visual artist Jaz Parkinson‘s latest project allows us to see books in a whole new light. She’s basically tallied up all the references to colour in a bunch of classic novels and charted them out to create posters that look … Continue reading →

Dear Lucky Agent Contest

A lot of writers know the value of a good agent. They can see the potential for your book, market it to a publisher and spread the word about your awesomeness. So if you’re writing a sci-fi or YA novel, this could be your big break. The Writer’s Digest are running the Dear Lucky Agent … Continue reading →

Native Son

I’m almost 400 pages into Richard Wright’s novel Native Son when I read this passage that strikes me as truly beautiful: If he reached out with his hands, and if his hands were electric wires, and if his heart were a battery giving life and fire to those hands, and if he reached out with … Continue reading →

how I became a killer

I just sat down at my laptop and realised I’d started my novel in the wrong place. I was going to have to ‘kill my darlings’. Luckily I haven’t written much so it wasn’t too painful to cut those first few pages. Every writer has to kill their darlings at some point, but this is the first time I’ve … Continue reading →