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INSERT INTO `wp_posts` VALUES (7423,1,'2011-02-04 11:31:29','2011-02-04 11:31:29','Barry Forshaw has a <a href=\"http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/226971/Book-review-The-Fallen-Angel/Book-review-The-Fallen-Angel#ixzz1CzMXkbRf\" target=\"_blank\">publication-day review of the ninth Costa novel in the </a><em><a href=\"http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/226971/Book-review-The-Fallen-Angel/Book-review-The-Fallen-Angel#ixzz1CzMXkbRf\" target=\"_blank\">Daily Express</a>. </em>He comments...\r\n<blockquote>...the unshakeable Nic Costa, is the perfect guide to one of the most atmospherically rendered cities in current crime fiction. Reading <em>The Fallen Angel</em> might have you planning your own trip to Rome.\r\n\r\nA variety of British and American novelists have set their books in Italy, notably Donna Leon and the late Michael Dibdin, whose Zen books have recently enjoyed TV adaptations. Hewson is ahead of the pack in this country-hopping band, mainly because his ambitions clearly stretch beyond the parameters of standard crime fiction.</blockquote>\r\nJust a note in case you\'re confused -- the cover on the web site is the US edition, not the UK one (the cover I much prefer).','Daily Express reviews <i>The Fallen Angel</i>','','publish','open','open','','daily-express-reviews-the-fallen-angel','','','2011-02-04 11:31:29','2011-02-04 11:31:29','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/?p=7423',0,'post','',2),(5,1,'2011-01-27 15:48:46','2011-01-27 15:48:46','Intricately plotted and gorgeously written, says <strong>Tess Gerritsen</strong>. THE FALLEN ANGEL weaves a spell that will entrap you until the final page.','<small>Costa no 9</small> The Fallen Angel','','publish','closed','closed','','make-an-impression','','','2011-01-28 10:39:09','2011-01-28 10:39:09','',0,'http://vir.liquidweb.com/~davidhe4/davidhewson.com//?feature=make-an-impression',2,'feature','',0),(6,1,'2011-01-27 15:50:46','2011-01-27 15:50:46','Two bodies. Odd socks. The <em>same</em> odd socks. And no one seems  much interested except Gianni Peroni. Get this exclusive ebook  standalone solo outing for one of the Costa series\' most popular  characters in an instant<strong> for just 99p.</strong>','<small>Judith and the Holy Ferns</small> Kindle exclusive','','publish','closed','closed','','web-design-redesigned','','','2011-03-06 08:29:59','2011-03-06 08:29:59','',0,'http://vir.liquidweb.com/~davidhe4/davidhewson.com//?feature=web-design-redesigned',0,'feature','',0),(7,1,'2011-01-27 15:49:46','2011-01-27 15:49:46','<div>\r\n\r\nBack on the book shelves: a story of 17th century Venice of Vivaldi and Canaletto and a musical secret that spans the centuries\r\n\r\n</div>','<small>The Cemetery of Secrets</small> A Venetian mystery','','publish','closed','closed','','wordpress-framework-by-pagelines','','','2011-01-29 09:29:29','2011-01-29 09:29:29','',0,'http://vir.liquidweb.com/~davidhe4/davidhewson.com//?feature=wordpress-framework-by-pagelines',3,'feature','',0),(9,1,'2011-01-27 15:51:46','2011-01-27 15:51:46','Two bodies. Odd socks. The same odd socks. And no one seems much  interested except Gianni Peroni. Get this exclusive ebook standalone  solo outing for one of the Costa series’ most popular characters in an  instant <strong>for just 99p.</strong>','<small>A Roman short story</small> Dead Men’s Socks','','publish','closed','closed','','welcome-to-platformpro','','','2011-03-06 08:28:47','2011-03-06 08:28:47','',0,'http://vir.liquidweb.com/~davidhe4/davidhewson.com//?feature=welcome-to-platformpro',1,'feature','',0),(7653,1,'2011-03-05 11:17:27','2011-03-05 11:17:27','<a href=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Judith.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7588\" style=\"border: 1px solid black;\" title=\"Judith\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Judith-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" /></a>Downtrodden, impoverished and frumpy -- in her own eyes at least -- Mary Mackenzie finds herself in Rome with the latest in a long line of abusive \'employers\'. The elderly Mr Carstairs \'works in art\' and has taken her to a painting exhibition, one that turned out to be rather more shocking than she expected.\r\n\r\nNow she finds herself in Babington\'s Tea Rooms getting a lecture from Mr Carstairs on the history of the painting concerned, and her own inadequacies. After which she will be expected, once more, to perform her \'duties\', ones she finds distinctly distasteful.\r\n\r\nBut is the worm about to turn?\r\n\r\n<em>Judith and the Holy Ferns</em> is a 9000-word short story set in Rome but without any of the customary cast from the Costa books. It\'s a two-hander mainly, Mary and Mr Carstairs with one unusual added guest towards the end. Those of us with longish writing careers often end up with pieces like this, ideas that, in this case, hark back to my old love of Roald Dahl (in his adult stories) and Robert Aickman. Slightly odd tales with curious resolutions that don\'t quite resolve.\r\n\r\nA part of me wonders if this might be the beginning of a Costa story, one in which my familiar team take up the challenge Mary and Mr Carstairs leave hanging in the air at the end of this tale.\r\n\r\nOne day perhaps... for now it is just <em>Judith and the Holy Ferns</em>, a short story available only on Kindle. If you want to know how this was done <a href=\"http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/from-scrivener-to-kindle-step-by-step/\">please read here</a>.\r\n\r\n<strong><a href=\"http://www.amazon.co.uk/Judith-and-the-Holy-Ferns/dp/B004QGYAFU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1299228829&amp;sr=1-1\" target=\"_blank\">Buy from the UK Kindle store for 94p\r\n</a></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Judith-Holy-Ferns-ebook/dp/B004QGYAFU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;m=A7B2F8DUJ88VZ&amp;s=digital-text&amp;qid=1299226147&amp;sr=8-1\" target=\"_blank\">Buy from the US Kindle store for $1.84\r\n</a></strong>','Judith and the Holy Ferns','','inherit','open','open','','7619-revision-6','','','2011-03-05 11:17:27','2011-03-05 11:17:27','',7619,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7619-revision-6/',0,'revision','',0),(10,1,'2011-01-27 15:48:46','2011-01-27 15:48:46','In voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur occaecat cupidatat non proident, in culpas officia deserunt.','Drag&Drop Design','','publish','closed','closed','','dragdrop-design','','','2011-01-27 18:53:11','2011-01-27 18:53:11','',0,'http://vir.liquidweb.com/~davidhe4/davidhewson.com//?boxes=dragdrop-design',0,'boxes','',0),(11,1,'2011-01-27 15:48:46','2011-01-27 15:48:46','Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in.','PageLines Framework','','publish','closed','closed','','pagelines-framework','','','2011-01-27 18:53:07','2011-01-27 18:53:07','',0,'http://vir.liquidweb.com/~davidhe4/davidhewson.com//?boxes=pagelines-framework',0,'boxes','',0),(12,1,'2011-01-27 15:48:46','2011-01-27 15:48:46','Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim.','Rock The Web!','','publish','closed','closed','','rock-the-web','','','2011-01-27 18:53:00','2011-01-27 18:53:00','',0,'http://vir.liquidweb.com/~davidhe4/davidhewson.com//?boxes=rock-the-web',0,'boxes','',0),(13,1,'2011-01-27 16:07:41','2011-01-27 16:07:41','http://vir.liquidweb.com/~davidhe4/davidhewson.com//wp-content/uploads/2011/01/wordpress.2011-01-27.xml_.txt','wordpress.2011-01-27.xml_.txt','','inherit','open','open','','wordpress-2011-01-27-xml_-txt','','','2011-01-27 16:07:41','2011-01-27 16:07:41','',0,'http://vir.liquidweb.com/~davidhe4/davidhewson.com//wp-content/uploads/2011/01/wordpress.2011-01-27.xml_.txt',0,'attachment','',0),(86,1,'2007-10-02 07:55:00','2007-10-02 06:55:00','<p><a href=\"http://bp1.blogger.com/_qpbBtcUj5wk/RwHhIJOaU0I/AAAAAAAAALY/LAKOgc4ViHk/s1600-h/P1010110.jpg\"><img alt=\"\" border=\"0\" src=\"http://bp1.blogger.com/_qpbBtcUj5wk/RwHhIJOaU0I/AAAAAAAAALY/LAKOgc4ViHk/s400/P1010110.jpg\" style=\"cursor:pointer;\" /></a></p>\n<p>This is the front door to one of the most famous residential palaces in Rome. The Palazzo del Quirinale sits on top of the high hill overlooking the forum and Piazza Venezia. It is the official residence of the President of Italy. Most tourists are confined to the wonderful view of the city from the steps. What only a handful know is that you can get inside, and for free, if you know how.</p>\n<p>It’s simple really. All you do is turn up on a Sunday morning after 8.30 and before 11 or so. There’s a simple security process (you won’t need ID) then you’re inside the interior seeing the rooms that are normally used to greet other heads of states. There are some block out <a href=\"http://www.quirinale.it/palazzo/visita/visite.htm\">dates which you will find on the President’s page here.</a></p>\n<p><a href=\"http://www.canino.info/inserti/monografie/i_farnese/palazzo_roma/facciata.jpg\"><img alt=\"\" border=\"0\" src=\"http://www.canino.info/inserti/monografie/i_farnese/palazzo_roma/facciata.jpg\" style=\"cursor:pointer;width:400px;\" /></a><br />Now if only the French would follow suit. Through means which are, frankly devious, they have hung on to a much more magnificent pad, the Palazzo Farnese, above, in the square of the same name, next to the Campo dei Fiori. This is meant to be magnificent - if you can get in. After much pressure the French, who use this as their embassy (a legacy of Napoleon’s invasion of Italy) will let ordinary mortals through the door. But boy do they make it hard.</p>\n<p>The page on how to visit on their website is extremely difficult to find. You can<a href=\"http://www.ambafrance-it.org/article.php3?id_article=414&amp;var_recherche=visiter\"> try to get it here</a>. But you will need to make your request one to four months in advance, and preference will be given to ‘art historians’. And you get just 50 minutes on specific days of the year. A fine way to treat one of the cultural treasures of Rome….</p>\n<p>To rub it in the French Embassy <a href=\"http://www.ambafrance-it.org/article.php3?id_article=415\">offers a ‘virtual tour’ here</a>. I wonder if anyone in the building has noticed it doesn’t work?</p>','Inside the presidential palace','','publish','open','closed','','inside-the-presidential-palace','','','2011-01-28 08:12:58','2011-01-28 08:12:58','',0,'http://69.89.31.99/~davidhew/?p=86',0,'post','',0),(85,1,'2007-10-10 10:12:00','2007-10-10 09:12:00','<p>My last trip saw me staying in a different area, between the Colosseum and San Giovanni. Quiet, a little sparse on the cafe and restaurant front, rather too near some of the tourist tat of the Colosseum… but as always not without promise.</p>\n<p>One much overlooked area in Rome is Monti, which lies behind the Via dei Fori Imperiali, bounded on one side by the Via Cavour and on the other the Via Nazionale. This is a charming neighbourhood of local cafes and shops, well worth exploring. <span style=\"font-weight:bold;\">Al vino Al vino</span> (Via dei Serpenti 19) is a typical wine bar, with a good selection of bottles, plus inexpensive plates of decent cheese and salami. Friendly service too. Close by, at Via della Madonna dei Monti 28, is Fafiuche, a new wine and food shop open every day from ten in the morning to one a.m. Again, very good wine, and in the early evening there’s an excellent all you can eat buffet for seven euros. In the Via Panisperna at number 251, near the Serpenti, you will find Ai Tre Scalini, a local pub and bar with cheese, salami and hot plates, and inexpensive wine. The place dates back to 1895 and has lots of character - including the clientele.</p>\n<p>At 313 Via Cavour you will find one of the classiest wine bars in Rome, called simply 313 and almost hidden behind a tiny entrance. The wine list ranges from the cheap to the extraordinarily expensive, and you can get plates of cheese, salami, wild boar specialities and fish. But get there before 8.30 in the evening or you may have to wait.</p>\n<p>One restaurant in Monti I didn’t get to try is Al Boschetto (Via del Boschetto, 30, tel 06 4744770). This has a good reputation, particularly for fish and wild mushrooms, and is a sister to an establishment which is a rarity of good value and excellent cooking near the Colosseum: Hostaria Isidoro, 59 Via di San Giovanni in Laterano, closed Saturday lunchtime. Isidoro is announced by nothing more than a notice board up the street from the Basilica San Clemente. But it is fantastically popular with Romans for excellent pasta, meat and fish dishes - and very reasonably priced. A plate of pasta with fresh porcini cost me a mere eight euros.</p>\n<p>Another find near the colosseum is Il Bocconcino, a newish place at 23 Via Ostilia, closed Wednesdays, tel 06 77079175. This is a small and elegant restaurant serving very real local dishes - puntarelle chicory when I couldn’t find it anywhere else, for example. We just ate pasts, which was superb, but the many locals there were tucking into lovely looking meat and fish. Take along a food translation guide for all of these places if you don’t know Italian cuisine by the way - many of the dishes are local and few staff speak English well.</p>\n<p>Finally, one oddity we never got round to. <a href=\"http://www.latanadeigolosi.it/\">La Tana dei Golosi</a> (The Lair of the Greedies) is associated with the Slow Food movement and has a menu that changes regularly, featuring different areas of Italy. It looked very impressive, and gets mainly good reviews from locals. You can find it at Via San Giovanni in Laterano 200, a little way up from Isidoro. Evenings only, closed Sundays. Tel 06 7720302.</p>','Some new places to eat and drink in Rome','','publish','open','closed','','some-new-places-to-eat-and-drink-in-rome','','','2011-01-28 08:12:58','2011-01-28 08:12:58','',0,'http://69.89.31.99/~davidhew/?p=85',0,'post','',0),(83,1,'2007-11-12 14:39:00','2007-11-12 13:39:00','<p><a href=\"http://bp2.blogger.com/_qpbBtcUj5wk/Rzhnl9VJ7TI/AAAAAAAAAMo/MhuK0k0bJIE/s1600-h/P1010144.jpg\"><img alt=\"\" border=\"0\" src=\"http://bp2.blogger.com/_qpbBtcUj5wk/Rzhnl9VJ7TI/AAAAAAAAAMo/MhuK0k0bJIE/s320/P1010144.jpg\" style=\"cursor:pointer;\" /></a></p>\n<p>He’s generally hailed as one of the finest Italian artists of all time. So where do you think Caravaggio is buried? In a great cathedral, like so many of his peers? Or the Pantheon, like Raphael?</p>\n<p>Oddly enough, we simply don’t know. Caravaggio died penniless trying to make his way back to Rome where he was about to be pardoned (or at least excused) for the murder of Ranuccio Tomassoni, an act which forms a pivotal part of the next Nic Costa book, <span style=\"font-style:italic;\">The Garden of Evil</span>. We do know where he died, though. In this pretty, now affluent seaside town, Porto Ercole, which lies on the beautiful Monte Argentario promentory an hour and a half north of Rome by car, just in Tuscany.</p>\n<p>I was there last week and tried in vain to find much about Caravaggio’s final days. All of the local literature says the same thing. No one knows for sure what happened, except that he was very ill, taken into some kind of a charity hospital, and perished there on July 18, 1610, at the probable age of thirty nine. There’s no grave, and not much to mark his passing, except for a long street named after him, a monument and this restaurant below.</p>\n<p>A curious end? I suppose so, though if you follow the man’s life you get the impression he was never one who expected to be lauded by the great when he was gone. Porto Ercole back then was a wild, unmanageable region, part of the notorious Maremma. Today it’s a place where the Roman rich and film stars keep weekend cottages. Very beautiful, very posh and very comfy. Not somewhere Caravaggio would have lingered for a moment.</p>\n<p><img alt=\"\" border=\"0\" src=\"http://bp3.blogger.com/_qpbBtcUj5wk/RzhnvNVJ7UI/AAAAAAAAAMw/lJ1DV3xgK-Q/s320/P1010148.jpg\" style=\"cursor:pointer;\" /></p>','Caravaggio&#039;s final resting place','','publish','open','closed','','caravaggios-final-resting-place','','','2011-01-28 08:12:58','2011-01-28 08:12:58','',0,'http://69.89.31.99/~davidhew/?p=83',0,'post','',0),(73,1,'2008-05-19 17:40:52','2008-05-19 16:40:52','<p>It’s amazing to think how much Venice has improved in terms of food over the past decade. Once it was hard even to get a decent pizza here. Now things are so much better, provided you avoid the tourist traps around San Marco and the Rialto.</p>\n<p>Here are a few gems from my latest trip to the lagoon. First, a wonderful place for coffee and beautiful home made pastries. Bar Pasticceria Toletta (Dorsoduro 1192, tel 041 5227451) is in Sacco de la Toletta, a narrow alley running from San Barnaba to Zattere (you can get exact locations on Google Maps). Fantastic and inexpensive sweets and beautiful coffee, open seven days a week.</p>\n<p>Al Timon (Cannareggio 2754) is in Cannareggio where the popular Fondamenta de la Misericordia becomes the Fondamenta degli Ormesini. There are a few tables by the canal, beautiful cicchetti (Venetian tapas) of bacala and other specialities at one euro a pop and a decent and very inexpensive wine list. Friendly local service and definitely a place for anyone looking to conserve the pennies.</p>\n<p>Osteria Enoteca Ai Artisti (closed Sundays) is in Fondamenta della Toletta, just on the San Barnaba side of the pasticceria above. It’s a smart, ambitious enoteca with a great wine list, a daily menu of fish, meat and salad, and a few canal side tables. Somewhat cramped and the service can be a touch erratic but very congenial. I’d book a table if you want to eat though - tel 041 5238944.</p>\n<p>In the same area you’ll find one of the best pizzerias in Venice, Ai Sportivi, back on form after a bad patch. It’s in the big square of Campo San Margherita, tel 041 5211598) and serves late for Venice, up to 11 pm. A few years ago the staff seemed to become entirely east European. Today they are Indian I suspect but the service is efficient and friendly and the pizzas, thin, as in Rome, are superb, with an enormous range including seasonal specialities.</p>\n<p>Around the corner, in Rio Tera Canal, on the way to San Barnaba, you’ll find the Sardinian restaurant l’Incontro (tel 041 5222404m closed Monday and Tuesday lunchtimes). This has a lunchtime special of two dishes for 20 euros, a good way to try Sardinian cuisine. We had some interesting pasta dishes - trofie with artichokes and an orange flavoured ravioli dish - followed by stinco, a whacking great smoked ham shank, and roast suckling pig. The pig was just out of the oven and could have done with a bit more cooking I suspect but it was still worthwhile.</p>\n<p>Finally, for the blowout, I heartily recommend the hotel restaurant of <a href=\"http://www.aglialboretti.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Agli Alboretti</a>, which is just round the corner from the Accademmia. This has a daily changing menu that uses local ingredients but in unusual ways - turbot with artichoke cream, swordfish with lime and ginger, and unusual game dishes. You’d need to be very hungry to manage antipasti, primo, secondo and some fantastic dolci too. The wine list is excellent as well. But with three courses expect to pay around 120 euros for too - well worth it for an elegant dining room with charming service, an oasis from the tourist bustle outside.</p>','Some new places to eat in Venice','','publish','open','closed','','some-new-places-to-eat-in-venice','','','2011-01-28 08:12:44','2011-01-28 08:12:44','',0,'http://69.89.31.99/~davidhew/?p=73',0,'post','',0),(71,1,'2008-05-31 12:19:33','2008-05-31 11:19:33','<p><em>The Chopin Manuscript</em>, the audio serial thriller collaboration for which David wrote the second chapter, won the top ‘Audie’ awarded by Audio Publishers Association at its awards ceremony in Los Angeles last night.</p>\n<p>The work, written by fifteen author members of <a href=\"http://www.thrillerwriters.org\" target=\"_blank\">International Thrillerwriters Inc</a> and published by <a href=\"http://www.audible.com\">Audible</a>, beat <em>Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, The Invention of Hugo Cabret,</em> and <em>The Bible Experience</em> to take the ultimate prize in audio publishing.</p>\n<p><em>The Chopin Manuscript</em> was the idea of Jeffrey Deaver who wrote the opening chapter and closed the book. David wrote the second chapter, and the story was then handed over to a team of top talented authors made up of Lee Child, Lisa Scottoline, Erica Spindler, Joseph Finder, Ralph Pezzullo, SJ Rosan, James Grady, John Ramsey Miller, David Corbett, John Gilstrap, Jim Fusilli (who also edited the story), Peter Spiegelman, and P.J. Parrish.</p>\n<p>David said after news of the award, ‘It was a great honour, and an amazing amount of fun, to take part in this unique project which has, I think, helped put audiobooks firmly on the map as a vibrant and important part of the modern publishing world. It was wonderful to be able to work alongside such a talented array of authors.</p>\n<p>‘Credit, too, has to go to Jim Fusilli and MJ Rose, as editor and ideas chief respectively, without whom the project could never have happened, and to the wonderful Alfred Molina whose narration of the finished work lends so much character and quality to the story. Congratulations and thanks to you all.’</p>\n<p>To read more about <em>The Chopin Manuscript, </em>and listen to a free extract <a href=\"http://www.audible.com/adbl/site/template/ext/landing.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1012851123.1212229642@@@@&amp;BV_EngineID=cccdadeeffegfghcefecekjdffidfhk.0&amp;pac=Chopin+Manuscript\" target=\"_blank\">look here</a> for the US version and <a href=\"http://www.audible.co.uk/aduk/site/product.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0258930524.1212229714@@@@&amp;BV_EngineID=cccjadeefdjdgegcefecekjdfikdfig.0&amp;uniqueKey=1212229722651&amp;productID=BK_THRL_000002UK\" target=\"_blank\">here for the UK</a>. To meet some of the team, just look below.</p>\n<p></p>','&#039;Chopin&#039; wins the world&#039;s top audiobook prize','','publish','open','closed','','chopin-wins-the-worlds-top-audiobook-prize','','','2011-01-28 08:12:44','2011-01-28 08:12:44','',0,'http://69.89.31.99/~davidhew/?p=71',0,'post','',0),(70,1,'2008-06-09 14:32:57','2008-06-09 13:32:57','<p><span class=\"full-image-float-right ssNonEditable\"><span><img alt=\"\" src=\"/storage/images/saul-portrait1.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1228750888832\" /></span><span class=\"thumbnail-caption\" style=\"width:180px;\"></span></span>The fifth Nic Costa novel, <em>The Seventh Sacrament</em>, has won the new Audible Sounds of Crime prize for the unabridged crime audiobook of the year. The award, which was based on votes from readers, was announced at the Bristol CrimeFest conference at the weekend.</p>\n<p>I’m really honoured and flattered to get such a plaudit for the work, and delighted too that I quite rightly share it with <a href=\"http://www.saulreichlin.biz/\" target=\"_blank\">Saul Reichlin</a>, right, the series narrator, whose astonishing performance of the books is surely one of the main reasons for their popularity in audio.</p>\n<p>Saul does an astonishing job, as many readers tell me by email. And thanks, too, to the hard-working people at <a href=\"http://www.wfhowes.co.uk/\" target=\"_blank\">WF Howes</a>, my audio publisher, who perform the magical process of transforming a book into the living, breathing, talking medium of an audio work. I’m very grateful for the wonderful job you do.</p>\n<p>You can get my audio books in a variety of forms from Howes’ own audio store, <a href=\"http://www.wholestoryaudio.co.uk%20\" target=\"_blank\">Whole Story Audio</a>, and by download from&#160;<a href=\"http://www.audible.co.uk\">Audible</a> who sponsored the award. Coming after <a href=\"http://www.davidhewson.com/2008/05/31/chopin-wins-the-worlds-top-audiobook-prize/\">the amazing success of <em>The Chopin Manuscript</em> </a>in winning the top audiobook of the year award - I was lucky enough to be one of the fifteen writers - this is a great compliment, and really brings home to this writer how important audio is becoming in the publishing world.</p>','The Seventh Sacrament wins top audio prize','','publish','open','closed','','the-seventh-sacrament-wins-top-audio-prize','','','2011-01-28 08:12:33','2011-01-28 08:12:33','',0,'http://69.89.31.99/~davidhew/?p=70',0,'post','',0),(68,1,'2008-07-09 18:10:00','2008-07-09 17:10:00','I’m talking at CraftFest today, the teaching arm of that great annual convention Thrillerfest, and promised students I’d put up a list of the software mentioned in the talk here for their benefit. You’ll find the list below. For the record my current portfolio of writing tools is Scrivener for the main work, Word for submission, Together for data storage and iPhoto for keeping photo records. All or most of these programs have demo versions. I suggest you find what works best for you, then stick with it and get on with the real job of producing a novel.<strong></strong>\n\n<strong>Programs for storing and cataloguing information</strong>\n\nMac\n<a href=\"http://www.reinventedsoftware.com\" target=\"_blank\">Together</a> My current personal favourite - can store anything very easily.\n<a href=\"http://www.journler.com\" target=\"_blank\">Journler</a> An interesting alternative, though not so great if you use multiple computers.\n<a href=\"http://www.devon-technologies.com\" target=\"_blank\">Devonthink</a> Heavyweight data storage for lots and lots of stuff - quite hard to learn for me.\n\nWindows\n<a href=\"http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/onenote/default.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">OneNote</a> Part of Microsoft Office\n<a href=\"http://www.macropool.com\" target=\"_blank\">WebResearch </a>\n\nPhoto storage. For keeping pictures organised\n\nMac\n<a href=\"http://www.apple.com\" target=\"_blank\">iPhoto</a>\n\nWindows\n<a href=\"http://picasa.google.com\" target=\"_blank\">Picasa</a>\n\n<strong>Journal software</strong>\n\nMac\n<a href=\"http://www.marinersoftware.com\" target=\"_blank\">MacJournal</a>\n\nWindows\n<a href=\"http://www.marinersoftware.com\" target=\"_blank\">WinJournal</a>\n\n<strong>Word processors aimed at authors</strong>\n\nMac\n<a href=\"http://www.literatureandlatte.com\" target=\"_blank\">Scrivener</a>\n<a href=\"http://www.storyist.com\" target=\"_blank\">Storyist </a>\n<a href=\"http://www.marinersoftware.com\" target=\"_blank\">Storymill</a>\n\nWindows\n<a href=\"http://www.blackobelisksoftware.com\" target=\"_blank\">Liquid Story Binder </a>\n<a href=\"http://www.write-brain.com\" target=\"_blank\">Power Writer </a>\n<a href=\"http://www.softwareforwriting.com\" target=\"_blank\">PageFour </a>\n<a href=\"http://www.pindersoft.com\">Writers Project Organizer </a>\nBook Writer (www.yadudigital.com)','Tools for writing','','publish','open','closed','','tools-for-writing','','','2011-01-28 08:12:33','2011-01-28 08:12:33','',0,'http://69.89.31.99/~davidhew/?p=68',0,'post','',4),(64,1,'2008-12-15 08:00:06','2008-12-15 07:00:06','<p><span class=\"full-image-float-right ssNonEditable\"><span><img alt=\"\" src=\"/storage/images/wine_dark_sea.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1229096367449\" style=\"width:200px;\" /></span></span>Here’s one thing you can thank the internet for: some great lost authors are no longer as lost as they were. Only recently I was able to pick up two decent-quality secondhand paperbacks of&#160;one of my favourite writers, <a class=\"offsite-link-inline\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Aickman\" target=\"_blank\">Robert Aickman</a>, a man who’d once seemed lost to the world though he only died in 1981.</p>\n<p>Aickman is an author desperately deserving of a revival. As the world of books grows ever more literal and demanding of certainty, he reminds us that fiction can have a darker, looser, more feral side too, one in which stories and worlds are freed from the need to ‘make sense’. Imagine Jorge Luis Borges crossed with MR James and you get a little of what Aickman is about, though even that comparison fails to do the man justice. He was an absolute original. As Peter Straub puts it in the foreword to the 1990 edition <em>The Wine-Dark Sea</em>, ‘In nearly all the stories collected here, the world of ordinary experience is as porous and malleable as a dream’.</p>\n<p>That is Aickman to a tee. Lounging somewhere in Greece, ouzo in hand, dreaming about three sensual sibyls waiting for the next victim on their island offshore, in this collection’s title story. Or dreaming sweatily about a strange and dangerous girl from the circus who agrees to come to the narrator’s squalid digs in the Midlands in <em>The Swords</em>, one of the most disturbing short stories I’ve ever read. You can find a complete list of his work <a class=\"offsite-link-inline\" href=\"http://home.epix.net/%7Ewallison/ra.html\" target=\"_blank\">here</a>. I’d give the anthologies he edited a miss, though I’d be interested to see his non-fiction books on the inland waterways of England (in ‘real life’ this very cultured and imaginative man was co-founder of the Inland Waterways Association).&#160;</p>\n<p>The two books I picked up through third parties on Amazon were this one, <em>The Wine-Dark Sea</em>, and <em>Cold Hand in Mine</em>. They contain some of his very best work and I felt pleased to get them for around a tenner a piece (though I note one had 50p written inside the cover and the second ‘Front cover - reduce’). A <a class=\"offsite-link-inline\" href=\"http://www.amazon.co.uk/Collected-Strange-Stories-Robert-Aickman/dp/1872621872/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1229096458&amp;sr=8-5\" target=\"_blank\">bespoke two-volume collectors edition</a> goes for a stonking £350 which is a bit much to be honest.&#160;</p>\n<p>There’s so much to enjoy about Aickman but let me pick out three things. He was utterly original, producing work that was unfairly tagged as horror though, as Straub notes in his foreword, he was ‘sublimely uninterested in monsters, werewolves, worms, rats, bats and things in bandages’. He was catholic in his tastes, setting his stories in the most mundane of English locations as well as parts of the Mediterranean which would have been considered exotic when he was writing. More than anything though he eschewed completely the need for resolution. For Aickman, there were no ticks to be completed, no circles to be closed. A mystery could remain a mystery and lose none of its value. In these prosaic times we’re apt to forget that.</p>\n<p>If you would like to find out more about this intriguing man you will find<a class=\"offsite-link-inline\" href=\"http://hauntedriver.co.uk/page35a.html\" target=\"_blank\"> an illuminating article by Christopher Barker here </a>beneath a review of Aickman’s last story <em>The Stains. <span style=\"font-style:normal;\">Until I read it must admit I never knew Aickman was a lover of Elizabeth Jane Howard’s or that he had such a difficult personal life, though perhaps one ought to have guessed it. Barker also makes the claim that Aickman’s work inspired both Robert Bloch’s story-turned-film </span>Psycho<span style=\"font-style:normal;\"> and Daphne du Maurier’s red dwarf in </span>Don’t Look Now </em>adding, <em>‘<span style=\"font-style:normal;\">These hugely successful films created several startling images which Aickman should probably be credited for’. </span></em></p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-style:normal;\">True or false? I’ve no idea, but he certainly deserves to be a lot better known than he is.</span></em></p>','Robert Aickman: an author to relish','','publish','open','closed','','robert-aickman-an-author-to-relish','','','2011-01-28 08:12:23','2011-01-28 08:12:23','',0,'http://69.89.31.99/~davidhew/?p=64',0,'post','',0),(62,1,'2008-12-18 12:00:23','2008-12-18 11:00:23','<p><span class=\"full-image-float-right ssNonEditable\"><span><img alt=\"\" src=\"/storage/images/douglyle.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1229354444537\" /></span><span class=\"thumbnail-caption\" style=\"width:200px;\"></span></span>Crime stories are fiction, not reality. If they were set in the real world you wouldn’t want to read about it because the detectives involved would spend an inordinate amount of time checking their work against procedure manuals, staring at computers, waiting for test to come back from the lab, and watching endless CCTV footage. Boring….</p>\n<p>\n</p>\n\n<!--more-->\n<p>Nevertheless sometimes you have to try to get things as correct as the work will allow. Thanks to modern TV the general public knows an awful lot about forensic science (or at least thinks it does). Writers can’t get away with things they used to such as murdering someone by pouring hemlock into the ear while the victim sleeps. Sorry, Shakespeare, it just won’t work. How do I know? The wonderful Doug Lyle told me one day, and if Doug says it won’t work, believe me <em>it won’t work.</em></p>\n<p>D. P. Lyle MD is a big, bluff, immensely friendly practising cardiologist in Orange County, a very funny and likeable man who’s a regular at book conventions in the US and a published novelist and non-fiction author in his own right. You can discover his growing body of work at his excellent website <a href=\"http://www.dplylemd.com/\" target=\"_blank\">www.dplylemd.com</a> which also serves as a starting point for crime and thriller writers around the world when they want to find out how to track down a criminal or bump someone off.</p>\n<p>I first met Doug a couple of years ago when we were both on a BBC Omnibus programme designed to find out if there really was such a thing as ‘the perfect murder’. I’m not sure we reached much of a conclusion — the Beeb put a bunch of writers together in a small room in Seattle and asked them to come up with ideas, under the patient eye of Doug as chair. But it was enormous fun trying to hammer out the problem. Every time you thought you’d worked out a good solution Doug would think for a moment, crack a grin, then look you in the eye and say, ‘But then…’</p>\n<p>Nor does he forget that this is a very serious subject at heart either. As he usually emphasises whenever he’s speaking… murder is the worst thing one human being can do to another. Writers who inject death into what is still, at some level, a form of entertainment deserve to remember that. I know I try to. I don’t want to make my books excessively gory or visceral — that’s not my style. But I do want people to be shocked by the loss of a life, and to understand this is unnatural, unwanted and cruel.</p>\n<p>Doug is a natural teacher, and one of those people born to share facts, stories and anecdotes, of which he has many, and not just to do with human mortality either. If you get the chance to catch him at an event I seriously suggest you take it. You’ll come away entertained and a lot wiser too. Doug is also the organiser of CraftFest, the teaching strand of <a href=\"http://www.thrillerwriters.org/thrillerfest/\" target=\"_blank\">ThrillerFest</a> in New York, just one more place where he does more than his bit for the writing community.</p>\n<p><span class=\"full-image-float-right ssNonEditable\"><span><img alt=\"\" src=\"/storage/images/forensic.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1229354523710\" /></span><span class=\"thumbnail-caption\" style=\"width:200px;\">One of Doug’s several great books</span></span>I like to think of <em>Forensics for Dummies,</em> his seminal reference guide to the world of forensics, as Doug’s Bible. This extraordinarily useful and interesting tome covers pretty much any situation a writer or reader is likely to encounter in modern criminal fiction, from date rape to fingerprinting, the use of DNA, handwriting analysis, and the procedures professionals follow at crime scenes.</p>\n<p>Ever wonder about the difference between forensic and clinical psychology? Or how you can identify whether a victim is male or female from the skull alone? It’s all here, along with some real life examples and case studies to help you understand what’s going on. Doug has a nice line in style too. Take this on the persistence of one form of evidence, ‘…semen stains can remain identifiable and usable for DNA analysis for many years. Just ask Bill about Monica’s blue dress’.</p>\n<p>Absorb this fascinating book and you will realise how much those of us in the game cheat (in order to keep your attention, it must be said). If you’re hunting for an unusual Christmas present for an inquisitive reader look no further.</p>','Putting forensic fact into fiction','','publish','open','closed','','putting-forensic-fact-into-fiction','','','2011-01-28 08:12:23','2011-01-28 08:12:23','',0,'http://69.89.31.99/~davidhew/?p=62',0,'post','',0),(58,1,'2009-01-12 12:00:48','2009-01-12 11:00:48','<p>I visit Rome for research, not gastronomic experiences. On the other hand I’d rather eat good food than bad. The food in Rome is excellent, and very good value provided you look in the right places. You can find some earlier tips elsewhere here. They still stand today though I thought La Danesina had upped its prices somewhat and seemed a touch unfriendly. But this may be because I caught the tail end of the holiday season.&#160;</p>\n<p>The Antica Taverna in Via Monte Giordano turned out to be my local during this visit, partly because my apartment was just around the corner, but also because the food is good for the most part, honest and delicious Roman fare. The fried artichokes (carciofi alla giuidia) were crisp and fresh, as was the Roman winter salad puntarelle, chicory with anchovies. We had lamb in vinegar, rabbit in white wine and saltimbocca over a number of visits, all for around seven or eight euros a plate, which is excellent value. I’d skip the house wine though and I’m not sure I’d go for fish&#160;necessarily either. Cantina del Vecchio around the corner in Coronari is just as good as ever, with excellent wine for around five or six euros a glass and free nibbles up till nine o’clock or so.</p>\n<p>Now for some new places. <a class=\"offsite-link-inline\" href=\"http://www.davidhewson.com/blog/2007/8/3/a-few-new-places-to-eat-in-rome.html\" target=\"_blank\">La Fiametta</a> is a very traditional restaurant near the Piazza Navona. The pizza was fantastic — true Roman style, white with spicy chicory topping in the one we tried. The penne carbonara was the best carbonara I’ve ever tasted, made with guanciale (cheek) and a touch of saffron. Very busy with Romans, and the service was a touch abrupt, but I’d certainly go back. Expect to pay under ten euros for pizza or pasta. You can find it in Piazza Fiametta 8. Open every day (I think).&#160;Tel.: (+39) 066875777.</p>\n<p><a class=\"offsite-link-inline\" href=\"http://www.avenue94.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Avenue 94</a> is new to me, in Via dell’Arco del Monte 94, between the Campo de’ Fiori and the Via Arenula. It’s a trendy wine bar and restaurant with lots of room and live music and events too. Anyone on a budget ought to consider the lunchtime special. Two courses for eight euros or three for thirteen, including a quarter litre of wine or water. I had lovely home made gnocchi with ragu followed by fresh mussels in pepper sauce with a contorno of spinach. It was a lot of food, too much to be honest. Most of the regulars go for two courses which is probably sensible. Very acceptable fresh grub though, but I wouldn’t expect too much of the house wine.</p>\n<p>Finally back on the aperitivi front — places that hand out free early evening food. Friends is a modern bar with two homes (at least), one in the Piazza Trilussa by the Ponte Sisto footbridge in Trastevere, the other in Via Della Scrofa, just north of the Piazza Navona and Pantheon. I’ve never found the Trastevere branch particularly friendly, but the Via Scrofa one always looks pleased to see you. There’s a wide selection of reasonably priced drinks and in the early evening stacks of free snacks on the bar. If you’re hard up you could have one glass of wine each here and in the nearby Cantina del Vecchio and enjoy a decent tapas-style meal for as little as ten euros.&#160;</p>','A few more places to eat in Rome','','publish','open','closed','','a-few-more-places-to-eat-in-rome','','','2011-01-28 08:12:09','2011-01-28 08:12:09','',0,'http://69.89.31.99/~davidhew/?p=58',0,'post','',0),(52,1,'2009-01-22 12:00:43','2009-01-22 11:00:43','<p>I wrote travel books once and I know how the system usually works. You get paid a pittance, spend a rushed amount of time in the destination and do your best. Travel writing is a sure path to bankruptcy, for most people anyway, if you rely on it alone.&#160;</p>\n<p>Not every guide book to Rome is like that, of course, or even most, though a few are decidedly dodgy. The trusty <em>Companion Guide</em> remains one of my favourites, and was mostly written by Georgina Masson who lived there. But here’s another, the best I think. As you might expect it’s written by Romans, in fact an English translation of a trusty Italian classic that is now in its fourth edition. A very good translation too.&#160;</p>\n<p>The <em><a class=\"offsite-link-inline\" href=\"http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pallas-Guide-Rome-Guides/dp/1873429916/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1232548177&amp;sr=8-1\" target=\"_blank\">Pallas Guide to Rome</a></em>, principally by Mauro Lucentini, is incredibly detailed, a wonderful read, and rather like having a knowledgeable Roman at your elbow every step of the way. There is nothing else like it on the market. If you’re going to Rome buy it in advance, read before you go, and you’ll know a little of what to expect in one of the world’s most fascinating cities.&#160;</p>','A great guide to Rome','','publish','open','closed','','a-great-guide-to-rome','','','2011-01-28 08:12:09','2011-01-28 08:12:09','',0,'http://69.89.31.99/~davidhew/?p=52',0,'post','',0),(49,1,'2009-01-28 08:50:35','2009-01-28 07:50:35','<p><span class=\"full-image-float-right ssNonEditable\"><span><img alt=\"\" src=\"/storage/covers/gardencover.png?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1233132879879\" /></span></span>There are lots of awards in this business, but, for me, it’s clear which mean the most: anything that comes from the world of libraries. Without libraries I wouldn’t be a writer. It’s as simple as that. The wonderful little public library in Yorkshire where I grew up was a treasure trove of fiction, history, geography, art and science. It fired my imagination as a child and teenager. I could never have found that breadth of material in any local book store even if I could have afforded to buy it (and I couldn’t).</p>\n<p>So it’s extremely flattering to learn that the American Library Association has voted the sixth Nic Costa novel mystery of the year in its annual Reading List Council awards.&#160;To receive an award like this for a book set in Rome, with an entirely Italian cast, and centred around an obscure invented sixteen century painting, is, to me, one more example of the generosity of spirit that typifies the publishing world in America. I’m immensely grateful to everyone at Bantam Dell for showing such prolonged faith in me — this is the eighth book of mine they have published in seven years. And also to the many members of International Thrillerwriters who’ve helped me become better known in the US, and freely shared their wisdom and experiences over the years.</p>\n<p>The citation kindly says, ‘In contemporary Rome an unknown lascivious painting by Caravaggio,&#160;grisly murders, and a heart-stopping chase mark series detective Nic&#160;Costa’s return. The perfidious villains can only be outwitted by inventive&#160;police work and an unexpected ally in this masterfully crafted puzzler.’ The other titles in the mystery shortlist were&#160;<em>The Black Tower </em>by Louis Bayard,&#160;<em>The Calling </em>by Inger Ash Wolfe,&#160;<em>The Cruelest Month </em>by Louise Penny, and&#160;<em>Vienna Blood </em>by Frank Tallis.</p>\n<p>In 2008 the UK had a wonderful venture called the National Year of Reading which brought authors back into libraries up and down the land. It was a great success, I think, and a reminder to authors that libraries really matter and deserve our support. So to everyone in the ALA and libraries everywhere I’d like to say thanks — for the award, but more importantly for being there. Readers and writers alike need unsung heroes like you, today more than ever.</p>','The Garden of Evil: 2008&#039;s best mystery','','publish','open','closed','','the-garden-of-evil-2008s-best-mystery','','','2011-01-28 08:12:09','2011-01-28 08:12:09','',0,'http://69.89.31.99/~davidhew/?p=49',0,'post','',0),(43,1,'2009-02-16 12:00:41','2009-02-16 11:00:41','<img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-581\" title=\"carbon\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/carbon.jpg\" alt=\"carbon\" width=\"480\" height=\"328\" />Spaghetti carbonara. A worldwide favourite, isn’t it? If you believe the sticky gunk that’s sold as carbonara sauce in UK supermarkets it’s made out of something like cheap cream, wallpaper glue and bits of meat that might, if you’re lucky, have some relationship to bacon. And here in Rome? Well there’s no general agreement on what constitutes the exact carbonara sauce, any more than there is over that other pasta staple amatriciana. Except that cornflour and cream really don’t belong.\n\nThe other day I decided to try a newish restaurant near the Campo dei Fiori, It sits opposite one of my former favourite, Ditirambo, which has been a bit off of late (Roman restaurants do change, sadly). Grappolo d’Oro Zampolo is a recent addition to a neighbourhood that’s not great for dining frankly. Outside was a sign saying it had been listed as one of the top ten places to eat ‘real’ carbonara in Rome.\n\nI tried something else, the amatriciana, which was fine, and the octopus salad starter was excellent. But the pasta was a bit too al dente for my liking and the sauce rather bland. Plenty of people were eating carbonara, though, and I was glad I didn’t have it. It was beautifully presented but looked much like the dry, pale pasta you can make at home.\n\nSo look at the photo at the top of this article. This is the best carbonara I’ve eaten in my entire life, it costs eight euros or so, a bargain, and it can be found in a modest restaurant near the Piazza Navona, La Fiametta, in the Piazza Fiametta (closed Tuesdays).\n\n<!--more-->\n\nThis carbonara is oozing with flavour. Bright yellow, peppery, with perfectly-cooked pasta, and intriguing bits of soft delicious meat sprinkled throughout and on the top. What’s the secret? Well I guess you have to ask, which is something of a problem because the service in Fiametta is brusque bordering on rude.\n\nThe answer is: lots of good fresh egg yolks, parmesan, pepper and — I spy a secret here — guanciale, not pancetta. Guianciale is a more subtle variety of bacon, made from the cheek. You can read more about it <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guanciale\" target=\"_blank\">here</a> and <a href=\"http://fxcuisine.com/default.asp?Display=8\" target=\"_blank\">here</a>. I’ve never had any luck finding it in England and it’s not available everywhere in Italy either. But I see my local Di Per Di supermarket in Governo Vecchio has two whacking great cheeks of it on the counter at the moment so some will be coming home with me.\n\nIt should be dead easy to make the perfect carbonara, one that looks like this dish from Fiametta. I somehow suspect I won’t quite get there though. So this is one restaurant that will be on my list in Rome from now on — the pizzas, which are available at lunchtime too, are excellent, though usually without a tomato base, in what’s supposed to be the true Roman style. The waiter was quite friendly with other people too so perhaps one day I might even get a smile out of him. A way to go on that though I suspect.','The great Carbonara debate','','publish','open','closed','','the-great-carbonara-debate','','','2011-01-28 08:11:53','2011-01-28 08:11:53','',0,'http://69.89.31.99/~davidhew/?p=43',0,'post','',0),(41,1,'2009-02-19 12:00:39','2009-02-19 11:00:39','<p style=\"clear:both;\"><img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-579\" title=\"mangia\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/mangia.jpg\" alt=\"mangia\" width=\"316\" height=\"237\" />I mentioned guianciale in my last post. If you’re in Rome and want to see it for yourself just pop along to the <a class=\"offsite-link-inline\" href=\"http://anticatavernamangiabene.it/index.php\" target=\"_blank\">Antica Taverna</a> restaurant in Via Monte Giordano, between Governo Vecchio and the Via Coronari. There you’ll find a lovely collection of cured pig’s cheeks swinging from the ceiling, alongside garlands of garlic, right in the middle of the dining room. Nor are these for show. Chefs will wander out from the kitchen and grab them over the heads of punters as needed.</p>\n<p style=\"clear:both;\">The Antica Taverna (da Paolo e Viorica to give it its full title) styles itself proudly as being a provider of ‘Cucina Romana’. But so do a million other places in Rome, many of them dreadful. This place is real though. I’ve been there in the dead of winter when it’s had just one foreigner in the house, me. I’ve been there in warmer times too, when hordes of trainee Vatican priestlets from Germany and beyond hog the tables stuffing themselves silly. Doesn’t matter. This is somewhere special, albeit in a very downbeat way.</p>\n<p style=\"clear:both;\"><span class=\"thumbnail-image-float-right ssNonEditable\"><span class=\"thumbnail-caption\" style=\"width:252px;\">Plenty of tables outside - and in winter too, under cover</span></span>This is real, working class Roman cooking. Artichokes boiled or deep fried. In winter puntarelle, raw chicory stalks with anchovies. Rabbit with black olives, lamb sauteed in vinegar. This is a place that loves its stews, and doesn’t bother taking things off the bone either. One time, after a memorable meal of rabbit and and lamb, all of which had to be carefully picked off the bone, I mentioned these dishes to a restaurateur friend in England. He’s French and loves the idea of boney stews. Why not put them on the menu in Kent, I asked? He shook his head: people would just complain.</p>\n<p style=\"clear:both;\">So if you’re the sort who complains about food you have to fiddle with give the Antica Taverna a wide berth. But I think you’d be missing something. There’s an unmistakable warmth about this place that goes beyond keeping customers flowing through the door, an effortless friendliness that, for me, is peculiarly Roman. It’s also got the kind of interior every Italian restaurant hopes to copy, probably from a book, but here is just a natural extension of its own character. The pig’s cheeks, the garlic, the bottles, the photos on the walls… if I ever have to recommend a restaurant for a movie or TV adaptation of these books then Antica Taverna will be high on the list — if it has enough spare time to fit in a film crew.</p>\n<p style=\"clear:both;\">Some words of advice. Avoid the house wine which is straight out of the barrel (I was amazed tonight when a priestlet there so fell in love with it that he ordered two ‘bottles’ to take home — what is the Church coming to?) The seafood antipasti is to be avoided — straight out of the packet. I still fail to understand why this restaurant, which can handle artichokes, rabbit and lamb with ease, always seems to stumble on the very Roman basic of saltimbocca. But it does, so I wouldn’t bother. This is too good a Roman dish to be trifled with.</p>\n<p style=\"clear:both;\">The food varies from average to excellent, but with starters at four euros and main courses such as rabbit with black olives and cauliflower for seven I doubt anyone can really complain. Besides, like all real restaurants, this is about more than the food, which I suppose is the point of this article. The Antica taverna is about the feel, the welcome and the warmth, all of which has been exceptional every time I’ve set foot through the door. Don’t go expecting a gourmet experience, just something that will stick in the memory as purely Roman.</p>\n\n<br class=\"final-break\" style=\"clear:both;\" />','Mangia Bene - one place to find the real Cucina Romana','','publish','open','closed','','mangia-bene-one-place-to-find-the-real-cucina-romana','','','2011-01-28 08:11:53','2011-01-28 08:11:53','',0,'http://69.89.31.99/~davidhew/?p=41',0,'post','',0),(40,1,'2009-02-20 08:30:12','2009-02-20 07:30:12','<p style=\"clear:both;\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-570 alignright\" title=\"peter1\" src=\"http://www.davidhewson.com/blog/wp-content/uploads//2009/02/peter1.jpg\" alt=\"peter1\" width=\"265\" height=\"207\" />Imagine yourself back a couple of thousand years. You’re on a ridge overlooking the various forums that make up the heart of the greatest city in the world, on a spot now marked by the beautiful church of Santa Franscesca Romana, seen here. Two very famous people are there, and one who was notorious in his day but is unknown now.</p>\n<p style=\"clear:both;\">The first is Nero, yes <em>that</em> Nero, the bonkers emperor (though not as bonkers as his successor Caligula who married his own horse). The second is a Jewish evangelist who’s come from Israel to spread the news about a new and controversial religion called Christianity. His name is Peter. The third is a famous magician, Simon Magus, who boasts of supernatural powers which Peter believes come from the Devil.</p>\n<p style=\"clear:both;\">Nero has called the two together for a contest to see which has the greatest power. Simon gets first shot in the dual of the magicians. With the aid of spirits — or demons as Peter’s followers would later have it — he takes off and begins to fly over the glorious buildings in front of him. Peter simply gets down on his knees on the Via Sacra, the Sacred Way through the forum, and prays for the downfall of Simon Magus. He gets his wish: the wizard tumbles out of the sky and dies a bloody death on the ground.</p>\n\n<!--more-->\n<p style=\"clear:both;\"><img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-575\" title=\"peter2\" src=\"http://www.davidhewson.com/blog/wp-content/uploads//2009/02/peter2.jpg\" alt=\"peter2\" width=\"310\" height=\"233\" />Nero is furious. Peter is put on trial and then crucified, upside down, because he feels he is unworthy to die in the same position as Christ. The location of his death is reputed to be on the Gianicolo hill, a common place for crucifixions, now marked by the beautiful little tempietto of Bramante seen here at the church of Pietro in Montorio.</p>\n<p style=\"clear:both;\">This story comes from the apocryphal <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acts_of_Peter\" target=\"_blank\">Acts of Peter</a> and for me the most fascinating aspect of it is the intriguing claim that Peter was not simply crucified for being a Christian. Nero also, and perhaps principally, put him on trial for the murder of Simon Magus, and found him guilty of that, a capital offence, too. You don’t hear that much at Sunday school, do you? And perhaps you shouldn’t, since this is an apocryphal book after all probably written in Greece a couple of hundred years after the event. If, of course, the event existed because there is a large body of scholars who will tell you that Peter’s presence in Rome is, at best, exaggerated, and at worst a complete invention.</p>\n<p style=\"clear:both;\">As an atheist I find religion fascinating. Faith is an incredibly powerful instrument, a way in which human beings are able to believe what they wish, in spite of the ‘facts’, with such devotion that the myth itself takes on a kind of super-reality all of its own.</p>\n<p style=\"clear:both;\">There may be no firm evidence the historical Peter ever visited Rome. But stand in front of Michelangelo’s dome for the basilica in which he is supposedly buried and ask yourself: does it matter any more? Myth begets reality, repeatedly. Cross the street from Santa Francesca Romana and you will soon find the church of <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Pietro_in_Vincoli\" target=\"_blank\">San Pietro in Vincoli</a>, with a famous statue of Peter by Michelangelo and, in a glass case, the chains that supposedly bound him in captivity. Walk up the road towards the Piazza Venezia and you can visit the <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mamertine_Prison\" target=\"_blank\">Mamertine prison</a> where Peter, and supposedly Paul, were both imprisoned.</p>\n<p style=\"clear:both;\"><a href=\"http://www.davidhewson.com/blog/wp-content/uploads//2009/02/cara1.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-576\" title=\"cara1\" src=\"http://www.davidhewson.com/blog/wp-content/uploads//2009/02/cara1-231x300.jpg\" alt=\"cara1\" width=\"231\" height=\"300\" /></a>Peter is surrounded by apocryphal stories. In fact you could say he’s an apocryphal story himself, if that matters. But before you dismiss the tale of Simon Magus completely let me point out a couple of things. First, some of the stories we now take as fact come from apocryphal sources. The image of Peter crucified upside down for example is commonplace throughout art this staggering Caravaggio from Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome shows. It comes solely from The Acts of Peter. The Book of Revelation is of dubious authenticity too and without that a million horror stories would be somewhat lacking in inspiration. What matters over the period of time is not authorship and accuracy but the massed power of belief, backed by fragments of ‘proof’, from holy shrouds to chunks of the true cross, that stand witness in moments of doubt.</p>\n<p style=\"clear:both;\"><a href=\"http://www.davidhewson.com/blog/wp-content/uploads//2009/02/peter3.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-577\" title=\"peter3\" src=\"http://www.davidhewson.com/blog/wp-content/uploads//2009/02/peter3-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"peter3\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /></a>Here, in Santa Francesca, is one such fragment that most visitors simply never see. Walk to the altar and then look to your right. On the wall, behind iron bars, you will find two pieces of stone with distinct impressions. According to the legend these are the marks the knees of St. Peter made in the Via Sacra that day two thousand years ago, physical imprints left by his exertions against the devilish powers of Simon Magus.</p>\n<p style=\"clear:both;\">It’s a beautiful church, and one that usually gets few visitors. The 12th century Byzantine mosaics are particularly lovely. Another oddity is that Saint Francesca, a benevolent Roman lady of the 15th century, became the patron saint of motorists when the car was invented.</p>\n<p style=\"clear:both;\">On her saint’s day, March 9, motorists come here from all over the city to have their vehicles blessed. Her skeleton is usually on show in the rather creepy crypt beneath the altar, though it was missing when I went there the other day and frankly I didn’t have the courage to ask the very friendly church warden why.</p>\n\n<br class=\"final-break\" style=\"clear:both;\" />','St. Peter the apocryphal murderer','','publish','open','closed','','st-peter-the-apocryphal-murderer','','','2011-01-28 08:11:53','2011-01-28 08:11:53','',0,'http://69.89.31.99/~davidhew/?p=40',0,'post','',0),(34,1,'2009-03-04 09:59:01','2009-03-04 08:59:01','<p><span class=\"full-image-float-right ssNonEditable\"><span></span></span>There’s a lot of justifiable noise at the moment about the collapse of book reviewing in mainstream papers. Lots of book sections are shrinking or disappearing altogether as the world of print begins to fall in on itself.</p><p>But let me put some good news in front of you: while print is declining the web becomes more wonderful by the day. Some of the best web book sites of today don’t just compete with old-fashioned print, they beat it hands down. As an example you can take a peek at one of my reviews on BookBrowse, which is normally only available to members who pay $29.95 a year.</p><p><a href=\"http://www.bookbrowse.com/mag/nm_reviews/?detail=123690hp\" class=\"offsite-link-inline\" target=\"_blank\">You can find the review here</a>. It’s about the sixth Nic Costa novel, <em>The Garden of Evil</em>, a book that’s had a lot of coverage, and recently won the American Library Association mystery of the year award. Like any author I’m really grateful for any review coverage I get. But BookBrowse’s coverage of the book beats everything else hands down, not in terms of praise and kindness, but in depth and pure quality. They haven’t just reviewed the book they’ve looked in detail at the background to it, linking paintings it mentions and bringing more depth to a few real-life background issues which I mention only briefly in my author’s note.</p><p> </p><p>Reviews like this don’t just point readers to books they might like, but also add more insight and enjoyment to works for people who are reading them. It’s a fantastic job and proof that BookBrowse’s subscription is a real investment for anyone interested in proper book reviews. Newspaper reviews aren’t going to come back in any volume. But if we can get coverage of this quality they won’t, perhaps, be missed as much as you’d expect.</p>','The wonder of Bookbrowse','','publish','open','closed','','the-wonder-of-bookbrowse','','','2011-01-28 08:11:53','2011-01-28 08:11:53','',0,'http://69.89.31.99/~davidhew/?p=34',0,'post','',0),(23,1,'2009-03-30 17:37:04','2009-03-30 16:37:04','Writing used to be so simple. You bought a typewriter and stacks of blank paper sat down and got on with it. Nowadays we\'re faced with a richness of choices. What kind of computer? What software? Well Macs and Scrivener in my case (too lazy and too stupid to use anything else).\n\nBut here\'s a big question that\'s much more difficult to answer. When you have your computer and your preferred writing package what exactly are you going to see on the screen as you write? What font? What size? What spacing?\n\nThis has driven me nuts for years. I\'ve tried serif faces and sans ones. Different sizes. Different spacing between lines, different spacing between paragraphs. I spend a lot of time in front of these things. I want it to be right. Here, thanks to that wonderful writer <a title=\"Michael Marshall Smith \" href=\"http://www.michaelmarshallsmith.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Michael Marshall Smith</a> who passed this on via Twitter is one solution that works for him, works for me now, and - who knows? - may even work for you. Not one I\'d ever have dreamed of either.\n\n<!--more-->\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/optima1.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-6154\" title=\"optima\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/optima1.jpg?w=220\" alt=\"\" width=\"220\" height=\"300\" /></a>The key thing to remember about your writing font and style is, of course, that it\'s there to suit you, not an eventual editor. Yes, editors will expect double spaced manuscripts in something like Arial or Helvetica these days (I don\'t know any who want a typewriter-style font). But that doesn\'t mean you have to write that way. Double spacing is particularly wasteful on screen it seems to me. The last few books I\'ve written have been in 13pt Optima with 1.2 line spacing and a little space between paragraphs. That gives me a loose look on screen but is still very readable. You can see the draft first page of <em>Dante\'s Numbers</em> in that on the right - click for a bigger image.\n\nMichael, however, goes back to the past a little, back all the way to monospaced typewriter fonts. I\'ve tried these before but never really got on with them. The typewriter fonts you get as standard on Macs and Windows PCs always seem to me to be the worst of all possible worlds. They have that clean, dead clarity you expect of a computer but none of the character of a real typewriter. And there are real disadvantages too, if you see them that way. A true monospaced typewriter font comes in just one style - plain. There\'s no bold. No italic. What you see literally is what you get.\n\nNow bold doesn\'t bother me. I\'d never use that in a book anyway. But italics? I\'m writing in Italy and from time to time I will need to italicise a foreign word since that\'s style. Also from time to time I will italicise a word as emphasis. I know that there are those of you out there who think this is a terrible thing to do, probably on a par with cruelty to small furry animals. But I disagree. So did Dickens, Herman Melville and a few others by the way. So there. I <em>want</em> italics.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/p221.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-6155\" title=\"p22\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/p221.jpg?w=222\" alt=\"\" width=\"222\" height=\"300\" /></a>What do I do? Er, easy. I just underline of course. The way I used to when I worked on a typewriter. It\'s dead easy. And you know something? It looks great. Here is a screenshot of that same text in Michael\'s preferred font, P22 Typewriter, a commercial one that will cost you £10 or around $15 online (search for it in Google and you may get a 20 per cent discount coupon from fonts.com - I did). P22 is a very realistic looking typewriter font. It\'s slightly distressed and unpredictable. Seen large you\'d probably think.. no way could I write in that. Seen at 13 pt in Scrivener\'s full-screen mode... well, I love it. It\'s easy to read and it gives me a feel for the fact I\'m doing something other than simple word processing. I\'m not writing a letter here. I\'m writing a story, a fairy tale, a myth. Why the hell should I do this in some font designed for desktop processing? Where\'s the sense in that?\n\nAnd here\'s the oddest thing. I mentioned yesterday that I sometimes print out book drafts in single spaced book style, with 9 or 10pt text, because they look different that way. The moment I converted my existing manuscript from Optima to P22 I started rewriting bits on the page. It <em>looked different.</em> Don\'t ask me why. I\'m a writer, not a psychologist.\n\nWould I deliver a book in this font? Course not. The publishers won\'t have it. But I have to export from Scrivener to Word to deliver anyway so it\'s no great problem to convert to double spaced Arial or something. Scrivener even does it for you. The only question is that underline versus italics one. Would publishers really prefer an old fashioned underline to a proper italic these days? Given that they set the book directly from your file I suspect the answer\'s no. Anyone out there have an opinion?\n\nHere are those same files as high quality pdfs too so you can print them out and judge this for yourself, whether you have these fonts installed or not (at least I think that\'s how it works). If not tell me and I will pdf them as images. Thanks for the tip Michael - I owe you a beer.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/optima1.pdf\">Optima</a>\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/p221.pdf\">P22</a>','Picking a font for writing','','publish','open','open','','picking-a-font-for-writing','','','2011-01-28 08:11:40','2011-01-28 08:11:40','',0,'http://69.89.31.99/~davidhew/?p=23',0,'post','',8),(15,1,'2009-04-18 23:30:28','2009-04-18 22:30:28','<p><strong>Most useful thing I took with me on this tour</strong></p>\n<p>My MacBook Air. I wondered whether the screen was big enough, and the machine fast enough to cope with everything I threw at it over two weeks. Wonder no more. Yes it&#039;s a bit sluggish at times. But its combination of compact size with a decent keyboard and screen means I pull it out and work at odd moments when I&#039;d never bother with a bigger machine. I&#039;ve edited, emailed and jotted down notes in crowded coach seats, on trains, in airports. I never found the screen or the keyboard too small. This is my road machine from now on.</p>\n<p><strong>Strangest question of the tour</strong></p>\n<p>&#039;Wouldn&#039;t your books be easier to read if the characters didn&#039;t have Italian names?&#039;</p>\n<p><strong>Best new toy</strong></p>\n<p>My new iPod Touch. Coupled with Boingo&#039;s £3.95 a month wifi coverage worlwide and Skype this gave me email and phone calls all over the place. If I had a UK phone or iPhone the data charges would have been horrendous. Definitely a discovery. It can flick to new slides in presentations too.</p>\n\n<!--more-->\n<p><strong>Best hotel of the trip</strong></p>\n<p>The Arctic Club Seattle. Lovely place, helpful staff and they had the room ready at 10.30 am as promised which helped enormously with the video interview was planned. Definitely the place I will use when next in Seattle.</p>\n<p><strong>Worst hotel of the trip</strong></p>\n<p>The Hotel Zaza, Houston. Gloomy, unfriendly, overpriced, and a tiny room to boot. And nowhere near anywhere else to eat, on foot anyway. Not good.</p>\n<p><strong>Nicest airport</strong></p>\n<p>Bob Hope, Burbank. Small, easy to navigate and with a very friendly security chap who actually smiled and at me with genuine warmth and said &#039;Good morning&#039; as if he&#039;d meant it.</p>\n<p><strong>Nicest airline</strong></p>\n<p>Horizon. Friendly staff and small planes. Things that come in small packages - planes, airports, book stores - always seem much better somehow.</p>\n<p><strong>Nagging must do that won&#039;t go away</strong></p>\n<p>Going back to Seattle means I&#039;m determined to get <a href=\"http://davidhewson.typepad.com/standalones/epiphany.html\" target=\"_blank\">Epiphany</a> revised and in print in the US finally.</p><p><span style=\"font-weight:bold;\">Strangest thing...</span></p><p>The fact that three of the people who came in to Seattle Mystery to have their books signed were also called Hewson. Don&#039;t meet many of them normally.</p>','Parting thoughts: a few snippets','','publish','open','open','','parting-thoughts-a-few-snippets','','','2011-01-28 08:11:40','2011-01-28 08:11:40','',0,'http://69.89.31.99/~davidhew/?p=15',0,'post','',0),(14,1,'2009-04-18 23:48:00','2009-04-18 22:48:00','<p>Sitting here in the comfy Virgin Lounge in SFO with a few hours to spare I thought I&#039;d set down a few thoughts about these last two weeks on the road in the US. Coming to America is always an enjoyable, thought-provoking process, and this trip was both of those, more so than usual if I&#039;m honest. So I&#039;ll try set down my thoughts about what I&#039;ve seen and heard here, and a few things I&#039;ve learned.</p>\n<p>Here goes: is publishing doomed?</p>\n\n<!--more-->\n<p>Like most provocative questions this one isn&#039;t as simple as it first appears. Lots of people are feeling pain at the moment. What we sometimes fail to appreciate is that they&#039;re different kinds of pain. Publishers are watching a market that&#039;s been comprehensible and relatively capable of control for decades fragment and fall from their grasp. Big retailers are suffering from falling sales and the dead weight of overhead that comes from running vast operations, as well as competition from lower cost operations on the web, Amazon in particular. Small, individual booksellers find themselves squeezed because they can&#039;t compete on price and they face falling sales and rising costs too.</p>\n<p>And authors? Well, to be honest we&#039;re probably in the best - or rather least horrible - position of all. Forget books, I&#039;m a story teller first and foremost and my work appears in a variety of forms, in print, in audio, on ebooks, a few more too maybe in the years to come. The real question is this: is storytelling doomed?</p>\n<p>I think we all know the answer to that: clearly not. We have stories coming as us from all angles these days, even as downloads to our iPhones. As a Hollywood producer I talked to put it: the appetite for content is booming, what&#039;s happening is that the 20th century models for meeting it don&#039;t seem to match what a 21st century audience demands. Why should they? The 20th century didn&#039;t have Kindle or Audible or Amazon. It&#039;s different out there.</p>\n<p>I&#039;m not qualified to offer advice to publishers or big book companies even if I had something useful to say. So let me focus on whatI know and love: writing. Authors are, I think, on the brink of a new and exciting age. We will no longer be confined by the schedules and norms of the print industry. Those literary forms that once seemed so hard to get published - novellas and short stories - suddenly make sense because they match the instant release of digital. Backlists become resources to be revived, not lost titles that never again see the light of day. And there will, I&#039;m sure, be new types of media and opportunities created in the years to come too.</p>\n<p>The bad news? The days of big advances, cushy contracts and big safety nets are gone for good. Writing is back to being the scary, exciting business it always was. If you want to make it a career you&#039;re going to have to work hard, take risks and have a very thick skin. Welcome to the real world. This is not a get-rich-quick business or one that can be judged on sales or financial terms alone. If it were then any number of great writers, from Poe to Herman Melville, would have to be reclassified as failures. Ridiculous, don&#039;t you think? If you want to make money and be a celebrity learn to play guitar. Books aren&#039;t like that.</p>\n<p>It seems possible to me that the mass market of &#039;big books&#039; is likely to shrink to a pantheon of established names who will be pampered by the big publishers and big stores and dominate that end of the business. How publishers break new names into that pantheon is anyone&#039;s guess - I don&#039;t get the impression they know.</p>\n<p>The broader, more interesting end of the business is going to happen in digital and, in the US, through the independent book store network because they&#039;re the only ones who have the enthusiasm, flexibility and patience to make it work. Will digital affect them? Up to a point, but not as much as the big, constricted mass market retailers. Kindle and ereaders are fine but they will never replace books completely. They&#039;re just not the same, nor do they offer the same opportunities. How do you sign an ebook, for one thing? How do individuals establish a relationship with the authors they like if touring becomes a thing of the past. Through Facebook? I don&#039;t think so.</p>\n<p>In the future we&#039;re going to be individual, maverick spinners of tales, of various kinds through various media. It&#039;s going to be precarious, unpredictable, financially insecure, and enormous fun. The way writing used to be. So if you want to be the kind who just sits there waiting for the agent to ring through with a new deal and a fat royalty cheque land through the door then you are, I suspect, going to be disappointed. Can&#039;t pay the bills? Get a boring day job. If it was good enough for Melville it should be good enough for us.</p><p>The key key to maintaining and expanding a broad, varied market of both fiction and non-fiction will, it seems to me, come to depend on keeping that independent book sector. If we lose that rich resource then the book world in the US will be greatly the poorer, and possibly damaged beyond repair. There&#039;s a role in this for authors, an important one. Indies can&#039;t compete on price and if they simply put books on shelves they&#039;re beyond hope. But what they do wonderfully well is turn a book store into a book community, a place that people appreciate, return to and support. Backing from authors, through visits, signings and anything else they need, is vital if they&#039;re to fulfil that function.</p>\n<p>That&#039;s why I will be back in the US at least once a year, touring, signing, talking, doing what I can. We&#039;re in the same business - trying to bring interesting, individual literature that&#039;s perhaps a little out of the mainstream to people who want something they can&#039;t find on a supermarket shelf. Helping the independent book retailing sector survive in today&#039;s difficult climate is something that should be on everyone&#039;s minds, from the big publishers to individual authors.</p>\n<p>This isn&#039;t the only solution, of course. In the long, or perhaps even medium, term I suspect we will see entirely new publishing models emerge. After all, if you were starting the publishing business from scratch today, would you really organise it the way it is at the moment?</p><p>Of course not. Provided we keep our route to the market, digitally and through print, the future for story-telling is bright, maybe bright than ever in these difficult times. But the old ways are dying fast and we&#039;ll surely need to embrace and help invent whatever comes next.</p>','Parting thoughts: the state of publishing','','publish','open','open','','parting-thoughts-the-state-of-publishing','','','2011-01-28 08:11:40','2011-01-28 08:11:40','',0,'http://69.89.31.99/~davidhew/?p=14',0,'post','',0),(717,1,'2009-04-20 11:27:38','2009-04-20 10:27:38','In 1919 four leading lights of the newest entertainment medium around, the movies, cut themselves off from the conventional studios and formed something called United Artists. Mary Pickford, Charles Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, and D. W. Griffith wanted better control over their artistic future and a fairer share of the money the studios were making from them. They envisaged a creative enterprise owned and managed by the people whose talents were the raw material around which its fortunes were set.\n\nAn interesting idea, and one I start to hear mooted more and more among my fellow authors as they peer into the uncertain and shifting future of book publishing. As I noted here the other day, the present model of publishing is based upon the recent past, not a rational, frank look at what the fast-changing world of books requires in a time of new markets and media, and radical shifts in publishing practice. Are we fast approaching the moment when authors should begin to cut their comfy umbilical ties to existing houses and go it alone?\n\n<!--more-->\n\nLet\'s begin with a caveat. This article is based upon what I, as an outsider, perceive to be custom and practice in the US book market, an industry which has similarities with markets elsewhere but is unique on several fronts, namely…\n<ul>\n	<li>Its vast size</li>\n	<li>Its division of traditional book retailing between big, monolithic national retailers and a substantial if threatened network of small, independent stores</li>\n	<li>Its embrace of new techniques and technologies ahead of the rest of the world, notable ebook readers, such as Kindle, and the rapid rise of Amazon as a new distribution medium</li>\n	<li>Its willingness to experiment with new models, often under intense economic pressure, when other parts of the world are content to rely on existing systems, perhaps because the pressure hasn\'t reached them yet.</li>\n</ul>\nOnce upon a time the route from author to reader was relatively simple...\n\n<img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-548\" title=\"auth1\" src=\"http://www.davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads//2009/06/auth1.jpg\" alt=\"auth1\" width=\"320\" height=\"34\" />\n\nThen, in the twentieth century, it became somewhat more complex. Here is the way it looks for many a professional author today.\n\n<img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-550\" title=\"auth2\" src=\"http://www.davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads//2009/06/auth2.jpg\" alt=\"auth2\" width=\"468\" height=\"221\" />\n\nComplicated or what? And of course each one of those steps in the chain needs to earn a living. As money passes back from reader to author, the pool of cash is diminished. In the end some eight per cent or so of the retail price, in the case of print, makes its way back to the original writer of the material. The rest is absorbed in retail costs, publisher margins, returns, distribution, print, publicity, marketing... all those things that authors never think about much if we\'re honest. More importantly, some might say, the reader and author find themselves separated by a barrier of intervening processes and managerial layers that can serve to make writers somewhat remote from the people that matter most - those who buy and relish their work.\n\nWe live in an age shaped by technology. One of the key buzzwords in this era is a nasty and ugly one with some very interesting implications: disintermediation. What this means is quite simple: thanks to the Internet lots of these intervening layers can be done away with. Disintermediation is what iTunes did to the record companies, making it possible for bands to reach their audience directly through digital uploads, and to produce their own music at home without having to resort to the studio system that demanded they sign punitive contracts forcing them to spend their \'advances\' on expensive recording commitments.\n\nHow might a disintermediated United Authors publishing system look? At its most savage, maybe like this...\n\n<img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-551\" title=\"auth3\" src=\"http://www.davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads//2009/06/auth3.jpg\" alt=\"auth3\" width=\"466\" height=\"140\" />\n\nOK. Let me try and quell the screams out there from agents first. Am I suggesting they\'re doomed? Not for a moment. Good agents serve an extremely important purpose in the current process. But in a remodelled book age their role is going to change. One possible future is that conventional advances will begin to disappear. <a href=\"http://www.vanguardpressbooks.com/home.php\" target=\"_blank\">Vanguard Press</a> pioneered the no-advance model a few years ago and now has some distinguished and successful authors under its wing, among them David Morrell. Vanguard works by paying higher royalties, handing them out early, and focusing on marketing and distributing its authors. This is clearly an idea that has its fans elsewhere. Last year, Bob Miller quit the house he founded, Hyperion, to set up just such a unit within HarperCollins. <a href=\"http://theharperstudio.com/\" target=\"_blank\">HarperStudio</a> is now in operation, though I\'m a little unsure what its editorial direction is from its web site. But it\'s an interesting place all the same.\n\nif you don\'t have advances why do you need an agent? Well to sell into other markets for one thing: foreign, movie, TV. Important places. But cutting deals with conventional publishers ever more wary of tying themselves into uncertain advances may not be a safe bet for much longer.\n\nNow to the second disruptive event: ebooks. There\'s a <a href=\"http://theharperstudio.com/2009/02/the-kindle-and-questioning-the-economics-of-ebook-publishingthe-conversation-continues/\" target=\"_blank\">fascinating discussion</a> about this on the HarperStudio site where Bob Miller says out loud, \'I agree that e-books should be priced lower than physical books. But I don’t agree that being profitable at $27.99 translates to being profitable at $9.99. <span style=\"font-weight:bold;\">It only costs us about $2.50-$3.00 less for us to publish the e-book, not $18.00 less</span>.\' Asked to justify this by an incredulous commenter, Miller says, \'most of a publisher’s costs are in overhead and advances to authors, which don’t change if the book is printed on steel plates or paper or pasta or transmitted electronically\'.\n\nOK. But we\'ve just done away with advances. And any new publishing venture is going to do away with huge offices in New York, fancy expense accounts, and a lot of that overhead too. Do that and ebooks ought to seem a dream. No print or distribution costs. No expensive returns. No inventory. Oh, and from the point of view of existing publishers, a distinctively hazier relationship with authors when it comes to handing out royalties.\n\nWhile print contracts tend to run around standard figures, say around eight per cent of retail price, ebook royalties vary widely from publisher to publisher. As the agent-run <a href=\"http://pubrants.blogspot.com/2008/10/ebook-royalties.html\" target=\"_blank\">Pub Rants</a> blog notes...\n<blockquote>Every publisher has their own structure (which is a bit annoying) but there you have it. Also, there are two basic ways to pay e-royalties. Some publishers do a straight percentage of retail price of the work (standard is 15%). But some publishers do the royalty based on net amount received. Not quite the same thing. Standard for net amount is 25%. So you have to check the language. You might look at a contract and see 15% and think it’s all groovy. But 15% of net amount received is not the industry standard.</blockquote>\nIn fact it\'s even more complicated than that. Random House, for example, recently announced a complex change to its ebook rates that actually reduced the royalty, down to around 12.5% <a href=\"http://www.ereads.com/2008/10/random-house-changes-e-book-royalty.html\" target=\"_blank\">according to this estimate</a> by E-Reads.\n\nWhy should authors accept 12.5%? Amazon <a href=\"http://forums.digitaltextplatform.com/dtpforums/entry.jspa?externalID=2&amp;categoryID=12\" target=\"_blank\">currently pays 35% royalties</a> on self-published sales through its ebook programme. This is the standard public rate which anyone can get just by uploading a file to the Amazon site. Big publishers supposedly get around 50%. This margin comes from Amazon\'s market domination and is likely to be challenged in the future, changing in the favour of publishers. At least one rival ebook store, based on an open format, is due to launch in the coming months and will offer much more generous rates, possibly double or more to participating parties.\n\nHere\'s one possible model for United Authors. Participating writers get their books edited by an outside party and upload them directly into the ebook channels themselves, taking the royalty directly - currently, say, 35% but soon to be much higher when ebook distribution competition arrives. If they want to be in audio, they either pay to produce the audio book or sell to an audio publisher. Either way the delivery medium will, surely, be direct digital download, not physical distribution, for the most part.\n\nUnited Authors then cuts a deal with a no-advance book publisher who handles the conventional print side of the equation. Some percentage is taken off to pay for United Authors\' minimal operating costs, probably on a par with union membership dues.  Publicity and marketing are handled directly by the authors themselves, out of their own pockets.  Not that there\'s anything much new in that - most conventional publishers seem to be expecting this of their authors already.\n\nCould it work? Hell, I\'m a writer. What do I know? But, speaking as an ignoramus whose business experience amounts to once having been an executive director of a struggling and now disappeared small magazine company, the potential advantages, it seems to me, are many.\n<ul>\n	<li>You get the benefits of the potential system without many of the downfalls or the crippling overhead</li>\n	<li>You cut out a lot of the intervening processes between writers and readers</li>\n	<li>Your print partner can focus on selling books without worrying about whether he\'s got enough money to pay the next instalment of the advance or dealing with whiny authors complaining the limo\'s late for the book tour</li>\n	<li>You can get books into the market more quickly, cheaply and efficiently</li>\n	<li>You could, in theory, be more creative, using the economic flexibility of the ebook system to publish material such as backlist books, novellas and short stories, that the conventional channel will reject as unviable.</li>\n</ul>\nBut the pitfalls are multiple.\n<ul>\n	<li>This kind of model may look simple in practice but would doubtless prove more complex and expensive in reality than it appears at first sight</li>\n	<li>It\'s a rotten economic climate for launching something new</li>\n	<li>You won\'t have a conventional editor, and editors, when they\'re good, are a godsend</li>\n	<li>Authors are on occasion criminally dismissive of the hidden skills and talents that go into getting their work to market. It\'s not easy selling books, whatever we think. Something would get lost along the way</li>\n	<li>This is a model made for the American market alone and wouldn\'t work elsewhere for some time to come</li>\n	<li>Authors may occupy one of the insecure jobs on the planet but they are temperamentally risk-averse and often suspicious of new ideas, preferring to sit back and hope a fat advance will fall through the door instead</li>\n	<li>Creative types are rarely managerial types and usually make a hash of business things because they think, wrongly, it\'s just business, and anyone can do that, right?</li>\n	<li>I haven’t a clue how you\'d work out who could join the club. Clearly you couldn\'t allow in everyone, otherwise the United Authors brand would just be one more self publishing outfit. Creative, editorial decisions would have to be made. If this were to be a system for new authors, not established ones, it would, one way or another, become a publishing house. Isn’t that what we\'re trying to put behind us?</li>\n	<li>It would probably need one or two brave big names to quit their comfy contracts with existing publishers and lend some credence to the operation. And who would take the risk?</li>\n</ul>\nOne final point too: United Artists may have been a lovely idea, but the company struggled from the start and became just one more movie studio name, passed from owner to owner. It was last revived in 2006 by Tom Cruise and the producer Paula Wagner. After its production of Cruise\'s <em>Valkyrie</em> Paula Wagner left last year. A great and revolutionary artistic success? Not exactly, though whether this has much relevance to today\'s writers is another matter.','The case for United Authors','','publish','open','open','','the-case-for-united-authors','','','2011-01-28 08:11:40','2011-01-28 08:11:40','',0,'http://69.89.31.99/~davidhew/?p=13',0,'post','',0),(718,1,'2009-04-21 08:54:59','2009-04-21 07:54:59','As blog post headlines go this has to be one of the most stupid of the lot, doesn\'t it? Authors need book stores because they sell, er, books. It\'s like asking why haemophiliacs need blood banks. And yet, and yet...\n\nBelieve it or not - and those of you outside the lunatic asylum that goes by the name of the publishing industry may find it utterly incredible - there\'s a growing feeling in parts of this business that visits by writers to book stores make no sense at all. The reasoning runs something like this....\n\n<!--more-->\n<ul>\n	<li>From a publisher\'s point of view book tours are horribly expensive. You have to put your people in fancy hotels, have them met at airports, ferry them around in limos, feed them, pamper their (on occasion extravagant) whims</li>\n	<li>No one turns up much for book store events these days, even for big name authors sometimes</li>\n	<li>The world is going digital. Pretty soon most people will be buying books online and getting them delivered through the post, or buying ebooks and skipping paper altogether.</li>\n</ul>\nPut that way and it starts to make a little sense. The expense side of things is real, and not helped in the US by the fact publishers never seem to do things economically (this is the \'don\'t hire a cab when a limo will do\' rule). The logical answer - agree a tour budget with the author then let him or her spend the money, or not, as required - never seems to be on the table. And besides, much of this is increasingly irrelevant. Marketing and publicity budgets which have been steadily diminished over the years are now being devastated as part of the current round of cutbacks. The reality is that, for most of us, marketing has been devolved down from the publisher to the author. If you want to do it, fine, but you\'re on your own.\n\nTo which I can only say: great. The two-week tour I just did in the US was run on that basis. I organised it, paid for it, chose the independent stores I visited based on feedback from fellow authors, and decided where I stayed and how I got around. It was, for the most part, enormous fun. But was it worth it? What, to use a business expression, did it represent in terms of return on investment?\n\nOK, hands up. I honestly don\'t know. Nor do I much care. I\'m a UK author who visits the US once or twice the year usually. It\'s not my principal book market, or even my second largest one at the moment. But it\'s important, and it\'s a place I like, where I have many friends. I\'m willing to spend some of my own money trying to build up sales a little in places that matter, which invariably turn out to be the many great independent book stores you find scattered across the US.\n\nPeople who don\'t frequent these stores fail to understand what goes on when they get visited by an author. Here are just a few.\n<ul>\n	<li>Staff in the store put a face to a name. If they like you, they tell people. And the people they tell are people who are usually there buying books.</li>\n	<li>You get to hear feedback from those in the front line of this business, about your books, about their covers, about your publisher, about how well - or badly - you\'re doing</li>\n	<li>From a foreigner\'s point of view you get a better understanding of a market that\'s quite unlike the one back home - and the US market is, as I\'ve discussed here before, unique</li>\n	<li>You meet a few readers</li>\n	<li>You sell a few books</li>\n</ul>\nA few? You\'re crossing the Atlantic to meet a few people and sell a few books?\n\nYes, on paper anyway. Book store events don\'t attract huge crowds, it\'s true. Sometimes you scarcely get a handful. On the rare occasion maybe no one at all except a passing customer who happened in. And in terms of books that cross the counter... not many. But what lots of people, including some in publishing, fail to realise is that the deal is a lot more complicated than that. Many indies have a large and loyal customer base, sometimes extending beyond the US. Their customers trust their opinions. They know that if they ask for a recommendation they\'re going to get one based on knowledge, not a flyer from some publisher.\n\nSo you end up selling a lot more books than might first appear. Stock for local people who couldn\'t make the signing. Stock for mail order customers who\'ve placed an order. And just plain stock, books that will be sold because they have a name inside the cover, which gets them better placement within the store and adds something that readers can\'t get easily elsewhere. <em>The number of books you actually sell from a signing is several times greater than the number of copies that pass over the table in the store while you\'re there.</em>\n\nVisiting book stores is, in short, an investment, both in yourself as a writer and in the store. A mutual act of faith. And it\'s one that makes a difference. Need proof? Last week I visited Vroman\'s in Pasadena, one of the largest and longest-established book stores in the Los Angeles area. It\'s a big, impressive store, one I\'d never visited before. I got a nice little crowd of fewer than ten people, some of whom I knew already, personally or through Facebook. I did my little presentation on <em>Dante\'s Numbers,</em> chatted to people, signed a handful of copies for them, and then a stack of stock copies, and left.\n\nThat was last Wednesday. If you go to the local news site <a href=\"http://hometown-pasadena.com/2009/04/vromans-bestsellers-042009/\" target=\"_blank\">Hometown Pasadena here</a> you can see Vroman\'s latest bestseller list. Take a look at hardback fiction and you\'ll see I\'m in the top ten alongside John Grisham, Walter Mosley and my good friends Denise Hamilton and Jacqueline Winspear. Sure, that\'s one store among many, albeit a big and important one. Maybe I won\'t be there next week. But I made an impact and my name is now known by people who didn\'t know it before. If they like me there\'s a back list of seven other books they can buy.\n\nSmall stuff? Maybe, but the way the book business is today every sale counts, particularly if it might just generate another down the line. Authors ignore the people who sell their work at their peril. We really should get out more if we want to survive.','Why authors need book stores','','publish','open','open','','why-authors-need-book-stores','','','2011-01-28 08:11:27','2011-01-28 08:11:27','',0,'http://69.89.31.99/~davidhew/?p=12',0,'post','',0),(618,1,'2009-07-04 15:14:19','2009-07-04 14:14:19','Back briefly from Rome after an eventful trip for the new Nic Costa in Italian, here\'s a quick look at something that gets mangled and misrepresented all around the world: Roman food. For some reason people always want to take me to \'Italian\' restaurants wherever I am in the world. Some are good. Some not so. Few are remotely authentic.\n\nWhy? Simple. Real Roman food isn\'t the fancy stuff that\'s sold as such elsewhere. The core of traditional Roman food is simplicity - very good ingredients, served with a minimum of fuss and extras. Here is a very good example: the classic lamb dish <em>abbacchio scottadito</em> accompanied by a very common <em>contorno,</em> stir fried chicory.\n\n<em>Scottadito</em> literally means \'burns your fingers\'. The idea is that the meat is so good you\'ll want to eat it with your fingers before it cools down. Usually you do too. All you have here is excellent Roman lamb cutlet seasoned and griller. Chicory, <em>cicoria,</em> is a common green vegetable stir fried with oil and seasonings - usually a little <em>peperoncino</em> pepper. The two make a fantastic combination and couldn\'t be less complicated. I\'ve never seen them done properly outside Rome.\n\nHere are the two together.\n\n<img class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-619\" title=\"abbacchio\" src=\"http://www.davidhewson.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/abbacchio-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"abbacchio\" width=\"480\" height=\"362\" />\n\nThis was lunch yesterday as I killed time waiting for the plane. I was in one of my favourite restaurants, Al Pompiere in the ghetto. The food is reliable, if unspectacular, and the ambience quiet and unhurried -- a lovely dining room. A touch overpriced these days which may explain the empty tables at lunchtime, but a very pleasant break from the hurly burly of Rome nevertheless.','What real Roman food looks like','','publish','open','open','','what-real-roman-food-looks-like','','','2011-01-28 08:11:27','2011-01-28 08:11:27','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=618',0,'post','',0),(641,1,'2009-07-11 13:30:53','2009-07-11 12:30:53','Here are a few snippets of information gleaned from the floor and panels of Thrillerfest over the last few days. They give some insight into the uncertain state of publishing in the US, and a pointer about how rapidly things are changing.\n\nFirst, the market. There seems to be a genuine belief that the days of the huge book megastore may be numbered. The number of people walking through the doors of the big chains appears to have fallen in line with the general slump in mall shopping. Some publishers say the number of people shopping in the big chains may have fallen by as much as 25 per cent.\n\nAt the same time people seem to have decided that hardback books have had the day, certainly as far as mainstream popular fiction is concerned. Sales of expensive hardbacks have plummeted - again 25 per cent is one figure being bandied around.\n\nSome other ground-breaking news. Amazon gave a presentation yesterday at which they apparently revealed that in the US their sales of thriller and crime titles in Kindle format have equalled the sales of the same titles as conventional books for several months. Ebooks are losing the gimmick factor.\n\nWhat was that old Chinese curse? The one about living in interesting times? I should say, by the way, that this picture applies only to the US market. A couple of European publishers I\'ve spoken to say that their sales are much healthier. In fact the sense of gloom in the US seems generally much more marked than anywhere else I\'ve visited in the past few months.','The state of the book nation','','publish','open','open','','the-state-of-the-book-nation','','','2011-01-28 08:11:27','2011-01-28 08:11:27','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=641',0,'post','',0),(644,1,'2009-07-22 09:06:30','2009-07-22 08:06:30','Talk about life imitating art... <a href=\"http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6722553.ece\" target=\"_blank\">given the stories coming out of Italy at the moment</a> about Silvio Berlusconi can I make a couple of things clear right now. Next year\'s Nic Costa book, <em>The Blue Demon</em>, concerns a sleazy Italian prime minister and a G8 summit in Rome.\n\nIt was finished more than a year ago in 2008. In fact when it was begun Berlusconi hadn\'t even clawed his way back into power. I don\'t imagine that will stop some people claiming I\'m chasing the news with this one. But honest -- the book was finished long before the present bizarre scandal began to raise its head. And the character in the book, as I hope the story makes clear, most definitely isn\'t <em>Il Cavaliere,</em> even if they do share a few of the same characteristics.','Just for the record...','','publish','open','open','','just-for-the-record','','','2011-01-28 08:11:27','2011-01-28 08:11:27','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=644',0,'post','',0),(687,1,'2009-08-05 01:21:39','2009-08-05 00:21:39','Writing is a learning process even if, like me, you\'ve got fifteen or sixteen books under your belt. I\'m always looking for ways to get more control over my work. Here\'s one I came up with recently. Maybe it will work for you.\n\nI just woke up in my hotel room in Bangkok with a (possibly) bright idea about how to improve the opening section of the current work in progress. What do I do with this thought? There are a few options. <!--more-->\n<ul>\n	<li>Tell myself I\'ll remember it later in the day when I start writing on the WIP again. Not good. I\'ll forget</li>\n	<li>Make a note somewhere in the actual text of the document.  That\'s OK. Have done that for years. It works, but I only see the note when I get to that part of the project.</li>\n	<li>Add it to a to-do list for the project somewhere. Again, that\'s OK if you look at your to-do list a lot and you\'re a list person (I\'m not).</li>\n</ul>\nHere\'s another alternative. Make a note of it in your diary. What diary? The diary you\'re keeping about writing the book. I do this now with every work I start. I\'m not the only one. The great Gillian Roberts/Judy Greber told me she does the same when we last met at the Book Passage Mystery Writers Conference. Judy keeps a paper diary. I\'m hopeless with paper so I keep an electronic one using MacJournal ($34.95 from <a href=\"http://www.marinersoftware.com/sitepage.php?page=85\" target=\"_blank\">Mariner</a>).\n\nMacJournal is a dead easy piece of software. You set up a journal on your document. You create folders. They you write posts in them. Imagine a little private blog (it can post public blog posts too). Some of those folders are used for research, character and location notes and anything else associated with the project.\n\nBut one is a diary, where I note down ideas, concerns and, at the end of every week, a tally of the word count and any general feelings I have about the project. My wake-up thought this morning has gone into that diary already. So I know where to find it and it will stare up at me until I either accept or reject it.\n\nThe great thing about keeping a book project diary is that it is outside the book itself. Keeping it separate gives the stuff in there some kind of perspective. It\'s a place for logical, methodical maybe boring left brain stuff, not the creative, bonkers, beyond the envelope stuff that the right brain puts into the manuscript. And because it\'s a diary it\'s organised on the basis of nothing more complicated than time. So I can see how my feelings about the project are changing as it grows and mutates into something hopefully bigger and better than the initial idea.\n\nThat\'s the way I work these days. Feel free to try it for yourself - and Mariner have a Windows version of that software too.','Writing a book diary','','publish','open','open','','writing-a-book-diary','','','2011-01-28 08:11:27','2011-01-28 08:11:27','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=687',0,'post','',1),(698,1,'2009-08-12 11:30:48','2009-08-12 10:30:48','I\'ve just finished a busy promotional weekend Thailand for the launch of the new book in Thai from my publisher here Nanmee. It\'s been a real blast -- meeting lots of readers, writers and media. And one question has been asked more than other: is Nic Costa coming to Bangkok in some future book?\n\nSeries writers get this one all the time. Wherever your books are set fans always think it would be nice if your protagonist stopped by their neighbourhood just once. I have had this in Australia, South Africa, other parts of Europe and Hong Kong. But never quite as frequently as here which is a compliment to the hard work Nanmee have put in building my books in Thailand. So let me give you an answer...\n\n<!--more-->No. Not maybe. Not \'who knows\'? No. Categorically not. What Nic Costa does in his spare time is his business but when he\'s in the books he\'s mine - and I\'m not buying the ticket. Why?\n\nTo me book locations matter. I didn\'t choose Rome by accident. I was attracted to it on any number of fronts. I like what I perceived to be the Roman character: forthright and honest. I liked the culture and the art, and the connection the city has with the concept of justice and  a sound society, ideas which run through the books. I also liked the fact that Rome is a place that resonates with readers round the world. In a way we\'ve all been there in our heads, even if we\'ve never set foot in Italy.\n\nLocations don\'t just happen. Very deliberately I will switch from Rome every third or fourth book or so. I did this in <em>The Lizard\'s Bite, </em>the book that\'s just appeared in Italy, when the crew were shipped to Venice. I did it in the seventh book, <em>Dante\'s Numbers</em>, part of which is set in San Francisco. These were not accidental excursions. I wanted Venice as a location because I planned to bring in characters from my earlier book, <em>Lucifer\'s Shadow/The Cemetery of Secrets. </em>San Francisco was essential for the <em>Vertigo </em>plotline in <em>Dante\'s Numbers. </em>\n\nSwitching location lets me paint the characters in a different light, since they are no longer at home, masters of their<em> </em>little universe as they are in Rome. They\'re uncomfortable, strangers in a strange land, which changes the nature of the book. That\'s something I think is essential to keep a series fresh over the years (though I did get the odd howl of protest from people who think the team should never, ever leave Rome).\n\nWhy would Nic and crew possibly find themselves in Thailand? There are no historical or cultural ties between Italy and Bangkok. Nothing real I can work with, as I did with Venice and San Francisco. True, I could concoct a story that led them there. But I can\'t think of a natural route into the place, as I could with the earlier books. It would be artificial, a device to get them from A to B because I wanted, not because there was some compelling reason inside the story itself.\n\nI don\'t work that way. So the answer\'s no I\'m afraid. The next two books are written and set in Rome. The one after that may travel the short journey north to Florence.  That\'s as far ahead as I can see but Thailand isn\'t on the horizon.\n\nThe follow-up question in Bangkok after I said this was always, \'Well, why don\'t you write a standalone Bangkok story then?\'\n\nI gave all the usual answers: time, principally, and my ridiculously obsessive nature which means I\'d probably have to move here for a while and learn a bit of Thai to get the thing together, neither of which makes sense.\n\nSo no, I won\'t be writing a Thai story. Not even the one that keeps running through my head right now, over and over again. No, really. <em>No....</em>','Some thoughts on book locations','','publish','open','open','','some-thoughts-on-book-locations','','','2011-01-28 08:10:56','2011-01-28 08:10:56','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=698',0,'post','',0),(706,1,'2009-08-13 11:39:00','2009-08-13 10:39:00','We had a fascinating round table with some Thai writers just before I left Bangkok. It was interesting to see how so many of the craft skills we use in the west are identical to those adopted by Asian writers trying to tell popular fiction.\n\nBut there was a great question too. One author said that he was sick of writing books that had detectives in them. To him detectives were a cliche. Too many of them inside too many books.\n\nIn a way I agree. This is one reason why I tried to make Nic Costa a different kind of cop -- young, idealistic, a bit naive, and occasionally very fallible. The stereotypical figure -- middle-aged, melancholic, alcoholic, deeply cynical, scruffy, yet strangely attractive to women too -- doesn\'t grab me much either. But I\'d rather improvise within the boundaries. Here\'s why.\n\n<!--more-->If you write a series you are going to find yourself facing six or nine or twelve books or more. Each story will have to have some kind of dramatic event at the beginning that poses a problem for your protagonist. Conversely, your protagonist needs to be in a position where he or she will meet those problems.\n\nCops, private eyes and investigators in general fit that bill perfectly, which is why, often unconsciously, we pick them. But imagine, for sake of example, your first book involves a protagonist who\'s a chartered accountant. Somehow he becomes involved in some life or death story. He survives, solves the problem, turns out to be a hero. Great.\n\nAnd for book two? Well maybe he\'s an unlucky accountant. But by book four? Does he have any clients left? Aren\'t they all asking themselves, \'Why pay this guy -- people around him keep winding up dead?\'\n\nBeginning writers are often vaguely aware of this issue. I know I was but I still instinctively stuck with the cop model. Trying to differentiate your protagonist in artificial ways -- making him/her telepathic, a vampire, a Gulf War vet with a chip on his shoulder, a part-time magician -- may work for one book. But I doubt it will easily for a series (though there\'s bound to be someone out there to prove me wrong).\n\nInstead I tried to differentiate my archetypal protagonist through the simple means of character. I tried to make him different from most everyone else around. I like simple. It often works.','Picking a series character','','publish','open','open','','picking-a-series-character','','','2011-01-28 08:10:56','2011-01-28 08:10:56','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=706',0,'post','',0),(725,1,'2009-08-26 09:39:13','2009-08-26 08:39:13','Some things follow you around forever. I will never live down the <em>Washington Post</em> review that said the first Nic Costa book, <em>A Season for the Dead</em>, was better than <em>The Da Vinci Code</em>. Not that anyone ever bothers to read further into the review to the part where it says the book is nothing like <em>The Da Vinci Code</em> either.\n\nHere\'s another pleasant millstone round my neck: the bizarre tale of the <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cottingley_Fairies\" target=\"_blank\">Cottingley Fairies</a>. It\'s twenty six years since I wrote this story for <em>The Times</em> where I was then working as a reporter. But just a few weeks ago in Thailand I had someone come up to me and say, \'Tell me about the Cottingley Fairies.\'\n\nIt\'s never going away, is it? So let me try and put it down on paper once and for all.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nBack in 1983 I was enjoying life as a news reporter on <em>The Times</em> in Gray\'s Inn Road, London. Fun times when, as a general fire engine-chasing hack, I never knew what was going to come my way. One day the deputy editor Charles Wilson (later to be editor) came up to me with a clipping in his hand. It was a story from an obscure supernatural magazine involving a couple of young Yorkshire girls and Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, among other people. In 1917 the girls, Frances Griffiths and Elsie Wright, had taken a set of photographs in the woods near their home outside Bradford which seemed to show fairies -- real fairies, cute little things with wings -- dancing through the leaves and posing with the two of them. Conan Doyle believed in the fairies, hook, line and sinker and in the <em>Strand</em> magazine in 1920 cited them as proof of the existence of spirits.\n\nThe cutting Charlie had in his hand suggested the photos were fakes. Really? You mean they weren\'t <em>actual</em> fairies? Just very nice little figures drawn by Elsie and Frances, cut out, stuck on pins and then photographed in the woods? Even in 1983, before the age of Photoshop, it was impossible for me to look at the photos of the fairies and believe they were anything other than a clever hoax. But Conan Doyle\'s intervention, hastened by his embrace of spiritualism after a series of family tragedies, made the fairies a worldwide sensation. Were they real or were they some clever trickery through which a couple of young girls had fooled one of the most famous men of the day?\n\nCharlie Wilson, known to some on the paper as \'Gorbals\', a little unfairly I thought, was not the kind of boss who took kindly to such responses as, \'You\'ve got to be kidding me.\' What he wanted was simple: Elsie and Frances were still alive somewhere in England. All I had to do was track down one or both and get them to confess to their subterfuge more than sixty years after they perpetrated it. Great, eh?\n\nNow if they made a movie out of this story they\'d do the usual thing: get newspapers all wrong. I\'d set off with an unlimited budget, all the time in the world, and a carte blanche for expenses to track down Elsie and and Frances and make them talk. But movies never get newspapers right. In reality I had to chase down the pair while doing my normal work too -- and <em>The Times</em> was always skint in those days so all the chasing had to be done over the phone.\n\nHow? It soon became clear both women had moved around a lot after Cottingley, to places as far afield as India, South Africa and America. They were both back in the UK but it was apparent that Frances wasn\'t talking to anyone. That left Elsie. I got a few pointers from some people I tracked down who\'d met her over the years. Through them I learned that her married name was Hill and she now lived, if I recall correctly, in the then mining belt of Nottinghamshire. We had no computers, no databases, no shortcuts in those days. But we did have banks of every phone directory in the UK in the office. So I simply called everyone with the name Hill in the area I thought Elsie lived. And after awhile I happened -- again this is memory, and perhaps inaccurate -- on her son.\n\nWe talked a little. He talked to his mother. Eventually -- and I think this was largely because I worked for <em>The Times</em>, not my own powers of persuasion -- she agreed to meet me with a photographer. So we drove up one spring day in 1983 and I walked into the little house where Elsie Hill, née Wright, who, as a girl had shaken hands with Arthur Conan Doyle, now lived. She was a lovely old woman, bright and inquisitive, with sparkling, mischievous eyes, a great sense of humour, and a very canny wit.\n\nElsie knew full well why I was there: I wanted a confession. But I wasn\'t going to say that out loud because, well, it would have been a bit rude after all that time. So I simply let her talk, ask her son questions from time to time, and after a while it all -- or most of it anyway -- came out. Again, I don\'t think this was down to my journalistic skills. Elsie was 82. I think in a way she felt a little guilty that Conan Doyle, a sad man with his own problems at the time, had fallen for what was originally meant to be a family joke. She told me the fairy story was made up when she got home late and was told off by her parents. She was already a talented artist. So she and Frances took a camera into the woods and decided to take the shots that proved her story. They were never meant to be made public, but Elsie\'s mother was a Theosophist, like Conan Doyle. She circulated the pictures in spiritualist circles, they reached the great man and suddenly they went all over the world. This left Elsie and Frances in a very awkward position. Did they admit they lied -- a terrible sin in those days? Or did they go along with the deception?\n\nI listened and it all made so much sense that they chose the latter path. They were just two young girls from Yorkshire. How could they possibly embarrass a famous, much-admired man like Conan Doyle? And then, just to prove things, I asked if Elsie would show me how to draw a fairy. She picked up a pen and paper and produced one on the spot in front of the camera.\n\nYou can read my story from <em>The Times</em> of April 4, 1983 <a href=\"http://archive.timesonline.co.uk/tol/viewArticle.arc?articleId=ARCHIVE-The_Times-1983-04-04-03-004&amp;pageId=ARCHIVE-The_Times-1983-04-04-03\" target=\"_blank\">in their archives here.</a> It\'s pretty short really given all the weeks of work I put in. But none of us believed it was quite such a big thing, and I see I referred to Elsie as Mrs Hill throughout, her married name, not her maiden one, which was how I got to know her. The piece went as page three lead. I was off the following day. Very early in the morning the phone rang. It was the news desk saying they were being inundated with calls from all over the world. TV stations, newspapers, radio, even movie companies wanted to talk to me. Well, no actually, they didn\'t. They wanted me to put them in touch with Elsie.\n\nI had visions of her little house being surrounded by avaricious crews and hacks. I knew how hard it had been to track her down in the first place. So I knew too that, without my help, they\'d struggle to find her. I said to the news desk, \'Tell them to go find her themselves.\' And left it at that.\n\nAmazingly I don\'t think any of them ever did. Instead they bombarded me with phone calls, offers of money and threats for weeks. I had Japanese TV stations promising me wads of cash, American network TV producers demanding to know if I understood who the hell I was dealing with. In the end I had to ask the switchboard to turn back any calls that came in for me about the Cottingley Fairies. I also phoned Elsie to make sure she was happy with the story and knew what was going on. She didn\'t want a media pack on her doorstep either.\n\nIn 1985 Elsie gave one last TV interview in which she said pretty much the same as she\'d told me. \'Two village kids and a brilliant man like Conan Doyle, well, we could only keep quiet.\' Both she and Frances became trapped by the inoffensive little fib they\'d begun with such skill. Elsie never wrote the book she promised, one in which she said she\'d reveal one final secret, about the so-called \'fifth photograph\' which Frances continued to claim was genuine. Frances died in 1986, Elsie two years later.\n\nAnd more than twenty years on I still get asked about this story, one that, when I wrote it, didn\'t seem to those of us on the paper of such great curiosity at all. How wrong can you be?','The Cottingley Fairies and me','','publish','open','closed','','the-cottingley-fairies-and-me','','','2011-01-28 08:10:56','2011-01-28 08:10:56','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=725',0,'post','',0),(730,1,'2009-08-27 18:05:16','2009-08-27 17:05:16','Thanks for so many entries to our quick weekend contest. And yes -- most of you did get the answers right. The two winners picked out of a hat are Linda Robinson and Ian Synge. The village in question is Lavenham in Suffolk. The film was that wonderful horror piece, <em>Witchfinder General</em>. And Jane Taylor is the poet and writer who wrote <em>Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star</em>, also known as <em>The Star</em>, there.\n\nWe\'ll be having another contest soon. Look out for details on Twitter and Facebook, or sign up for the newsletter here which gives you an extra chance to win a signed first edition -- one is picked each month. The winners will also be notified by mail.','Contest winners','','publish','closed','open','','quick-competition-win-a-free-book','','','2011-01-28 08:10:56','2011-01-28 08:10:56','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=730',0,'post','',0),(746,1,'2009-09-09 18:11:25','2009-09-09 17:11:25','I get asked a lot about <a href=\"http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.html\">Scrivener</a> these days and the question is no longer \'What?\' More and more Mac-based writers are using this extraordinary piece of $40 software for their work. I\'ve now got three books under my belt with it and I couldn\'t imagine working with anything else\n\nSo let me offer up the Holy Grail. The Scrivener tip to end all tips. The one so good you\'ll wonder you didn\'t think of it yourself. The magical Unassigned Scenes folder.\n\nYou know what\'s happening when you\'re working on a book. It\'s a mess of ideas, possibilities, doubts and dangers. There are standard techniques for dealing with this nightmare. Scrivener contains a good few itself. You can set up folders for research and locations,&nbsp; documents for potential titles and timelines, index cards and outlines.\n\nBut you know what I think the biggest peril any author faces mid-book? It\'s not losing stuff. It\'s <em>losing sight of it. </em>How many times do you have a great idea, write it down somewhere and never pick it up again? Too many. We process our creative thoughts very badly. They\'re often unsuited to formal so-called brain-storming processes. At least they are for me. Nothing wrong with that, either. We\'re creating works of fiction here, not business plans.\n\nHere\'s a very common scenario. You\'re partway through the book and you come up with an idea for a scene. A great idea. One you don\'t want to lose. But it\'s not the next scene in the book. In fact you really don\'t know where such a scene is going to fit at all. The only thing you do know is it sounds a great idea and could, at some stage, move the story along. So what do you do? All too often you bury it in the project notes. and maybe pick it up later, when that bright spark of inspiration comes too late to affect the book.\n\nHere\'s my solution to this perennial problem. Create a folder in Scrivener called something like Unassigned Scenes. When you get these \'that would be cool\' scene ideas jot them down there with some brief detail. From time to time you\'ll find yourself straying there to see what\'s on the \'could do one day\' list. And somewhere along the way you\'ll think -- OK, <em>now</em> I know where to go.\n\nWhat\'s happening here? Something quite subtle. Narratives consist of bridges between the \'islands\' that make up the string of events in your story. If you keep those potential islands stored in that one folder they will, when they bounce back into your head, at some stage prompt the construction of the bridge that makes them work. You\'ve got something to write when you might otherwise be banging your head against the wall.\n\nAt least that\'s the way this simple little folder works for me. I hope it does something for you too.','The best Scrivener tip ever (maybe)','','publish','open','open','','the-best-scrivener-tip-ever-maybe','','','2011-01-28 08:10:56','2011-01-28 08:10:56','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=746',0,'post','',0),(794,1,'2009-09-22 17:12:12','2009-09-22 16:12:12','I put up a brief notice on Twitter and Facebook recently which said, simply, \'David Hewson has entered the twilight zone of the second act and will not be glimpsed much until he emerges on t\'other side.\'\n\nThis naturally prompted a couple of people to ask, \'What?\'\n\nWell, on a very basic level what it means is something very simple: I\'m a bit too engrossed in writing to spend/waste my time on Twitter and Facebook for one thing. But more importantly the book I\'m working has entered the fictional equivalent of the Bay of Biscay or Bermuda Triangle (choose your own nautical metaphor). Dangerous, stormy waters that are both the most fun and the most frustrating phase of any book. Let me endeavour to explain...\n\n<!--more-->\n<p style=\"clear:both;\">Like many writers, consciously or unconsciously, I subscribe to the three-act theory of storytelling. You can read long and endless and occasionally very wordy tomes on this subject elsewhere. What it means to me is something really quite simple. Stories tend to break into three separate phases. In a tiny nutshell..</p>\n<p style=\"clear:both;\"><strong>The first act</strong></p>\n<p style=\"clear:both;\">In this your protagonists and antagonists are introduced. Your protagonist is faced with a problem. The end of the first act is the moment at which he or she realises the problem is theirs and they will deal with it since they have no alternative -- that\'s what the book is about.</p>\n<p style=\"clear:both;\"><strong>The second act</strong></p>\n<p style=\"clear:both;\">In this your protagonist wrestles with the problem. What exactly is it? How can he or she tackle it? If this is a love story the problem may be... I love you, you don\'t love me, how can I change that? If it\'s a crime story, the problem will be a crime. In the area where I work the problem is usually a little more subtle than simply whodunit. It\'s why it was done. And what exactly was <em>it</em> anyway? The end of the second act is signalled by the moment at which your protagonist thinks he can see a solution to the problem you\'ve set him.</p>\n<p style=\"clear:both;\"><strong>The third act</strong></p>\n<p style=\"clear:both;\">This is simple. It\'s the path from seeing the solution to putting it into the place. Catching the bad guy. Winning the girl. Solving the conundrum, although mostly in adult fiction the ending will involve some kind of resolution rather than a simple solution that ticks off every box in perfect order.</p>\n<p style=\"clear:both;\">Each of these steps of a work of fiction has its own challenges. I spend a lot of time on the first act principally trying to make sure I have two things right. One is the problem itself. It\'s at the core of the book and needs to be fitting and interesting. The other is the cast. In a series book you know your protagonists well. But you will need to make sure the antagonist -- the guest star if you like -- is equally intriguing too.</p>\n<p style=\"clear:both;\">The third act usually writes itself. That was a joke by the way. <em>Of course it doesn\'t write itself. </em>But it is often the easiest part of the book because you know what\'s happening and you can feel yourself riding down the hill to the inevitable climax.</p>\n<p style=\"clear:both;\">But the second act. The bloody second act...</p>\n<p style=\"clear:both;\">Let me try to explain this by reference to Shakespeare. <em>Hamlet</em> to be precise. In story terms (and please note I am <em>not </em>referring to dramatic acts here) <em>Hamlet</em> breaks down this way.</p>\n<p style=\"clear:both;\">The first act ends when Hamlet sees his father\'s ghost, realises his old dad was murdered by his own stepfather, and accepts he must do something about this terrible crime.</p>\n<p style=\"clear:both;\">The second act involves Hamlet trying to work out what that something is. Go mad? Commit suicide? Wander round being a perennial pain in the arse to anyone willing to listen? You see the problem. The second act is discursive, fickle, uncertain. It\'s about people wandering, searching for a solution. It needs dead ends, but not too many. It demands, in some books, red herrings and other such stuff. It\'s got the potential to turn into a flabby middle of unresolved doubts, cul-de-sacs and wimpish philosophising about the meaning of \'it all\'.</p>\n<p style=\"clear:both;\">For Hamlet the second act ends when he sees a bunch of actors turn up at Elsinore and he utters those wonderful lines, \'The play\'s the thing wherein I\'ll catch the conscience of the king.\' He knows he can set up the players to expose his uncle Claudius. Cue mayhem, bloodshed and a tragic resolution. I bet Shakespeare didn\'t take long writing that last bit, and had a ball too.</p>\n<p style=\"clear:both;\">But second acts are difficult. They\'re where great books turn into less great ones, a dangerous place to venture, though venture there we must.</p>\n<p style=\"clear:both;\">Anywhere, that\'s where I am now, forty five thousand words into this story, wrestling with all those second act issues. And that\'s why you won\'t hear much of me on Twitter and Facebook for a while, not until I surface on the other side clutching the idea that takes this tale to its conclusion.</p>','Entering the twilight zone','','publish','open','closed','','entering-the-twilight-zone','','','2011-01-28 08:10:56','2011-01-28 08:10:56','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=794',0,'post','',0),(808,1,'2009-09-24 16:00:56','2009-09-24 15:00:56','I ranted here not long ago about <a href=\"http://www.davidhewson.com/2009/09/entering-the-twilight-zone/\">the dreaded second act</a>. This is just one of the nightmare beasties to haunt those of us insane enough to write fiction for a living. Here\'s a second. Time, in the strict, dictionary sense of the word, namely \'the indefinite continued progress of existence and events in the past, present, and future regarded as a whole\'.\n\nMostly time stinks. It\'s a blight on us all, a nasty chunk of so-called reality that tries to poke its ugly head in where it\'s not wanted. Let\'s leave aside those books that use time the way statisticians use chart paper, as pegs on which to hang an argument. You know the kind. The ones with the X-Files style chapter headings, \'Peter\'s pantry, 1109 am, Thursday August 13, Stoke Newington, London, England, The World.\' Nothing wrong with that. I <a href=\"http://www.davidhewson.com/standalones/solstice/\">wrote one myself once</a>.\n\nBut most books don\'t over-obsess on the passage of time, even if their authors do. Think of books you just read, enjoy, then put to one side. Try to remember the last one you really liked. Then ask yourself: over what time period did it take place?\n\n<!--more-->\n\nDon\'t know, do you? Well, OK. Maybe roughly. A few days. A week. A lifetime. But by and large <em>time does not matter.</em> Yes, readers want to know what comes next. But their concern is usually driven by something that\'s happened to the characters or might. Not normally because of some fictional ticking clock in the page.\n\nYet writers still agonise over time. They nag people who make writing software to include some kind of timeline feature so they can map out the chronography of their story to the last second. They -- you may wish to look away here -- plan their tales in sad columns in Excel spreadsheets as if they were lines on a P&amp;L statement (and may the Lord have mercy on their souls). They worry that, in the real world, it may take a DNA sample two to three months to come back from the lab, when in the pages of their story it happens in a couple of days, not that the reader is any the wiser either way. Use time in a book in any real sense and it will, more than likely, complicate matters unnecessarily and run the risk of making the whole thing as dull and full of languid pauses as \'real life\' itself.\n\nTime is important only in so far as it makes, or keeps, your story credible. All fiction is a whopping great lie. The secret is to lie so well that your fabrication takes on the mantle of truth. Objective reality is dangerous bunkum that belongs to newspapers and TV stations (not that they know it some of the time). <em>Subjective</em> reality is, to the novelist, everything. If it seems real enough to touch inside the page, then it\'s real inside the reader\'s head, and that’s the only place that counts.\n\nIn practice this means that all you need ask of time is that it sounds feasible. You can\'t fly from New York to China in a couple of hours. You mustn\'t put someone in hospital with multiple fractures one day and have them walking round biffing people on the nose the next. The moments in your story must add up in the sense that they shouldn\'t contradict one another, or make some other event impossible or improbable. But that really is it.\n\nLet me give you one concrete example in which time trips up writers. Most of us who produce series books never imagined we were headed in that direction. I wrote <em>A Season for the Dead</em>, the first Nic Costa book, as a standalone novel. I never saw it as a series until after it was finished and I had an agent and a publisher asking, \'So what happens to these people next?\'\n\nI write a Costa book a year. Like many series authors, I started off thinking this meant the year between books meant a year between the lives of the characters in them.\n\n<em>This is insane.</em>\n\nWhy? Because after three books Nic, who was twenty four or so in the first book, was twenty seven. And his colleagues who were much older were suddenly entering their fifties. I love writing these books. I want to write them forever. But I can\'t age my people one year every year. Otherwise Peroni and Falcone would be up for retirement and Nic would be looking to settle down, breed children and wonder about which brand of safety seat to buy for the back of the car. Treating time literally will kill any series. I deeply regret all indications I\'ve given in the earlier books that will allow readers of a sufficiently anal bent to add up the warped and highly inaccurate chronology of the series. You won\'t get those clues again. They\'re needless and confusing.\n\nAnd here\'s the real rub. I do need time in one very specific way. These stories are, to me, very much about Nic Costa and his entry into adulthood. The growing up of a decent yet naive young man as he finds the world\'s a rough place where you have to cut corners from time to time. <em>I need Nic to age a little</em>. That shows him experiencing changes in his life and adapting to them. But at the same time I need my older characters to stay where they are before they get pensioned off.\n\nYou see the dilemma? You see the solution?\n\nNo. Well, here it is. Lie and lie big. Throw the whole space time continuum out of the window. Nic gets older. Falcone and Peroni don\'t. The later books mention Nic\'s age but blur theirs. If you were picky you could go through the books and work out how this process is going on numerically. No, I\'m not going to do this for you. All I will say is that at his present rate of ageing Nic, if I spelled things out, would overtake Teresa Lupo in age about six years or so from now, and do the same to Falcone and Peroni somewhere around 2019. Ridiculous? Maybe. But it\'s fiction and fiction fundamentally <em>is</em> ridiculous. The only thing more ridiculous is the literal. I am not going there.\n\nAnd if you want proof here it is. This two-stage process of ageing has now been going on for four or five books. Until I point it out to people <em>no one notices.</em>\n\nThat\'s how important time is in the great swing of things. Not at all.','Time in fiction is just one big lie','','publish','open','closed','','time-in-fiction-is-just-one-bi','','','2011-01-28 08:10:56','2011-01-28 08:10:56','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=808',0,'post','',0),(856,1,'2009-09-29 08:55:17','2009-09-29 07:55:17','One of the challenges of producing a work of fiction is control. How do you stop the massive, writhing mess of story threads and characters running amok? How do you ensure consistency of vision while keeping a tight rein on where your imagination is going?\n\nBig question. Let\'s try to answer it in one specific but vital area: character. The people who populate a book are the eyes through which readers will see your story. Readers will, hopefully, have a relationship with them. There must be something in those characters that makes people want to know more about them, to care what happens to their lives, that gives them the will to read on.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nIn order for this to happen they must be believable. And for that they must have some kind of consistency. They can\'t be physically strong and fearless in one chapter and weak and cowardly in the next. Physical descriptions -- hair colour, age, appearance -- must be constant. I\'m not a great believer in absolute consistency in terms of personal traits and behaviour. In real life someone who is one hundred per cent predictable all the time would be considered dull.  It\'s the unpredictability in human beings that dictates whether we love or hate them, not the things they do day in and day out. Seems to me the same applies in books.\n<p>But I digress. All authors need a mechanism by which they record the traits and appearance of their characters. Leaving it to chance or memory is a sure way of guaranteeing dangerous inconsistencies which may slip through, appear in a final manuscript, and label you as \'unprofessional\' in the eyes of the reader. How do you do it?</p>\n<p><a class=\"image-link\" href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/character.jpgwp-content/uploads/2009/09/Screen_shot_2009-09-29_at_08-full.40.38.png\"><img class=\"linked-to-original\" style=\"display:inline;float:right;margin:0 0 10px 10px;\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/character.jpgwp-content/uploads/2009/09/Screen_shot_2009-09-29_at_08-thumb.40.38.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"346\" height=\"344\" align=\"right\" /></a>One way is to keep a simple record. Some writing software will even offer to do this for you. Here is <a href=\"http://www.storyist.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Storyist</a>, a Mac author\'s program, trying this approach. Does it work for you? Maybe. It\'s simple, doesn\'t require much thought, and gives you an \'ID card\' to look at whenever you need to check out a character. Personally I don\'t like being nagged, particularly by software, but there you go.</p>\n<p>This doesn\'t work for me for one very practical reason. I don\'t envisage characters fully formed before they appear in a work. I don\'t want to sit down and think them through beforehand. It seems an artificial way of working, unintuitive and, most importantly, out of sync with the way a reader will meet these same characters. They won\'t see your cribsheet here. All they will have to help them are the words in your book. <em>Nothing more</em>.</p>\n<p>So my approach is to use those words to populate my character records. I have a rough idea of what someone looks like, their age, what kind of human being they are. Then, when they appear in the book, I just write them as I see them at that stage of the story. Note the word \'see\'. I think visually as I write. This is very important to me. I need to visualise what\'s going on. Having some index card of a character pre-written would hinder this, not help it.</p>\n<p>When I\'ve finished writing the character then I  cut and paste the exact words I\'ve written into a character entry in my book diary, kept in <a href=\"http://www.marinersoftware.com/sitepage.php?page=85\" target=\"_blank\">MacJournal</a> (and yes, you could do this in Scrivener too if you want -- I just like to keep things separate <a href=\"http://www.davidhewson.com/2009/08/writing-a-book-diary/\">for the reasons outlined here</a>). Click on the image below for a better view and you can see how this works in practice.</p>\n<p><a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/screen-shot-2009-09-29-at-08-32-42.png\" target=\"_blank\"><img class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-859\" title=\"Characters\" src=\"http://www.davidhewson.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Screen-shot-2009-09-29-at-08.32.42-300x208.png\" alt=\"Characters\" width=\"300\" height=\"208\" /></a><br style=\"clear:both;\" />This is the character section of the book diary for the ninth Nic Costa novel, <em>The Fallen Angel</em>, which will be out in 2011 (yes, it is finished by the way). Here is the character entry for someone called Agata Graziano. If you\'ve been following my series you\'ll know that Agata is not new. She appeared in the sixth book, <em>The Garden of Evil, </em>and returns for this one.</p>\n<p>So the starting point of her character entry? I just go back to <em>The Garden of Evil, </em>copy the text for her entrance there, and put it in my diary for the new book. All I see is what the reader sees. I find this makes much more sense than a pre-planned index card. I can go back and view her character in isolation, outside the book, make notes about things I need to address, then return to the manuscript and try to fix them.</p>\n<p>This works for me. It may not work for you. Some people love index cards and thinking through a book before they start writing. I don\'t. It grows, organically, on the page as I write. There is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to creating a book. Just the solution that works for you. Finding that is all part of the daily struggle of writing.</p>','Keeping track of characters','','publish','open','closed','','keeping-track-of-characters','','','2011-01-28 08:10:56','2011-01-28 08:10:56','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=856',0,'post','',0),(907,1,'2009-10-05 09:25:51','2009-10-05 08:25:51','I was wandering back from the Indian takeaway with a Chicken Pathia in the bag last night, head stuck in the book I\'m writing as usual, when a conversation popped into my head. It was an argument between two characters discussing, roughly, why their world had gone wrong. One of them, commenting on something the other had just done, said, \'You should set a better example.\'\n\nYou hear that a lot, don\'t you? It\'s one of the things we take for granted. The other character is the sort who questions everything though. He/she responds (roughly)...\n<blockquote>\'Better examples? <em>Better examples?</em> You\'ve got Jesus, Buddha, Gandhi, Mother Teresa of Calcutta and a million others out there already. Who needs one more? And from <em>me?</em>\'</blockquote>\nReasonable point. To that character anyway. Maybe even an argument that will make its way into the book, not that this is why I reproduce it here. What I want to do is talk about the art of the interior conversation, and how it helps me shape a story.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nDo all authors talk to themselves? I think so, even if they don\'t admit it. Part of this strange job is the creation of (hopefully convincing) characters who take on a life of their own, run around your own head, then pop onto the page reasonably fully formed ready to kid the reader they\'re real too.\n\nMost books aren\'t silent movies. Real characters communicate. So writers need some way to recreate the dialogue between the people in their books <em>inside and outside the book itself.</em> Understand what I\'m saying here? I need my people to talk to one another constantly, making everyday small talk that never finds its way to the page. I need them to live inside me before I can reproduce them to the world at large. There are few better ways to do this than to cultivate the habit of the interior conversations. Talking to yourself, out loud or in silence, in the character of the people you\'re inventing The kind of habit that once got you committed to lunatic asylums when they still existed.\n\nHere\'s an example. When I\'m in Rome I love spending time in little, local cafés. I listen to the people there, I talk to them. I almost always learn something. Roman cafés are places for conversation and, on occasion, argument. Football, Silvio Berlusconi and the general state of the world are subjects that are guaranteed to generate a squabble, usually, though not always, a genial one.\n\nThe game I play is simple. I imagine that my four main characters -- Nic Costa, Gianni Peroni, Leo Falcone and Teresa Lupo -- are in the café with me, and then try to work out what their contribution to this particular argument would be. Let\'s say, for example, that Lazio have just beaten Roma at football and someone at the bar has voiced the opinion that this means Lazio are the better side who will sweep all before them for the rest of the season. Being good citizens of the <em>centro storico</em> (the heart of Rome) all four find this blasphemous, of course. But they\'re different characters, and would have their own responses. Roughly this...\n\nNic Costa is a very decent, reasonable and intelligent young chap who likes to put his point of view across but in a way that doesn\'t involve confrontation. And also he\'s not terribly interested in any sport except rugby. He\'d shrug and say something like…\n<blockquote>\'It\'s only football. Now if you want to talk Italy versus Ireland next week…\'</blockquote>\nGianni Peroni is older, emotionally intelligent, likes to hold his own but can sidestep an argument if he wants.\n<blockquote>\'Ah, but it\'s only October. If you remember two seasons ago they whipped us in autumn and we whipped <em>them</em> and won Serie A the same year.\'</blockquote>\nLeo Falcone would want to slap the man down, but, being more than a touch arrogant, would feel it beneath him to enter in argument directly. He\'d tap Peroni or Costa on the shoulder and say…\n<blockquote>\'Go tell that idiot to shut up.\'</blockquote>\nTeresa Lupo doesn\'t suffer fools gladly either but would never dream of asking someone else to do her dirty work. She\'d simply march over, prod the guy in the chest and say…\n<blockquote>\'People like you make me wonder if Darwin got it wrong all along and the human race is really getting stupider by the day.\'</blockquote>\nFour different people, four different responses.\n\nNone of this would make it into a book. But by inventing these conversations in my own head I help to refine and differentiate my characters. If all of them had the same response then alarm bells would be ringing.\n\nInterior conversations are an odd habit, and one I never had when I began this strange game. But over the years they\'ve become second nature, and I always make a point of noting them down, usually in the diary I write alongside every new work. Perhaps ten or twenty per cent of them find their way into the final book. But that\'s not important. They\'re part of the foundation, the architecture that underpins the characters inside a story. These silent, slightly batty dialogues help define the people I\'m trying to bring to life.','Insanity and the interior conversation','','publish','open','closed','','insanity-and-the-interior-conversation','','','2011-01-28 08:10:56','2011-01-28 08:10:56','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/2009/10/insanity-and-the-interior-conversation/',0,'post','',0),(915,1,'2009-10-06 08:36:48','2009-10-06 07:36:48','You never walk into a supermarket and have the person on the till say, \'Sorry, I can\'t serve you. I\'ve got checkout person\'s block.\' Yet every day, every minute it seems, someone somewhere in the world dashes their hands to head and shrieks out loud that the words won\'t come to their current work in progress. Why? Because they\'ve been afflicted by that mysterious disease known as \'writer\'s block\'.\n\nAt events I get asked all the time, \'What do you do when you get writer\'s block\'? As if it\'s a given we all suffer from this strange and perhaps mythical ailment. Do I? No. There are times when I struggle for something to write. That\'s not the same as being unable to work on a story, not at all, as I\'ll discuss later. But the block thing is so commonly written about it must, in some sense anyway, be \'real\', in the way Father Christmas and Bigfoot are real too. <a href=\"http://thecurzongroup.blogspot.com/2009/10/blocked.html\" target=\"_blank\">Here\'s one current writer bewailing his block in public</a> just yesterday. Personally I feel public bewailing by writers is best avoided, not least because we\'ve got a very cushy job compared to most people. It\'s also worth pointing out that the writer concerned isn\'t blocked in the conventional sense. He\'s got his characters, his \'setup\', his twists. He\'s just impaled on one key element of the piece, dreadfully, painfully stuck by the sound of it.\n\nDo we all get that from time to time? I guess. What should you do? Anything but stare at the computer pleading for help. Take a break. Mow the lawn. Walk the dog. Learn to speak Croatian. Give your aching brain a rest from being banged against the narrative wall. Do that and my guess is the solution will one day leap into your head at the most unexpected of moments and you\'ll be kicking yourself over how obvious it sounds. Being nailed on one single aspect of a story that seems otherwise complete is probably the simplest block there is.\n\nSo let\'s look at the two bigger ones.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nFirst… Beginner\'s Block.\n\nI wrote my first two books, <em>Semana Santa</em> and <em>Epiphany,</em> in a whirl. The first took a whole summer, the second just six weeks to produce a 160,000 word draft. I was on a roll. After years dreaming of being an author I finally discovered I could produce a book. It was hard work -- I was holding down a full time job in journalism at the time too. But it was achievable.\n\nThen came book three, the final one in my then contract. I sat down and I had absolutely no idea where to go. There wasn\'t a storyline. There wasn\'t even a frame of reference. I didn\'t know what kind of writer I was trying to be, what kind of book I was hoping to produce. The clash between journalism, which was paying the bills, and fiction, which I hoped would one day, was getting unbearable. I was working too hard at both. So I banged out something that was rough, misshapen, very possibly unpublishable, and got it thrown back at me. What was going on?\n\nSimple: beginner\'s block, something pretty much every author will encounter somewhere along his or her career. The way I see it is this. Most writers spend years dreaming of finishing a book before they ever get to complete one. When you reach that milestone <em>you think you\'re there.</em> Truth: you\'re not. You\'ve scarcely begun. The hardest part is still ahead because your first one, two or three books are works that have been sitting festering inside you for years, waiting to be vomited up into the world. Once you find the gagging trick they come out easily. Then, after a while, there\'s nothing left inside. Suddenly you\'re dry heaving (sorry for the retching metaphors but they\'re the best I can think of right now).\n\nWhat happens at this point? Let\'s be honest: a lot of people give up. They find it too hard to get past that rock. They look at the meagre amounts of money they\'ve made for all the work put in and wonder if it\'s really worthwhile.\n\nStubborn old sods like me persist, however (stubbornness is a key authorial virtue by the way). I dragged myself out of that pit the hard way. I read the manuscript I\'d produced, worked out that somewhere in it there was a kind of sci-fi thriller, then rewrote the whole thing several times until it resembled something like a conventional story. It came out as <em>Solstice,</em> did pretty well and got me published in the US for the first time. If you hit that rock and want to get past it the only way is to grind your way through. Learn the basics of the craft, which probably escaped you in the mad rush to produce your first couple of books. Try to work out what kind of writer you are and how much that matches what kind of writer you want to be. Get your head down for the long term, because chances are it will be long (haven\'t you noticed how few of those authors who have big hits with books one or two are still getting published at all ten years later?)\n\nThat\'s beginner\'s block and, for most of us, it\'s as inevitable as night follows day.\n\nNow to the second malady. Let\'s call it Professional\'s Block. It can happen to any of us, any time and it\'s marked by a sudden collapse of confidence, a feeling that everything you\'ve written so far may be inadequate or downright rubbish, coupled with a conviction you  have no way forward even though you may actually have a storyline written down somewhere that suggests otherwise.\n\nThis one invariably hits during <a href=\"http://www.davidhewson.com/2009/09/entering-the-twilight-zone/\" target=\"_blank\">Act Two</a> because Act Two is the place where all an author\'s doubts and fears about his or her abilities tend to surface. It can, as our blogging author notes elsewhere, hang over a simple mechanical turn in the story. Or it may be more metaphysical: what the hell is going on here and does anyone care? Either way it\'s pretty much unreal. Books don\'t die halfway through; they get killed. By laziness, by ennui, by a lack of self confidence, planning or care.\n\nIf you hit this brick wall here are a few things to try (in addition to the above advice about dog walking, lawn mowing and getting away from the damned thing for a while). When people talk about block what they are often saying, it seems to me, is that they fail to have a direction for the story in question. They may have an end in mind. What they lack are the staging points that lead to that conclusion. So just note down some future scenes well ahead of the one you\'re stuck on. Thinking about how you get from A to B is one way of loosening the jam. You could even write that future scene, or the climax of the book if you like, just to keep you going.\n\nAnother strategy is to work on the book without actually writing it. That may sound madness. It isn\'t. Once again I come back to the <a href=\"http://www.davidhewson.com/2009/08/writing-a-book-diary/\" target=\"_blank\">idea of the book diary</a>. If you\'re keeping one of these, faithfully and lovingly, there may well be a note somewhere in it that fires an idea in your head. Even if there isn\'t you can go over your thoughts about the work as it progressed and try to understand where things went awry. Blocked writers need perspective more than anything. They have to be dragged away from staring at that blank page in the manuscript. Reading and learning from your book diary is one place you can still stay hooked to the project without being constantly reminded at that moment of your inability to take it any further.\n\nOne final idea: <em>make a backup copy of your book so far then take an axe to a second version and slash out everything you don\'t like.</em> That\'s right. It\'s called editing. Cutting stuff out is good for the authorial soul. It forces you to think about what\'s important and what\'s not. I once went to Italy with a 30,000-word manuscript and came back with it whittled down to 12,000, happy as Larry because <em>that was progress</em>. Counting words is one thing. Counting words that count is another. Cutting like crazy will also teach you one of the most important writing lessons there is. If you are blocked on some seemingly insurmountable problem on Page 182 you can bet your last pound on the fact the problem, and its solution, actually lie way back in the history, probably around Page 131. Tackle it there and you\'ve a hope of finishing. Keep banging away on P182 and you may well go mad.\n\nThat\'s my take on so-called writer\'s block anyway. Feel free to add your ideas and condemnation below.','Dealing with writer&#039;s block','','publish','open','closed','','so-called-writers-block','','','2011-01-28 08:10:56','2011-01-28 08:10:56','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=915',0,'post','',0),(922,1,'2009-10-08 08:25:05','2009-10-08 07:25:05','Since the next Nic Costa novel is due very shortly it\'s best I make something clear given current events in Italy. The book -- <em>The Blue Demon</em> in the UK, out February, and <em>City of Fear</em> in the US, out May -- is my first set directly in the world of Italian politics, and concerns a dust-up between a fictional president of Italy and a fictional prime minister.\n\nIt posits that the prime minister -- called Ugo Campagnolo -- came to power after the fall of Berlusconi followed by a brief centre-left government led by the real-life former mayor of Rome, Walter Veltroni. Ugo, a colourful chap to say the least, is very definitely seen as Berlusconi\'s heir.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nSadly the chances of Walter Veltroni becoming prime minister of Italy in the near future seem incredibly slim. One reason Berlusconi would probably win an election tomorrow is that the opposition are in a complete mess, divided, bickering among one another, unable to gather strength to fight the real fight (which is what happens in the book too).\n\nModern elections are, it seems to me, lost more than they are won. People vote for the politician they loathe least. After watching the Conservatives in Manchester this week I can\'t put their popularity in the polls down to any great love for David Cameron and his colleagues. It\'s just that people hate them rather less than they hate Gordon Brown.\n\nStill, I digress. The point is  I can\'t claim any great foresight in seeing Berlusconi\'s downfall, and certainly never seriously meant I expected Veltroni, an interesting man who ought one day to be prime minister, would succeed him in the short term.\n\nBefore the reviews come out saying this is \'based on current events\' let me make the true chronology of this book crystal clear. It was started in 2007, before Berlusconi even returned to power. In fact when I began it the belief in Rome was that <em>Il Cavaliere</em> was gone forever. As a result the original prime minister in the book bore a perhaps unhealthy resemblance to him. Close to the completion of the first draft the hapless and hopeless Prodi government collapsed and, yes, Silvio was back in power, so I had some rewriting to do there.\n\nAnd now it seems he may be out of power, or even returned to power once again to face criminal charges, by the time the book actually appears. Which just goes to show: politics in Italy can move more quickly than the publishing business.\n\nI\'ve never written a novel set so directly in the political process before. It\'s going to be intriguing to see how it\'s received. Oh -- and the book has generated so much interest in Italy that Fanucci, my Italian publisher there, is skipping the order of the novels to bring out <em>The Blue Demon</em> early, next spring, before returning to the original sequence. I wonder what the shape of politics in Rome will be by then.','When life starts to imitate art','','publish','open','closed','','life-imitating-art','','','2011-01-28 08:10:56','2011-01-28 08:10:56','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=922',0,'post','',0),(946,1,'2009-10-08 17:25:33','2009-10-08 16:25:33','Let\'s talk Scrivener again. Or rather let\'s talk writing, because they\'re one and the same thing really. The single most attractive thing about Scrivener for me is that it sees books as they really are, a mosaic of scenes and ideas, not as a single great glob of text, as does a word processor such as Word.\n\nWhat do I mean by this? Simple. When you write a book by Scrivener every scene, chapter, element, call it what you will, exists both as a separate document, with its own word count, time stamp and individual descriptions and synopsis, <em>and</em> as an integral component of the book as a whole. If I want to see when I last edited a scene I look at the date in the inspector sidebar. If I want to make a note pertaining to that piece of the story alone it goes there too. When I want to move around story elements I do them logically, by visually dragging them to new positions where I can see their context, not by cutting and pasting unseen amounts of text around the place which can be both messy and dangerous.\n\nEqually, if I think the positioning is wrong I just drag the thing back or find a new home for it. Moving scenes around is something I highly recommend. It can change the pace and tenor of a story. It\'s hard to do with conventional word processor cut and paste. With Scrivener it\'s a doddle. Let me give you an example from the next Costa book to show you what I mean.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nHere is the original opening of <em>The Blue Demon</em> (US <em>City of Fear</em>), a story set in the world of Italian politics, around the Quirinale hill. At the beginning of this version of the story a junior politician has been kidnapped by a scary and mysterious individual. It looks like this. Click for the full version\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/original-opening.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/original-opening-tm.jpg\" alt=\"original opening.jpg\" /></a></p>\nScrivener users will recognise the binder on the left hand side of the screen. This is where scenes/chapters are listed. It\'s perfect for outlining, and to keep things neat and tidy I divided this book into sections, represented here by folders. I\'m a section kind of guy when it comes to most books. I like the rhythm they introduce to the kind of work I do. Not everyone will work this way though.\n\nWhen I came to revise this book I wondered about this opening. It\'s good and exciting but it\'s linear too. So I decided to try an experiment. Why not start the book near the end? In other words take part of the climax and use <em>that</em> as the beginning, then flashing back into the main story, and picking up the thread at the climax.\n\nHere is that climax in the original version.\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/original-climax.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/original-climax-tm.jpg\" alt=\"original climax.jpg\" width=\"448\" height=\"354\" /></a></p>\nSomething serious is starting to happen here. What I want to do is split this chapter in two and move the top half to the beginning. Again, this is very easy with cut and paste but involves guesswork and those invisible words flying round the clipboard. In Scrivener it\'s much more sensible. I put the cursor where I want to break the chapter and then hit Command-K. What I get is this.\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/split.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/split-tm.jpg\" alt=\"split.jpg\" /></a></p>\nSee what\'s happened? I now have two chapters instead of one, and the second has automatically been labelled Sordi attacked -1. I want something more memorable so I just rename it \'Quirinale intro\'.\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\"></p>\nThen I drag it to the beginning of the story.\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/new-beginning.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/new-beginning-tm.jpg\" alt=\"new beginning.jpg\" /></a></p>\nAfter that I need to write a few new introductory sentences to both the new chapter and the original. Basic tidying up stuff really to make sure everything runs together properly. Then I go back to the original beginning, which takes place three days before the climax, and write in a single italicised line...\n\n<em>Three days earlier...</em>\n\nAnd that\'s it. Minimum of fuss, maximum of control. The book\'s got a tighter, more exciting opening I hope. And everything is an absolute doddle to undo if I decide I don\'t like it.\n\nNow try doing that with Word.\n\n<em>Update September 2010 -- actually you can do this very easily in Word 2010 for Windows, though not quite so elegantly. </em>','Scrivener and the mosaic of writing','','publish','open','closed','','scrivener-and-the-mosaic-of-writing','','','2011-01-28 08:10:56','2011-01-28 08:10:56','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=946',0,'post','',0),(953,1,'2009-10-12 09:00:09','2009-10-12 08:00:09','If there\'s a recurring theme to my ramblings here it is I hope this: don\'t get taken in by the idea writing is about the cerebral stuff stuff alone. It\'s actually a job, a craft, a trade.  Work in other words. Nose to the grindstone stuff. Taking the pit pony to the coal face.\n\nWriters are all too often portrayed as dreamers staring into the distance like our old chum Dante Alighieri here, musing away on a hill side. But consider this: Dante was a trained pharmacist, a diplomat, a politician, a soldier. He read obsessively, in Italian and Latin, as you can tell from the obscure and scattergun references in his masterwork, <em>The Divine Comedy.</em> Would he recognise this picture of an aesthete whiling away a sunny afternoon with his head in the clouds?\n\nNo. We all need thinking time. But without <em>doing</em> time it means nothing. Dante was too damned busy to spend much of his life like this. <em>Busy</em>. A good word, a great word to describe what makes wannabe writers into actual ones. Here\'s another: routine. You need one. Without it your output will be pathetic. And given that most people have to write five books in order to get one half decent one, pathetic output pretty much, although not always, spells career death, probably before you\'ve even embarked on a career.\n\nHere is what routine means for me.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nFor almost the first ten years of my writing career I did two jobs: as a journalist for the <em>Sunday Times</em> and as a writer trying to produce one book a year. This isn\'t a situation I\'d ever want to go back to. It was damned hard work involving seven day weeks, few holidays (and when they came along invariably interrupted by work) and constant graft. But I had no choice. Writing novels didn\'t pay the bills. It was either two jobs, give up the dream of being an author, or starve.\n\nMost people will try to start off this way. You\'d have to be pretty brave or foolish to abandon the day job and declare to the world you\'re going to be a writer. Even if it works you\'re probably looking at a couple of years before you get a penny of income so best make sure there\'s plenty of money in the bank. Let\'s assume you\'re like most writers and start your novel alongside the day job. How?\n\nWe\'re back to that \'routine\' word again. You need one. You need to stick to it. You need to work, probably harder than you\'ve ever worked in your life. And the likelihood is still that you\'re going to fail one way or another. But if you came into this game for fame, riches and instant success you deserve to fail anyway.\n\nMy routine worked like this. I angled my way into freelance journalism after a staff career on national newspapers. Freelancing meant I controlled my time, not someone else. It also, after a while, resulted in a contract with the <em>Sunday Times</em> which meant I could rely on guaranteed income each month in return for a guaranteed amount of work. If you\'re going into this game self-employed in another field I highly recommend you seek some similar solution. You may make more money by being a buccaneer, chasing every individual contract that\'s out there. But that will eat into your time, and time is the most precious resource of all.\n\nOnce I got into that position the division between fiction and journalism almost defined itself. When it comes to fiction I work best in the mornings. That\'s when the creative side of me is at its best. So I gave over mornings to the novels. In the afternoons I worked on journalism. Five days a week. Seven when necessary. It was difficult at first. After a while it became second nature. It seems to be axiomatic in the modern writing business that there is no longer any easy way to divide work time from leisure. You can fight it by taking the dog for a walk or something -- which is a good idea anyway. But the plain truth is you will still find yourself nagged by things to say, ideas to get down, notions to communicate at odd hours (which is why I am writing this at 0839 on a Saturday morning before going shopping).\n\nWhat\'s important is to accept the job -- or chore if you like -- of writing fully into your life. To allow that part of the day or night or both will be given over to working on a novel and nothing -- not Facebook or Twitter or faffing around the Internet -- is going to get in the way. We\'re surrounded by so many distractions these days it\'s easy to lose sight of priorities. For the writer there\'s only one: keeping the work in progress alive and kicking, and growing organically a little each week (which may or may not involve actual writing, though that\'s a different subject). Anything that drags you away from that necessity is the enemy, a monster to be avoided, the black beast of despair that can leave you a wannabe author forever.\n\nRoutine is essential even, perhaps especially, when you become a full-time writer. My distractions are different these days -- emails from readers, events, promotions, interviews and the necessary task of communicating through the web in places like this. They need to be contained, pushed always into parts of the day when I would never be writing on the book. So here\'s my routine, Monday to Friday, around 7.30 am to around 5.30 pm when I knock off.\n\nFirst hour of the day: deal with overnight email, read newspapers, check Twitter and Facebook, post any items I feel like. If something grabs me in the news I\'ll put it up somewhere. If I feel a burning urge to write a blog post it will happen then <em>and always be done by 8.45 at the latest or left unfinished for another day.</em>\n\nAround eight thirty till twelve thirty. First, read anything I wrote the day before, revise it, try to cut what\'s not needed and add in anything that should have been there that wasn\'t. This will usually take me to ten a.m. Break for a coffee briefly. Come back and write, maybe a few hundred words, maybe more, until I feel the day\'s writing has taken hold to the extent I know where it\'s headed. Take dog for a twenty minute walk around eleven then back to work. Around 12.30 break for lunch till two.\n\nAfternoon: two till 5.30 or six. Email again, Facebook and Twitter again. <em>Nothing substantial is written during this period except the book.</em> Carry on writing. Hope to hit two thousand words. Pleased if it gets to three thousand, which it does maybe one time in five. Always pack in at three thousand. Always end on a scene conclusion, not mid-scene if possible. I hate picking up unfinished threads the following day. At six, knock off and do nothing more on the book though I will come and check emails in the evening (since they come in from all places and time zones).\n\nWeekends: be a normal human being mostly, but do the maintenance stuff, filing, web sites, any boring work.\n\nAnd that\'s it. Doesn’t change much any more because, well, it works. This is my routine. Yours will be different. The challenge is finding it then sticking to it (and when you find the right one it\'s not hard to stick to, honest). The point about routine is this: once you find it you no longer think \'Shall I write?\' You just do because that\'s the time of day when writing happens. It takes away the conscious decision to work or not, and if you\'re fundamentally lazy as I am that’s a wonderful thing.\n\nDid Dante have a routine? You bet. Just wish I knew what it was.','The joys of routine','','publish','open','closed','','the-joys-of-routine','','','2011-01-28 08:10:18','2011-01-28 08:10:18','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=953',0,'post','',0),(992,1,'2009-10-13 08:16:12','2009-10-13 07:16:12','I was driving the car the other day when a bright idea popped into my head. An element for the work in progress that would give the protagonist an added reason be involved. Not a big deal to write. Would involve a few extra paragraphs scattered here and there. Perhaps a morning\'s work at the most.\n\nSo here\'s the dilemma for the day.\n<blockquote>a) Do I just step in straight away and commit that change to paper? Or...\n\nb) Sit on it, think about the change for a while, then put it into action another day?</blockquote>\n<!--more-->\n\nThose of you who answered b) go buy yourself a lollipop. The a) people can stand in the corner and ask yourself: what <em>have</em> I done?\n\nTrust me. I\'m an airhead whose mind is constantly spinning with ideas, possibilities, changes, alternative versions. I have been through this quandary a million times. If I\'ve learned one thing about writing it\'s this... <em>never, ever act on impulse.</em>\n\nFirst reason: you may just be plain wrong. Today\'s bright idea is tomorrow\'s \'How could I possibly be so stupid?\' revelation. Impulsive notions always seem attractive when you have them. We\'re built that way. It\'s our brains rewarding themselves for being so clever in coming up with the thing in the first place. It doesn\'t mean they\'re right. And the worst thing of all is this: bright ideas invariably mean something substantial. A new facet to a character. A different possible direction for a story thread or even the whole book. You can rarely undo them just by taking out the bits you put in the manuscript when the idea hit. You\'ll usually have to unpick all the difficult threading from the point after up to the moment you realise it wasn\'t a great idea after all. Not good.\n\nSecond reason: bright ideas mid-book always, always involve adding things in. Making something longer and, yes, more complicated. As a general rule books are improved by taking stuff out. Better to finish your first draft with something that\'s underwritten than overwritten. It\'s more efficient and more effective to look at that book in waiting and think... a touch here and a touch there... than to spend your time trying to understand what to excise. Better use of your editor\'s time too if you have one.\n\nWhen I have bright ideas I treat them like this. They go in my book diary immediately as a possibility. I sit on them for a day or two. Then I look at them in the cold hard light of day with the perspective a little time brings to that bright spark moment. If I\'m really convinced they\'re a good idea they go in. If I\'m not sure they either stay out or I save a copy of the draft as a backup and try a fresh version with the spark in to see if it works.\n\nBright ideas are great before writing and after you\'ve finished. But when they crop up mid-book they need to be treated with caution because sooner or later you will hit that \'I know -- the guy could be a vampire!\' moment.\n\nBest avoided, honestly.\n\nFootnote: after sleeping on this one for a couple of nights I decided it was a very good idea indeed and inserted it into the manuscript. But not before saving a backup copy I can return to without it if need be.','The perils of bright ideas','','publish','open','closed','','the-perils-of-bright-ideas','','','2011-01-28 08:10:18','2011-01-28 08:10:18','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=992',0,'post','',0),(1054,1,'2009-10-14 08:41:32','2009-10-14 07:41:32','I had one of those flashy moments of epiphany yesterday. I wanted to find out what was going on at the Frankfurt Book Fair and saw on Twitter a link to Twitterfall with the hashtag (is that the right word?) for tweets from everyone there. Like an idiot I clicked on it.\n\nTwitterfall was right. Every last note and dribble of tweeted info was coming out of Frankfurt at the rate of a message or more per second. You know the kind of thing...\n<blockquote>Oo. That\'s Peter Mayer in a lift.\n\nI have a stinking hangover.\n\nOff for some drinks to get a hangover.\n\nCory Doctorow says publishers are pirates\n\nMy head hurts but that girl from Random House has big boobies</blockquote>\nWhat is all this crap and why on earth are we expected to spend time on it?\n\n<!--more-->\n\nThe epiphany that popped up at that moment was this (and excuse me if you think it falls into the category of what Basil Fawlty one called the \'A-level bleeding obvious\'). Twitter is, for the most part, a complete waste of time. It doesn\'t work as a communications tool <em>at all</em>. So many people are tweeting that the chances of anyone but a handful of people seeing that 140 characters of yours or less are remote in the extreme. By the time they get round to looking at Twitter several hundred other tweets will have taken its place, pushing it to the bottom of the queue and off their page.\n\nThe answer, so some Twitter chums tell me, is to tweet the same thing at regular intervals so that everyone around the world, in whatever time zone, gets the message in the end. But this is insane. <em>The problem is there\'s too much stuff out there already.</em> You don\'t fix it by quadrupling or sextupling the amount of information people can\'t cope with already.\n\nAh, said someone else. You don\'t get it. Twitter isn\'t a communication tool any more. It\'s about news. No it isn\'t. Yesterday there was a lot of hooha about the Carter-Ruck injunction against the Guardian which stopped the newspaper reporting a simple Parliamentary question. This was a scandal. The newspapers were injuncted against saying much about it for a while. So Twitter took its place -- and I happily joined in, decrying the whole thing, screaming for people\'s heads. But whose?\n\nTry as you might nowhere on Twitter did anyone actually hand out much in the way of information about what was going on. Yes, some tweets did point you to a few blog posts that explained the background. But most people just took part in some mad Twitter angerfest based upon plain ignorance. Democracy was threatened. The twitterverse was coming to the rescue. Sanity was restored and it was thanks to the tweets, not the expensive lawyers the Guardian had on the case.\n\nSorry to disillusion anyone out there but this just wasn\'t the case. Being told by Stephen Fry that something is a scandal, without any explanation or background, may be an ooh-ah moment in terms of the power of the Internet but it does not add to the great sum of human knowledge or make the world more democratic in the slightest. The Carter-Ruck furore yesterday was, for the most part, as well-informed and full of wit and informed discourse as the crowd at a football match.\n\nTwitter is an OK, quick and free way of getting out a message to a small number of people who may be following you and happen to see your tweet in the brief space of time it stays in front of them. I\'ll continue to use it for that purpose, though not as much as I have been doing because frankly it\'s a distraction, and one that doesn\'t repay the time it demands. Nor does Facebook, though that\'s a different story.\n\nIt scares the life out of me that some professionals in publishing, particularly in the US, think, as one of them put it to me not long ago, \'social media is the new marketing\'. If that\'s true God help us all. One tweet is just a small shriek in a very busy crowd, lost for the most part in all the other clamour. I\'ll tweet this once, this morning, for the benefit of those close to Greenwich Mean Time. Then once again this afternoon for those on the other side of the Atlantic. But two identical tweets a day is the most I feel anyone should put out there.\n\nOh, and don\'t even get me started on the companies who are now using Twitter as a form of so-called \'customer service\'. Over the past year tweeted complaints have resulted in tardy responses from tweetstaff from BT, Easyjet and Boingo to name a few. None of them did anything that someone over the phone couldn\'t have done, and probably more quickly. Most, to be honest, simply waited for the problem to go away then say, \'Glad things are sorted now.\' Why are companies paying people to do this kind of thing? Wouldn\'t they be better off spending the resources on their products instead of paying people to tweet pointless sympathy at customers they fail in the field?\n\nPerhaps the most annoying thing of all though is this: somewhere in the churning ocean of dross there are things I\'d like to know, thoughts I\'d like to hear, opinions I want to read. Unfortunately it\'s so damned hard to find them I\'m going to give up before I try. To use the vernacular of the medium: Twitter FAIL.','Twitter&#039;s a joke, and not a good one','','publish','open','closed','','twitters-a-joke-and-not-a-good-one','','','2011-01-28 08:10:18','2011-01-28 08:10:18','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=1054',0,'post','',0),(1042,1,'2009-10-14 09:06:39','2009-10-14 08:06:39','Something happened yesterday, something I hadn\'t been expecting for a few weeks. The work in progress suddenly changed character. At around the 70k words mark I realised I could map out pretty much the exact line from where I was to the end of the story. Ye gods. The Third Act was upon me. The nature of the beast had changed.\n<p style=\"clear:both;\">A little less than a month ago <a href=\"http://www.davidhewson.com/2009/09/entering-the-twilight-zone/\" target=\"_blank\">I wrote here about the Second Act</a>. The floppy middle. That, regulars will recall, begins at the point where your protagonist accepts the problem at the heart of your story and flounders away trying to come up with some way in which he or she can actually fix the blasted thing. The Second Act ends, and the Third naturally begins, when he or she sees a way in which the situation can be resolved. Cue the events that lead to the climax/solution/resolution, whatever you wish to call it.</p>\n<p style=\"clear:both;\">For most of a book I work with a loose outline in my head. I have specific staging posts or waypoints in mind. These go into the folder I have in Scrivener called Unplaced Scenes (<a href=\"http://www.davidhewson.com/2009/09/the-best-scrivener-tip-ever-maybe/\" target=\"_blank\">read more about that here</a>). But this isn\'t outlining in the conventional sense. The scenes that go into this folder are simply ones I feel need to go in the story somewhere along the way. I\'ve dreamed them up but I don\'t know where they fit. They can help me find some direction if it\'s needed but they\'re stopping points along the journey, not a route map from A to B to C. And some fall by the wayside too. Not every idea is a bright idea.</p>\n<p style=\"clear:both;\">I always have an endpoint in mind when I start a book (and it always, always changes along the way. I\'d be damned worried if it didn\'t). But the final choreography that gets us there is something that has to emerge from the characters and the storyline as I write the first and second acts.</p>\n<p style=\"clear:both;\">What happened today is that I finished a scene and realised that I could map out the sequence of following scenes that would take me to the conclusion. So I simply set them down as scene headings in Scrivener and, where necessary, made a brief synopsis note or general note for each, detailing what was going to happen and to whom. There are twenty two scenes. It took around thirty minutes to get them all down. That sequence will change, I\'m sure. But not much. It appears to make sense when I set it against what\'s gone before and with the conclusion I had in mind for the book from the beginning. I\'m happy with it.</p>\n<p style=\"clear:both;\">Great. But am I happy all round? Here\'s the odd thing. I can see the end of the book in sight. I\'m pretty sure it will be wrapped up in first draft by December. Maybe even finished, <em>finished</em> not long after. But actually I feel a bit down in the mouth. Why? Shouldn\'t I be jumping up and down for joy?</p>\n\n<p style=\"clear:both;\">Oddly enough I never am when I reach this stage. The whole nature of the project changes once I set down that final lineup of scenes. Up to that moment I\'m an explorer, an adventurer navigating a sea that\'s dimly charted but full of surprises and twists and scary moments. Once I see land all that disappears because <em>I know what\'s going to happen. </em>I\'m just the captain of the ship, wheel in hand, navigating us into port. Important but I know all the secrets. There is nothing more to be discovered.<em>\n</em>\n<p style=\"clear:both;\">And there you have, I think, the great peril of the Third Act. This is supposed to be the summation of your story. The climax. The bit that grips the reader most of all and makes them realise the effort they put in to reading your work was actually worthwhile. But in authorial terms it\'s the most workmanlike, predictable and, if you\'re not careful, boring bit of all to write. You\'ve got to keep your enthusiasm up otherwise it will all come out a little pat and meh... You have to pretend you\'re still as much in the dark as the reader, and frankly that\'s quite hard.</p>\n<p style=\"clear:both;\">So the nature of the challenge has changed, as it always does. Back to it.</p>\n\n<br class=\"final-break\" style=\"clear:both;\" />','Eeek! The Third Act is upon us','','publish','open','open','','eeek-the-third-act-is-upon-us','','','2011-01-28 08:10:18','2011-01-28 08:10:18','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=1042',0,'post','',0),(1010,1,'2009-10-15 08:00:00','2009-10-15 07:00:00','Blame Jeffery Deaver. This is all his fault. A couple of years ago Jeff came up with the bright idea that a bunch of members at ITW could raise funds to keep the organisation going by writing an audio thriller. You know what that is, don\'t you? No. Nor did we. Jeff said, \'I’ll write chapter one and the closing chapter. You lot just produce the chapters in between. Audible can publish it. And we can get some great actor to read the lines.\'\n\nWe indulged him of course. Jeff\'s such a nice guy you have to. So I wrote a second chapter taking Jeff\'s start in eastern Europe to Rome. Then a bunch of others -- too many to mention here -- came in and we wound up with a scary fast-moving thriller called <em>The Chopin Manuscript</em>. That great actor Alfred Molina came in and did a voiceover so astonishing it sent shivers down my spine. Then it went on to win the audio equivalent of an Oscar, Audiobook of the Year. Note that was <em>the</em> audiobook of the year -- not a genre thing. Amazing.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nSo Jeff comes back a while later and says, \'Let\'s do it again!\'\n\nWe won a prize. We broke new ground. Most of all we had <em>fun.</em> Who\'s going to say no?\n\nThe result is a sequel to <em>The Chopin Manuscript.</em> It\'s called <em>The Copper Bracelet.</em> It\'s different. Better. More focused I think -- we were really testing our feet the first time round. More scary and hellishly contemporary too, a global conspiracy thriller that is straight out of the headlines and with a compelling mystery at its heart: what is the secret of the Copper Bracelet? And yes Harold Middleton and his team of volunteers return to put their lives on the line to find out.\n\nOnce again it\'s an audio novel available only by download from Audible and iTunes. You\'ll be able to get it all on October 29. But if you can\'t wait you can download the first chapter for free now. If you\'re in the US head off over to <a href=\"http://www.audible.com/copper\" target=\"_blank\">www.audible.com/copper</a>. In the UK go to <a href=\"http://www.audible.co.uk/aduk/site/promo.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=Yes&amp;id=copper&amp;source_code=TITV0001WS030209UK\" target=\"_blank\">www.audible.co.uk</a>. You\'ll have to register but you won\'t need a credit card.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/copperbracelet_verti14f17b1.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1016\" title=\"copperbracelet_verti#14F17B\" src=\"http://www.davidhewson.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/copperbracelet_verti14F17B1-198x300.jpg\" alt=\"copperbracelet_verti#14F17B\" width=\"198\" height=\"300\" /></a>As before, Jeff wrote that first chapter, setting us up for a wild ride around the globe. Those who follow him are, in order of appearance, Gayle Lynds, me, Jim Fusilli, John Gilstrap, Joseph Finder, Lisa Scottoline, David Corbett, Linda Barnes, Jenny Siler, David Liss, P.J. Parrish, Brett Battles, Lee Child, Jon Land and James Phelan. Once again Alfred Molina narrates. Jim Fusilli held the whole thing together as editor too, and Jeff wraps up the project with a skill that still leaves me breathless.\n\nIt\'s worth pointing out that this is not a collaboration in a conventional sense. We didn\'t have plot meetings or storylines. This was a relay race in which the baton was simply passed from one runner to the next, with no one knowing where this would all end up. It\'s a great testament to Jim and Jeff that the two of them manage to keep an astonishingly tight rein on such a free-wheeling project. And as always I\'m flattered to be part of a fundraiser for the excellent organisation that is ITW.\n\nThere will be some more freebies to do with <em>The Copper Bracelet</em> coming soon too so stay tuned.','The Copper Bracelet is coming','','publish','open','closed','','the-copper-bracelet-is-coming','','','2011-01-28 08:10:18','2011-01-28 08:10:18','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=1010',0,'post','',0),(1063,1,'2009-10-15 08:25:53','2009-10-15 07:25:53','Writers tend to be good at words. Using them to define things. Using them to hide things too. Once upon a time we had a simple term for the practice of paying someone to bring out a book that a normal publisher refused to handle. We called it \'vanity publishing\'. You don\'t hear that much any more. Nowadays it\'s always \'self publishing\', which is rather less judgemental.\n\nFrankfurt had several announcements of publishers \'embracing the self publishing model\' (translation: pay us some money and we\'ll get your book out for you). So what is going on with self publishing? And should you really be considering shoving any of your hard-earned cash that way?\n\n<!--more-->\n\nLet me put up my hand here and now. Yes, I\'ve got fifteen or sixteen books out there from conventional publishers, in twenty or more different languages. I get paid for these, enough for me do nothing else but write. But I was once a self publisher too. Three years ago I produced <em><a href=\"http://www.davidhewson.com/standalones/saved/\" target=\"_blank\">Saved</a>,</em> a non-fiction account of a small rural environmental campaign I\'d been involved in. That\'s the only book I\'ve ever paid to get published. It was produced by a specialist publisher who handles such titles, and normal books too. They did a damned good job. We sold three thousand copies or so, mainly through local outlets. I covered my costs even if I made no money. And then, when the sales began to peter out I gave the remaining stock to a local charity and put the whole book up for download for free on <a href=\"http://www.scribd.com/doc/4074917/Saved-by-David-Hewson\" target=\"_blank\">Scribd</a> where it\'s now clocked up more than seven thousand reads. Self-publishing worked perfectly here, getting out a book quickly, reaching a small targeted audience, and covering its costs too.\n\nHere\'s another interesting example where self publishing can work. <a href=\"http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2009/10/kindle-numbers-traditional-publishing.html\" target=\"_blank\">Joe Konrath</a> is an established US mystery author who\'s also self published some of his titles as ebooks on Kindle. His conclusion after his latest conventional and self-published royalty statements...\n<blockquote>for the midlist author, I\'m beginning to think it\'s possible to make a living without print contracts.</blockquote>\nDo I detect the pricking of ears out there? Calm down children. Note that caveat: <em>for the midlist author.</em> Joe\'s a name people recognise. When they search for his books on Amazon they will see his conventional titles and his ebooks side by side <em>and probably never know the difference.</em> For established authors self publishing through ebooks is starting to look an incredibly attractive way of getting revenue out of titles on your back list that are no longer in print. I\'m seriously thinking of distributing <em>Epiphany</em>, my second book, this way. It\'s a great piece of work even if I say so myself, but it\'s not Italian, it\'s very tough, and it wouldn\'t sit easily on the shelf alongside my current work. Ebooking it would make perfect sense.\n\nSo there you have two models in which self publishing can work. In the first, with <em>Saved</em>, it got into print a non-fiction specialised title that was very local, sold through shops and pubs, and needed publishing quickly because it was topical. For established authors with backlists currently in limbo ebook publishing looks like a way to get your work back out to the public and make some cash. If you do it as an ebook there are few production costs and no nasty stock to store anywhere. There could be other models emerging too. I <a href=\"http://www.davidhewson.com/2009/04/the-case-for-united-authors/\" target=\"_blank\">discussed one here</a>.\n\nHere\'s the bad news: all of these developments work primarily in the favour of existing authors, not new ones. This is a limited market. Those companies trumpeting their self publishing offers at the moment principally see their customers as unknown authors, first timers in the main, often writing the most difficult kind of work there is: fiction. They are after people willing to pay to see their name in print because they can\'t get a book out easily any other way. Vanity publishing if you like. If there\'s a difference I can\'t see it.\n\nSo long as people go into this with their eyes open I don\'t see there\'s anything wrong with paying to be published. Lots of people simply want to see their name on a book, whether they subsidise it themselves or a conventional publisher picks  up the bill. Once that achievement\'s over maybe they write another, find a commercial publisher, put the whole thing down to experience, or try something else. Where\'s the problem with any of those? Fine by me.\n\nBut if you are going to put yourself into print, through ebooks or printed material, there are some things you need to bear in mind. Here are a few.\n<ul>\n	<li>For pity\'s sake disabuse yourself of the notion that nothing happens between an author writing a manuscript and a book appearing on the shelf or Amazon\'s Kindle listings. Authors are only part of the process. Editors, copy editors, cover designers, and marketeers all have their part to play. If you do not avail themselves of their skills somehow you will end up with something that shouts \'amateur\' from the highest hill. And no one will hear. This is why...</li>\n	<li>People won\'t find you in big chain book stores because big chain book stores don\'t, as a rule, buy self-published titles.</li>\n	<li>People won\'t find you in independent book stores either for the same reason, except for maybe a few generous souls out there. Big or small the bookselling trade is struggling right now. Don\'t expect favours.</li>\n	<li>Very few if any people will review your books and only desperate little newspapers will write about you.</li>\n	<li>Conventions and author associations probably won\'t treat you as a fully-fledged author, and neither, if I\'m frank, will many professional writers. Can you blame them? If you\'ve spent years building a name and a career the hard way you\'re going to feel a little reluctant to share that smidgin of limelight with someone who bought a ticket onto the stage.</li>\n	<li>People won\'t find you easily in ebook stores either because they won\'t know your name, and they won\'t track you down through the synergy of searching for existing titles from conventional publishers.</li>\n	<li>You will spend an inordinate amount of time on Twitter, Facebook and the Internet at large trying to guide people to your work. In fact you may spend so much time doing that you never get around to writing the next book which just might have been bought by a print publisher.</li>\n	<li>In short, while you may love seeing your name in print and feel aesthetically justified, in pure commercial terms alone it will be absolutely extraordinary if  <em>you do not fail.</em></li>\n</ul>\nAm I trying to put you off here? Maybe. Mainly I\'m hoping that you go into unknown territory like this fully prepared. Conventional publishing is rarely a route to riches. Most people whose books are actually bought by publishers never write for a living. There\'s nothing wrong with that. It\'s not a sign of creative defeat. If it were, as I\'ve pointed out before, we\'d have to count Herman Melville a failure too, since he wasn\'t a professional author for a large part of his life.\n\nThere are cases of self-published authors going on to get conventional book contracts and making a stack of money. But not often. A lot more people have thrown away sometimes hefty sums of money they couldn\'t afford in the ill-conceived belief there was a crock of gold just over the horizon. If you think this is an escape route from the dull doldrums of everyday work you are, in all probability, highly delusional, which does at least show you\'ve learned the first lesson of authorship anyway, since we all are.\n\nThe publishing world is in a state of flux due to the grim economy, changes in the retail marketplace and the rise of ebooks. Big changes are on the horizon. But I don\'t see them changing the dynamics of the business in favour of first time authors dramatically. Money\'s still money, business is still business. The basics of publishing stay the same, and they dictate it\'s hard to find readers, hard to get your books out to the stores, and difficult to get people to part with their money.\n\nThis is never going to be an easy business, whether you buy yourself a short cut or not. Instead of spending lots of time and money self publishing that book no publisher wants you might just want to consider trying, instead, to write one they do.','Self publishing sucks, sometimes anyway','','publish','open','closed','','self-publishing-sucks-sometimes-anyway','','','2011-01-28 08:10:18','2011-01-28 08:10:18','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=1063',0,'post','',0),(1029,1,'2009-10-16 08:05:59','2009-10-16 07:05:59','When I wrote my first real book, <em>Semana Santa,</em> I did so in secret. Told no one. No friends, no colleagues, not even my wife. This was primarily because I didn\'t want to admit to anyone it had failed, as fail it must because every other attempt to write a novel I\'d made wound up that way.\n\nToday not much has changed. When I\'m working on a book <em>I\'m</em> working on it. I never discuss concepts much with others, be they editors or agents. Unless there are very pressing reasons I never show part-finished work to anyone either. I don\'t see the point. I\'d never try to sell a book on the basis of an opening few chapters. Seems a bit insulting to me. How does anyone know you\'re going to finish it?\n\nAnd more than anything I do not seek opinions of anyone until there\'s an actual manuscript, beginning to end, to be read. Lots of professional writers I know work this way. Probably most. Lots of people who want to be writers don\'t. They constantly share scraps of work with each other in writing groups or informally. Is this a good idea? Or is it a way never to finish a book?\n\n<!--more-->\n\nIt depends, of course. On you and the people you share your work with. I\'ve never been part of a writing group. I\'ve never attended a writing school except to teach. To my mind everything you need to know about the craft of writing is out there already, freely available in a very obvious format. It\'s called \'books\'.\n\nI learned to write by reading them. Yes, I\'ve picked up ideas along the way listening to other writers talk about their working methods at events like Craftfest and the Book Passage Mystery Writers Conference. But I\'ve never set out to <em>learn</em> writing, or to seek assurance from others, part way through a work, that I\'m not barking up the wrong tree.\n\nYet writing groups abound. Sometimes they produce authors who go on to greater things. Mostly though, it seems to me, they take up the time of people who never quite get round to finishing a book that finds its way into print. That\'s understandable if they work the way I think they do. You write a chapter, hand it to twelve people to read then, while waiting for their opinions on your work, read <em>their</em> opening chapters and try to work out what you make of them. I find it difficult to hold one book project in my head at one time. Writing group members seem to want to stay on top of multiple nascent books by different authors, often in a range of different styles, <em>and</em> get on with their own book too. Good luck. I\'d never manage it.\n\nOne of the great benefits of writing groups is, it seems to me, the companionship they provide and the discussion that takes place about style, working methods, tactics and the rest. They obviously provide support too, and I\'m sure that if you have someone on board who is a professional author, able to give you the benefit of their experience, that can be great for insights and tips too.\n\nBut what most budding authors lack more than anything is time, and writing groups can, if you\'re not careful, devour that in spades. If they overload you with so much reading it interferes with your writing they\'re counter-productive. And -- sorry, I have to say this -- you have to weigh up what those mutual opinions are worth. This is a bunch of people who usually haven\'t made it as writers yet. So why is their view on where you\'ve succeeded and failed relevant? How do you know if they\'re right or wrong? Even professionals in this business -- seasoned writers, agents and editors -- disagree over what\'s worthwhile and isn\'t. If they can\'t manage a consensus, what value can you place on the views of people who haven\'t managed to make an entrance into the business?\n\nIf you\'re in a writing group I\'d ask yourself the hard question: is this really helping me finish my book? Would the time spent going to meetings and reading other people\'s work not be better spent working on that instead? Like it or not the business of writing is essentially solitary: it\'s between you and those words on the page.\n\nBest get them down first then invite the world in to see what it thinks.','Avoiding peer pressure','','publish','open','closed','','the-views-of-your-peers','','','2011-01-28 08:10:18','2011-01-28 08:10:18','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=1029',0,'post','',0),(1000,1,'2009-10-19 08:00:50','2009-10-19 07:00:50','I\'m not much enamoured of rules in writing and will from time to time vent my spleen on the subject here. You encounter so many... never use adverbs... never do this, never do that. They seem to me entirely interior invocations, ideas restricted to writers and writers alone which never percolate into the consciousness of the people who matter most, readers.\n\nWe have odd notions sometimes. Take, for instance, the habit of being at a literary festival and propping your current book in front of you as you speak. Sometimes that happens. Sometimes people who do it are viewed as the grasping spawn of Satan trying to steal sales from everyone else.\n\nCurious to know how others see this I\'ve asked people in the audience which they\'d prefer -- authors with their books or authors without. To a man and woman they always say \'with books\' because they can look at the titles while people are speaking and think... \'Oh, that\'s what the person who created that looks like\'. But most places seem to frown on books on the podium anyway so I never even take a book along these days.\n\nOh well. I digress. Let\'s talk about another rule you\'ll meet from time to time. It\'s to do with sex. Should you treat female characters differently to male ones when it comes to describing them in the third person? Do you automatically refer to male characters by their surnames and female ones by their first names. Example...\n<blockquote>Costa crossed the room and opened the filing cabinet. Teresa followed him.</blockquote>\n<!--more-->\n\nBelieve it or not there are people who think that writing a sentence like that is sexist. The reasoning I can see. Why should men and women be treated differently? Isn\'t it condescending? Akin to referring to grown women as \'girls\'? Or, as pop songs invariably do, \'babe\', a word I\'ve never actually heard anyone use in that context in real life?\n\nI wish there were an easy answer but as far as I\'m concerned there isn\'t. The honest response is... it depends. Yes, it would be entirely possible to write a book using these conventions that is highly condescending to the story\'s female characters. But I also think you can slip between first and second names over gender with good reason. In fact I hope I do that myself. My character Teresa Lupo is referred to as Teresa mostly. Costa is usually Costa, though at times he\'s Nic too. What\'s the difference? What\'s going on here?\n\nIt all comes down to point of view. I try to have a very well-established single character point of view in my work. Technically this is known as \'<a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-person_limited\" target=\"_blank\">third person limited narrative</a>\'. In every scene I want the reader to feel they\'re sitting on the shoulder of one particular character, hearing their thoughts, seeing through their eyes. This is quite unlike the \'<a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_person_limited_omniscient\" target=\"_blank\">third person omniscient</a>\' style in which scenes are viewed from the perspective of multiple characters or some remote, godlike viewer. In the limited style the reader becomes to some extent the person through whom the action takes place. If you do that the question of names comes down to how your character views the people around him, not the distanced, impartial perspective of a separate third party.\n\nTake Falcone. He\'s the boss, a police inspector, a cold, diffident individual. He likes Nic and Peroni. They\'re his friends. But when he\'s wearing his work hat they\'re his employees. He thinks of them by their second names. So in a scene in which the point of view is his they will be referred to in the third person by their surnames because that scene is viewed from Falcone\'s perspective.\n\nHow does he deal with Teresa? She\'s not an employee. She\'s a friend and a colleague. She\'s a woman too and Falcone, being a gentleman and somewhat old-fashioned, wouldn’t think of her by her surname. She\'s either Doctor Lupo or Teresa. Usually the latter.\n\nThe same method works for Costa and Peroni. When it\'s their point of view she\'s Teresa <em>because that is how they think of her. </em> That seems to me the best excuse for using surnames for male characters and first names for female ones. If the characters themselves think of people that way wouldn\'t it be artificial to insist on some kind of forced equality by referring to everyone by their last name?\n\nIt gets even more complicated when the POV is Teresa\'s. She\'s a bright, amiable individual who either likes people or loathes them. The loathed ones she thinks of by their surnames. Falcone and Costa she thinks of as Leo and Nic, which is how they\'re usually referenced in scenes where the POV is hers (in later books anyway -- it took me a while to work all this out). One more complication: Peroni is her partner but she first met him when he was just another cop, called Peroni by everyone. So even though they now live together she still thinks of him as Peroni in the third person (though calls him Gianni to his face).\n\nMake sense? Maybe not. But it makes sense to me. If you try to write a rule to cover this logic I think you\'d fail. But the real test is: does it work in terms of the book? Does the reader feel, in each scene, he or she is sitting on the shoulder of the POV character and viewing what\'s happening through their eyes, not as some distanced, anonymous observer? Most importantly of all does this allow the book to be read without prompting those \'hang on?\' moments that disturb the rhythm and force your audience to ponder unnaturally over some stylistic device?\n\nI think that would happen if I referred to Teresa as Lupo throughout. It just doesn\'t sound right in the context of my work and its insistence on a strong individual point of view for each scene.\n\nIf I were writing in the third person omniscient mode it would be different. Perhaps I\'ll try that one day. But for now this seems to work. That\'s my rationale anyway. What\'s yours?','He, she or it? How to describe people','','publish','open','closed','','he-she-or-it-how-to-describe-people','','','2011-01-28 08:10:18','2011-01-28 08:10:18','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=1000',0,'post','',0),(1097,1,'2009-10-20 08:00:50','2009-10-20 07:00:50','A while back I was on a panel at a writing event with a bunch of  American colleagues. Someone on the floor came up with what seemed to me a bizarre question. How did we feel about adverbs? Those words that usually, though not always, end in -ly and modify verbs and adjectives? The ones that make people walk <em>slowly</em> or  <em>really</em> bright when it comes to mathematics?\n\nFunny one that, I thought. It opened the floodgates. The poor old adverb got kicked from pillar to post. In some quarters of the US, it seems, adverb use is akin to wife-beating or bull-baiting, a nasty old-fashioned habit that should have been laid to rest years ago.\n\nNot being American this was new to me so I ventured the opinion that adverbs are fine so long as they\'re used in moderation (which you can say about pretty much every other grammatical construction too). I felt like Daniel walking into the lions\' den, though a few brave souls (well one anyway, <a href=\"http://www.davidcorbett.com/\" target=\"_blank\">David Corbett</a> stand up and take a bow), did rise to my defence.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nAdverb-hate is one of those automatic \'never do this\' rules you meet in writing schools and at book conventions from time to time. I hate \'never do\' rules in creative fiction. We\'re trying to produce works of the imagination here, not business plans. Furthermore adverb-hate is very localised,  an American habit, one some people lay at the door of Hemingway (though whether that\'s true or not I\'ve no idea). I\'d never heard of this \'rule\' before I started going to talk at writing schools in the States. And I have to be honest... no reader and certainly no editor <em>anywhere</em> has ever voiced the opinion that adverbs are so, like, nineteenth century, dude.\n\nOne particular habit that seems to infuriate people is the use of adverbs to qualify speech. For example...\n<blockquote>\'I don\'t suppose there\'s somewhere we could stop along the way for some lunch?\' Peroni said <em>hopefully.</em></blockquote>\nThe haters say this should never happen. And you know something? Sometimes they\'re right -- it shouldn\'t. I don\'t need the word \'hopefully\' here. Peroni likes his food and always wants to eat. In the context of one of my books anyone hearing that spoken sentence should understand the tone of his voice hopefully (there I go again). But the word requires excision here not because it\'s an adverb. It\'s unnecessary, plain and simple, and unnecessary words should go whatever label they carry on their backs.\n\nAdverbs are just fine when they add something. One instance I cited at that panel was when people were speaking in a particular way -- quickly or slowly, for example, which could be indicative of a mood or a need to act swiftly. Ah, said an adverb-hater. You can handle that through punctuation. So for slow speech, you got people to s-p-e-a-k v-e-r-y slllloooowwwlllly or something.\n\nMother, pass me the gun.\n\nAlso, how do you deal with the opposite? Speaking very quickly? Never did get an answer to that one. And what about nervously, and hopefully and forcefully and all those other adverbs that can, in the right circumstances, add more meaning to the text? For example...\n<blockquote>\'I think there\'s someone outside\', he said quietly.</blockquote>\nI know what you\'re thinking...\n<blockquote>\'I think there\'s someone outside,\' he whispered.</blockquote>\nWhich is probably what I\'d write. But the adverb-haters always have another rule too. The only verb you can use to describe speech is the verb to say. No whisper, murmur, mutter, grumble, yell, bark, shriek. Just say. So that won\'t get through either.\n\nAgain, I\'m with them up to a point. Some people will, in a desperate attempt not to repeat themselves, use anything instead of said: declaimed, asseverated, opined, orated. For pity\'s sake no. Keep it simple, but a little variety with everyday words surely doesn\'t go amiss.\n\nAnother overarching belief of the adverb jihadists is the idea that truly good writers should be able to convey everything -- <em>everything --</em> through the dialogue alone. The spoken words should tell you the tone, the delivery, the accent, the emotion, the lot.\n\nThis usually comes with another rule which says that proper dialogue has no need of attribution either. It should be so obvious who said the dialogue that there\'s rarely any need to identify the speaker with a closing \'...,\' said Peroni.\n\nYou can verify the insanity of this last point very simply yourself. How often have you encountered paragraph after paragraph of unattributed direct speech, going on for pages even, and found that, at some stage, <em>you have to work your way back to the last direct attribution then work forwards counting through the alternating paragraphs to work out who the hell is speaking?</em>\n\nQuite.\n\nAdverbs exist because, used properly, they bring something to writing and have done since we learned to  communicate beyond grunts. This is why we find them in Romance languages, in Japanese, Scandinavian, Greek and, of course, Latin (the term was actually invented by a fourth century grammarian, Charisius, from \'ad-verbium\', literally adding something to a verb). Are we really such clever clogs today that we can dismiss centuries of literary usage through some blunt rule that means little or nothing to the average reader?\n\nThis is my opinion, of course. You\'re entitled to differ. The great Elmore Leonard certainly does as he says <a href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/16/arts/writers-writing-easy-adverbs-exclamation-points-especially-hooptedoodle.html\" target=\"_blank\">in this article in the New York Times</a>. He reckons the only allowable verb to be used to carry dialogue is \'say\', and it must never ever be qualified by an adverb under any circumstances.\n\nI\'m with him on most of the points he makes. But in truth this is principally a great article for anyone wanting to learn how to write and sound like Elmore Leonard. If you\'re trying to define your own voice, ignore so-called rules and find it for yourself.','I like adverbs: there I&#039;ve said it, boldly','','publish','open','closed','','i-like-adverbs-there-ive-said-it-boldly','','','2011-01-28 08:10:18','2011-01-28 08:10:18','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=1097',0,'post','',0),(1104,1,'2009-10-21 08:00:12','2009-10-21 07:00:12','Yes, I have cop friends. Yes, I will spend <em>some</em> time researching police procedure, usually in Italy. And yes, I have ways of finding out how cop things are done in \'the real world\', whatever that is. But I don\'t hang around cops seeking inspiration or some mythical kind of accuracy for my books. I don\'t think I need to. I don\'t think it would make them any better. It doubtless works for some people but for me hanging round cops could prove to be very bad news indeed.\n\nHere are some of the reasons why.\n\n<!--more-->\n\n<strong>One</strong>... you start to like them. A writer I know once spent six months shadowing a real police force and then wrote a book in which every cop character was so damned nice the editor threw it out of the window. Writers should not get too close to their subjects. It warps your perspective, it stops you doing nasty things to them and them doing nasty things to other people. Fiction, of all kinds, is often about cruelty, our bafflement at why it happens, our struggle to stop it, our tendency to reach for the cruel button ourselves when things go wrong. Take a look at children\'s literature and see how much there is there.\n\nAnything that is an obstacle to your portrayal of one human being\'s wickedness to another, a portrayal which must be accomplished with the distant, aloof nonchalance of the little deity you are when writing, must be avoided. Readers need to feel sympathy for your characters. When an author gets too close to them it\'s usually not long before some smells the whiff of cheap perfume.\n\n<strong>Two</strong>... as inspiration for books the real world sucks, particularly the world behind the doors of a police station. It\'s either too boring -- actual investigations are tedious, bureaucratic and riddled with jargon and impenetrable technology -- or so bizarre that anyone seeing it in a book will say, \'That could never really happen\'. Read a few real-life crime stories and ask yourself honestly if you could really get away with some of the tales there. Same goes for the front pages too. Imagine three or four years ago pitching a story in which America had an African American president and the Republican before him had effectively nationalised swathes of the US financial sector and car industry. With me?\n\n<strong>Three</strong>... no one really cares how law enforcement agencies work, or wishes to. My stories are usually set in Italy. The law enforcement system there is so complicated that the average Italian has no idea how it functions. Two national police forces, one civilian, one military, local forces, specialist forces, an anti-mafia unit that\'s not quite police depending on which way you look at it... Italy seems to invent a new police force every time I go back there. If I reflected \'how things really are\' a third of the book would be spent explaining the structure of the Italian law enforcement system. Who the hell wants to read that? Would it make the books any better if Costa\'s arrest procedures mirrored the official state police rulebook down to the last letter? Would anyone really notice? No.\n\n<strong>Four</strong>... real policing happens very slowly, and that sluggish pace seems to be getting slower all the time. In the UK, for example, some DNA samples can take weeks or months to come back from the lab. Statements have to go through a variety of internal procedures then placed in front of Crown Prosecution lawyers. In fiction we tend to be obsessed with justice, nailing the culprit, finding some resolution to a tear in the fabric of society. You\'d be naive if you thought that\'s what police officers do every day. If in doubt find a few and ask. The guilty walk free daily for a variety of reasons, insufficient evidence, an unwillingness on the part of prosecutors to bring the case to court for some reason, a procedural error, some local political difficulty.\n\nIt\'s possible to write fictional stories that take these factors into account, but if you do <em>they</em> have to become the story. This is what I do in <em>The Garden of Evil.</em> We know very early on who the bad guy is. The book is about both the battle to bring him to justice and a broader, hazier struggle to define what, in these circumstances, justice actually is. And I tell some big lies about the speed in which forensic science can take place in that story by the way, alongside some real and accurate bits of science too.\n\nYou can\'t have the average mystery, crime novel or thriller enter the confusing, jargon-ridden and highly frustrating of the real life justice system as a matter of course, running alongside the rest of the story on equal terms. If you do the time frame of your narrative is likely to become insupportable as your characters sit around twiddling their thumbs, waiting for the reports to come in (as real life cops do all the time).\n\n<strong>Five</strong>... you\'re in grave danger of forgetting what this whole business is really about. Remember what the word \'fiction\' means? We make it up. It\'s a fable, a damned lie, a warped mirror to the real world. Readers understand this implicitly (though you\'ll always get a few pedants pointing out so-called \'inaccuracies\' -- that goes with the job). It\'s a writer\'s imagination that makes a novel work, not his or her strict adherence to that dull old thing called reality.\n\nThere\'s a wonderful saying in Italian: <em>Meglio una bella bugia che una brutta verità.</em> Better a beautiful lie than an ugly truth. Storytellers are in the business of beautiful lies. If you want the ugly truth go buy a newspaper (you may just hit lucky -- who knows?)','The business of beautiful lies','','publish','open','closed','','beautiful-lies','','','2011-01-28 08:10:18','2011-01-28 08:10:18','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=1104',0,'post','',0),(1134,1,'2009-10-22 08:35:16','2009-10-22 07:35:16','Here\'s a question from Michael Baker (I\'m happy to try to answer questions here by the way -- just post them as comments or mail them through the contact form).\n\nMichael says...\n<blockquote>I\'d be interested to read a post on how you make the characters three dimensional; how you weave these threads into scene and narrative.</blockquote>\nI sat on that one for a while. Let me be honest. The posts you see here are not designed to be comprehensive \'how-to\' articles on aspects of the writing craft. They\'re more notes for myself, setting down thoughts I have of my own and making them public. In other words they tend to tackle individual aspects of bigger subjects, not the bigger subjects themselves. And characterisation is surely one of the biggest subjects of all.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nThat\'s my way of saying I won\'t try to answer Michael\'s very big question all in one go. But from time to time I\'ll post thoughts here about how I approach characterisation and let you cherry pick, or reject, what you want.\n\nPeople seem to like the characters in the Costa books. It\'s one of the most common compliments I\'m paid. I don\'t think I handled characters as well in my early work. I suspect most writers would say the same if they were being candid. Characterisation is a subtle, difficult art that comes with experience.\n\nIn the beginning all writers tend to be imitative, trying to follow directly in the path of another, usually established author. We reach for templates, stereotypes, cliches. Readers know them only too well. Your work really only starts to gel when you find your own approach instead of mimicking that of others. That usually takes time.\n\nI think it\'s interesting that Michael asks \'how do you make characters three dimensional\'? As if they start off two dimensional and somehow need to be fleshed out. This isn\'t the way I think of characters at all. In a series like mine I have an established cast of four principal actors, Costa, Peroni, Teresa Lupo and Falcone, who are, by now, very well established in my own head. I <em>hear</em> these people. I know, above all, that they are different in character and temperament and tone of voice and I remind myself of this from time to time through <a href=\"http://www.davidhewson.com/2009/10/insanity-and-the-interior-conversation/\" target=\"_blank\">the technique of the interior conversation</a>.\n\nA simple test of character differentiation is this. Look at the dialogue in any scene and ask yourself: is it interchangeable? Could the same sentences be said by other characters without any change to the words? If most of your dialogue can be switched that way then something is wrong. You haven\'t built an individual voice into your people. They\'re all the same. In truth they all probably sound like you.\n\nI keep <a href=\"http://www.davidhewson.com/2009/09/keeping-track-of-characters/\" target=\"_blank\">character notes</a> in my book diary of course though I don\'t plan out a new character much in advance. I begin with a rough sketch of who they are, what they look like, how they fit in. Then I let them work their way into the story and reveal themselves slowly, naturally, not through some formal, detailed outline.\n\nAuthors are effectively gods of the little world they invent. But to be a real god you have to accept that your creations will, sooner, one hopes, rather than later, discover the power of free will. In other words \'real\' characters in a book aren\'t puppets that can be pushed around according to some story template or plotline. They should have distinct and occasionally unpredictable personalities. If they don\'t shout at you at some stage \'but I just wouldn\'t do that\' then you should be worried. I love that moment. It always demands some rewriting but more importantly it means that finally my people are alive.\n\nSo I suppose the answer to the first part of Michael\'s query is: I hope they\'re never two dimensional, even when they\'re nothing more than a name and a paragraph of character sketch. At that stage I view them as strangers I haven\'t yet got to know, not marionettes without faces waiting for someone to paint on a smile or a frown.\n\nPart of the narrative journey is the discovery of those concealed personalities, the revelation of the true identities of those involved. My job as an author is to chip away at the formless shape in front of me in order to uncover the story in hiding, not concoct some mechanical fabrication that I hope will fit some flimsy and artificial outline for a book.\n\nLet me return to a little more of this interesting and fundamentally unanswerable question another day.','Finding the story in hiding','','publish','open','closed','','finding-the-story-in-hiding','','','2011-01-28 08:10:18','2011-01-28 08:10:18','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=1134',0,'post','',0),(1156,1,'2009-10-23 04:02:10','2009-10-23 03:02:10','A while ago a friend of mine went on holiday for a few days in Suffolk. Knowing he\'s of a nervous disposition I carefully loaded an epub of M. R. James\' <em>Ghost Stories of Antiquary</em> on his Sony ereader and suggested he read the wonderfully scary tale <em>Oh,</em> <em>Whistle and I\'ll Come to You My Lad </em>while he was there<em>.</em> This deeply unsettling piece was set not far from Aldeburgh where he was staying, and a large part of its power rests upon James\'s ability to call up the soulless, bleak East Anglian coast.\n\nWhen he came back he hadn\'t got to that story but he\'d tried several others and loved them. Like most modern readers he\'d never heard of <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._R._James\" target=\"_blank\">M. R. James</a> (above). I was then given a very fine compliment -- \'The way he writes reminds me of you.\'\n\n<!--more-->\n\nThank you, sir, but really it should be the other way round. I\'ve adored Montague Rhodes James since I was a kid. The atmosphere of his work has the vivid immediacy of the London Conan Doyle invented for Sherlock Holmes. But instead of fog and street lamps and hackney carriages James gives us a lost world of dusty academics, strange clerics and unremitting evil, the latter painted with little in the way of conventional horror.\n\nAt the foot of this post there\'s something by him you may find entertaining for a few idle minutes over the weekend. It\'s a fairly conventional tale, <em>Lost Hearts</em>, one that\'s decidedly reminiscent of Henry James\'s better known <em>The Turn of The Screw</em> which was published a few years before. The two men weren\'t related. Henry\'s story is decidedly the superior, more \'literary\' and open to several interpretations<em>.</em> Montague Rhodes simply sets out to produce an entertaining chill and does it very well indeed.\n\nThe antiquary anthology is widely available for free on the Internet; I recommend it highly. I choose <em>Lost Hearts</em> here because it addresses some of the issues I\'ve tried to discuss this week. The piece uses the third person omniscient narrative approach now deemed unfashionable; we have a detached narrator, one assumes James himself, telling the story. Various verbs are used to introduce dialogue -- say, sigh, ask, even \'broke forth\' and not one of them causes the slightest hiccup in the telling of the tale. And yes, there are adverbs, some of which qualify a dialogue verb. Even -- cue screechy violins -- the use of the adverb \'suddenly\'.\n\nSo in terms of some current modern rules of fiction this shouldn\'t work at all. Why does it? Because it\'s recounted by a master story-teller, an erudite man whose primary aim was to tell an entertaining tale, not meet some universal <em>pro forma</em> for fiction. Indeed James originally began to write stories in order to recite them in a candle-lit room to his students at King\'s College Cambridge each Christmas. What wouldn\'t you give for a time machine to be taken back to one of those evenings?\n\nHP Lovecraft adored James. Lovecraft, of course, went on to influence a generation of modern novelists such as Stephen King. So the line from these delicate, studied stories of otherworldly events in genteel rural England to King\'s dark and imaginative fantasies in Maine is both direct and, if you think about it, clearly visible.\n\nGreat stuff. See you next week. The story below comes from the excellent Project Gutenberg by the way. If you want to get the full anthology <a href=\"http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/8486\" target=\"_blank\">just look here. </a>\n\n<a title=\"Lost Hearts by MR James.pdf\" href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/james.jpgwp-content/uploads/2009/10/Lost-Hearts-by-MR-James.pdf\">Lost Hearts by MR James</a>','Something for the weekend','','publish','open','closed','','something-for-the-weekend','','','2011-01-28 08:10:18','2011-01-28 08:10:18','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=1156',0,'post','',0),(1301,1,'2009-10-26 00:37:19','2009-10-26 00:37:19','Script writers often get cold shivers when asked to produce a treatment. Novelists do the same, I suspect, the moment we hear the word \'synopsis\'. In both circumstances creative people find themselves being asked to do something against their essential nature: write down a plain language linear description of a story. One that, to boot, they probably haven\'t written yet.\n\nThere really is nothing I hate more in this whole process than being asked to provide a synopsis of a planned work. There are writers who manage to outline entire books in detail before they start. If you ever get the chance to hear Jeffery Deaver talk about his method you\'ll find one of the most accomplished around. So gripping is Jeff\'s description of the MO that one year, after hearing it, I set out to emulate him and failed miserably. Mapping out everything in advance is <em>hard.</em>\n\nSo I just don\'t do them and my editors know it. Maybe I\'ve been around long enough for people to trust me, so far anyway. But I can plan a few steps ahead for myself only, you understand, and with some magic inside Scrivener manage the whole process pretty damned slickly too. Here\'s how...\n\n<!--more-->\n\nThis technique uses the Scrivener Inspector, the bar on the right of the window here. I\'ll discuss some of the other things there on another occasion (I don\'t use all of them and I suspect you won\'t need to either). For the moment let\'s look at the topmost box: synopsis. Does what it says, of course. But the important thing is that Scrivener sees a book in terms of scenes or chapters. So this is a synopsis for that scene alone. I\'ve typed in some boilerplate text for the scene/chapter itself. After that I can go to the next scene, write a synopsis for that, then write that chapter too.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/scriv.pngwp-content/uploads/2009/10/Screen-shot-2009-10-25-at-17.21.37.png\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/scriv.pngwp-content/uploads/2009/10/Screen-shot-2009-10-25-at-17.21.37-tm.jpg\" alt=\"Screen shot 2009-10-25 at 17.21.37.png\" width=\"460\" height=\"351\" /></a>\n\nBig deal? Well it is actually. Because what we can now do is view these synopses in a very different light. First I need to select the enclosing folder (or master document). Then I go to the menu bar and click on Corkboard. What I get is this...\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/scriv.pngwp-content/uploads/2009/10/Screen-shot-2009-10-25-at-17.27.09.png\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/scriv.pngwp-content/uploads/2009/10/Screen-shot-2009-10-25-at-17.27.09-tm.jpg\" alt=\"Screen shot 2009-10-25 at 17.27.09.png\" width=\"460\" height=\"352\" /></a>\n\nYes. A corkboard outliner and index cards. Americans love these. I\'m sort of learning to love them. But if you prefer a more conventional European-style outliner just click on Outliner instead (make sure you have that folder selected again). Then you get this.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/scriv.pngwp-content/uploads/2009/10/Screen-shot-2009-10-25-at-17.29.40.png\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/scriv.pngwp-content/uploads/2009/10/Screen-shot-2009-10-25-at-17.29.40-tm.jpg\" alt=\"Screen shot 2009-10-25 at 17.29.40.png\" width=\"460\" height=\"277\" /></a>\n\nCorkboard or outliner the idea is the same. What you get here is an overview of your various synopses (and rather more in the outliner view). You no longer need to feel restricted to jotting down your ideas in the sidebar either. In these views you just type them into the index card/outlining section itself (and they will magically appear in the sidebar as you do so). It\'s a great way of setting down ideas very quickly indeed.\n\nHow would you use this?\n\nMy present project is approaching its climax. I want to choreograph the steps to the finale. So I set up a bunch of scenes with boilerplate titles, type in actions for the synopsis of each, and map out the line to the conclusion. If one\'s in the wrong place I just drag it to a different part of the sequence. And, of course, any chapter text I have written for it goes to that new location too. The whole linear construction can be reshaped in a matter of seconds and, if I don\'t like it, put back the way it was or changed to something different again.\n\nIf you want to work that way it feels more natural to me in the Corkboard view. Type, drag, brainstorm... Dead easy (apart from finding the right ideas, of course).\n\nIf you must produce a full synopsis for an editor this is one way you could do it. Scrivener will let you use these synopses as the basis for a full synopsis which you can export out to Word (shudder) or something. I imagine the same goes for movie script treatments too, though that\'s not my field. Movie writers can also make use of a nifty trick to plan a movie in Scrivener then export it in a format which can be read by the popular scriptwriting app Final Draft. I would test that for you but unfortunately Final Draft deauthorised itself when I upgraded to Snow Leopard and the only way I can get back the software I paid for is by phoning someone in Los Angeles, at their convenience. Thanks a bundle.\n\nI\'m a synopsis hater and find this facility really rather useful. Just don\'t tell any of my editors, will you?','The dreaded synopsis','','publish','open','closed','','the-dreaded-synopsis','','','2011-01-28 08:10:18','2011-01-28 08:10:18','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=1301',0,'post','',0),(1317,1,'2009-10-26 16:38:49','2009-10-26 16:38:49','In a few hours I\'ll be heading off to Vancouver airport for the flight back to the UK. It\'s raining out there, real writing weather. So I thought I\'d set down a few quick thoughts about the event I\'ve just attended, the <a href=\"http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/\" target=\"_blank\">Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival</a>. This is my last public event of the year and I have to say far and away the best. In fact the best in many a long year.\n\nIf you\'re a resident of British Columbia who doesn\'t know about the festival please read this too, because this festival, along with many other of your arts institutions, is in peril. And it really is something special, trust me. Here are a few reasons why.\n\n<!--more-->\n<ul>\n	<li>Vancouver has catholic tastes. The author lineup runs the gamut, from literary to popular, poetry to kids\' workshops. There are plenty of big names, like Sarah Waters, Margaret Atwood and John Irving. But there are plenty of lesser known names from Canada and beyond.</li>\n	<li>Vancouver is fun. Events brimmed over with enthusiasm and good humour.</li>\n	<li>The festival never forgot that it was for Writers and <em>Readers</em>. This wasn\'t some closed, annual cliquey club. The public was brought in as equal participants everywhere I went, asking good, intelligent questions, staying around to chat afterwards. Authors weren\'t stuck on lofty pedestals. We were all in this together.</li>\n	<li>Location, location, location. The whole event takes place on Granville Island, a curious former industrial enclave of the city that\'s now a burgeoning arts community. It has theatres and other venues of varying sizes, a great market, restaurants, cafes. You could attend the whole thing without setting foot off the island. A more perfect location for an arts festival it\'s hard to imagine.</li>\n	<li>Volunteers. A whole army of them, always with a smile, involved, engaged and ever ready to help.</li>\n	<li>Organisation. The administration side was as smooth as I\'ve ever seen, everything from gathering authors together pre-panel to making sure the mikes work. Even the festival brochure was a work of art.</li>\n	<li>Great moderation. If there was any of the \'one question, pass it down the line\' school of panels here I never saw it. The moderators were great, letting the conversation just freely enough to be improvisational but keeping a light rein so that it stayed in focus.</li>\n</ul>\nI don\'t think anyone who attended this festival could be in any doubt about its worth. Yet the British Columbia government is threatening to make swingeing cuts in its support to arts events like this, and there are only a few weeks left in which this can be overturned. You can <a href=\"http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/community/advocacy\" target=\"_blank\">read some of the background here</a> and a briefing document is attached at the end of this article.\n\nLeaving aside cultural and social issues let\'s talk money, since that\'s what politicians seem to care about most. During the four days I\'ve been on Granville Island the festival has packed this place to the seams. I\'ve met people who\'ve flown from all over North America for this event. They filled the hotels, bars and restaurants, they shopped in the market, they spent and spent. Lots will come again -- I know I asked them. And lots will go further afield too when they return. This was my first visit to Vancouver and I have to say when that magic space appears for a holiday British Columbia is going to be high on the destination list because, thanks to the festival, I\'ve got an inkling of what\'s here.\n\nArts events like this are living endorsements for the communities they serve, just as much if not more than expensive and flashy advertising and public relations campaigns. They give back much more than the little they take. I do hope the powers that be in British Columbia see the light and begin to realise how lucky they are to have treasures like this on their doorstep. There are plenty of other places in the world that must wish they were half as fortunate.\n\nThere... off the soapbox now. A simple thanks to Artistic Director Hal Wake and his staff and volunteers for a fantastic time. Good luck with the future.\n\n<a title=\"culture-matters.pdf\" href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/vanc.jpgwp-content/uploads/2009/10/culture-matters.pdf\">Culture matters</a>','Why culture matters','','publish','open','closed','','why-culture-matters','','','2011-01-28 08:10:18','2011-01-28 08:10:18','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=1317',0,'post','',0),(1242,1,'2009-10-27 00:01:01','2009-10-27 00:01:01','People are always asking me questions. I like that, but let me pose one for a change.\n\nWhy do you want to write anyway? I mean it\'s not as if there\'s a million great writing jobs going out there. Or people strutting around saying, \'Look at my new Mercedes -- see where writing got <em>me.\'</em>\n\nWhat is the big deal exactly?\n\nActually I do ask this of people from time to time. Let me give you some of the answers I get and the response I\'d really like to give if politeness didn\'t dictate otherwise. Then, finally, the answer I\'d like to hear... and never have.\n\n<!--more-->\n<blockquote>I\'ve always wanted to write.</blockquote>\nOK. That\'s probably the number one response when the question comes up. I\'ve used it myself from time to time, and will do again. But you know something? It\'s a really pathetic answer. Like saying, \'I always wanted to be an astronaut\'. Or, \'On balance I\'d prefer healthy immortality to old age and eventual death.\' It may be accurate but it tells you nothing. Answers are supposed to <em>answer</em>. This one doesn\'t.\n<blockquote>I always thought it would be cool to have my name on a book.</blockquote>\nThat\'s understandable, though I must be honest: no one except your friends and relatives will spot it <em>and they know you already.</em> Authors don\'t get a lot of celebrity recognition. Would you know James Patterson if you were sharing a cab? Probably not, and he\'s been on <em>The Simpsons. </em>If, by some miracle, the world at large actually does spot you on the cover it will, in any case, simply prompt the question, \'Is that your real name?\'\n<blockquote>I want to get rich.</blockquote>\nHa, ha, HA!\n<blockquote>My present job sucks.</blockquote>\nGenerally speaking good things in life come from positive sentiments not negative ones. In other words things you <em>want</em> to do not things you want to avoid. Would you go to a job interview and say, \'The reason I need this post is because my present one\'s a nightmare\'? Not if you want to get it. An awful lot of people seem to think that writing offers an escape route from the routine of office work in today\'s uncertain environment. They are likely to be sadly disappointed. Most authors have to do two jobs -- writing and something else -- for several years in order to survive. The number who go on to write full time without some other source of income is relatively small.\n<blockquote>I want an easy life. You know, one where you just work a couple of hours a day and don\'t have to commute or get bogged down in the hassle that comes with a real job.</blockquote>\nSelf employment of all kinds usually entails longer working hours than would be legal in staff jobs, pay rates beneath the minimum wage and frequent savage encounters with the grim reality of spending countless hours at home: blocked drains, child and partner tantrums, sick pets and a never-ending round of highly visible household chores. Writing is no exception. Oh, and it is a real job by the way. Real work, risky work, often badly paid and hardly a secure career choice. If it\'s the cushy life you\'re after look elsewhere.\n<blockquote>They say everyone has a book inside them and I\'d like mine to come out.</blockquote>\nHow many of the people who say this have actually written books themselves? The idea that everyone can write is patently and visibly absurd.  No one says, \'Everyone can sing\'. Personally I\'d love to be able to paint but I know I can\'t. Why should writing be any different? And even if it\'s true everyone has a book inside them, is it really likely to be something that anyone else wants to read?\n\nOK. Now here\'s the real answer. Ready?\n<blockquote>The reason I want to write is because I\'ve got something inside me I\'m burning to say.</blockquote>\nGood. Now go and say it.','So why do you want to write?','','publish','open','closed','','so-why-do-you-want-to-write','','','2011-01-28 08:10:18','2011-01-28 08:10:18','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=1242',0,'post','',0),(1227,1,'2009-10-28 03:00:29','2009-10-28 03:00:29','You get asked some strange questions in this business. My number one of recent times is the chap at a UK literary festival who asked me, \'Wouldn\'t your books be easier to read if the people didn\'t have Italian names?\'\n\nWell, I guess...\n\nHere\'s another weird one: how long does it take you to <em>write</em> a book?\n\n<!--more-->Wrong question altogether. To explain why let me do something I like to try from time to time in an effort to understand this strange trade: compare it with other art forms. Take art itself. I suppose people did ask Caravaggio how long it took him to paint his masterpieces but they probably got a punch in the mouth in return. Artists spend an enormous time sketching out possibilities, throwing them away, trying them out a little, reworking them, mixing their paints, choosing their brushes, their canvas, their easel, their studio, <em>thinking.</em> The hours spent applying the paint you see in the finished article are the tip of the iceberg. Without all that stuff underneath the thing would never have been finished in the first place.\n\nStories, too, require foundations, preparatory work, reflection time. All of that is part of the project. Thinking that the only way you can advance the thing is by putting words on the page is frankly ridiculous. What matters is that the work is always, always <em>alive -- </em>even, or perhaps especially, if you\'re not writing a word. Bubbling away somewhere in your head, getting richer, firing your imagination, sprouting more possibilities.\n\nThere are times when a writer should walk away from a project altogether and get some space and perspective and I\'ll set down some thoughts on them one day. But the most immediate problem most of us face is a simpler, more direct one: how do you maintain some life and enthusiasm in a work in progress, particularly when you haven\'t the faintest clue what to write next or the time to keep on top of it?\n\nAnswer: you keep it with you, always, like fluff in the pocket, something that never goes away. Serious writing must mean the dividing line between work and leisure is pretty much gone forever. If you\'re not willing to accept that give up now. I started writing these words in my hotel room at the Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival. I got the idea for this post over breakfast, a few minutes ago. It was a beautiful day outside with a wonderful-looking festival on my doorstep. People kept telling me to go to Victoria or the wine district. It\'s now four days later, I\'m in Vancouver airport, waiting for my flight home, and I\'m finishing this article. I never got time to much except go downtown -- but I did write a lot. I have to. That\'s what I do.\n\nAs always I\'ve a little laptop with me - a MacBook Air in my case. I also have a note taking application on my Phone, a camera and, when things get desperate, pen and paper (though since I lose physical notepads all the time the latter is definitely third best).\n\nWhen I see or think something that\'s relevant to my current work schedule I make a note about it <em>there and then.</em> No procrastination. No... <em>I\'ll do that later after I have lunch, or do the markets, or go listen to Margaret Atwood.</em>\n\nThat\'s death. I\'m a lazy sod at heart. Either it won\'t happen at all or it will be an afterthought, nowhere near as complete as it was when the bright spark first lit up.\n\nWe have so many ways of getting down thoughts these days. Through a computer, a phone or just a simple voice note. And by keeping that thought you do two things: preserve it for the future, and subtly remind yourself there\'s still a work supposedly in progress.\n\nHere are some other things you can do if you\'re feeling stuck.\n<ul>\n	<li>Print out the pages so far and try and see them through the eyes of a reader. You\'ll be amazed, too, how different things look when they\'re ink on paper, not dots on a screen.</li>\n	<li>Go through the notes in your book diary (you are keeping one?) and see if somewhere along the line you haven\'t let a thread that once seemed important fall by the wayside. I\'ll be very surprised if you haven\'t and it may be an important thread.</li>\n	<li>Try and get some perspective on the piece by asking yourself how it would look if it were written differently. What would it be like if you switched, say, from first person to third? If some of your characters were male instead of female, young instead of old, black instead of white? Dream a little, go off-piste.</li>\n	<li>Think of a later scene in the story, one you know is going to take place, and see if you can map it out and maybe even write it.</li>\n</ul>\nBudding authors come up with a million excuses why their books stay unfinished. No time, someone sick in the family, a crisis of confidence, problems at work, someone else\'s manuscript to read in the book group. But the biggest reason books go unfinished is a very simple one: people just don\'t get around to writing them.\n\nThe old whine -- I don\'t have time because I don\'t write for a living -- doesn\'t cut any ice. I do write for a living and let me tell you I\'ve never had so little free time in my life -- or enjoyed myself more. Beginner or pro we all have to make good use of what we have and cut out the excuses.\n\nOh, and for your own good don\'t get swallowed up by Facebook and Twitter either, for those places are, if overused, the biggest cemetery of unfinished manuscripts there is.','Keeping a project alive','','publish','open','closed','','keeping-a-project-alive','','','2011-01-28 08:10:18','2011-01-28 08:10:18','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=1227',0,'post','',0),(1176,1,'2009-10-29 00:20:45','2009-10-29 00:20:45','Back to the subject of character. How do you persuade the reader to adopt an opinion about the actors in your tale, positive or negative? In very simple fiction it\'s easy. Good people wear white hats, bad people black ones. Good people are white-skinned, athletic, have nice smiles and pat any dog that passes. Bad guys have scars, crooked teeth, greasy hair, swarthy skin and pull the wings off flies.\n\nAhem. Even in kids\' fiction that doesn\'t work except as a joke. I can\'t, I\'m afraid, accept either that you disclose the personality of individuals by attaching a simple label to them. \'Renowned scientist Roger Frick\'... \'Courageous Captain Hearty\'... Sorry. I need more subtle tricks.\n\nHere\'s one.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nAs I\'ve emphasised before, in the Costa books I usually work very strictly to the method known as the third person restricted viewpoint. This means that every scene is seen through the eyes of a single character, as if the reader is sitting on his or her shoulder, viewing what\'s happening through their eyes.\n\nThere are reasons why this particular viewpoint is the most common in modern third person fiction. One of them is to do with characterisation. When I was starting out as a writer I thought that you established character by writing about the individual directly. You show him being kind or cruel. You reveal him as a hypocrite or liar by showing how his inner thoughts conflict with his outwards action and what he says out loud. You paint him directly on the page.\n\nThis is fine, and something that all writers can and will do. But if you adopt the third person restricted fully you can approach this problem another way. Remember, if you get this right the reader is inside the head of your POV character, seeing everything through his or her eyes. When your character, and through him your reader, views other people a subtle and potentially powerful chain reaction kicks in. The response of the reader is refined and enhanced by the very fact they are discovering this person indirectly, through the eyes of another character in the book.\n\nThink of it like this for a scene in which Costa is the POV character.\n<ul>\n	<li>Nic Costa is dealing with two of his colleagues.</li>\n	<li>He clearly likes one and appreciates his opinion.</li>\n	<li>Nic does <em>not</em> like the other guy.</li>\n</ul>\nBecause we know Nic, like him and trust him already, his opinion comes to colour ours. Through his eyes we understand that the one he likes should turn out to be trustworthy and decent, unless Nic\'s a bad judge of character (which is rare). And we suspect the other guy, even if Nic doesn\'t go that far, precisely because Nic is such a good judge of character. So we\'ve established some personality traits without ever having to state them baldly, and they are reinforced by the relationship the reader already has with Nic. Works well all round for me.\n\nIt gets even more interesting if the POV character is less reliable. Supposing he\'s <em>not</em> a good judge of character and the reader knows this. If he then starts trusting someone, we\'re going to think... uh-oh, this may not be such a good idea.\n\nIn real life we judge people both directly and through the eyes of others. Books are no different. There\'s a powerful and ingenious tool here for anyone who wants to use it.\n\nQuick point: since I\'m going to deal with character issues piecemeal and at a random pace there\'s now a \'Character\' tag in the sidebar. You can quickly pick up every post on the subject by hitting that, or the tag at the bottom of this article. And remember: if you\'d like me to answer another question or expand on this one just say so in a comment and I\'ll hope to get back to it one day.','Through the eyes of others','','publish','open','closed','','through-the-eyes-of-others','','','2011-01-28 08:10:18','2011-01-28 08:10:18','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=1176',0,'post','',0),(1706,1,'2009-11-10 07:37:39','2009-11-10 07:37:39','Someone made a movie of my first book, <em>Semana Santa.</em> It\'s pretty much like every movie based on a book. Nothing close to the original. In the book the protagonist is a sensitive woman academic brought to an anonymous Spanish city during Holy Week and trapped inside a cycle of murders which she can understand because, for personal reasons, she has a special insight into what\'s going on.\n\nIn the movie she\'s Mira Sorvino in Seville, a cop to boot, has a different name and a somewhat changed personality. The movie contains this exchange between her and the other principal protagonist, a male cop, Quemada.\n<blockquote>Quemada: Women have been known to throw their panties at him.\n\nMaria Delgado: I\'ll be sure to wear some for the occasion.</blockquote>\nI did not write those lines. Or anything else in it. I don\'t think it\'s a great movie but then I would say that. Still, it doesn\'t stop people asking me all the time.. will there be a Costa movie? Who would you like to play him? Is it going to turn up on TV?\n\nHere are some honest answers.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nMaybe. But you won\'t hear me talk about the possibility until there\'s some serious sign it might actually happen. Authors get approaches from the movie business all the time. If I wrote here about every informal discussion I had people might think a movie was around the corner and that simply wouldn\'t be true. Lots of approaches are tentative. Some are from people who don\'t really have the backing or experience to take the project any further (anyone can and will call themselves a \'producer\').\n\nGetting excited every time someone \'from the movie business\' expresses an interest in my work would be downright ridiculous. I\'ve lost track of how many times these people come and go over the years. In any case \'signing a movie\' deal is not what it seems. The first step is signing an option. This simply allows a producer to go away and try to drum up the initial seed money for the next phase of a project, usually writing a screenplay. It normally involves a small amount of money for the author. Last time I checked something like ninety per cent of optioned books never get turned into movies. See what I mean about not getting excited?\n\nThe next step after option is so-called \'development\', the phase of getting a script made and a cast and production team assembled. This requires more money. In the case of <em>Semana Santa</em> that process took four years and involved a lot of on-off moments. It is entirely possible for a project to get to the end of this phase, have a completed screenplay and willing cast and crew, <em>and still not get made.</em> Note the excitement comment above.\n\nThe final step is going into production. This will usually mean the movie will be completed. Most of the time it will mean the movie will be completed <em>and</em> released. On occasion the whole thing will collapse part way through and everyone will be scratching around trying to get paid out of the mess that follows. Or the movie may be made, get turned down by theatrical distributors and go straight to DVD.\n\nNone of these processes is remotely entertaining. In fact they\'re hellish and any author who decides to get involved in them will discover his or her book-writing time savagely diminished by work that may not lead to anything the public ever sees. Writing books is simple. I finish them, I sell them, they get published. Movie making is a long string of semi-related catastrophes-in-waiting, any one of which may sink a project for good after years of work, some of it unpaid for a few people in all probability.\n\nAnd even if a movie based on a book does get made what are the chances of it being good? What, for that matter, do I mean by good? Should it reflect the original book, as readers expect? Or should it be aimed at the tastes of movie-goers, most of whom probably don\'t know there was a book in the first place and even if they do doubtless don\'t care?\n\nI know where my sympathies lie: with movie-goers. I\'m more interested in having a good movie that works than \'being faithful to the spirit of the original\'. Books are books and films are films. There is no halfway house. The only point in turning a book into a movie is making a good movie, not paying homage to the literary source. A movie that accurately reflects the texture and complexity of a book is probably a movie that\'s going to fail. These are different media, one complex and internalised, the other simpler, faster and more dramatic. You can\'t have it both ways.\n\nThe <em>business</em> of movie-making, on the other hand, is prolix, fragile, unpredictable and horribly prone to accidents and failure. It\'s a miracle films get made at all, and a greater miracle that any of them turn out to be in the least entertaining. Any author who pins his or her hopes on commercial success through the movies is living in cloud cuckoo land.\n\nMore importantly, why on earth should any author feel they need a movie or TV series to validate their work? Books should do that by themselves. The movie of <em>Semana Santa</em> didn\'t make me a better or worse writer, and wouldn\'t have done if it had worked well either. Money apart, which was nice, it\'s largely irrelevant to the way my writing has developed over the ensuing years.\n\nIf a TV or movie company comes along with a serious offer that I think has at least a flying chance of turning into something worthwhile on the big or small screen then I\'m happy to entertain it. That hasn\'t happened so far. Maybe it will in the future. But I\'m not on tenterhooks about the prospect and I rather hope readers will start to feel that way too. After all when a movie of the book is made most of them think it\'s an injustice because the characters aren\'t how they pictured them or the narrative has been simplified (which is usually essential in the transition from page to screen).\n\nBecause I\'m silent on these matters don\'t assume that discussions aren\'t taking place. But until I have some firm and genuine news I will always keep schtum. There\'s enough hot air in this business already without my adding to it.\n\nAnd... <em>Cut!</em>','Will there be a movie?','','publish','open','closed','','will-there-be-a-movie','','','2011-01-28 08:09:49','2011-01-28 08:09:49','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=1706',0,'post','',0),(1272,1,'2009-11-11 07:27:25','2009-11-11 07:27:25','Let\'s go back to talking about the so-called rules of writing again. Here\'s another one you\'ll meet from time to time: never ever use typographical elements to emphasise or dramatise parts of your text.\n\nExample....\n<blockquote>\'EEKKKK!!! Desmond! <em>DESMOND!!!!</em> Colonel Farquhart\'s just been found <strong>DEAD</strong> face down in the hothouse aspidistra!!!\'\n\n\'How <em>very</em> inconvenient, darling. I\'d only just pruned it.\'</blockquote>\nThere are some stinkers there. But there\'s also something that I think is rather handy and worthy of use, as always with the caveat \'in moderation\'.\n\nLet\'s deal with the shockers first.\n\n<!--more-->\n\n<strong>Exclamation marks</strong>.\n\nSome people say these should never be used. I disagree. Exclamation marks are long-standing elements of punctuation that serve a purpose. They add that extra sense of power at the end of a sentence:\n<blockquote>I don\'t care, I\'m going to do it anyway!</blockquote>\nI don\'t have any problem with that so long as exclamation marks are used very lightly indeed, not sprinkled around like confetti. What you mustn\'t do either is think you can enhance the process by adding in more than one. Multiple exclamation marks -- or question marks for that matter -- are bad punctuation, ugly on the page and look rather childish (which <em>may</em> make them OK for kids\' books).\n\n<strong>Capital letters for emphasis</strong>.\n\nAvoid. Shouty, inelegant and ineffective.\n\n<strong>Exaggerated spelling.</strong>\n\nFor example....\n<blockquote>Eeekkkkk! Wooooo-o-o-o-tttt! Begorrrrrhaaaah!</blockquote>\nYou don\'t really need me to say it, do you?\n\n<strong>The use of bold</strong>.\n\nBold is a typographic function principally used in non-fiction and journalism as a design feature. It\'s not there to emphasis individual words in a narrative work. Fiction, particularly popular fiction, emulates the oral storytelling tradition. Punctuation, used properly, signals the pauses and effects used someone reading a story. Bold has no place in that process.\n\n<strong>The use of italics</strong>\n\nFinally something I can and will use. But isn\'t it just like bold, you say? A typographic convention? Well yes, but it\'s a long-established one that fulfils several readily understood purposes in books.\n\nHere are some ways you will see them used...\n\nFor emphasis. Consider these two sentences.\n<blockquote>Are you the only one who\'s going to turn up today?\n\nAre you the <em>only</em> one who\'s going to turn up today?</blockquote>\nSame words, slightly different tone through nothing other than the italics in the second. I can\'t think of any other way to achieve that though perhaps an italics jihadist out there can suggest one.\n\nFor foreign words.\n<blockquote>The <em>abbacchio scottadito</em> was perfect.</blockquote>\nYou\'ll often see this in my books since they take place in Italy. But I don\'t italicise everything (otherwise there\'d be a lot of italics around). Very common words such as Questura I leave in Roman (i.e. plain) text since they appear so often they don\'t seem so foreign. This is my rule and completely invented. But you wouldn\'t want to italicise pizza, would you? I\'m tempted to think a better rule would be to leave foreign words alone completely but this would go against the style of most publishers (and their style is what will apply to the finished book).\n\nFor interior thought.\n<blockquote><em>Does he really love me</em>, Rebecca wondered.</blockquote>\nOr simply a single line.\n<blockquote><em>Does he love me?</em></blockquote>\nI\'m uncertain about the first, though it is popular and house style for many publishers. It seems to mix styles unnecessarily. The second sounds OK to me because it represents an entire interior spoken thought, which the first doesn\'t. But it could quickly become annoying if overused. You decide.\n\nBook titles, newspaper names, ships... <em>The Times, Moby Dick,</em> the <em>Queen Mary.</em> All OK.\n\nTo represent historic passages. You\'ll find in some of my American editions, notably <em>Lucifer\'s Shadow</em> and <em>The Seventh Sacrament</em> whole sections are printed in italics. Nothing to do with me. This is the publisher\'s editorial style. I don\'t like it. Italics should be used for a single sentence or two at most. In big chunks they become unreadable.\n\nOne oddity about italics that people sometimes forget: if you want to italicise something within an italic sentence you revert to the plain Roman style. For example....\n<blockquote><em>Perhaps we should put a notice in</em> The Times.</blockquote>\nI use italics sparingly, principally for unusual foreign words and for the emphasis of single words in direct speech. They can give text a rhythm and texture that\'s difficult, if not impossible, to achieve through any other means. The other tricks I mentioned at the beginning, though, are best avoided except as pastiche or in fun stuff for children.','Questions of style','','publish','open','closed','','questions-type','','','2011-01-28 08:09:49','2011-01-28 08:09:49','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=1272',0,'post','',0),(1776,1,'2009-11-12 07:01:39','2009-11-12 07:01:39','Those of us who spend a large part of our time settled in front of a computer pick up ingrained habits. From time to time I like to check mine to make sure they still seem sensible. Usually there\'s something I can improve, and by improve I generally mean simplify. Cutting something out in other words. Economy is good.\n\nThe result of the last desktop audit is now in. I have a new computer system, the barest I\'ve ever owned, and the best too. Here\'s a list of what\'s changed.\n\nFirst, I\'ve moved from two monitors to just one. I\'ve been a dual monitor chap for the best part of a decade or more. It seemed to make sense when I began because at that time I was working as a journalist and a novelist. The left hand monitor dealt with the daily burst of emails and appointments. The right hand one was for writing. Until this latest change I had a 15 inch MacBook Pro working as the left monitor and Apple\'s 24 inch screen as the right.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nThe problem is that more and more I found these two monitors competing for my time while I write. I\'m no longer a journalist. I work most of the time at the computer on a single manuscript. Life\'s a lot simpler than it used to be. I get fewer emails too. I wanted to be able to focus on the real work more and get nagged by the ephemera a little less. That said, I still need to divide my screen time into different areas -- writing, book research, and the web stuff such as email and a browser. The Mac has something called Spaces -- a virtual desktop I\'m sure you can find on Windows too. This lets you set up virtual screens and cycle through them with keys. So I have my writing screen, my research screen and my web screen. Most of the time I\'m in the first. When I need the others I go to them just by pressing a keystroke set up for Spaces. I see the distracting stuff only when I want to. Brilliant.\n\nThe MB Pro is now a laptop, as it\'s supposed to be. In its place is the latest Mac mini (4 gb, memory 2.6 ghz chip or something, 320 gb of hard drive which is plain ridiculous of course). Dead simple, dead compact, dead good.\n\nSecond, software. I\'ve had an awful habit of picking up stray applications over the years. It\'s a bad one and I\'m curing it. More software costs money, clogs up the computer and slows things down in the end. The mini has on it just the few applications I intend to use on a day to day basis, nothing more. I don\'t run Microsoft Windows in any form, in Boot Camp or Parallels, because I no longer need it. I absolutely refuse to install any utility programs that offer to automate some aspect of my life. It\'s just a handful of simple, cheap apps and that\'s it. They are...\n\n<a href=\"http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.html\" target=\"_blank\">Scrivener</a> ($39.95) for writing. I imagine most of you know what this is about already -- for those who don\'t it\'s specialist writing software I use to write all my books from now on.\n\n<a href=\"http://www.apple.com/iwork/\" target=\"_blank\">iWork</a> ($79). Apple\'s office suite consisting of Pages, a word processor, Numbers, a spreadsheet (which I rarely use) and Keynote, a presentation package I use for any illustrated talks I give. Pages imports and exports Word files so I use this to prepare my exported Scrivener draft to send off to my editors.\n\n<a href=\"http://www.marinersoftware.com/sitepage.php?page=85\" target=\"_blank\">MacJournal</a> ($39.95). Journal and diary-keeping software. I use it to keep a diary on each book project containing reference material and development notes.\n\n<a href=\"http://www.evernote.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Evernote</a>. (Free at its most basic though I pay for the premium service which has more features and costs $45 a year). Evernote is a note and data storing service that stores your information on the web and can sync it between computers, phones and iPods. I use it for storing very general data which may or may not be useful for different potential projects. Then if they become live I will usually transfer the information to the MacJournal diary devoted to the project. I really wish Evernote would introduce hierarchical folders but they seem dead set against it which is annoying. But still a good service.\n\n<a href=\"http://xtralean.com/IWOverview.html\" target=\"_blank\">Imagewell</a> ($19.95). Cheap and simple image editor which I use for resizing images for blog posts. Simple drag and drop process and much, much easier than Photoshop.\n\n<a href=\"http://flyingmeat.com/acorn/\" target=\"_blank\">Acorn</a> ($49.95). A more sophisticated image editor for more complex editing jobs. Don\'t use it much to be honest and could probably do without it.\n\n<a href=\"http://illuminex.com/ecto/\" target=\"_blank\">Ecto</a> ($19.95). Fantastic offline blog editor which lets me write these posts anywhere, anytime.\n\n<a href=\"http://echofon.com/twitter/mac/\" target=\"_blank\">Echofon</a> (Free). Handy little Twitter client.\n\nI use a free <a href=\"https://www.dropbox.com/home#/\" target=\"_blank\">Dropbox</a> account for simple backups and transferring files between machines. Dropbox is a fantastic service for storing data on an external server. If you store a lot of stuff on Dropbox you need to pay but I barely get over a handful of Scrivener of files so it costs nothing. I also back up locally to Apple\'s Time Capsule and online to Apple\'s MobileMe service which costs £60 a year or so.\n\nBy my reckoning that gives me a fully operating office software system for under $250 plus another £90 a year for Evernote and MobileMe. Rather less than Microsoft Office alone used to cost me not long ago. I\'m very happy with this new simplified system. It does strike me, too, that there isn\'t a single piece of Microsoft software on there any more, something I\'ve never been able to say in something like twenty five years. And here is what it looks like (excuse the photo quality but I\'m not good with a camera and this is a rather grey afternoon). Click for a bigger view.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/desk.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1784 alignnone\" title=\"desk\" src=\"http://www.davidhewson.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/desk-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"desk\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /></a>','Keeping it simple','','publish','open','closed','','keeping-it-simple','','','2011-01-28 08:09:49','2011-01-28 08:09:49','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=1776',0,'post','',0),(1623,1,'2009-11-13 08:00:40','2009-11-13 08:00:40','Sredni Vashtar is a chilling little story from the pen of a master of Edwardian fiction, Hector Hugh Monro, better known by his pseudonym, <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saki\" target=\"_blank\">Saki</a>. It\'s a short tale from his collection <em><a href=\"http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3401\" target=\"_blank\">The Chronicles of Clovis</a></em>. The link I gave in the last sentence takes you to an excellent free edition on the superb <a href=\"http://www.feedbooks.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Feedbooks.com</a> site and includes an epub version for those of you with an ereader that can take such stuff. You can find the story on Page 45.\n\nIf you\'re new to Saki you\'re in for a treat. If you haven\'t read him in a while, ditto. Sredni Vashtar is a simple little tale. A sickly young boy called Conradin has a nasty guardian, Mrs de Ropp, who mistreats him. Not that Saki, being a good Edwardian, would allow this to be made plain in print. Instead he simply records, \'Mrs. de Ropp would never, in her honestest moments, have confessed to herself that she disliked Conradin, though she might have been dimly aware that thwarting him \"for his good\" was a duty which she did not find particularly irksome.\'\n\n<!--more-->\n\nConradin loves but two things in his life: his pet Houdan hen and a polecat-ferret which the strange child worships as a kind of god. Mrs de Ropp sells the hen. This is not a good idea.\n\nThere are many reasons to admire Saki, for his imagination, his narrative skill, and his exploration of a broad range of styles and subjects, everything from domestic drama and romance to the darker fringes of pure horror. But it\'s his voice I always remember, crystal clear, sardonic and irredeemably cruel. His opinion of Edwardian society is stark and unforgiving. Behind the delicate, studied language there always seems to be a hatred of the world he sees, one some believe stemmed from Monro\'s personal nature; he may have been homosexual at a time when homosexuality was illegal. The fate of his contemporary, Oscar Wilde, may have played on Monro. It\'s not hard to imagine Wilde\'s own voice in some of these tales.\n\nI\'m not sure how you\'d categorise <em>Sredni Vashtar</em>. It\'s subtle, creepy, and darkly funny in a deeply cruel way. Horror? Macabre? Fantasy? It doesn\'t really matter. Saki swapped authorial hats at will. Why should readers, a century later, care? Why, indeed, should we be so obsessed with placing labels on stories? It seemed irrelevant to Saki. I wish more of us felt that way today.\n\nSaki had an extraordinary life... and death. Born to colonial parents in Burma he worked as a policeman there before becoming a journalist in London, working for a while as a foreign correspondent for <em>The Morning Post.</em> He then settled in London and began to write short stories for newspapers. At the outbreak of the First World War he joined up, though at forty three he was over age, refusing a commission to enlist as an ordinary soldier. In 1916 he was killed by a sniper.\n\nHis last words, supposedly, were, \'Put that bloody cigarette out!\' It would have made a great line in one of his stories too.','Something for the weekend - Saki&#039;s Sredni Vashtar','','publish','open','closed','','something-for-the-weekend-sakis-sredni-vashtar','','','2011-01-28 08:09:49','2011-01-28 08:09:49','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=1623',0,'post','',0),(1807,1,'2009-11-13 11:52:42','2009-11-13 11:52:42','I spent years as a reporter, trudging round the world with a pen and a notebook. Hated those things. In the Times office in Grays Inn Road I had a filing cabinet full of spent notebooks, filled with my dreadful shorthand. If anybody had seriously asked me to retrieve something from them -- and it happened from time to time -- I struggled to decode the shorthand even if I could find the thing in the first place.\n\nWe live in the computer age. Making simple notes on the go and keeping them ought to be easier than this. The software\'s not the problem. There\'s plenty of stuff around, including <a href=\"http://www.evernote.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Evernote</a> which is the main general note keeping app I use. It lets you write things and store web pages then syncs them back to its own servers and shares them around with your other computers and phones and netbook or whatever.\n\nNo, it\'s the hardware. The pen and notebook replacement. Lord knows I\'ve tried so many over the years. These include the Apple Newton, Palm Pilots, iPaqs, iPhones, Tablet PCs, iPod Touches, my present Android phone... the list goes on. Now I\'m about to try another. Why is this basic requirement, one so many of us crave, so blasted hard to fulfil?\n\n<!--more-->\n\nLet me take you through some of the reasons for failure first.\n\nNewton: based on handwriting recognition, which didn\'t work and wouldn\'t have been sufficient even if it did. I don\'t want to write. Typing\'s faster and more accurate.\n\niPaq, iPods, all those little phone/PDA thingies: too damned small. Picking out a real or virtual tiny keyboard with your thumbs is OK for a sentence but no more than that. Currently I use a great little app on my Android phone - Note Everything (free in basic form though I paid the pittance for the Pro version, as I usually do, in order to encourage whoever\'s behind it to keep on working). For what it does it\'s wonderful -- better than anything I\'ve tried before. But it\'s still a struggle to write more than a sentence or two.\n\nNext week I go to Seville for work. This will involve a lot of footslogging, sitting down in cafes, outdoors even if the weather\'s nice. There I\'d like to be able to make proper notes. You know, paragraphs. Lots and lots of text. I cannot pick that out with my thumbs. My MacBook Air is too big to lug around all day and the battery packs in after two hours or so. I need something smaller, something that runs all day, and has a decent keyboard for proper work. This is supposed to be it.\n\nIt\'s an Asus 1005HA, £279 delivered from Amazon. It has Windows 7 on it, 1gb of memory and a massive 250gb hard drive. The battery life is supposed to be 8.5 hours. Sounds good in principle. Here are the problems.\n\nWindows 7.\n\nWindows 7.\n\nWindows 7.\n\nYes, I know I normally use Macs. I could, if I wanted try to install OS X on the thing. But it\'s technically difficult and legally dodgy (as someone who lives by intellectual property myself I don\'t feel I should be messing with other people\'s). So my first instinct is to try to work with Windows and boy that\'s hard. I\'ve had this netbook for a day now. I\'ve lost count of the number of updates I\'ve installed already. It banged in a bunch yesterday. Just now I tried to close it down, one day later, and it says it\'s installing another twelve and won\'t close until it\'s finished. What gives?\n\nWindows on a 10 inch screen is the same as it is on a bigger monitor only worse. Still too complex, still asking me strange questions from time to time (yes, I do want to run that application, thanks -- that\'s why I clicked on it). I can\'t run Scrivener of course. But I can run Evernote and it looks OK. And I put MS Office on there in the thought that perhaps I could use OneNote for note-taking. Then took one look at the thing and ran screaming around for a while.\n\n<em>All I want to do is take simple notes. How hard can it get? Why is everything so complicated and so terribly slow.</em>\n\nWell I guess if it\'s going to be Windows I\'ll stick with Evernote, even though that looks horribly fiddly on the ten inch screen. The truth is computers are changing. These little information beasts require something other than the big, do everything operating systems we\'re used to -- Windows and OS X. People are starting to realise it too and offering netbook OSes such as <a href=\"http://www.canonical.com/projects/ubuntu/unr\" target=\"_blank\">Ubuntu Netbook Remix</a>, <a href=\"http://moblin.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Moblin</a> and <a href=\"http://www.jolicloud.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Jolicloud</a>. And next year we\'ll get Google\'s OS too, Chrome, which should be interesting.\n\nThe trouble is it takes a little skill getting these things running on a netbook while keeping Windows too (which I think I should). UNR, Moblin and Jolicloud are all tuned to smaller screens and simpler tasks. I\'ve tried Moblin and thought it was OK, but failed to get it to install (I give up easily). So for the next week or so I\'m going to be trying Jolicloud. It comes with a simple installer that lets me choose between Windows and it whenever I turn on the computer. It looks dead simple. And it\'s cleared to be compatible with my model of Asus so everything seems to work, most importantly the wifi, without demanding any technical tweaking on my part. Here\'s a screenshot which give you an idea of what the applications directory looks like -- clear and simple. So much easier than messing around with the Windows start menu and icons on a messy desktop.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/07-reporters-notebook-web-ready.jpgwp-content/uploads/2009/11/application.directory.icons_.png\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/07-reporters-notebook-web-ready.jpgwp-content/uploads/2009/11/application.directory.icons-tm.jpg\" alt=\"application.directory.icons.png\" width=\"460\" height=\"269\" /></a>\n\nInitial impressions? Fantastic. You don\'t have to scroll around all the time. You can install stuff with no great problems. There seem to be plenty of apps, including Google Chrome. Not sure what I will use for writing my notes just yet. But I\'ll let you know how it goes. And I have ten free Jolicloud invitations so if you\'d like one get in touch through the contact form on the site here. But first do check you have a compatible netbook on <a href=\"http://www.jolicloud.com/compatibility\" target=\"_blank\">the Jolicloud list</a>. And do not come to me for technical support!\n\nHere it is, below, sitting on my MacBook Air to give you an idea of size, with the Evernote Windows client running fine (though it has to be the 3.1 version since the newer 3.5 requires Microsoft stuff that won\'t work with Linux and it\'s pretty basic to be honest). Still there is a native and working Dropbox client for it which works just the way everything else does. So whatever I choose to use for notes I can dump stuff easily in there for backup and to share it around. Cloud computing they call it. Bloody marvellous.\n\nThe one glitch I\'ve seen so far: this should allow me to boot between Windows and Jolicloud when I turn on the machine. But the option flashes past so quickly I haven\'t managed to go back to Windows yet. And maybe I won\'t need to. Microsoft is surely in big trouble here...\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/asus.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1810\" title=\"asus\" src=\"http://www.davidhewson.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/asus-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"asus\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /></a>','In search of a noteworthy companion','','publish','open','closed','','in-search-of-a-noteworthy-companion','','','2011-01-28 08:09:49','2011-01-28 08:09:49','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/2009/11/in-search-of-a-noteworthy-companion/',0,'post','',0),(1817,1,'2009-11-16 21:30:22','2009-11-16 21:30:22','At the Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival last month someone in the audience asked (I paraphrase), ‘Do you feel aggrieved that genre writing is looked down on as a lesser form of fiction?’\n\nGood question. An important one too. Since I’m travelling this week let me devote five days of posts here to the issue of genre, closing with an example from someone else’s writing which I will endeavour to use in order to emphasise the point I tried to make in Vancouver: genre is at best a marketing tool for publishers and at worst a myth that strangles decent writers and threatens what should be literature’s greatest strength, namely its breadth and richness.\n\nI’d never try to tell other people what to write any more than I would what they should read. Genre has its place, a well-deserved one. If you’re writing vampire stories, science fiction or fantasy then you’ve made the decision to be firmly inside a defined school of fiction. You’re in a genre, a specific area of writing, one that\'s well defined and understood.\n\nBut most of the works now classified as ‘genre’, usually mystery, thriller and crime, are simply examples of popular storytelling, dubbed with this dead label for no good reason.\n\nDoes this matter? Well yes actually, it does.\n\n<!--more-->I do what I do today because I grew up a solitary kid with an obsession for books. There wasn’t much else to do in the grim northern town where I was living. So several times a week I’d pop into the wonderful public library, the best thing there was about Bridlington. Libraries shaped me, personally and creatively, which is one reason I’ll always try to accept a library event today anywhere in the world. They are important institutions, to be valued and defended.\n\nThat public library was a wonder. There I was stuck on the east coast of Yorkshire, too broke to be able to go anywhere in England much, let alone abroad. Yet through the shelves of that library I travelled the world, crossed centuries, visited lands I’ll never go to in real life and, through the imagination of writers like Ray Bradbury and Philip K. Dick, threw off the surly bounds of earth for a while too.\n\nI did that because no one had told the Bridlington public library of that time about the word ‘genre’. All that it had was a big and varied collection of books divided into two principal categories, fiction and non-fiction (with one small section reserved for the yellow jackets of the sci-fi books of Gollancz if I recall -- and you can bet I devoured those too). When I started to read I embarked on a journey of discovery, one that had no charts, not much in the way of direction, and certainly no idea of an eventual destination. All I did was wander into that library and pick a book that took my fancy, or talk to one of the very knowledgeable librarians who would often say, ‘If you like that, you might like this.’\n\nAnd what books. I read Hemingway and HP Lovecraft, Arthur Koestler and Colin Wilson. I explored the paranormal non-fiction entries and discovered the hauntings of Borley Rectory and browsed the psychology section to find the weirder outposts of Carl Jung. Along the way I picked up Mary Renault and Robert Graves too, a couple of writers I still admire. Thrillers? <em>The Day of the Jackal</em> and some American stuff. Plus Ed McBain for crime, along with everything I could devour of Conan Doyle, naturally.\n\nThe best of what I read then stays with me today, and gets picked up for the umpteenth time now and again. It’s great writing but most of all it’s great writing that knows no boundaries. When I sit down to write now I’m always in awe of so many of those authors because I know I can never hope to attain their heights.  But most of all I envy them their freedom to indulge their imagination without feeling the need to stay within the narrow, tight confines of something called ‘genre’.\n\nToday, more and more, the term ‘genre’ is thrown at books in the belief that, without some kind of tag, they simply will not sell. I’ve lost count of the number of times reviewers have said I’ve ‘exceeded the bounds of genres’ or something similar. I know it’s a compliment but it also means that if you go into a book store where everything is neatly divided -- one section for mystery, one for thrillers, one for crime -- you may not find me because I’ll be lurking in general fiction.\n\nMuch worse than this balkanisation of popular literature is the simple truth that a new generation of writers are coming along who <em>only</em> read the kind of book they hope to produce themselves. I simply don’t see how any budding writer can find depth and texture in their work if they have nothing more to inspire them than the familiar, the safe, the known. This seems a sure breeding ground for copyists, nothing more.\n\nUsing the term \'genre\' in this broad, vague way is false and illusory. The vast majority of so-called genre titles around today are nothing more than the kind of storytelling that’s been entertaining audiences since Homer first began to weave his songs in the eastern Mediterranean two and a half thousand years ago.\n\nThink of it in terms of Chaucer: it’s called <em>The Canterbury Tales</em> because that’s what they are, stories. Think of it in terms of Shakespeare. Whether it’s the dark tragedy of <em>Richard III</em>, the crimes of <em>Macbeth</em> or one of the light comedies (which never grabbed me if I’m honest) every play of his has a human narrative at its heart. Doesn\'t <em>Hamlet</em> sound a perfect crime tale too? Bereaved psychotic son discovers stepdad murdered his own adored father and plots revenge. Does that make Shakespeare a genre playwright? And how about Dickens? Plenty of crime and thrillers there. But most of all Dickens was, for his time, a superb narrator, as he often proved by going on the road and reading his work out loud to an adoring public.\n\nStorytelling was at the heart of literature until the early twentieth century when writers like Virginia Woolf, Proust, James Joyce et al decided that plot and narrative were old hat. In their place they came up with a style of writing that avoided and at times eschewed story entirely and spoke, instead, of interior thoughts and emotions. Here’s<a href=\"http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1234\" target=\"_blank\"> </a><em><a href=\"http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1234\" target=\"_blank\">To The Lighthouse</a></em> if you want to know what that reads like.\n\nAs I said earlier, and will repeat <em>ad infinitum</em>, I defend the right of authors to write whatever they choose, and readers to consume whatever they wish. Just because something’s not my cup of tea does not mean it’s <em>bad</em>. Virginia Woolf leave me cold, I’m afraid. James Joyce could write like an angel when he wanted but I’ll give you the final ‘sentence’/paragraph of <em>Ulysses</em> at the end of this piece and ask you to consider this: how many people finished that one? And the stuff above it is much the same too.\n\nI\'m not interested in redefining literature. I simply want to write stories that engage people, challenge them to bring their own imagination to the game, and take them to places they wouldn’t otherwise go, in the company of interesting characters. This is no small challenge. It seems to me much easier to write a book that is comprehensible only to six people, all of them familiar with ancient Greek, than one that captures and keeps the attention of ordinary mortals who have TV and iPods and families competing for their attention.\n\nAnd there, you see, is the big lie about genre. Most of the books that carry the label aren’t genre at all, but works that sit slap bang in the middle lane of the highway of modern fiction chugging along in the wake of the greats. It’s batty old Virginia and her sidekicks, people who think storytelling is old hat and that you need to pass an exam to climb on board, who represent the curious little side turning to works aimed at the clubby cognoscenti, not readers in general.\n\nPrivately we know this, but we\'re crippled by the belief that the adjectives \'popular\' and \'bad\' are synonymous, that a book which appeals only to a tiny gathering of aesthetes capable of understanding it must, perforce, be \'better\' than one that attempts to speak to millions.\n\nThe real genre is writing that takes prides in eschewing two millennia of the storytelling art. The real genre is much of what today passes as literature.\n\nAnd finally, as promised, here is the conclusion of James Joyce’s <em>Ulysses</em>. Don’t worry. This contains no spoilers (or punctuation either). Although I\'ll leave it you to suggest the genre... And no, you <em>cannot</em> copy and paste this into your Nanowrimo entry.\n<blockquote>no thats no way for him has he no manners nor no refinement nor no nothing in his nature slapping us behind like that on my bottom because I didnt call him Hugh the ignoramus that doesnt know poetry from a cabbage thats what you get for not keeping them in their proper place pulling off his shoes and trousers there on the chair before me so barefaced without even asking permission and standing out that vulgar way in the half of a shirt they wear to be admired like a priest or a butcher or those old hypocrites in the time of Julius Caesar of course hes right enough in his way to pass the time as a joke sure you might as well be in bed with what with a lion God Im sure hed have something better to say for himself an old Lion would O well I suppose its because they were so plump and tempting in my short petticoat he couldnt resist they excite myself sometimes its well for men all the amount of pleasure they get off a womans body were so round and white for them always I wished I was one myself for a change just to try with that thing they have swelling up on you so hard and at the same time so soft when you touch it my uncle John has a thing long I heard those cornerboys saying passing the comer of Marrowbone lane my aunt Mary has a thing hairy because it was dark and they knew a girl was passing it didnt make me blush why should it either its only nature and he puts his thing long into my aunt Marys hairy etcetera and turns out to be you put the handle in a sweepingbrush men again all over they can pick and choose what they please a married woman or a fast widow or a girl for their different tastes like those houses round behind Irish street no but were to be always chained up theyre not going to be chaining me up no damn fear once I start I tell you for their stupid husbands jealousy why cant we all remain friends over it instead of quarrelling her husband found it out what they did together well naturally and if he did can he undo it hes coronado anyway whatever he does and then he going to the other mad extreme about the wife in Fair Tyrants of course the man never even casts a 2nd thought on the husband or wife either its the woman he wants and he gets her what else were we given all those desires for Id like to know I cant help it if Im young still can I its a wonder Im not an old shrivelled hag before my time living with him so cold never embracing me except sometimes when hes asleep the wrong end of me not knowing I suppose who he has any man thatd kiss a womans bottom Id throw my hat at him after that hed kiss anything unnatural where we havent I atom of any kind of expression in us all of us the same 2 lumps of lard before ever Id do that to a man pfooh the dirty brutes the mere thought is enough I kiss the feet of you senorita theres some sense in that didnt he kiss our halldoor yes he did what a madman nobody understands his cracked ideas but me still of course a woman wants to be embraced 20 times a day almost to make her look young no matter by who so long as to be in love or loved by somebody if the fellow you want isnt there sometimes by the Lord God I was thinking would I go around by the quays there some dark evening where nobodyd know me and pick up a sailor off the sea thatd be hot on for it and not care a pin whose I was only do it off up in a gate somewhere or one of those wildlooking gipsies in Rathfarnham had their camp pitched near the Bloomfield laundry to try and steal our things if they could I only sent mine there a few times for the name model laundry sending me back over and over some old ones odd stockings that blackguardlooking fellow with the fine eyes peeling a switch attack me in the dark and ride me up against the wall without a word or a murderer anybody what they do themselves the fine gentlemen in their silk hats that K C lives up somewhere this way coming out of Hardwicke lane the night he gave us the fish supper on account of winning over the boxing match of course it was for me he gave it I knew him by his gaiters and the walk and when I turned round a minute after just to see there was a woman after coming out of it too some filthy prostitute then he goes home to his wife after that only I suppose the half of those sailors are rotten again with disease O move over your big carcass out of that for the love of Mike listen to him the winds that waft my sighs to thee so well he may sleep and sigh the great Suggester Don Poldo de la Flora if he knew how he came out on the cards this morning hed have something to sigh for a dark man in some perplexity between 2 7s too in prison for Lord knows what he does that I dont know and Im to be slooching around down in the kitchen to get his lordship his breakfast while hes rolled up like a mummy will I indeed did you ever see me running Id just like to see myself at it show them attention and they treat you like dirt I dont care what anybody says itd be much better for the world to be governed by the women in it you wouldnt see women going and killing one another and slaughtering when do you ever see women rolling around drunk like they do or gambling every penny they have and losing it on horses yes because a woman whatever she does she knows where to stop sure they wouldnt be in the world at all only for us they dont know what it is to be a woman and a mother how could they where would they all of them be if they hadnt all a mother to look after them what I never had thats why I suppose hes running wild now out at night away from his books and studies and not living at home on account of the usual rowy house I suppose well its a poor case that those that have a fine son like that theyre not satisfied and I none was he not able to make one it wasnt my fault we came together when I was watching the two dogs up in her behind in the middle of the naked street that disheartened me altogether I suppose I oughtnt to have buried him in that little woolly jacket I knitted crying as I was but give it to some poor child but I knew well Id never have another our 1st death too it was we were never the same since O Im not going to think myself into the glooms about that any more I wonder why he wouldnt stay the night I felt all the time it was somebody strange he brought in instead of roving around the city meeting God knows who nightwalkers and pickpockets his poor mother wouldnt like that if she was alive ruining himself for life perhaps still its a lovely hour so silent I used to love coming home after dances the air of the night they have friends they can talk to weve none either he wants what he wont get or its some woman ready to stick her knife in you I hate that in women no wonder they treat us the way they do we are a dreadful lot of bitches I suppose its all the troubles we have makes us so snappy Im not like that he could easy have slept in there on the sofa in the other room I suppose he was as shy as a boy he being so young hardly 20 of me in the next room hed have heard me on the chamber arrah what harm Dedalus I wonder its like those names in Gibraltar Delapaz Delagracia they had the devils queer names there father Vilaplana of Santa Maria that gave me the rosary Rosales y OReilly in the Calle las Siete Revueltas and Pisimbo and Mrs Opisso in Governor street O what a name Id go and drown myself in the first river if I had a name like her O my and all the bits of streets Paradise ramp and Bedlam ramp and Rodgers ramp and Crutchetts ramp and the devils gap steps well small blame to me if I am a harumscarum I know I am a bit I declare to God I dont feel a day older than then I wonder could I get my tongue round any of the Spanish como esta usted muy bien gracias y usted see I havent forgotten it all I thought I had only for the grammar a noun is the name of any person place or thing pity I never tried to read that novel cantankerous Mrs Rubio lent me by Valera with the questions in it all upside down the two ways I always knew wed go away in the end I can tell him the Spanish and he tell me the Italian then hell see Im not so ignorant what a pity he didnt stay Im sure the poor fellow was dead tired and wanted a good sleep badly I could have brought\n\n\n\n him in his breakfast in bed with a bit of toast so long as I didnt do it on the knife for bad luck or if the woman was going her rounds with the watercress and something nice and tasty there are a few olives in the kitchen he might like I never could bear the look of them in Abrines I could do the criada the room looks all right since I changed it the other way you see something was telling me all the time Id have to introduce myself not knowing me from Adam very funny wouldnt it Im his wife or pretend we were in Spain with him half awake without a Gods notion where he is dos huevos estrellados senor Lord the cracked things come into my head sometimes itd be great fun supposing he stayed with us why not theres the room upstairs empty and Millys bed in the back room he could do his writing and studies at the table in there for all the scribbling he does at it and if he wants to read in bed in the morning like me as hes making the breakfast for I he can make it for 2 Im sure Im not going to take in lodgers off the street for him if he takes a gesabo of a house like this Id love to have a long talk with an intelligent welleducated person Id have to get a nice pair of red slippers like those Turks with the fez used to sell or yellow and a nice semitransparent morning gown that I badly want or a peachblossom dressing jacket like the one long ago in Walpoles only 8/6 or 18/6 Ill just give him one more chance Ill get up early in the morning Im sick of Cohens old bed in any case I might go over to the markets to see all the vegetables and cabbages and tomatoes and carrots and all kinds of splendid fruits all coming in lovely and fresh who knows whod be the 1st man Id meet theyre out looking for it in the morning Mamy Dillon used to say they are and the night too that was her massgoing Id love a big juicy pear now to melt in your mouth like when I used to be in the longing way then Ill throw him up his eggs and tea in the moustachecup she gave him to make his mouth bigger I suppose hed like my nice cream too I know what Ill do Ill go about rather gay not too much singing a bit now and then mi fa pieta Masetto then Ill start dressing myself to go out presto non son piu forte Ill put on my best shift and drawers let him have a good eyeful out of that to make his micky stand for him Ill let him know if thats what he wanted that his wife is I s l o fucked yes and damn well fucked too up to my neck nearly not by him 5 or 6 times handrunning theres the mark of his spunk on the clean sheet I wouldnt bother to even iron it out that ought to satisfy him if you dont believe me feel my belly unless I made him stand there and put him into me Ive a mind to tell him every scrap and make him do it out in front of me serve him right its all his own fault if I am an adulteress as the thing in the gallery said O much about it if thats all the harm ever we did in this vale of tears God knows its not much doesnt everybody only they hide it I suppose thats what a woman is supposed to be there for or He wouldnt have made us the way He did so attractive to men then if he wants to kiss my bottom Ill drag open my drawers and bulge it right out in his face as large as life he can stick his tongue 7 miles up my hole as hes there my brown part then Ill tell him I want LI or perhaps 30/- Ill tell him I want to buy underclothes then if he gives me that well he wont be too bad I dont want to soak it all out of him like other women do I could often have written out a fine cheque for myself and write his name on it for a couple of pounds a few times he forgot to lock it up besides he wont spend it Ill let him do it off on me behind provided he doesnt smear all my good drawers O I suppose that cant be helped Ill do the indifferent l or 2 questions Ill know by the answers when hes like that he cant keep a thing back I know every turn in him Ill tighten my bottom well and let out a few smutty words smellrump or lick my shit or the first mad thing comes into my head then Ill suggest about yes O wait now sonny my turn is coming Ill be quite gay and friendly over it O but I was forgetting this bloody pest of a thing pfooh you wouldnt know which to laugh or cry were such a mixture of plum and apple no Ill have to wear the old things so much the better itll be more pointed hell never know whether he did it or not there thats good enough for you any old thing at all then Ill wipe him off me just like a business his omission then Ill go out Ill have him eying up at the ceiling where is she gone now make him want me thats the only way a quarter after what an unearthly hour I suppose theyre just getting up in China now combing out their pigtails for the day well soon have the nuns ringing the angelus theyve nobody coming in to spoil their sleep except an odd priest or two for his night office or the alarmclock next door at cockshout clattering the brains out of itself let me see if I can doze off 1 2 3 4 5 what kind of flowers are those they invented like the stars the wallpaper in Lombard street was much nicer the apron he gave me was like that something only I only wore it twice better lower this lamp and try again so as I can get up early Ill go to Lambes there beside Findlaters and get them to send us some flowers to put about the place in case he brings him home tomorrow today I mean no no Fridays an unlucky day first I want to do the place up someway the dust grows in it I think while Im asleep then we can have music and cigarettes I can accompany him first I must clean the keys of the piano with milk whatll I wear shall I wear a white rose or those fairy cakes in Liptons I love the smell of a rich big shop at 7 1/2d a lb or the other ones with the cherries in them and the pinky sugar I Id a couple of lbs of those a nice plant for the middle of the table Id get that cheaper in wait wheres this I saw them not long ago I love flowers Id love to have the whole place swimming in roses God of heaven theres nothing like nature the wild mountains then the sea and the waves rushing then the beautiful country with the fields of oats and wheat and all kinds of things and all the fine cattle going about that would do your heart good to see rivers and lakes and flowers all sorts of shapes and smells and colours springing up even out of the ditches primroses and violets nature it is as for them saying theres no God I wouldnt give a snap of my two fingers for all their learning why dont they go and create something I often asked him atheists or whatever they call themselves go and wash the cobbles off themselves first then they go howling for the priest and they dying and why why because theyre afraid of hell on account of their bad conscience ah yes I know them well who was the first person in the universe before there was anybody that made it all who ah that they dont know neither do I so there you are they might as well try to stop the sun from rising tomorrow the sun shines for you he said the day we were lying among the rhododendrons on Howth head in the grey tweed suit and his straw hat the day I got him to propose to me yes first I gave him the bit of seedcake out of my mouth and it was leapyear like now yes 16 years ago my God after that long kiss I near lost my breath yes he said I was a flower of the mountain yes so we are flowers all a womans body yes that was one true thing he said in his life and the sun shines for you today yes that was why I liked him because I saw he understood or felt what a woman is and I knew I could always get round him and I gave him all the pleasure I could leading him on till he asked me to say yes and I wouldnt answer first only looked out over the sea and the sky I was thinking of so many things he didnt know of Mulvey and Mr Stanhope and Hester and father and old captain Groves and the sailors playing all birds fly and I say stoop and washing up dishes they called it on the pier and the sentry in front of the governors house with the thing round his white helmet poor devil half roasted and the Spanish girls laughing in their shawls and their tall combs and the auctions in the morning the Greeks and the jews and the Arabs and the devil knows who else fro\n\n\n\nm all the ends of Europe and Duke street and the fowl market all clucking outside Larby Sharons and the poor donkeys slipping half asleep and the vague fellows in the cloaks asleep in the shade on the steps and the big wheels of the carts of the bulls and the old castle thousands of years old yes and those handsome Moors all in white and turbans like kings asking you to sit down in their little bit of a shop and Ronda with the old windows of the posadas 2 glancing eyes a lattice hid for her lover to kiss the iron and the wineshops half open at night and the castanets and the night we missed the boat at Algeciras the watchman going about serene with his lamp and O that awful deepdown torrent O and the sea the sea crimson sometimes like fire and the glorious sunsets and the figtrees in the Alameda gardens yes and all the queer little streets and the pink and blue and yellow houses and the rosegardens and the jessamine and geraniums and cactuses and Gibraltar as a girl where I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.</blockquote>\nYou got this far? Congratulations. What the hell was that about then?','Genre: the sound of the cell door closing','','publish','open','open','','genre-the-sound-of-the-cell-door-closing','','','2011-01-28 08:09:49','2011-01-28 08:09:49','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/2009/11/genre-the-sound-of-the-cell-door-closing/',0,'post','',0),(1879,1,'2009-11-17 07:11:10','2009-11-17 07:11:10','One beautiful day in the summer of 1978 I became a reporter on <em>The Times</em>. It was the start of eight wonderful years that taught me most of the little I know about journalism and life. During that period the paper changed enormously. In 1978 it was owned by the Canadian Thomson organisation, a paternalistic, old-fashioned company that allowed <em>The Times</em> to wallow in its own lazy self-image as the grande dame of British journalism, Margaret Rutherford with a fountain pen and a notebook.\n\nWriters were treated like gods. Their copy was rarely changed, and when it was one almost received an apology. A couple of specialists still broke for afternoon sherry at four pm. And the arts were still the arts: classical music, opera, the odd piece of jazz, proper literature and pretty much nothing else. I found the latter part a bit baffling. I was twenty five years old and loved popular culture too: movies, rock music, thriller and crime fiction. But for <em>The Times</em> these things barely existed. If you wanted to read about them -- and who would? -- you had to look elsewhere.\n\nPeople did, in their droves, which was why the sales kept struggling. This was not going to last.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nThomson sold out and the Murdoch empire came in. Rupert Murdoch gets a lot of stick and always has done. Some of it\'s deserved but I met him a couple of times back then and he always struck me as a newspaper man at heart. Any newspaper man could see that the way <em>The Times</em> was treating culture was plainly ridiculous. Newspapers are commercial publishing ventures. They need to gear their content to the tastes and habits of their readers, not the whims of those who edit them.\n\nSo things began to change, as they did on other papers too. Today the prints are full of reviews of third-rate pop acts, mindless TV programmes and concerts by has-been rock stars who should have hung up their Gibson Flying Vs years ago. Newspapers have swallowed the hype of celebrity culture hook, line and sinker, and fill their pages with the most awful adoring drivel, often about \'stars\' who have the shelf life of a mayfly and occasionally the talent too.\n\nBut not everywhere. The literary pages have sailed on regardless, never \'dumbing down\', rarely asking themselves: do our readers actually buy the stuff we\'re writing about? Yes, if there\'s a new Harry Potter or Dan Brown they\'ll pull out the stops to bang out an overnight review. The rest of the time we\'re back in 1978, stuck in the sad little cliquey mire of \'culture\'. I\'d hate it if the books pages went showbiz. But they really do need to wake up to the disservice they are doing their readers.\n\nTake a look at <a href=\"http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/book_reviews/article6914181.ece\" target=\"_blank\">The Times 100 Best Books of the Decade</a>. I rather wish someone would run a list called The 100 Worst Media Ideas of the Decade. Number one would be articles that are nothing but lists. I\'ve now tried to read this one three times and pretty much failed. Lists aren\'t there to be read, of course, but skimmed. You hover over the titles, think, \'I read that one, aren\'t I clever?\', then browse a few more and turn the page.\n\nHow many of the hundred best books (according to <em>The Times)</em> have I read (or tried to)? Very few. Most of those on the list are completely new to me. This doesn\'t mean they\'re not worth reading, of course. Just that a lot of them are titles that the man on the Clapham omnibus will never have heard of. In the crime field Ian Rankin makes it to 57 for <em>Fleshmarket Close</em> and that\'s it. Robert Harris has <em>The Ghost</em> at 49, which is a kind of thriller I guess, while Dan Brown makes it to 10 with <em>The Da Vinci Code</em> but then gets the prize for the worst book of the decade <em>for the same title</em>. No, me neither.\n\nThere are no Scandinavian crime writers, though it\'s hard to move through a book store without tripping over one these days. Not much in the way of paperbacks you\'d see on the shelves at Heathrow at all.\n\nNow there\'s no reason why a literary section should not produce a \'books wot we have loved\' list. But the problem from a reader\'s point of view is that it\'s a list about their tastes not ours. How much more interesting would this have been if the paper gave us the 100 Best <em>Popular</em> Books of the Decade? A serious look at the titles most of us have bought, read and talked about.\n\nWhat about Lee Child, James Patterson, Jeffery Deaver, Patricia Cornwell? How have they done over the last decade? Who are the up-and-coming writers punching to steal their crowns? Don\'t we have a right to know? Isn\'t that actually <em>more</em> important in the great swing of things than telling us that the 23rd best book of the last decade was the official report by the 9/11 Commission? It is to me. But this is popular fiction. It\'s <em>genre</em>. Inferior. Not <em>real</em> books at all. So it gets short shrift.\n\nPapers plead shortage of space. Given the economic climate and the decline in the printed media they have a point. The trouble is they were behaving like this when there was space aplenty. They don\'t write much about popular fiction, the books their customers actually read, because they don\'t want to.\n\nThis is how the book space was used in last Saturday\'s <em>Times.</em> Front two pages of the review section mostly given over to an interview with Cormac McCarthy (an exclusive, though he says very little of moment). Page three occupied by a rather creepy interview with James Ellroy. Two more pages devoted to that bloody list. Lead review, most of a page, given over to a review of the letters of T.S. Eliot (great poet, died forty four years ago). A page of non-fiction covering Agassi\'s memoirs, a book about a family you\'ve never heard of (headlined \'An obscure dynasty\' -- there\'s a \'read me\' tag), and a review of the papers of the late journalist Hugo Young. Thrown away in the corner are a few fiction reviews, most of them literary, though Benjamin Black\'s <em>The Lemur</em> gets a one paragraph mention which simply tries to summarise the story (Black is, of course, the \'popular\' alter ego of the Irish Booker prize winner John Banville).\n\nThe facing page leads with reviews of two graphic novels with the opening words, \'The celebrated children\'s book illustrator David Small, feted with numerous awards in his native US, is not exactly a household name here.\' The last page has a review of the new Stephen King and Alex Rider (note how book sections almost always put the popular stuff at the back). And that\'s it. The last page also contains the weekly bestseller list. It is full of names that rarely grace the book pages at all, except in the charts. Some of them I know, as writers, as people too. Some of them are authors I\'d never read in a million years. That\'s not the point. I\'m not suggesting newspapers devote more space to popular fiction for the sake of writers. It\'s their readers they should be thinking about. They have the right to expect that a newspaper will make some attempt to reflect their cultural tastes, and book pages simply don\'t.\n\nThe best selling book in Britain last year was Linwood Barclay\'s <em>No Time for Goodbye.</em> I checked <em>The Times</em> archives to see if they reviewed it. Yes, they did, favourably. <em>But only after it got to number one.</em> When I was a general reporter and that kind of thing happened with news stories there was always an inquest, and usually someone was invited into the room that contained what one executive liked to call \'the arse-kicking machine\'. With good reason too.\n\nI\'ve picked on my own paper here because it\'s the one I still take at home. This is a little unfair. Snobbery on the literary pages is rife, and not just a British affair. The American prints often behave much the same way. Many of those are steadily killing book review space too on \'economic grounds\'.\n\nThis is madness. If the press still reviewed music the way they review books they\'d be full of articles about nothing but opera and Beethoven, and they wouldn\'t be read much either. Newspapers are facing a struggle for survival. It might help if they acknowledged the leisure habits of their customers. They don\'t seem to have a problem with that when it comes to music, film and even, these days, video games. If serious newspapers can go starry-eyed over the latest Lady GaGa album, some super-violent arcade title on X-Box and pop acts that are deeply obscure to anyone over the age of twenty five they can surely bring themselves to admit that popular fiction, read by millions, has a place in their pages too.\n\n<em>The Times</em> should consider this more than most. From what I\'ve read Rupert Murdoch will soon be asking the public to pay to visit its pages on the web. Who\'s going to do that for a literary section that\'s full of articles about books you don\'t want to read?','Why does a popular press hate popular books?','','publish','open','closed','','popular-press','','','2011-01-28 08:09:49','2011-01-28 08:09:49','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/2009/11/a-future-for-newspapers-think-about-your-readers/',0,'post','',0),(2014,1,'2009-11-18 05:07:37','2009-11-18 05:07:37','These posts were prompted by a very interesting panel at the very interesting Vancouver Writers and Readers Festival. During that discussion -- about whether \'genre\' authors feel aggrieved by the labels that are attached to them -- my fellow Macmillan author, <a href=\"http://www.chelseacain.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Chelsea Cain</a>, told an interesting story. It was about how a \'proper\' writer once came up to her and asked, \'Aren\'t you going to write a <em>real</em> novel one day?\'\n\nI didn\'t mention it to Chelsea at the time. But I\'ve had exactly the same conversation, with a different \'proper\' writer. I confess that I was lost for words at that moment.\n\nPeople who ask you this kind of thing are nothing more than genre vigilantes. They come in two guises. Those inside the encircled genre wagon train firing out. And those outside, firing in. Both are tiny in number -- most book fans, whether they feel themselves to be a part of a genre or not, are generous souls, far too intelligent for such nonsense. But these strange creatures are out there, honestly, and sometimes they\'re very vocal indeed.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nThose outside inhabit that la-la land where fiction exists primarily for refined people capable of understanding and appreciating it. The purpose of literature, therefore, is to separate the clever from the stupid, the educated from the boneheaded masses. People who think like this have a very easy way to define the target of their arrows. If it can be categorised as a genre work it\'s populist and therefore bad. End of the story. Cue that condescending question, \'When will you write a real book?\'\n\nHere are a few thoughts for any such folk who happen upon this post. What about Shakespeare? Is he literary too? I think most of us would go along with that idea. Yet Shakespeare wrote popular plays for a broad public, performed in a repertory theatre that was the Elizabethan equivalent of a soap opera. <em>Most of his audience was illiterate. <span style=\"font-style:normal;\">Yes, you did read that correctly. Shakespeare was an incredibly well-read individual who used countless classical and historical sources as inspiration for his work. But he was watched, in the main, by the equivalent of the Saturday crowd that today tunes into <em>X-Factor </em>or<em> American Idol.</em> Most couldn\'t even read. Only a handful would understand the intellectual and literary references Shakespeare threw in there for the benefit of his artistic mates buying the beers after the show in the taverns of Southwark. </span></em>\n\n<em><span style=\"font-style:normal;\">There are writers who deliberately aim their work at a limited intellectual audience, not the world at large, and I defend absolutely their right to do so. But Shakespeare wasn\'t one of them. He didn\'t want a tiny audience of cognoscenti. He craved, and reached, a mass audience.</span></em>\n\nIn short he was a popular writer, a working hack. As was Homer, Swift, Dickens... any number of past greats we now define as \'literary\'. Would any of today\'s genre vigilantes have dared turn round to Mark Twain, cast a disparaging eye at <em>Huckleberry Finn</em> and asked, \'Are you going to write a real book one day?\' I\'d love to have witnessed that encounter. I\'m not suggesting Chelsea or I are on a par with Twain. Merely pointing out that the idea that something popular must be dumbed-down too is of recent origin and would have been ridiculed by a good number of the literary greats whose work is now taught in universities.\n\nPeople who think this way are snobs, nothing more. So are their counterparts inside the wagon train, just the other way round. They\'re the tiny bunch of hard core genre fans who light a candle each morning to their beloved idol, be he Raymond Chandler, Edgar Allen Poe or whoever, then set out to match every new book that comes along against the work of their preferred dead god. This attitude is most visible some areas of so-called book criticism on the web. The Internet is a wonderful thing. But let\'s be honest, as <a href=\"http://michaelmarshallsmith.wordpress.com/2009/09/01/customer-reviews-suck-—-nuff-said/\" target=\"_blank\">my good mate Michael Marshall Smith argued only recently</a>, it has, on occasion, empowered voices that would really should have remained silent. Proper critics view each book as it comes, a work of its own, influenced and comparable with others, but an individual effort that deserves to be judged separately not simply weighed against something that went before. The vigilante attitude is simpler: The way of Chandler-Poe-Whoever is the only way. Follow it and we will worship you. Break the rules and you\'re rubbish.\n\nIn an essay on his art Chandler wrote something that now gets trotted out time and time again at conventions. It\'s usually restricted to the first sentence. Let me give you a little more so you can get the flavour...\n<blockquote>Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. The detective must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor. He talks as the man of his age talks, that is, with rude wit, a lively sense of the grotesque, a disgust for sham, and a contempt for pettiness.</blockquote>\nNote that word \'must\'. I loathe the word \'must\'. It reminds me of school.\n\nI once heard an author read out that first sentence at a convention and declare that all crime fiction stemmed from this statement, and anything that didn\'t wasn\'t crime fiction. Well my work doesn\'t come from there. Nor does that of an awful lot of people I know. Yet we still get invited to \'crime\' conventions because, let\'s face it, our books sell. I\'m happy to go too. They\'re a lot of fun and usually a lot less narrow than the genre label stuck on the side might suggest.\n\nI don\'t claim to be a crime writer though I don\'t object if people see me that way. In the eyes of the general book-buying public, most of whom barely think about the idea of genre at all, I\'m simply one more player in a very broad field alongside crime, thriller and mystery writers of many different kinds. It\'s ridiculous to convert Chandler\'s personal opinion of fifty odd years ago into some blind rule to be applied to everything that comes after and then damn any book that fails to conform to some antiquated so-called norm.\n\nAnd I do wonder: what would he think of that statement now? Raymond Chandler was an inventive and original writer. We remember him because, alongside people like Dashiel Hammett, he wrote great books that broke new ground. If Chandler were alive now the last thing he\'d be looking to do would be to knock out Raymond Chandler readalikes. He\'d surely be striving to write something original, not trying to rework a style that dates from more than half a century ago. There are plenty of Chandleresque writers around. They\'re popular, often improvise with his original theme and I wish them well. We need people working inside established traditions. But we also need writers who are brave enough to ignore those traditions completely. I bet that\'s where a young RC would be headed if he were around today, though the Chandler diehards would probably damn him for doing so because he didn\'t follow their precious conventions.\n\nOne overriding trait joins both these strange ideologists. As out and out snobs they see the primary purpose of their rules as being to maintain control, to keep out those of whom they disapprove, and to make sure any still in or outside the wagon train continue to deserve their place there by conforming to the established mores of the community.\n\nExclusivity is important which is probably the daftest part of the whole business. If I\'ve learned one thing over the years it\'s that a spirit of inclusiveness, of generosity to others, lies at the heart of this strange craft. It\'s hard for most of us to write about people if you hate them. There\'s a lot to be said for books that are fired by anger and a sense of righteous outrage. But not for the ire of meanness of spirit, of small-mindedness and spiteful, narrow thinking. Writers who are brave enough to be different, to refuse to conform, to test our intelligence and, at times, our patience, should be welcomed not measured to see if they \'fit\' and condemned if they fail to conform to type.\n\nThe scope of modern popular fiction is narrow enough as it is. More restricted, I feel, than it was even twenty years ago. The rigid promotion of genre stifles the rush of adventure we should feel when we pick up a book. Instead of looking for the new, all too often we seek the familiar. In the end, that\'s not good for readers, writers or literature as a whole. And we really don\'t need the sly pressure of the genre vigilantes to constrain the field still further.\n\nThankfully most readers, whether they\'re genre fans or not, are too intelligent and generous to indulge in these shenanigans. They buy what they like and leave to one side the titles they don\'t. Good for them. Reading should be a pleasure, not a crusade.','The genre vigilantes come out to play','','publish','open','open','','the-genre-vigilantes-come-out-to-play','','','2011-01-28 08:09:49','2011-01-28 08:09:49','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=2014',0,'post','',0),(1885,1,'2009-11-19 07:10:17','2009-11-19 07:10:17','It\'s amazing to think that P.D. James\'s  <em>An Unsuitable Job for a Woman</em> is now thirty seven years old. It was one of the first James books I read, back when she wasn\'t a well-known author. A great book: sharply written with some lovely lines. It tells how the 22-year-old Cordelia Gray finds herself thrust into the middle of a murder-hidden-as-suicide inquiry and proves a brave and relentless searcher for the truth. There\'s also a touch of feminism in there, hence the title.\n\nOne thing bothered me about the book, and it still bothers me today. Not enough to ruin it, but it does give focus to one of my nagging worries about the damaging effect genre can have on writers, particularly those trying to establish a style and a career.\n\nCordelia starts the story as junior sleuth who inherits the seedy little investigations agency that employed her after the suicide of the owner. She\'s that eternal figure in crime fiction, a private eye. In everyday England. Hmmm...\n\n<!--more-->\n\nIf you\'re an American writer then PIs are hanging there on the character shelf just begging to be taken down and dusted off. Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler set the form for the modern detective back in the 1930s. America has lots of private investigators. I even know someone who used to be one, that excellent fellow <a href=\"http://www.davidcorbett.com\" target=\"_blank\">David Corbett</a>, though I\'m happy to report he\'s now a wonderful author instead. Americans use private investigators regularly. You\'ll find them listed in Yellow Pages. They\'re a part of everyday life.\n\nIn Britain it\'s different. Sherlock Holmes wasn\'t a proper private eye. He always seemed to me a gentleman of private means who did his sleuthing out of intellectual interest more than anything. Doesn\'t damage the books -- which I adore -- in any way, but that does set him apart from the rest of us. Cordelia Gray is no upper class aesthete getting by on her inheritance. She\'s ordinary, skint, the kind of person you\'d sit next to on a bus. I can\'t help but struggle with that.\n\nI worked as a journalist for a long time before taking up this present career. Over the years I\'ve met politicians and crooks (simultaneously on occasion), writers, actors, police officers, civil servants, financiers, sports men and women and at least two professional spies. But, David Corbett apart, I\'ve never met a private eye. Nor can I imagine why I\'d want to meet one, except as an author seeking research and if that\'s the only reason to track them down the alarm bells should be ringing. I\'m sure private eyes are out there, but they\'re invisible, not part of the landscape as they seem to be in the US.\n\nThe rationale behind the Hammett/Chandler PI is that they\'re the dark knights ordinary people turn to in times of trouble. Not here. We\'d go to the police or, if that fails, ask a friend. I\'ve never heard anyone in this country suggest a visit to a detective agency as a way of fixing a problem except, of course, in a book. For me they\'re truly rotten candidates to be the protagonist in a book set here. Do editors and agents feel the same way?\n\nYet some budding writers still reach for the PI hat. Why? Because that\'s the genre, and the genre tells them to. This may be fine for fantasy or pastiche, such as <em>The Singing Detective.</em> But if you\'re trying to write anything realistic it\'s one more obstacle to overcome on the rocky path towards a sense of authenticity.\n\nCrime series usually offer up three standard templates for their principal character: some kind of law enforcement officer, PI or the villain him or herself. I made Nic Costa a cop because policing is a job all of us see and can, to a certain extent, understand. My stories are often much more about justice than they are crime. Police officers (in books anyway) find themselves in the middle of the conflict between good and evil as part of their daily working routine. As a writer and a reader I can imagine my way into the head of a cop dealing with some unpleasant event and trying to think of some way of resolving it. It seems to make sense all round.\n\nThe problem I had with Cordelia Gray was that I couldn\'t do that with her. What does a private detective actually do? And why? Do they take their work home with them? Are they on some kind of career path? I\'m sorry, it just never worked for me, and it was a relief to see that James wrote only one more Cordelia Gray book then went on to focus on her police officer, Adam Dalgleish. He makes a lot more sense, even with that penchant for poetry.\n\nThere\'s constant pressure from the genre to write private eye fiction. There are even awards out there marking the best in the field. Good luck to them, and anyone who wants to write those books. But I have to be honest: if I were a writer in the UK starting out now, wanting to set a book in my native country, a book that was to be written dead straight, without a cheeky twinkle in the eye, then a Brit private detective is the last person I\'d use as a protagonist. The hard core genre fans may love you. But other potential readers in the UK may well scratch their heads in bewilderment, and I\'d probably be among them.\n\nThough I rather hope there\'s some clever soul out there about to prove me wrong.','An unsuitable job for a protagonist','','publish','open','closed','','an-unsuitable-job-for-a-protagonist','','','2011-01-28 08:09:49','2011-01-28 08:09:49','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/2009/11/an-unsuitable-job-for-a-protagonist/',0,'post','',0),(2047,1,'2009-11-19 08:41:45','2009-11-19 08:41:45','The last time I was in Seville was ten years ago or so. For a movie. The <span style=\"text-decoration:line-through;\">abomination</span> movie someone made of my first book, <em>Semana Santa.</em> Here I am again, I walk out on the first morning, decide to go look at the Giralda. And a charming chap comes out and stops me. Can’t walk down there. Not right now. Someone\'s making a movie.\n\nOh well. I can come back later. They\'re handling the disruption very well indeed I must say. And I approve wholeheartedly of Hollywood coming over and using Europe as a set. We\'re better than anything a set designer can build in Burbank. Also, well we need the money, don\'t we? The movie concerned is called <em>Knight and Day</em> and stars Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz, a \'comedy thriller\' apparently. Here are a couple of little secrets about movie making apparent when you see the process in the flesh.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nFirst. It takes forever. These guys have been setting up in the shadow of the beautiful Giralda tower of Seville cathedral for ages and will doubtless be working well into the night (excuse the quality of the photos -- they are from my phone).\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/movie-camera.jpgwp-content/uploads/2009/11/giralda.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/movie-camera.jpgwp-content/uploads/2009/11/giralda-tm.jpg\" alt=\"giralda.jpg\" width=\"450\" height=\"300\" /></a>\n\nThere are millions of them. Well, not <em>millions</em>. But an awful lot. Movie making is an amazingly people-dependent business. Crew and cast are just a small part. They\'re the locals recruited to keep out other nosy locals. Catering (god knows the crew need catering, and helpfully there was a sign next to it saying it was for crew and crew only.\n\nThen there are special effects. There will definitely be a scene with someone -- Diaz is my guess -- driving an open top Mini through Seville. They\'re setting up the shot here. Note the camera rig in front to get that, \'Oo look... she\'s really driving\' feel.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/movie-camera.jpgwp-content/uploads/2009/11/IMAG0006.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/movie-camera.jpgwp-content/uploads/2009/11/IMAG0006-tm.jpg\" alt=\"IMAG0006.jpg\" width=\"450\" height=\"300\" /></a>\n\nBut my favourite coming fx is this. Someone -- it\'s <em>got</em> to be Cruise -- is going to be riding a Ducati bike like a maniac, dodgin and weaving through all these lovely narrow alleys. This is how it\'s done.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/movie-camera.jpgwp-content/uploads/2009/11/IMAG0008.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/movie-camera.jpgwp-content/uploads/2009/11/IMAG0008-tm.jpg\" alt=\"IMAG0008.jpg\" width=\"450\" height=\"300\" /></a>\n\nDead motorbike strapped to a control vehicle in front. Actor can swerve and do all that macho stuff. But he\'s got a rig to make sure he doesn\'t fall over. That white sign on the fuel tank? It says something about there being no battery in the bike. Not only does it not work, it <em>cannot</em> work. My guess: the sign\'s there to stop anyone thinking they can nick it.\n\nMovies. It\'s all coming back.','Adventures in the movie trade','','publish','open','closed','','adventures-in-the-movie-trade','','','2011-01-28 08:09:49','2011-01-28 08:09:49','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=2047',0,'post','',0),(2067,1,'2009-11-19 14:57:56','2009-11-19 14:57:56','<em>More secrets of the movie trade....</em>\n\nTom Cruise and Cameron Diaz are still out there waiting to shoot this scene as far as I can gather. The crowd of spectators outside Seville Cathedral hoping to see them is dwindling a bit. Not surprised. Making movies is dreadfully boring. It\'s also more than a little deceptive.\n\nThis Cruise-Diaz vehicle clearly has a massive budget. Must cost a fortune to close down the centre of a busy city the way they have. Smaller movies have to be a bit more creative. The one they made of <em>Semana Santa</em> certainly was.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nThe handsome building on the right in the picture below is, today, the very smart hotel, <em><a href=\"http://www.casasypalacios.com/juderia/es/\" target=\"_blank\">Las Casas de la Juderia</a>,</em> a very nice place to stay if you can afford it. Ten years ago, though, it didn\'t look anything like this. It was a largely derelict private mansion, uninhabitable, grubby and more the sort of place you\'d expect rats to stay than posh tourists. Perfect for the film business!\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/semana.jpgwp-content/uploads/2009/11/casas.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/semana.jpgwp-content/uploads/2009/11/casas-tm.jpg\" alt=\"casas.jpg\" width=\"450\" height=\"337\" /></a>\n\nYes, the production team for <em>Semana Santa</em> hired the whole shabby mansion for the duration of the shoot and used it time and time again. One of the upstairs bedrooms became the lair of the artist twins whose murder -- full of grotesque special effects -- kicks off the movie.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/semana.jpgwp-content/uploads/2009/11/00868260-photo-semana-santa.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/semana.jpgwp-content/uploads/2009/11/00868260-photo-semana-santa-tm.jpg\" alt=\"00868260-photo-semana-santa.jpg\" width=\"450\" height=\"295\" /></a>\n\nThe sight of blow-up sex dolls hanging in the front windows prompted a bit of a local outrage I seem to recall. Passing schoolkids could see them. Yikes.\n\nThe interior also became the private mansion where the climax took place, with Mira Sorvino fighting for her life.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/semana.jpgwp-content/uploads/2009/11/00868258-photo-semana-santa.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/semana.jpgwp-content/uploads/2009/11/00868258-photo-semana-santa-tm.jpg\" alt=\"00868258-photo-semana-santa.jpg\" width=\"450\" height=\"293\" /></a>\n\nThere was an outside patio that had some other function in the book and a couple of other locations, all of which happened somewhere inside that selfsame building. Don\'t ask me what. I don\'t recall any of them being in the book. One of the most memorable scenes (in the filming anyway) happened in a downstairs patio with a small fountain at its centre. I think it may still be there in the new and very plush hotel, here.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/semana.jpgwp-content/uploads/2009/11/juderia-patio-n.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/semana.jpgwp-content/uploads/2009/11/juderia-patio-n-tm.jpg\" alt=\"juderia-patio-n.jpg\" width=\"450\" height=\"345\" /></a>\n\nIn the movie Mira was chased downstairs by the bad guy out to get her and had her head viciously dumped into the water of the fountain. This was a pretty bad-tempered shoot all round from what I could see. Lots of people not getting on. On the first take she raced downstairs, got dunked in the water... and at least one of the crew cheered very loudly. Cue retake...\n\nFunny to think of all that happening inside the walls of what now looks a very swish hotel indeed. I popped my head through the door and asked a charming member of staff about the hotel. He told me a few things then I asked if he knew about the movie made there just ten short years before. He nodded and said he vaguely remembered it.\n\nI thought of telling him I wrote the book. But I didn\'t want to chance my luck. So, in the spirit of good old-fashioned British journalism, I made my excuses and left.','Location, location and location','','publish','open','closed','','location-location-and-location','','','2011-01-28 08:09:24','2011-01-28 08:09:24','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=2067',0,'post','',0),(1833,1,'2009-11-20 06:11:35','2009-11-20 06:11:35','We all know Edgar. The Mystery Writers of America even named their prestigious awards after him. Edgar Allan Poe is hailed everywhere as \'the father of detective fiction\' on account of his short story <em><a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Murders_in_the_Rue_Morgue\" target=\"_blank\">The Murders in the Rue Morgue</a></em> . It came out in 1841 and was described by Poe as one of his tales of \'ratiocination\' (a posh word for reasoning -- he does like to show off a little does Edgar).\n\nThe storyline sounds familiar today. A strange double murder occurs in Paris. The police are baffled. A couple of smart civilians come along and solve the riddle. Cue any number of imitators from Conan Doyle through to the present day. The detective story has been invented. Edgar is the father of the genre.\n\nUnfortunately there are a few problems with this idea.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nThe principal one is Edgar himself. He was a journeyman wordsmith, a brilliant hack who would turn out pretty much anything that paid the bills. He wrote <em>Rue Morgue</em> while working as a magazine editor in New York. It paid him an extra $56 for the story, a lot of money for the day. Another of his tales, the deeply scary poem <em><a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Raven\" target=\"_blank\">The Raven</a></em> , got him just $9 (if you will write poetry, what do you expect?) There\'s a clue here. <em>The Raven</em>, if anything, is horror. Poe also wrote satire, humour, opinion pieces and <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Balloon-Hoax\" target=\"_blank\">one spectacular public hoax</a>.\n\nWorship him as the father of crime fiction if you like but ask yourself this question: what would he have thought of that title? My guess is he\'d have felt it odd and confining. Imagine if the magazine that printed <em>The Murders in the Rue Morgue</em> had turned to him and said, \'You\'re a writer of detective fiction. That\'s all we want from you now.\' What would we have been denied? Well <em>The Raven</em> anyway, since it came after, and the piece you\'ll find below, <em><a href=\"http://feedbooks.com/book/765\" target=\"_blank\">A Descent into the Maelström</a></em> for sure<em>.</em>\n\nPoe was a man of catholic tastes and interests. The detective side of <em>Rue Morgue</em> probably appealed to him because it demonstrated how the human intellect can overcome brute force. But he wasn\'t content to play that tune and nothing else. In 1838 he\'d published the decidedly weird novel <em><a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Narrative_of_Arthur_Gordon_Pym_of_Nantucket\" target=\"_blank\">The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket</a></em>. I find this pretty much unreadable to be honest. But there\'s something very strange indeed going on in this narrative of an ocean journey that turns, very slowly into something close to fantasy and then ends abruptly in a way that leaves the conclusion open to interpretation.\n\nPoe loved dabbling in stories that would today be labelled science fiction. His work inspired Jules Verne\'s wonderful SF tales. But he caught the imagination of other writers too. The French translator of <em>Arthur Gordon Pym</em> was none other than Baudelaire. So is Poe both the father of crime fiction <em>and</em> science fiction? Maybe. But I doubt he\'d find that idea terribly interesting. Does it matter? Poe clearly read very widely. Nothing else can explain the breadth, intensity and intellectual complexity of some of his work. If he were alive today could you really imagine he\'d be content to focus his talents on a single, narrow stream of fiction? A <em>genre</em>? I can\'t.\n\nHere is something of his that\'s a million miles away from <em>Rue Morgue. A Descent into the Maelström</em> came out around the same time and is closer to SF or fantasy if you must have some kind of label. An old man tells the story of his accidental descent into a Norwegian whirlpool, the maelström of the title. But this is no mere geographical feature. It\'s a fissure in the fabric of the earth, a glimpse into another world. A reminder to puny little human beings that the universe is vast, uncaring and ever-present, waiting to engulf the unwary.\n\nPoe was not alone in pursuing a bright and varied career as a writer. Robert Louis Stevenson, for one, refused to be classified, producing what would now be called the young adult fiction of <em>Treasure Island</em> and <em>Kidnapped</em> as well as the horror of <em>Jekyll and Hyde</em>, the novel <em>The Master of Ballantrae</em> and travel books. Arthur Conan Doyle may be best known for Sherlock Holmes but he wrote science fiction, historical novels and romances too without anyone, as far as I\'m aware, accusing him of \'dissing the genre\'. Whichever it was.\n\nLet me depart before I labour the point. The notion of genre is fine in its place. But it should stay there, and not be used as a straitjacket to confine authorial creativity in general. I now leave you to Edgar, on top of a mountain in Norway, a country he never visited of course. And that\'s the last you\'ll hear from me on the subject of genre for a while.\n\n<a title=\"Poe - A Descent into the Maelstro?m.pdf\" href=\"http://www.davidhewson.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Poe-A-Descent-into-the-Maelstro.pdf\">Poe - A Descent into the Maelstrom</a>','Something for the weekend from Edgar Allan Poe','','publish','open','closed','','something-for-the-weekend-from-edgar-allan-poe','','','2011-01-28 08:09:24','2011-01-28 08:09:24','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/2009/11/something-for-the-weekend-from-edgar-allan-poe/',0,'post','',0),(2082,1,'2009-11-20 13:35:41','2009-11-20 13:35:41','I just spent a morning reacquainting myself with a few aspects of Spain that had slipped my memory. This included a visit to the rather magnificent bullring of Seville. Whatever you think of bullfighting – I don’t like it – this is an impressive and extraordinary place. It also reminded me that there are a few things to do with bullfighting that people rarely appreciate.\n\nHere are a few…\n\n<!--more-->\n<ul>\n	<li>The matador actually appears twice. He’s first out there with a pink cape toying with the bull at the beginning of the fight. He then hands off and gives the show over to…</li>\n	<li>The picador who enters on the back of a heavily-protected and blindfolded horse who stabs the bull behind the back of the neck, hoping to weaken it.</li>\n	<li>Second, the three banderillos who stab sharp, decorated sticks into its shoulders.</li>\n	<li>Then the matador comes back on with a red cape this time and despatches the bull (or at least that’s the plan).</li>\n	<li>Sometimes he doesn’t manage to kill the beast. The death strike of the matador is meant to go between the bull’s shoulder blades and pierce down into the heart. If the animal hunches its shoulder together it’s impossible for the matador to finish it this way. In this case someone comes on and severs the spinal cord with a knife. The matador does not get a good reception in these circumstances.</li>\n	<li>The bull’s dead the moment he enters the ring, destined for the local restaurants. Technically an incredibly brave bull may be spared by the president of the corrida. In reality this rarely happens. Last time it occurred in Seville was 1965.</li>\n	<li>If a bull kills a bullfighter (and this has happened only three times in Seville’s history) not only is the bull killed immediately but, by tradition, the mother of the killer bull is slaughtered too if it’s still alive. The museum inside the Seville bullring hosts the head of the mother of the bull that killed the famous Manolete in Jaen in 1948.</li>\n	<li>Until the 1920s the horses in the ring were blindfolded but went unprotected. Today they’re still blindfolded so they’re not terrified by the bulls but bear heavy protection, as do those riding them. However their vocal chords are cut so that they can’t make any sound during the fight.</li>\n	<li>The corrida will normally involve three matadors and six bulls, two each.</li>\n	<li>A top flight matador can earn up to a quarter of a million euros in a single afternoon. A front row ticket in the sombra (shady section) of the Seville ring will cost you close to 140 euros.</li>\n	<li>The last thing a matador does before entering the ring is enter the small chapel in the bullring and pray.</li>\n	<li>From time to time members of the crowd will leap into the ring and try to fight the bull themselves. These nutters are known as spontaneos and do it out of bravado or an attempt to prove they’re matador material too.</li>\n</ul>\nThere uses to be a bar in Seville with lots of photos of spontaneos on the wall, somewhere near Sierpes. But I can’t find it any more sadly.\n\nBack when I was writing travel I went to a couple of bullfights. That was enough for me though I’m not going to get on my high horse and start shouting for it to be banned. That would be futile for one thing. And perhaps hypocritical too. Bullfighting is a visceral, bloody experience, but so is slaughtering animals out of sight, in unseen abattoirs, and serving them up for food in tidy sanitised supermarket packs. Humane food production is a lot less cruel than shoving a bull into a ring and watching it die. But it’s still cruel, and largely ignored by western populations that want to eat meat more and more (and, no, I\'m not a vegetarian).\n\nThere’s also the small matter of fox hunting, currently banned in the UK though it looks likely the next government will open the door to its return. Bullfighting is an ancient, stylised ritual, a conflict in which a bullfighter comes to symbolise the perpetual struggle between life and death. The matador puts his own existence in peril as part of a strange, bloody dance into the jaws of oblivion, hoping to pull himself free at the last possible moment. It’s not that far from the trick lots of authors try to pull with popular fiction, be it Harry Potter or the latest thriller. There’s no hypocritical attempt to rationalise or defend bullfighting. It is what it is.\n\nFox hunting, on the other hand, is constantly held up as an example of a grand countryside tradition and marvellous for farming. This is tosh. I well remember Max Hastings, a hunt supporter himself, saying this vocally on TV. Fox hunts are there for fun, for the sport of taking hounds across the countryside in pursuit of a wild animal and then watching as dogs rip it apart.\n\nI don’t regard either the corrida or fox hunting as civilised forms of behaviour. But at least bullfighting has a kind of archaic grandeur, a meaning for those who watch that brief, bloody ritual in the ring and requires an awful lot of courage. Difficult to say the same about chasing wild animals with dogs.','Some things about bullfighting you probably didn&#8217;t know','','publish','open','open','','some-things-about-bullfighting-you-probably-didnt-know','','','2011-01-28 08:09:24','2011-01-28 08:09:24','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=2082',0,'post','',0),(2097,1,'2009-11-23 07:26:25','2009-11-23 07:26:25','Here\'s some news. I\'m writing a new book. It\'s not Nic Costa. It\'s not set in Rome. And it\'s not really a new book at all. It\'s an old book, the first one I ever got published, back in 1996. Then it was called <em>Semana Santa.</em> When it comes out late next year it will have a different title and it will be a different book too.\n\nI\'m being offered something writers rarely get. A second chance to reimagine an earlier work. The book that comes out in a year or so will have the bare bones of <em>Semana Santa</em>. But it\'ll be a different, new story too, a better book I hope because this was my first and I think I\'ve learned a lot since then. So I\'m going to shake the whole work down and build it up again from scratch. Why? Because I can, because I think it\'ll be fun, and, most of all, I think I can make it a much better book.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nAuthors rarely rewrite their earlier work. Mostly, I guess, because we don\'t have the opportunity. I never regard any book as \'complete\' when it appears. Only \'as good as I can make it at the time\'. I\'d rewrite everything if I could, including the books that are in the pipeline already. That\'s just not practical. But it doesn\'t alter the fact that all books are unfinished works. <!--more--> I think it was Michelangelo who said something along the lines, \'Art is never completed, merely abandoned.\' Dead right.\n\nWhen you\'re as old as I am though -- <em>Semana Santa</em> was published fourteen years ago, remember, and written two years before that -- opportunities sometimes come along.\n\nLast year Macmillan in the UK republished my fifth book, <em>Lucifer\'s Shadow</em>, under a new title, <em>The Cemetery of Secrets.</em> That\'s pretty much the same book that appeared briefly in the UK in 2000. It\'s proved a huge success so we started talking about bringing back <em>Semana Santa</em> too. It\'s a dark Mediterranean story that fits in very well alongside the Costa stories.\n\nFine, I said, so long as I can rewrite it. Not a few tweaks. Not a couple of passages here and there. A wholesale reworking of the book from top to bottom. The old book and a new one inside the same skin. I\'m enthralled to tell you that’s what\'s going to happen and why I\'ve been in Seville these last few days, working on the rewrite, rediscovering the city where most people think, erroneously, <em>Semana Santa</em> was set (and where the movie was shot too).\n\nI know a fair number of you who turn up here these days are budding writers and fellow authors. So indulge me a little. This week I\'d like to set down the process that led to <em>Semana Santa</em> in the first place, some of the challenges I want to address in rewriting for today, and a few hard facts about the book-writing process I\'ve learned along the way. Writing is a journey of discovery inside and outside the books one produces. I\'m very fortunate to be offered such an intriguing opportunity and perhaps by setting down some of the issues involved here I\'ll help myself do a better job.\n\nLet me begin tomorrow with the curious sequence of coincidences that resulted in my becoming an author in the first place, and the crucial role that the lovely city of Seville played in that process. And for those of you who went out and bought <em>The Cemetery of Secrets</em> a special thanks, because the success of that reissue has certainly helped make all this possible.','A new book for old','','publish','open','closed','','a-new-book-for-old','','','2011-01-28 08:09:24','2011-01-28 08:09:24','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/2009/11/a-new-book-for-old/',0,'post','',0),(2146,1,'2009-11-23 09:04:40','2009-11-23 09:04:40','We\'re very lazy about the historical monsters we like to malign. Richard III, Bluebeard, Jack the Ripper... the population of real-life psychopaths that fills fiction is really rather small and often overworked.\n\nHere\'s a chap who deserves to be better known. He lived just round the corner from where I\'m staying in Seville right now. On the plus side he was responsible for much of the construction of the beautiful royal palace, the Alcazar, one of the splendours of Spain, with its gorgeous Moorish palace and gardens. You can take a quick virtual trip around by browsing my photos of the Alcazar by clicking on the interior image below. It\'s quite a place. And Pedro the Cruel was quite a monarch.\n\n<a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=128026&amp;id=538762251&amp;l=36b8b9dd3e\" target=\"_blank\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/rey.jpgwp-content/uploads/2009/11/alcazar.jpg\" alt=\"alcazar.jpg\" width=\"460\" height=\"345\" /></a>\n\n<!--more-->\n\nHistorically speaking we should call him Peter of Castile though mostly it\'s as Pedro the Cruel that he\'s known. He ruled the Spanish kingdom from 1350 to 1369, creating the Alcazar during that time. Though a Christian Pedro clearly liked the Arabic style that preceded him. So much of the work on his palace was carried out by Moslem craftsmen in a style known as mudèjar after the Moslems who stayed in Andalucia when the Christians reconquered the region.\n\nPedro was a funny chap. He liked to wander round the Alcazar wearing a turban and was greatly loved by the English. Geoffrey Chaucer visited Castile during his reign and laments his death in <em>The Monk\'s Tale</em>. Edward the Black Prince was one of his strongest military supporters at a time when the Christian factions in Spain were at war with one another. As a reward Pedro gave him a jewel which now sits in the crown of the monarch of England (yes the one the Queen wore to Parliament the other day).\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/rey.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-2165\" title=\"rey\" src=\"http://www.davidhewson.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/rey-300x297.jpg\" alt=\"rey\" width=\"300\" height=\"297\" /></a>I do wonder if she knows how Pedro got it: by killing a visitor in this very Alcazar for little other reason than that he coveted the precious stones he was carrying. Pedro\'s list of murders in Seville is astonishing. Close to where I\'m staying is the street of Calle Cabeza del Rey Don Pedro -- the Street of the Head of King Pedro. Odd name. Here\'s its origins. One night the king murdered an innocent citizen to whom he took a dislike. The police couldn\'t find anyone to blame until an old woman came forward as a witness and said the killer had knees that clicked as he walked. Pedro\'s did. But Pedro was also known as Pedro the Justice Giver. So he couldn\'t arraign himself. Instead he ordered that an effigy of himself be made, handed over to the authorities for summary execution and that the head be displayed at the scene of the crime. There, in stone, you\'ll find it today. Here it is. Butter wouldn\'t melt in his mouth, would it?\n\nAn incorrigible womaniser, Pedro had his wife shot to death by one of his archers. A woman he hated was burned alive. Another disfigured herself with boiling oil to stop his advances. He was fond of pickling his enemies\' heads in salt and camphor, another habit he picked up from his Moorish predecessors. One of the many he killed behind these walls was his own half brother.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/rey.jpgwp-content/uploads/2009/11/Pedro_Castile_beheading.jpg\"><img style=\"float:right;\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/rey.jpgwp-content/uploads/2009/11/Pedro_Castile_beheading-tm.jpg\" alt=\"Pedro_Castile_beheading.jpg\" width=\"200\" height=\"210\" /></a>Bloody fellow, bloody end. Three years after completing the Alcazar he was defeated in battle by another half- brother Henry and, legend has it, decapitated by him in the tent of Bertrand du Guesclin, the \'Eagle of Brittany\' who would, the following year, become the Constable of France, an event depicted on the right.\n\nPeter\'s severed remains may be found in a casket in the Capilla Real in Seville\'s vast cathedral. He lies there alongside his favourite lover, Maria de Padilla, who is designated as his wife in the chapel (though most believe she was simply his mistress). Maria\'s supposed baths are still there in the Alcazar -- you can see a photo of them in my pictures. She allegedly liked men to drink the water from them after she\'d bathed though Alonso Lowe, the author of the great <em>Companion Guide to Southern Spain</em>, reckons this tale exists chiefly to offer up the pay-off joke. One wag refused, saying that he feared that if he \'tasted the sauce he\'d then want to taste the partridge\'.\n\nIf Pedro really did marry her then the rightful heir to the throne of Castile would have been John of Gaunt of England, who married one of the daughters of de Padilla by Pedro. But I imagine England had enough wars of its own back then to pursue yet another.\n\nFascinating, bloody tale. How much is true and how much fiction? Just as with Richard III, it\'s debatable. Pedro was certainly a very vicious individual. His defenders use what I think of as the Kray brothers defence: \'He only done them what deserved it, guvnor.\' Those he murdered may have asked for it. It\'s true too that the blackest stories come from a single source: Pero López de Ayala, the historian and statesman who set them down in his chronicles. And he was a favourite of Henry, the brother who killed Pedro with his own hands. History, as always, is written by the winners. But Pedro certainly got on with the Jewish community in Seville, which was unusual at a time of anti-semitism, and the merchants seemed to like him as well.\n\nHis legacy remains the Alcazar, a beautiful spot, whatever the character of the man who commissioned it. And Chaucer certainly mourned him in <em>The Monk\'s Tale</em>...\n<blockquote>O noble, O worthy PETRO, glorie OF SPAYNE, Whom Fortune heeld so hye in magestee,\n\nWel oughten men thy pitous death complayne!\n\nOut of thy land thy brother made thee flee,\n\nAnd after, at a seege, by subtiltee,\n\nThou were bitraysed and lad unto his tente,\n\nWhere as he with his owene hand slow thee,\n\nSuccedynge in thy regne and in thy rente.</blockquote>','Pedro the Cruel: a monster waiting to be written','','publish','open','closed','','pedro-the-cruel-a-monster-waiting-to-be-written','','','2011-01-28 08:09:24','2011-01-28 08:09:24','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=2146',0,'post','',0),(2096,1,'2009-11-24 05:38:00','2009-11-24 05:38:00','It was the usual situation. I always wanted to write fiction for a living. I never thought I would. By the time I hit forty I’d pretty much given up any serious idea of being a novelist. Other cares – earning a living, making my way in journalism – had got in the way. By the time I turned forty two I had a three book deal under my belt and a movie contract. Things rarely happen suddenly in this business, but sometimes they do.\n\nHow did all this come about? Largely by accident if I\'m honest. I\'ve never been one to look back. Life\'s too busy for that. So let me try to fathom it out too, because I suspect this tale tells you something about how books turn from vague ideas to reality and some of the curiously coincidental circumstances along the way.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nI’ve never earned a living through anything except writing. I became a cub reporter on a tiny newspaper in the UK when I was seventeen and managed to climb my way onto <em>The Times</em> eight years later. Writing fiction was always the endgame but it never happened because, to be frank, I never had anything to write <em>about.</em>\n\nI also bore easily. That was why, in 1986, I abandoned a reasonably successful career on what was then Fleet Street and set out to write full time on my own.\n\nIt was pretty much a disaster from the start. When you\'re a well-known national newspaper journalist the phone never stops ringing. When you\'re one more broke freelance looking for work it never starts. Nobody much wanted to know me except a tiny publisher, now disappeared, who wanted a few short travel guides, two of them in Spain, a country I knew a little from holidays. The fee, if I recall correctly, was £2000. Out of that I had to pay all my research expenses.\n\nI was an idiot to take the commission and soon realised that, if things went on this way, I’d be bankrupt. But I managed to knock out a couple of ham-fisted brief travel books to Andalucia and Mallorca (they still turn up on Ebay from time to time – please don’t buy them) and spent a few months living on the road in Spain on a pittance. Trust me, this was not fun. In order to make <em>some</em> money out of those books I stayed in the cheapest places I could find and lived off <em>tapas. </em>I learnt many things and one of them was that there\'s nothing romantic about penury.\n\nWhen I got back I realised I had to make some changes to my professional life, and quickly. I briefly edited a magazine to pay the bills. Then I took to more sensible freelance work, covering business and technology for the <em>Sunday Times.</em> Life became better. I no longer needed to shield my eyes when opening bank statements. Fiction drifted out of my sights.\n\nThen in Easter 1994 we took a rare holiday, a cheapie back to Andalucia. It was Holy Week, and they even had processions with those creepy pointed hats in our village. I watched them and I remembered two things I\'d filed away mentally from my brief days as a travel writer. One was listening to a bunch of teenagers practice their instruments for a Holy Week brass band by the banks of the Guadalquivir. The other was the painting below, one of the most terrifying works of art I\'ve ever seen.\n\nI went back to look at it again yesterday and it still scares the hell out of me. It\'s called <em>Finis Gloriae Mundi</em>, the end of the glories of the world, by the Sevillian artist Juan Valdés Leal, and had I not stepped through the doors of the little-known place where it resides I doubt I\'d be the writer I am now. Of which more tomorrow...\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/caridad.jpgwp-content/uploads/2009/11/finis_gloriae_mundi1.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/caridad.jpgwp-content/uploads/2009/11/finis_gloriae_mundi-tm1.jpg\" alt=\"finis_gloriae_mundi.jpeg\" width=\"450\" height=\"456\" /></a>','The accidental novelist','','publish','open','open','','the-accidental-novelist','','','2011-01-28 08:09:24','2011-01-28 08:09:24','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=2096',0,'post','',0),(2114,1,'2009-11-25 06:11:51','2009-11-25 06:11:51','Writers constantly get asked about inspiration. Where do ideas come from? What makes us pursue this arcane craft, so full of pitfalls and failures? I guess an honest answer is that most of us write because we have to. We don\'t know anything else. We like to get those stories out of us into the world at large if possible.\n\nBut inspiration\'s different. That\'s a strange and wayward beast that rears its head at the least likely of times, unbidden, unexplained. When I was younger and desperate to write it drove me near crazy that I found it impossible. I made excuses: no time, too busy with other things. But they <em>were</em> excuses. The truth was I had nothing to say, no base material to work with.\n\nBertrand Russell, the philosopher, was once asked how budding writers should get started. He said they should wait for the moment to arrive, not try to seek it out because that was impossible. If it was going to happen, it <em>would</em> happen. If not...\n\n<!--more-->\n\nAs I explained yesterday that moment popped into my head when it was the last thing I was looking for and had pretty much forgotten about the idea of becoming a writer at all. I was carving out a pretty successful career as a freelance attached to the <em>Sunday Times</em>. We\'d made enough money to take a holiday in Andalucia one very wet Easter in 1994. The village had a <em>Semana Santa</em> procession, full of those strange and rather threatening costumes and the intensity that comes from such religious events in the Mediterranean. And the final element in the mix popped up too. In the middle of the downpour I went to the bookshelf and picked up a paperback by Ed McBain. The catalysts were in place.\n\nThe first was that McBain book (one of the 87th precinct series -- I forget which now). It reminded me that story-telling was what I was supposed to be doing.\n\nThe others I mentioned yesterday. The image of those kids playing by the banks of the river in Seville. There was something so atmospheric, so very <em>different</em> to them, and something very convincing too. They were behaving as if this was the most natural thing in the world: not being at school, not preparing for the future. They were committed, absorbed, obsessive. And obsessive people are the building blocks of an awful lot of fiction.\n\nFinally there was that picture by Valdés Leal which I showed yesterday. A computer screen can\'t do it justice. The only way you can appreciate it, and its equally scary counterpart known as <em>In Ictu Oculis,</em> which I\'ll show here today, is to walk through the doors of the <em>Hospital de la Caridad</em> in Seville and see them. Google won\'t do. That great Sevillian painter Murillo used to say that he couldn\'t look at these two paintings without wanting to hold his nose to hide the smell. They\'re about life and death, though death mainly. And so was the book I came to write.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/ictu.jpgwp-content/uploads/2009/11/valdes_leal_jd_ictu_oculi.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/ictu.jpgwp-content/uploads/2009/11/valdes_leal_jd_ictu_oculi-tm.jpg\" alt=\"valdes_leal_jd_ictu_oculi.jpg\" width=\"450\" height=\"457\" /></a>\n\n<em>La Caridad</em> was a hospital for the poor set up in 1661 by a remarkable man, Miguel de Mañara. Mañara was a Sevillian rake and playboy who was subject to a miraculous conversion to piety. Some say this was grief over the death of his wife. Others claim he is the inspiration for the story of Don Juan, and converted to a charitable life upon seeing a coffin in the street one night, after some debauchery, and realising that the corpse inside was none other than his own.\n\nToday this place is still a charity working as a home for the elderly. The chapel attached to it was Mañara\'s creation, a lesson to those who follow in the need for human charity in the face of the inevitability of death, a lesson made by a series of works of art commissioned for this small, dark place. I must have visited Seville in 1988 for those travel books. Six years later, thinking about McBain\'s story-telling powers, the Holy Week celebrations in the village where we were staying, and those kids with their trumpets by the Guadalquivir, a story began to emerge in my head. One in which a painting very like Valdés Leal\'s would play a key part.\n\nWhat strikes me now, looking back over this sequence of events, is how very unplanned they were. I never came to Spain looking for material for a novel. I never went to Andalucia that Easter thinking of writing fiction either. Clearly my unconscious had been storing this stuff up and filing it. But I hadn\'t noticed. Bertrand Russell was right. If it was going to happen it would. Perhaps, if I hadn\'t come to Spain, I would have written something else. Though perhaps not. Who knows?\n\nStill, I returned from that holiday determined to try to write a novel one final time -- and give up if that effort failed like all the others.\n\nThere was only one problem. I was an overworked freelance business journalist. I couldn\'t drop everything to go back to Seville to research it for real. That would have been a step backwards, and for a book that would probably never get finished let alone appear.\n\nEnter the myth of location... of which more tomorrow.','A curious case of inspiration','','publish','open','closed','','the-myth-of-inspiration','','','2011-01-28 08:09:24','2011-01-28 08:09:24','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=2114',0,'post','',0),(2123,1,'2009-11-26 13:00:39','2009-11-26 13:00:39','<em>The story of the writing of </em>Semana Santa<em> continued</em>\n\nSo I\'m going to write a book, secretly, at home in England. It\'s going to be set in Spain but I can\'t afford to go back there and do proper research. Simple: make it up. Holy Week happens all over Spain. Seville just happens to be the most famous. Make it in an unknown, unnamed city and take it from there.\n\nSeems sensible? But oh no...\n\nThe problem, as ever, is readers. They don\'t just swallow what you tell them. They invent something of their own as they\'re reading and consume that too. Most readers had no knowledge of Spain (<em>Semana Santa</em> was a stupid title for this reason -- so many people can\'t pronounce it let alone know what it means). To them a story set in Holy Week was a story set in Seville in spite of these clues to the opposite liberally scattered through the text of the book...\n\n<!--more-->\n<ul>\n	<li>A line saying that someone had arrived in the city <em>via the road from Seville</em></li>\n	<li>Names for the various <em>barrios</em> of the fictional city that were nothing like those of the real place</li>\n	<li>A geographical description that cannot possibly be applied to Seville (and was actually a mix of Cordoba, Seville, Granada, Cadiz and... Durham)</li>\n</ul>\nThere\'s more but I won\'t bore you with it. None of that stuff mattered. People believed the book was set in Seville. When it came out in Spanish the edition even had a note from the publishers -- of which I knew nothing until it appeared -- saying that they knew the description of Seville contained \'errors\' but they thought it a great book anyway!\n\nThen along came the movie people who just <em>knew</em> it was Seville and I gave up.\n\nI\'ll be hunkering down for the rewrite later this week. There will be substantial changes to the story, which I hope to make darker and scarier than the original (though that was pretty dark and scary). One of the ways I will be doing this will be by bowing to public opinion and setting the damned thing in... Seville. Real places for lots of the story, real history, real culture. With some made-up characters and culture too because <em>this is fiction after all.</em>\n\nDoes location matter? Obviously. But not in the way I must have imagined when I first wrote this book sixteen years ago. The fictional city I invented had a kind of reality for readers that seemingly grabbed their imagination. The book did very well and was a WH Smith Fresh Talent winner for a best debut novel. But what I seem to have tapped into was something as much in the readers\' heads as in my own. Their image of a place they knew as Seville, even if they\'d never set foot there.\n\nIn short something that\'s unreal can be more real than real if it hits the right nerve. And whether it\'s actually real or not may or may not matter. Clear to you?\n\nNo, me neither. From now on I\'m going to keep things simple: set adult fairy tales in real locations. If a place is fictional it seems to me it must be made to be clearly fictional, not like somewhere real, somewhere that may intrude into the reader\'s mind and swallow your invented city whole. Which is what Seville did to me with <em>Semana Santa.</em>\n\nNo complaints mind. And I\'m hoping this reimagined book will be bigger and better than the original.','The myth of location','','publish','open','closed','','the-myth-of-location','','','2011-01-28 08:09:24','2011-01-28 08:09:24','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=2123',0,'post','',0),(2133,1,'2009-11-27 06:19:02','2009-11-27 06:19:02','By the time you read this I\'ll be back in the UK and working on the revise of the new edition of the book that first came out as <em>Semana Santa</em> thirteen years ago. So I suppose the obvious thing to do is give you a taste of the original, not least since it\'s been out of print for a good few years after my move to my present publisher.\n\nAmong the things that will change in the new edition are the title, the shift of the location to \'real\' Seville, some local detail and \'factual\' information, names, characters and a fair amount of plot. But I don\'t envisage the opening changing very much at all. It still seems to work fine, setting up the story that follows.\n\nSo, it\'s April, Easter 1995. An old woman is waking up in her dilapidated mansion in the heart of Seville. As she does so she\'s aware something around her has changed, and that she is surrounded by ghosts, memories of another time in this house, when she was a young girl and there was a tragedy that will now awake to face the modern world. This is pre-revise -- please excuse any typos.\n\n<!--more-->\n\n<em>La Soledad</em>.\n\nThe words echoed around the old woman\'s head as she woke slowly, fitfully, from fast-fading dreams. Outside, through the arch and pillars of the keyhole arch, the noise of the city rumbled like the low growl of an unseen animal. The scent of oleander mingled with the fumes of diesels and cigarettes. From her wicker chair, its points and cracks now biting into her bones, she could see across the garden to the courtyard. A handful of orange and lemon trees dotted with wrinkled fruit, dusty in the afternoon sunlight, waxy red seed husks on a lone pomegranate, the sudden drift of cat\'s urine on the unseasonably hot late-afternoon air.\n\nCaterina Lucena watched the ghosts reassemble and populate another place: bright, gay noisy. Laughter rang from wall to gleaming wall as the tiles sparkled in the sun. She could see the figures straying from group to group as they had done more than sixty years ago when, as a young girl, she had watched, filled with awe and admiration, from this very room. All of the great people of the day had visited in their time. Even, once, Lorca himself. She had seen them sip fino and manzanilla beneath the orange blossom, heard them talk about things she could not comprehend. She had watched their faces change over the space of two seasons, shift from bright, optimistic good humour to, first, a muted concern, as faint as gossamer, then to visible anxiety. And finally to fear, simple, naked, brutal. All the time the trees blossomed and bore fruit. It stood on the branch unpicked, gathering dust from the carriages and cars she could hear beyond the wall.\n\n##\n\nOne day she came down from her small, sunny room, woken by something she did not recognise. The ground was littered with rotten fruit. It was as if a sudden earthquake had shaken them from the tree. They lay on the dry brown earth misshapen and decaying. Flesh and pulp peeped out from beneath their torn orange and yellow skins. There was something obscene, something frightening about the sight.\n\nA lifetime on she floated above herself as she was then, following the young girl in her white and pink cotton dress, loose and cool in the heat, as she stood outside the courtyard\'s gold-and-blue-tiled door, looking down at this bitter harvest in shock and foreboding.\n\nShe waited. It would come. It always came.\n\nFrom beyond the courtyard wall an explosion erupted, a noise so huge, so violent that it seemed to tear apart the world. The air, the sky shook with the sound. She screamed and time to leave of its senses, the seconds turned to hours, as if to extend the pain they promised.\n\nThe trees became electric. Their branches snapped, as if to attention, as if a fibrous thread of muscle, tight as steel, ran throughout the sap and suddenly tautened in fury or fear. They clenched like fists then released themselves and the air filled with leaves and twigs and the sweet, cloying aroma of rotten fruit. The blast of the cannon came to her, bringing with it a new odour, the sharp smell of cordite and burning.\n\nOverhead, the sound of wings, the frantic cry of birds, flapping, flapping, flapping.\n\nA shape forms before her line of vision, floating down from the sky, tears of blood against pure white,, close enough to touch. It falls with the speed of a single, descending feather, slowly, almost gracefully. She can see the red, deep and real, on its feathers, she can see the bloody gore around its neck where the blast removed the head. At the back of her skull she can feel herself screaming. But there is no noise, there is no pain, no sensation at all. The world has become nothing but this single occurrence: a headless dove falls to the earth in front of her so slowly it seems beyond the power of gravity, the ties of the physical world.\n\nShe watches its neck twitch frantically from side to side. She sees the blood pump and spill from its still-beating heart. The drops arch through the air, perfect scarlet pearls, half frozen in their motion. They spatter her dress, her skin. As she screams she can feel the light red rain on her tongue, and she cannot stop herself <em>tasting</em> it, fresh and warm and salty, licking the roof of her mouth in an automatic reaction the thought of which starts to overturn her stomach long before the physical sensation becomes real.\n\nTime pauses. There is a moment when the dove is held by invisible fingers in front of her as if to say: <em>this</em> is the point.. And then the seconds move again. The stricken bird falls to the ground with a sudden, brutal force. As she begins to retch she knows that this event, though only the precursor to other, worse happenings, is one which will mark her for the rest of her life. In another time a young girl vomits dryly in the courtyard of her ancestral home, the tiny, shattered carcass of a dove at her feet.\n\nOutside the sound of arms, the smell of blood.\n\n<em>La Soledad.</em>','Something for the weekend... from me','','publish','open','closed','','something-for-the-weekend-from-me','','','2011-01-28 08:09:24','2011-01-28 08:09:24','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=2133',0,'post','',0),(2203,1,'2009-11-28 09:23:33','2009-11-28 09:23:33','I <a href=\"http://www.davidhewson.com/2009/11/in-search-of-a-noteworthy-companion/\" target=\"_blank\">wrote earlier about my search</a> for the perfect notebook companion while out and about doing research. Well I\'ve found the best so far. To recap. I\'m a Mac user and wouldn\'t use anything else for serious writing. But the MacBook Air is too big for lugging around cities constantly, and the battery life is way too short at little more than two hours most of the time (whatever Apple claim to the contrary).\n\nI want something with a ten inch screen and a long battery life. Apple don\'t make such a thing -- yet. So, after faffing around with phones and PDAs for years, I went out and bought a ten inch Asus 1005HA netbook for £270 for Amazon. And it proved fantastic while legging it around Seville, though not in the way I\'d expected.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nThe Asus comes with Windows 7 and some kind of special Asus software designed to give it a very long battery life - eight hours or more even with wifi turned on. I\'m not a fan of Windows so I also installed a Linux distro, <a href=\"http://www.jolicloud.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Jolicloud</a>, alongside Windows to see how that performed. Jolicloud is neat and easy to install, and has lots of applications that be added through a simple panel. I thought it was very well done and, given that this is only an alpha release, very stable and promising. But it\'s not for me just yet for these reasons...<a href=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/P_500.jpg\"><img style=\"float:right;\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/P_500-tm.jpg\" alt=\"P_500.jpg\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" /></a>\n<ul>\n	<li>It lacks the special Asus software for extending battery life. So while I got eight hours plus on Windows I was struggling to get five on Jolicloud.</li>\n	<li>I use Evernote a lot, more than anything. There\'s no Evernote client release for Linux. You can make the 3.1 version of the Windows client work easily enough on Jolicloud but not the current 3.5 one. Unfortunately the 3.1 client is pretty horrible all round so I found it unusable.</li>\n	<li>I wanted to use Google Chrome to set up my Gmail account so it stored mail directly on the netbook, giving me offline access. But Chrome on Linux, as far as I could see, doesn\'t do this. Yes, you can do it through Thunderbird. But it was all getting horribly complicated.</li>\n</ul>\nIn practice I soon gave up using Jolicloud as I wandered round Seville. My working method was simple. I ran Windows and simply closed the lid when I stopped working. The netbook suspended and stayed that way for a very long period of time. Open the lid and I\'m back working away as soon as I type in a password. Even when I was out all day and opening and closing the thing regularly in parks and cafes the battery never got close to half full most of the time. I just kept Evernote open, typed in material, uploaded photos through the built in card reader and, when I happened on a café that had free wifi, synced it all back to the web for safe keeping.\n\nWindows always got to me somewhat with its updates and nags about virus software. But, after a lot of initial updates, it didn\'t seem too bad on this front -- no worse than Jolicloud and perhaps even better. And Microsoft\'s own anti virus package, <a href=\"http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/resources.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Security Essentials</a>, was free and unobtrusive. All I really run on this machine is Evernote and a web browser. For that the machine is absolutely fine, and since Asus have tailored it to Windows 7 it boots quickly and seems very reliable.\n\nSo I now have a working Windows computer and one I really rather like. This came as quite a surprise to me I must admit. Jolicloud complicates the boot process and runs automatically when you turn the computer on. Since I\'m not using it the OS is coming off as I write and I\'m going back to devoting the whole machine to Windows 7 in its original condition. I can see this being incredibly useful for short trips, to London for meetings for example. I wouldn\'t want to do serious writing on it. But as a note-taker it\'s the best solution I\'ve found to date.\n\nOf course if Scrivener for Windows does come out I\'ll be buying it. I wonder how <a href=\"http://www.literatureandlatte.com/about.html\" target=\"_blank\">that poll about it went</a>. I\'ll buy it Keith if it happens! Which goes to show, I guess, that my loyalty lies in the three fundamental applications I use -- Scrivener, MacJournal and Evernote. Not to Apple. In fact I feel absolutely zero loyalty to Apple whatsoever, even though, or perhaps because, I have spent a fortune buying their products over the years. If someone comes up with something better for me -- be it Windows, Chrome OS or anything else -- I am gone.\n\nTo be fair this doesn\'t look like happening soon. But the quality of this little netbook has cost Apple the sale of the 13-inch MacBook Pro I was considering buying to my replace my very sluggish first generation MacBook Air.','Netbook on the road','','publish','open','closed','','netbook-on-the-road','','','2011-01-28 08:09:24','2011-01-28 08:09:24','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=2203',0,'post','',0),(2218,1,'2009-11-28 13:13:04','2009-11-28 13:13:04','My good friend in New York, <a href=\"http://www.jonathanhayes.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Jonathan Hayes</a>, set me thinking today. He\'s asked some pertinent questions about keeping book diaries and maintaining blogs here over the past few months. The latest got me pondering. Simplicity, remember, is the key to everything to do with writing. We want to clear away the clutter so we can think more easily.\n\nIn that case why separate a book diary from a blog? Both are journals of a kind? One public, one private. Is there a way to do both using the same rudimentary system? Well actually, there is. Since I\'m embarking on a new book shortly I\'ll experiment with this new method to see if works better than my old system of using MacJournal. It is absolutely free. So why not?\n\nLet\'s get started.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nThe idea\'s simple. Instead of keeping my book journal as a local file on my computer, why not run it, instead, as a blog? Not a public one, but a private one. This is dead easy to set up if you have a free wordpress.com account. Just create a blog and go to the privacy options here.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/wordpress.pngwp-content/uploads/2009/11/Screen-shot-2009-11-28-at-12.53.56.png\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/wordpress.pngwp-content/uploads/2009/11/Screen-shot-2009-11-28-at-12.53.56-tm.jpg\" alt=\"Screen shot 2009-11-28 at 12.53.56.png\" width=\"460\" height=\"160\" /></a>\n\nFrom this point on no one can see this blog unless they get past that login. So let\'s create the kind of categories I\'d have in a book diary.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/wordpress.pngwp-content/uploads/2009/11/Screen-shot-2009-11-28-at-12.53.36.png\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/wordpress.pngwp-content/uploads/2009/11/Screen-shot-2009-11-28-at-12.53.36-tm.jpg\" alt=\"Screen shot 2009-11-28 at 12.53.36.png\" width=\"460\" height=\"332\" /></a>\n\nNote that you can have sub-categories too. So you can have hierarchies in your posts that are equivalent to folders on your computer. Finally, pick a template that suits you - I\'m using INove - and write posts that match the categories of your \'diary\'. I have an actual diary category for general thoughts, and then tend to break down the others as above. I\'ll also add in two important tags, \'to do\' and \'must use\', as I do in MacJournal, for entries that definitely require attention.\n\nThe front page of your book blog will simply reflect the chronological order of all the posts you\'ve made.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/wordpress.pngwp-content/uploads/2009/11/Screen-shot-2009-11-28-at-12.49.34.png\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/wordpress.pngwp-content/uploads/2009/11/Screen-shot-2009-11-28-at-12.49.34-tm.jpg\" alt=\"Screen shot 2009-11-28 at 12.49.34.png\" width=\"460\" height=\"324\" /></a>\n\nBut you can go straight to the category or sub-category by clicking one of those category tabs in the top. One of the reasons I chose INove is that it comes with these -- you just have to select category instead of page in the template settings.\n\nRunning a book diary like this has several advantages. It\'s always backed up for one thing, and you can access through any net-enabled computer or phone. The site will even come up on an iPhone of iPod in a special mobile version that allows you to see everything (as will this site too -- give it a try -- Wordpress is truly wonderful). I can post entries using Ecto or, at a pinch, MacJournal, though MacJournal isn\'t quite as proficient unfortunately -- I can\'t see a way to match its categories to those of Wordpress, though this must be me).\n\nAlso I\'m no longer restricted to a Mac. I can view the diary on my new Windows 7 notebook, and write posts for it using Live Writer (which is a very good, and free, piece of software too). I could, if I wanted, invite people in to take a look at my book blog. I could post extracts of the work and share them with agents and editors. I could ask a friendly technical person to view and comment on questions, all in privacy. I can add stuff to the blog by simply emailing a special email address attached to it. And I can cut and paste other material and links into blog entries too. Pretty neat stuff.\n\nThe principal downside is that in order to see a web site you usually have to be connected to the web. What happens if you\'re not and you need something? There are a few solutions. You can make sure everything in your book blog is synced to an offline editor like Ecto or Live Writer. You can try using Firefox or Google Chrome with Google Gears, a Google add-on that stores web material locally (doesn\'t work with Safari in Snow Leopard though -- be warned). <strong>Update: </strong>Google Gears doesn\'t store the entire site locally. You only have full access if you\'re online.\n\nHow well does this shape up in practice? I don\'t know, and if you\'re halfway through a book and happy with the system you\'re using at present then don\'t even think of abandoning it for this. The advantages are there but they\'re not worth a lot of pain. Really this ought to be achievable using <a href=\"http://www.evernote.com\" target=\"_blank\">Evernote</a>, and would be if the designers just let people have hierarchical folders instead of forcing them to use complex and unintuitive tags. But given how many users have asked for <em>that</em> over the years with no success I guess it isn\'t going to happen.\n\nI like the idea of not being chained to a Mac that I happen to own. So I\'ll give it a try and report back after a little while. Frankly I\'m not entirely convinced. If you want to collaborate this would be fantastic. But I don\'t and I really like MacJournal. The drag and drop simplicity of a local app may be something I\'ll miss rather too much. But we\'ll see.\n\nIf you want to give it a try you can simply sign up for a free account at <a href=\"http://www.wordpress.com/\" target=\"_blank\">wordpress.com</a> and play. Feel free to say what you think here.','Forget book diaries, how about a book blog?','','publish','open','closed','','forget-book-diaries-how-about-a-book-blog','','','2011-01-28 08:09:24','2011-01-28 08:09:24','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=2218',0,'post','',0),(1735,1,'2009-11-30 07:01:17','2009-11-30 07:01:17','I had a really bright idea for my third novel, <em>Solstice.</em> I started writing it in 1996. That meant it was probably going to come out in early 1999. By that time millennial fever was going to be gripping the world, wasn\'t it? So why not write a story about the end of the world? How cool would that be? Good timing or what?\n\nWell <em>Solstice is</em> certainly an end-of-the-world tale but it\'s not tied to any date or event in history. Just as well really. Because being topical in a book is about as dumb as you can get, as an editor cheerfully pointed out to me when I raised this possibility. Yet time and time again would-be writers make the mistake of thinking real-world news can generate unreal-world fiction. And mostly it can\'t.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nOne practical problem has to do with the nature of the space time continuum. That thing moves on. Your book won\'t. Example: the world economic crash of 2008. I\'ll bet agents and publishers got a flurry of submissions in the middle of that for popular fiction set directly inside the curiously uncertain world we found ourselves in back then. On the surface the idea of a story from that time looks attractive. It\'s everywhere: in the papers, on the TV, in people\'s heads. When you start writing it nothing may make <em>less</em> sense.\n\nNine months later you finish it. The crisis is still going on. People are thinking, yawn... Even worse, if a publisher accepted your book it would take perhaps twelve to twenty four months to bring it to the public. The odds are that by then no one in the world will want to read yesterday\'s news. And also that something real will have happened that may have drastically changed the premise of your story. What publisher wants to take that risk?\n\nHere\'s a related truth too: people read fiction for the internal reality of a book, not its relation to the real world (usually). When London suffered that ghastly terrorist attack in 2005 some unfortunate soul had a book out just a week or two before, a thriller that depicted a very similar event, bombs and all.\n\nI remember someone saying to me at the time, \'What timing -- that will sell loads.\' No it won\'t, I thought. And it didn’t. There are some recent events that are just too close for comfort. Writing about terrorism in general is one thing. Imaginary terrorist attacks are fair game too -- I use one in <em>The Blue Demon.</em> But the real world is different. No one wants to read much about London getting bombed, about 9/11, Afghanistan (directly anyway) or swine flu. Escapism is a strong motive for picking up a book. Yes miserable books do sell. But normally they\'re miserable in themselves, not miserable about external matters we\'re all miserable about already.\n\nIt\'s certainly possible to set fiction around real-world events. But far better to make them something historic -- the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the Bay of Pigs crisis, even the first Iraq war -- than something that\'s happening right now. And do remember that books have a long life if you\'re lucky. You may only be able to see them a year or two out. If they work they will be around for a lot longer than that and may get a second wind when they\'re republished a decade or so later. Tying them to some specific topical thread or event in the news is like dressing them in today\'s fashions. You guarantee that very soon they\'ll look jaded and out of date, of interest primarily as a curiosity.\n\nThis applies particularly to the writers of series. Time is an illusion in most fiction, and for series writers most of all <a href=\"http://www.davidhewson.com/2009/09/time-in-fiction-is-just-one-bi/\" target=\"_blank\">as I\'ve discussed here</a>. If you fix some element of your story in the real world it can come back to haunt you, through picky readers or by limiting your possibilities when it comes to future stories.\n\nI\'ve only set one Costa book in a fixed time frame and so far I\'ve got away with it. That was <em>The Sacred Cut</em> which, because of the nature of the story, is set at the end of the second Iraq war. I didn\'t have much choice given what I was writing about. But I very much doubt I\'d do that again.\n\nBooks exist outside the real world, in a time all of their own. Best to leave them in that special space, not try to drag them kicking and screaming into ours.','No news is good news','','publish','open','closed','','no-news-is-good-news','','','2011-01-28 08:09:24','2011-01-28 08:09:24','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=1735',0,'post','',0),(2254,1,'2009-11-30 08:57:41','2009-11-30 08:57:41','Australian author P.D. Martin is <a href=\"http://www.pdmartin.com.au/ebook/?page_id=8\" target=\"_blank\">trying an interesting experiment over on her web site</a>. She\'s letting readers determine the direction of her current book. Let Philippa explain it herself....\n<blockquote>I’ve decided on the title and basic premise of my e-book, which I’ll write over a 12-week period, starting Wednesday 25 November. Although the first chapter will work a little differently, basically each week you’ll vote on how you want the next chapter to unfold, using different scenarios I put forward. At the end of the short voting period, I’ll have six days to write that chapter reflecting your directions. Think of it like a ‘choose your own adventure’ except majority rules and there’ll only be one book/plot sequence at the end of it.</blockquote>\n<!--more-->\n\nI\'m all for experiments in writing and I\'ll be interested to see how this one works out. When I was a journalist I spent lots of time in Japan talking to companies like Sony and Sharp about how they envisaged the future. I well remember one company inventing a system, pre-DVD, where different parts of a movie were shot to allow viewers to pick the course of the story. At pivotal events they could turn left or right, decide who won who lost, and a variety of other things. It went through research. Most viewers hate it and the idea never went into production.\n\nWith the advent of the Internet perhaps things are changing. It\'s good that writers like Philippa are trying out ideas like this. Not for me though. I\'m far too much of a tyrant. My job\'s writing books. Yours is reading them, should you so choose, of course.','Should readers really have a say?','','publish','open','closed','','should-readers-really-have-a-say','','','2011-01-28 08:08:56','2011-01-28 08:08:56','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=2254',0,'post','',0),(2265,1,'2009-11-30 16:04:04','2009-11-30 16:04:04','I refined <a href=\"http://www.davidhewson.com/2009/11/a-working-example-of-a-private-book-blog/\" target=\"_blank\">yesterday\'s Wordpress book diary experiment</a> a bit this morning. It is now live and in production, completely inaccessible to you lot, of course. I don\'t intend to write this thing in public thanks very much.\n\nBut there are some very cool add-ons I\'ve picked up along the way that make this way of handling the research and brainstorming processes even more attractive. I feel pretty much sold right now and have spent a couple of hours typing stuff into my private book site today, working on the background and some of the characters of the story. It\'s also now effectively a desktop app on my Mac - and on my Windows netbook too.\n\nHere\'s how. And a reminder - you can play with a public version of the thing itself at <a href=\"http://www.davidhewson.net\" target=\"_blank\">davidhewson.net</a>, though not with the features below since they are restricted to those with permission to write for the diary.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nThere remained one big problem with using Wordpress this way. The standard web site view is aimed at reading, not editing. So looking at my diary I could find stuff very easily. But I couldn\'t change it, and I couldn\'t write a new post either. For those things I needed to go to the back end or an offline editor such as Ecto or Live Writer.\n\nNot any more. Wordpress is an amazing piece of software, with an amazing array of plugins. The latter needed to be treated with care. They can slow down the site and be a bit buggy a times. But just two plugins transformed this site for me. The first, <a href=\"http://jon.smajda.com/2008/09/01/posthaste-wp-plugin/\" target=\"_blank\">Posthaste</a>, puts a simple entry form at the top of the front page. This means you can write posts and copy in reference material directly to the site and allot it a category. The second, <a href=\"http://scribu.net/wordpress/front-end-editor\" target=\"_blank\">Front-end editor</a>, does as it says. Once it\'s installed I can click on pretty much any part of the site and immediately begin to edit the text. I don\'t even need to see the back end of the site for most things.\n\nHere is how the diary looks now with the entry form at the top (I\'ve blacked out some of the text because this is now about a real project).\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/diary2.jpgwp-content/uploads/2009/11/app.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/diary2.jpgwp-content/uploads/2009/11/app-tm.jpg\" alt=\"app.jpg\" width=\"460\" height=\"405\" /></a>\n\nAnd here is how it looks while I\'m editing using Front-end editor.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/diary2.jpgwp-content/uploads/2009/11/edit.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/diary2.jpgwp-content/uploads/2009/11/edit-tm.jpg\" alt=\"edit.jpg\" width=\"460\" height=\"531\" /></a>\n\nNotice how it now looks more like a computer app than a web site? That\'s because it is. Using some modern browsers you can choose to turn a web site into a desktop app. If your system uses Google Gears it can even download the pages to your computer so you can use it offline. On the Mac I used the free <a href=\"http://fluidapp.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Fluid</a> browser to create a desktop app, a site specific browser that does just one thing -- run the diary. It\'\'s connected through Gears so in theory it should work offline (not that I\'ve had the chance to try this yet). You can do the same with Firefox and Chrome too. For Firefox download the Prism plugin and followe the instructions. On Chrome simply create a desktop application to the site front end. Note that you have to create a Gears connection <em>in the Wordpress back end</em> first, for each machine. Otherwise you won\'t get that local backup to let you work offline.\n\nSo my diary really is a local diary now. And I have to say I\'m getting more hooked on it by the hour.','The book diary experiment continues','','publish','open','closed','','the-book-diary-experiment-continues','','','2011-01-28 08:08:56','2011-01-28 08:08:56','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=2265',0,'post','',0),(1636,1,'2009-12-01 07:00:00','2009-12-01 07:00:00','Let\'s talk Scrivener again and an aspect of the software that often puzzles people. This is the right hand column called the Inspector. You don\'t need to see it, of course. You can hide the thing altogether. But it is very useful as we\'ve already seen for <a href=\"http://www.davidhewson.com/2009/10/the-dreaded-synopsis/\">mapping out a synopsis</a>. And there are some other cool gadgets to play with too, particularly when you reach the revision stage.\n\nOne of the things to remember about Scrivener is that it contains a lot of tools. More than most of us would need, I suspect. So it makes sense to pick the ones that make sense to you and leave the rest to one side. I probably know sixty per cent of what\'s in this very rich piece of software. That\'s enough for me. I don\'t want to know it all.\n\nSo let\'s look at the parts of the Inspector that really work for me.\n\n<!--more-->\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/inspect.jpgblog/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/inspect.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1639\" title=\"inspect\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/inspect.jpgblog/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/inspect.jpg\" alt=\"inspect\" width=\"225\" height=\"702\" /></a>Here you see the full inspector bar (a little shortened for the purposes of displaying it in a blog post -- I normally work with a much longer page). The top part is for the synopsis for this particular scene. Type something in here and it will appear in the outline and corkboard view and give you a handy reference for moving scenes and chapters around at will. That\'s great during the writing. But the rest of the tools here are wonderful when you get round to revising your work.\n\nYou have six different options under the General heading. These are...\n\n<strong>Label</strong>: use this for saying whether it\'s a scene or a chapter if you like. But you can also change the names of these labels. So they could become notes for which character has the point of view, for example. Useful: not essential in my book.\n\n<strong>Status</strong>: This is where you can mark a scene as to do, first draft, second, revised, done... you choose. When you\'re revising you can go through rewriting and ticking off the parts you think are finalised. Leave those you\'re not sure about as Final Draft or something. Then do a simple search for every element in the book that has Final Draft as the status. Bingo: you see what\'s left to do. This is very powerful stuff and you can edit those labels as you see fit.\n\n<strong>Modified</strong>: Just looks like a date stamp and it is. But think about it. This is a date stamp <em>for the time you last edited this scene.</em> Not the project as a whole. Do you ever look at something and think: did I just edit that a couple of days ago or not? Modified tells you straight away. Nothing remotely like this in a conventional word processor. Priceless.\n\n<strong>Included in Draft</strong>: tick this if the text is something you want to appear in the final exported book. If you are writing notes or research that\'s outside the book leave it unticked and it won’t get exported (or counted in the word count if you set it up properly).\n\n<strong>Page Break Before</strong>: does what it say. Tick if you want each scene in your manuscript to start on a new page.\n\n<strong>Preserve formatting</strong>: overrides any formatting changes you make when dumping out to Word or something. Use this on part, section or chapter headings where you want some specific fonts. I don\'t.\n\n<strong>Document notes</strong>. This is the place for things that aren\'t included in a synopsis. Such as dates or times or just general \'must do\' observations. I use this in almost every scene I write. I want each element in this book to earn its keep. These notes are a way of reminding myself what each scene is supposed to achieve and what I still need to get there.\n\nThose seven elements are something you simply can\'t find in conventional word processors. Perfect for creative writing in my book.\n\nOne last thing. At the foot of the Inspector you will see three little icons. The default will give you the Document Notes you\'ll see above. Click through the other two and you will find one panel for links and one for keywords. In links you can input a link to an external web page or another part of your project. Useful if you want to connect two sections where you need to keep going backwards and forwards and checking they make sense. Not something I use but I can see it would appeal to some people. The third icon is for keywords. You could use this for locations, characters, points of view, anything that is a kind of meta tag for the story. Then just type in the keyword in the search box and you will see every instance across the project. Again, not something I use but it may be great for you.\n\nWhen I revise it\'s the status, modified and document notes parts I use most of all. In fact I don\'t know how I\'d work without them now. They add a lot of control to the editing process and let me think outside the actual page, which is important. Another Scrivener win.','Working with the Inspector','','publish','open','closed','','working-with-inspector-gadget','','','2011-01-28 08:08:56','2011-01-28 08:08:56','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=1636',0,'post','',0),(1479,1,'2009-12-01 09:00:54','2009-12-01 09:00:54','The <a href=\"http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/6694771/Philip-Roth-beaten-to-Bad-Sex-award-by-Jonathan-Littell.html\" target=\"_blank\">Bad Sex in Fiction awards</a> took place yesterday. Fun event, not to be taken seriously. I\'ve never been nominated myself though God knows I\'m sure I\'m qualified. Sex in fiction is an odd thing. Many, perhaps most, wannabe authors of mainstream fiction have sex in the book they are trying to sell. Why? I could be disingenuous here. I could say because sex is an integral part of human life and it would be hypocritical to ignore it. I could argue it was essential for the story I want to tell. Or even the most important part of all.\n\nAll of these things may be true. But let\'s be honest. There\'s a grubbier, more common reason. It\'s plain desperation. People believe that without sex no one will publish the damned book. They reach for those buttons in the belief they need to be pushed in order to succeed. Is this true?\n\n<!--more-->\n\nThis is a big subject and I\'m well aware that some people will be thinking, \'But I never want sex in my books at all\'. But exploring the topic does tell us something about the nature of writing too. Let\'s try and break this down to four basic questions. First...\n\n<em>Does your story need sex or not?</em>\n\nHuman beings have sex. We all know that. Most of us have got a pretty good idea what goes on in the bedroom. I\'m sure there authors out there desperate to introduce new and more physically improbable forms of sex for their readers. But for the most part sex in books is, well, sex. It\'s not a revelation. It\'s a physical thing. But so is going to the toilet. There are writers out there who describe that too, though for the life of me I can\'t imagine a good reason -- not that <em>that</em> should stop anyone trying.\n\nSo sex is rarely novel or, in terms of physical detail, particularly illuminating. Why write it then? One reason is to titillate. Quite a common reason it seems to me. I\'m always slightly amazed by this use of sex since we live in an extraordinarily graphic age. When you can see people having actual sex in mainstream cinema you have to push the boat out pretty far to match what\'s out there twenty feet high on cinema screens up and down the country.\n\nI\'m not going to get prissy here. If you want to titillate, go for it. But go for it with gusto and be aware that it will change the tone of your overall book. Readers aren\'t stupid. They know and may appreciate smut when they see it. What they will spot a mile off is if you switch into poetic allegorical mode straight after and try to do the \'yes but it\'s all in context -- I wouldn\'t do it otherwise\' thing.\n\nThe real reason for sex, though, is to explore character. To show love between people, whether it\'s established love, developing love or love that\'s falling apart. Desperate sex between two people whose genuine love is disintegrating can be heartbreaking. The moment a couple fall into bed the first time can be touching too and make the reader think, \'Finally...\'.\n\nSex between steady couples... I\'m not so sure. If the relationship is firm, unthreatened, friendly I don\'t know if you tell the reader anything by showing they have sex too. They would, wouldn\'t they? One reader put it to me this way: she wanted to know the good people had sex so that they were happy. But she didn\'t need to know the details, only that it was going on. As always the basic question is the same: can I take this out without materially damaging the book? If the answer\'s yes then it has to go.\n\n<em>If you\'re going to write sex how graphic should it be?</em>\n\nNo one can tell you that. You have to work it out for yourself. There are delicate and sensitive lines here that can so easily be crossed. I squirm with embarrassment when I read a passage in which an authorial voice is clearly salivating over the physical characteristics of a woman. No one, well not many people, likes to listen to one human being perving over another, and that\'s what this can all too easily sound like. Graphic physical detail is dangerous. I\'ve done that but not for a long time. You leave yourself open to getting a guffaw from the reader just when you\'d like something else. It\'s also a very difficult call to make. With most work you can gauge whether it\'s good or not. Once you\'re in the bedroom it may not be just your characters who are faking it.\n\nI don\'t use sex very much these days. There was one short scene in <em>Dante\'s Numbers</em> where the reader was in the room when it started. I felt in that case it was necessary because it established something about the relationship between the two people concerned. If they feature sex at all most my books of late have depicted the moment before or the moment after (and frankly that can tell you just as much as some blow by blow bedroom account). I tend to treat sex as I do violence -- keep these things short, to the point and, hopefully, powerful. I\'m not enamoured of lingering sex any more than I am of lingering violence. But that\'s my choice. Others will feel differently and that\'s their prerogative. Maybe I\'m just getting old too.\n\n<em>Do readers want to read about sex?</em>\n\nSome do. I have had people complain about the way sex has tapered off in the books over the years. But not many. That\'s for my books. Other authors may have a different mileage. If some hot scene is part of your unique selling point you\'d be crazy to abandon it. But if it\'s part of your USP you and your editors will know that for sure. It won\'t be something you need to think about much.\n\n<em>Do publishers expect sex in order to sell your book?</em>\n\nMany years ago a former editor of mine in New York picked out a passage in an early book and said, \'I like hot writing as much as anyone. But what does this add to the book?\'\n\nNothing if I was honest. I just felt I was keeping up the sex quotient demanded of new writers. So it came out.\n\nThe straight answer is publishers expect a good book. I\'m sure there are occasions when some have said, \'This would be better with some more sex in it.\' But I\'d guess it\'s not often. Experienced editors will have seen it all over the years, every different description of every different act, every euphemism there is for every last bit of the human body. For them it\'s going to be the story that counts and in most popular fiction sex is not going to be a make or break issue however much wannabe writers feel they have to insert it at some point.\n\nIf I was starting out now I\'d probably be very wary indeed about putting sex scenes prominently in any prospective manuscript. At least if you leave them out you know you\'re going to be offering something different to most of the other stuff on the slush pile.','Do we really need sex in fiction?','','publish','open','closed','','sex-there-i-said-it','','','2011-01-28 08:08:56','2011-01-28 08:08:56','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=1479',0,'post','',0),(1787,1,'2009-12-02 07:30:59','2009-12-02 07:30:59','Every once in a while a reader emails me to say something like this.\n<blockquote>I love your books. I\'ve read every one of them. I just enjoyed the latest. But why oh why do you keep telling me what Costa/Peroni/Teresa look like? I know by now. You don\'t have to keep repeating that information.</blockquote>\nOh but I do. Because that information is just one of the several dilemmas that lay behind writing a series. Most of us find out about them by accident. Let me try and forewarn of a few here and now so you can avoid some of the mistakes I\'ve made in the past.\n\nFirst, and possibly foremost, people will not, usually, read them in order. When I had two or three books out in the series that was more likely to happen. Those three were on shelves in book stores. People could sift through them, spot the first and start with that. Not any more. The eighth book in the Costa series, <em>The Blue Demon, </em>will soon be out. Very few book stores will keep in an entire series of seven or eight titles for any author. So when people discover the series they will tend to buy what\'s in front of them. Usually one well into the series. Who really started Rebus at book one? That\'s why you have to describe your characters in each and every book. A large number of people will be meeting then for the first time. You can\'t just pitch your titles at people who know them already.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nThat leads on to a more difficult question. How do you get your back story -- the things that happened before -- into your later books? This is a stinker. My own approach is to leak small amounts of information into the present book that give a hint of what\'s happened before. But I don\'t do any more than is necessary. I really want to avoid the kind of preface you see on some TV programmes that spend a few minutes at the start telling you what you missed earlier.\n\nIt\'s very important to me that each title in this series works as a standalone book. No one should have to read one title in order to understand another, in my kind of work anyway. They\'re series books in a loose sense. There\'s a continuing story beneath the surface, primarily that of the relationships between the principal characters involved. But each story is an individual tale, unrelated to any other. So that\'s very different to something like Harry Potter, say, which is a series of books set in direct chronological order, joined by linked events and themes.\n\nAnother big gotcha in series books is the job your protagonist(s) do. Mine are cops. Lots of people use cops. Others use private detectives or something similar. Why are these professions so popular for series books? Simple. They\'re the kind of jobs that are always going to turn up the kind of problems that will generate new stories. Cops and PIs meet crime. It\'s part of their work. You just have to invent the crime and no one is going to say, \'Why do these guys keep on bumping into bad people?\'\n\nImagine, though, you\'ve just started a series where your protagonist is a wedding planner. First book: there\'s a murder at the reception. Second book: there\'s a murder in the church. Third book: hell I don\'t know but it doesn\'t matter because every reader still out there is screaming, \'Who in God\'s name still employs this wedding planner and why? She\'s death on wheels. Gimme a break...\'\n\nThe approach I have to my series is simple. I regard them as individual books that just happen to have the same cast. I slip into different styles, different points of view, different places on occasion mainly to keep things fresh. And with every last one of them I have to remember that for someone out there this will be their first. Long-term fans are fabulous. We all love and appreciate them. But to be honest they\'d get as fed up as everyone else if we wrote for them and them alone.','Serial problems','','publish','open','closed','','serial-problems','','','2011-01-28 08:08:56','2011-01-28 08:08:56','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=1787',0,'post','',0),(2289,1,'2009-12-02 14:42:31','2009-12-02 14:42:31','Budding authors would do well to check out <a href=\"http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/a-good-author-is-hard-to-find/Content?oid=2820559\" target=\"_blank\">the very interesting piece from an anonymous agent</a> below. It tells you the truth that agents normally only speak about among themselves, in quiet rooms, with friends, and with authors they know very well too. Agents everywhere are drowning in unsolicited manuscripts from hopeful writers that are so bad they make you want to cry.\n\nNot bad in the sense that they\'re poor. Bad in the sense that they are utter dross, efforts that can only have come from the minds of people who have never read a book properly themselves.\n\nHuh? Yes, honest. Here\'s a somewhat disguised conversation that took place recently, one in which I took part in a way.\n\n<!--more-->\n<blockquote>Agent to budding writer pushing an idea: So who do you read?\n\nBudding writer: Read?\n\nAgent: What others authors? Who do you think you might be compared to?\n\n(Pinter pause)\n\nBudding writer: I read a Stephen King book a while back.\n\nAgent: Which one?\n\nBudding writer: The movie one with Jack Nicklaus.\n\nAgent (sighing): I think you mean Jack Nicholson. <em>The Shining</em>.\n\nBudding writer: Yeah. <em>The Shining</em>.\n\nAgent: Book or movie?\n\nBudding writer (hesitantly): Both I think.\n\nAgent: So that was, what, thirty years ago? Anything since?\n\nBudding writer: To be honest I don\'t read fiction a lot.\n\n(Long Pinter pause)\n\nAgent: Don\'t you think that would be a good idea? I mean if you want to write fiction...\n\nBudding writer: They\'re all the same really, aren\'t they? So to get back to my story. There\'s this secret research facility, see. And some aliens. And a vampire. A really <em>hot</em> vampire...</blockquote>\nOK. I exaggerate. But only a little. Honest. If you\'re about to submit a manuscript yourself do bear in mind an agent will want to know what you read, why, and what you think of it. If the answer\'s nothing you deserve to be where you\'ll stay. At the bottom of the slushpile.\n<blockquote cite=\"http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/a-good-author-is-hard-to-find/Content?oid=2820559\">[See <a href=\"http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/a-good-author-is-hard-to-find/Content?oid=2820559\"><cite>A Good Author Is Hard to Find - Books - The Stranger, Seattle\'s Only Newspaper</cite></a>]</blockquote>\nPS. Before you ask. I am currently reading <em>Ruskin\'s Venice, The Stones Revisited</em> by Sarah Quill.','In order to write books you have to read books','','publish','open','closed','','in-order-to-write-books-you-have-to-read-books','','','2011-01-28 08:08:56','2011-01-28 08:08:56','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/2009/12/in-order-to-write-books-you-have-to-read-books/',0,'post','',0),(1171,1,'2009-12-03 07:16:38','2009-12-03 07:16:38','Back to Michael Baker\'s recent question... How do you try to weave characters into the narrative? Invisibly. Unconsciously. Without any great plan if I\'m honest.\n\nI never set out thinking, \'In this scene I will establish that Fred Nark is a coward and a bully\'. I just get a growing feeling that this is how the character is, and watch for the signs that we\'ve reached the right moment in which to make it plain. I write, I watch the story grow, I wait for those moments of revelation. My books aren\'t stage plays, produced from a pre-planned scripts. They\'re structured improvisations based around fixed ideas and narrative points I\'ve thought out in advance. But it\'s up to the characters to produce the detail of how we get from point to point, and if they\'re to do that I need to listen to them carefully.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nRoutine is important to me. If I have a fixed approach to each day it means I don\'t have to waste time thinking, \'So what do I do now?\' Each morning I read the previous day\'s work before writing again. Sometimes I will see a missed opportunity to add a little dash of character, one that\'s usually dealt with through an extra paragraph or two. Sometimes I simply cut. I take a break mid-morning when I go for a walk with the dog and think about the new scene I\'ve just started. It\'s very rare that I don\'t think of something that can add a little texture to the words I\'ve written already. More evidence that you really don\'t need to have your nose in a computer to be working on your book.\n\nOther ideas occur as a scene emerges in the afternoon before I wrap it up. I hate leaving scenes unfinished and will always try to bring them to some kind of resolution during the day, even if it\'s a raw and unfinished one. Then, finally, there\'s the big revise that happens once the first draft is finished and I think... \'No, we just don\'t know this person well enough.\'\n\nThere\'s a lot of rubbish written about creating fictional characters. One of the big fallacies is that they need to be \'consistent\'. Consistency is a good thing to expect of your doctor or car mechanic. But not of a character in a piece of fiction. You want them to surprise you, to have odd, quirky moments. Yes, perhaps ninety five per cent of the time they conform to picture you\'ve come to expect. But it\'s the five per cent of non-conformity that makes them memorable.\n\nFor me characters need to be asymmetrical, imperfect, unpredictable, like real people. Nic Costa can get things horribly wrong sometimes, Falcone is often arrogant, and Teresa incredibly stubborn. But at the same time we know their hearts are unfailingly in the right place. They\'re good people trapped in a fractured world, trying to do the right thing and constantly asking themselves: but what is that really?\n\nThat makes them sympathetic (and yes those \'how to write\' books are right on one thing: you do need sympathetic people). The trick is to bring out the sympathy subtly because human beings are a lot more complex than we sometimes seem. \'Sympathetic\' is not the same as \'nice\'.\n\nEnough character for now. Let me return to the subject in single-shot instalments from time to time.','Thinking about character','','publish','open','closed','','thinking-about-character','','','2011-01-28 08:08:56','2011-01-28 08:08:56','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=1171',0,'post','',0),(1791,1,'2009-12-04 07:19:47','2009-12-04 07:19:47','<a href=\"http://feedbooks.com/book/457\" target=\"_blank\">The Great God Pan</a> by Arthur Machen is a very influential book by a writer who\'s largely forgotten these days. <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Machen\" target=\"_blank\">Arthur Machen</a> was one of those admirable working hacks who was as happy to turn out a journalistic think piece as he was a supernatural horror story. What mattered was getting published and getting paid. Good man.\n\n<em>The Great God Pan</em> was first published in 1890 then reissued, revised and extended four years later. It caused something of a sensation at the time for its decadence and sexual content. They\'re both rather mild by present fashions, but in late Victorian times this seemed deeply shocking.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nThough he was later to make a living as a Fleet Street hack on the London <em>Evening News</em> the younger Machen moved in bohemian and occult circles. They influenced much of his early work, including this novella. It inspired both Lovecraft and Peter Straub\'s first big hit, <em>Ghost Story.</em>\n\nStephen King has been a long-time admirer of Machen and once described this piece as, \'one of the best horror stories ever written. Maybe the best in the English language\' . In another interview King said the piece \'surmounts its rather clumsy prose and works its way relentlessly into the reader\'s terror-zone. How many sleepless nights has it caused? God knows, but a few of them were mine. I think \"Pan\" is as close as the horror genre comes to a great white whale\'.\n\nGot to read it now, haven\'t you? There\'s a wonderful group dedicated to keeping Machen\'s work alive, <a href=\"http://www.machensoc.demon.co.uk/\" target=\"_blank\">The Friends of Arthur Machen</a>. I highly recommend their site if you\'d like to know more about this very interesting writer. And here\'s an extract from <em>The Great God Pan</em> to give you a taste of his work -- the full piece is a pdf at the end and you can find other formats in the link in the opening paragraph. Yes, the prose is a little rich for modern tastes -- as it is with most writers of this era. But Machen was a writer who worked with the imagination. And that is as current as ever.\n<blockquote>\'Look about you, Clarke. You see the mountain, and hill following after hill, as wave on wave, you see the woods and orchard, the fields of ripe corn, and the meadows reaching to the reed-beds by the river. You see me standing here beside you, and hear my voice; but I tell you that all these things — yes, from that star that has just shone out in the sky to the solid ground beneath our feet—I say that all these are but dreams and shadows; the shadows that hide the real world from our eyes. There is a real world, but it is beyond this glamour and this vision, beyond these \'chases in Arras, dreams in a career,\' beyond them all as beyond a veil. I do not know whether any human being has ever lifted that veil; but I do know, Clarke, that you and I shall see it lifted this very night from before another\'s eyes. You may think this all strange nonsense; it may be strange, but it is true, and the ancients knew what lifting the veil means. They called it seeing the god Pan.\'</blockquote>\n<a title=\"Machen - The Great God Pan.pdf\" href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/457-original.pngblog/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Machen-The-Great-God-Pan.pdf\">Machen - The Great God Pan.pdf</a>','Something for the weekend from Arthur Machen','','publish','open','closed','','something-for-the-weekend-from-arthur-machen','','','2011-01-28 08:08:56','2011-01-28 08:08:56','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=1791',0,'post','',1),(1754,1,'2009-12-07 07:22:06','2009-12-07 07:22:06','I hate heroes. No. Let me be more precise. Heroes, in the conventional, modern sense, bore me. Classical ones are fine. But they are flawed, miserable doomed creatures, nothing like the too-perfect marionettes you meet on occasion today. If you\'re thinking about writing about one of those -- you know the kind, great teeth, perfect hair, indefatigable, always willing to pat small dogs on the head between saving people -- please stop for a moment and consider what you\'re doing.\n\nHere are some of the characteristics heroic heros tend to have. They\'re...\n<ul>\n	<li>Handsome</li>\n	<li>Decent</li>\n	<li>Brave</li>\n	<li>Invincible (and often seemingly incapable of noticing pain)</li>\n</ul>\nAre you yawning yet? I am. Children and people who move their lips when they read apart, who the hell wants to hang around goody-goodies like that?\n\n<!--more-->\n\nThe ancients understood this problem intrinsically. From the outset they gave their heroes flaws. So Achilles came with his heel (and we all knew from the moment that came on the scene where his fate would one day lie). They also made them difficult human beings. Achilles was a bloodthirsty, bad-tempered maniac. The first two lines of the <em>Iliad</em> run...\n<blockquote>Sing, Goddess, of the rage, of Peleus\' son Achilles\n\nthe accursed rage, which brought pain to thousands of the Achaeans.</blockquote>\nAnd that\'s just the beginning. In a little while he starts to get <em>really</em> mad.\n\nModern heroes try to pick up on the Achilles trick but it\'s often an afterthought. Superman was born in 1932. Kryptonite, his Achilles heel, first appeared in a radio play in 1942. But it wasn\'t until 1949 that the one thing that could kill Superman finally made its way into the comics. So for seventeen long years the guy was utterly invincible, bound to win every encounter in the end because no one could do him any serious harm. <em>Boring.</em>\n\nIn 1949, too, Joseph Campbell published a book called <em><a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hero_with_a_Thousand_Faces\" target=\"_blank\">The Hero With A Thousand Faces</a></em> . This is a highly detailed and seemingly academic analysis of the heroic character through history and many different cultures. Campbell was a \'mythologist\' (whatever the hell that is -- am I a \'storyologist\'?) who also gave us the catchphrase \'follow your bliss\'. He identified what he dubbed the \'monomyth\', an archetypal journey followed by the average hero everywhere and summed it up as this...\n<blockquote>A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.</blockquote>\nCampbell\'s hero theory has been copied countless times since, in how-to-write books and even so-called story theory software. George Lucas used it to create the <em>Star Wars</em> cycle. Richard Adams was inspired by it when writing <em>Watership Down</em>. Many people believe that the Harry Potter books adhere to the Campbell theory so closely that J.K. Rowling must be a fan too, not that she\'s confessed to date.\n\nNotice something? Campbell works if you\'re talking about space lords, rabbits and teenage wizards. Try to apply that theory to ordinary men and women and it falls apart. Yes, you can categorise some heroes like that, but they tend to be the kind who never quite manage to climb off the page of kiddies\' books and enter the adult imagination. Superman before kryptonite, Achilles without his heel. Fine as far as it goes.\n\nCampbell is one of those theories that wannabe authors try to absorb in order to find the secret to writing fiction. Good luck to them. They\'re gobbledegook to me. Is writing so complicated that it needs to be \'explained\'? In code too? Nah...\n\nThe most intriguing characteristic of a real hero is something very simple. It lies not with a hero\'s strength but with his weakness, his fallibility, the revelation he\'s human after all. Not every reader likes this idea, of course. I once got one of those filthy idiotic so-called Amazon \'reviews\' from a punter railing against a Costa book simply on the grounds that Nic was a \'bad detective who makes mistakes\'. That reader wanted one of Campbell\'s heroes: the perfect good guy bringing evil to book. Costa certainly wants to do the latter, but he struggles quite often with defining precisely what evil actually is, and he fumbles things along the way. He\'s a mere mortal after all because that\'s the kind of fiction I write. I stoutly defend my Amazon correspondent\'s right to hunt for Superman in fiction but why he was looking for him in one of my books is beyond me.\n\nHeroism in heroes is predictable and liable to induce yawns without something to add a little texture and interest to the mix. They would act like that, wouldn\'t they? Wouldn\'t you if you knew you were invincible and couldn\'t feel pain too?\n\nWhat I find much more illuminating is heroism in ordinary people, people who don\'t think of themselves as heroic in the least yet discover an inner, unknown core of strength when some extraordinary situation demands it. There\'s a news story you read from time to time that sums this up. It\'s the one where someone jumps into a river to save a drowning child, or a dog even, and dies in the attempt. Only later do we discover that they couldn\'t actually swim.\n\nThat says more to me about real human heroism -- the sense of self sacrifice, the hatred of seeing a life going to waste, the blind determination to do something whatever the cost -- than some bloke flying around in a cape and red underpants.\n\nHere\'s what <em>Encyclopaedia Britannica</em> has to say on the subject of heroes. The second paragraph I find particularly illuminating.\n<blockquote>...the hero\'s ethos seems oversimple by the standards of a later age. He is childlike in his boasting and rivalry, in his love of presents and rewards, and in his concern for his reputation. He is sometimes foolhardy and wrong-headed, risking his life—and the lives of others—for trifles. Roland, for instance, dies because he is too proud to sound his horn for help when he is overwhelmed in battle. Yet the hero still exerts an attraction for sophisticated readers and remains a seminal influence in literature.\n\nThe appearance of heroes in literature marks a revolution in thought that occurred when poets and their audiences turned their attention away from immortal gods to mortal men, who suffer pain and death, but in defiance of this live gallantly and fully, and create, through their own efforts, a moment\'s glory that survives in the memory of their descendants. They are the first human beings in literature, and the novelty of their experiences has a perennial freshness.</blockquote>\nMakes a lot more sense than Campbell\'s psycho-babble. Heroes are about being human, not superhuman. It\'s their frailty and their flaws that make their journey worth following, not any magic bullet they may carry stuffed up their sleeve.','We don&#039;t need another hero','','publish','open','closed','','we-dont-need-another-hero','','','2011-01-28 08:08:56','2011-01-28 08:08:56','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=1754',0,'post','',0),(2301,1,'2009-12-08 06:53:58','2009-12-08 06:53:58','I told a porkie yesterday. Discussing the notion of heroes I said <em>Watership Down</em> was a book about rabbits. Did you squeal.... <em>For the love of God no</em><em>!</em>\n\nYou should have done. <em>Watership Down</em> is <em>apparently</em> about rabbits. But actually it\'s about the same thing all books are about. The one and only subject we really know. Clue: rabbits can\'t talk. It\'s about us. Human beings. It\'s a metaphor for two of the perennial unanswerable conundrums we all face. Why are we here as individuals? Why do we exist as a species? And it\'s a metaphor that stems from a real piece of history too. Let me elaborate.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nIn <em>Watership Down</em> we meet a small, happy endangered community of rabbits that, in the face of imminent destruction, has to find a new home. Richard Adams improvised the story in his head for his kids, but recalls that some of it came from his experiences in the army in the Second World War. Is there a connection? I think so. The community is led by someone called the <strong>Chief Rabbit</strong> (our hero Hazel as the book progresses). Getting my drift?\n\nNow I\'m sure Adams would reject this idea, as he\'s already rejected suggestions that there\'s some kind of religious symbolism inside the book, in particular its highly-detailed mythology. But you mustn\'t expect authors to understand completely what they write about or why they are writing it. Much of the time we\'re just channelling our subconscious onto the page, staring at the results and thinking, \'Does that work... oh Lord I hope so.\'\n\n<em>Watership Down</em> is a wonderful epic fantasy that documents fundamental human issues -- the need for freedom, security and an organised society -- in the form of a children\'s story. The event that kicks off the tale -- the need to escape the original doomed warren of Sandford for the safer haven, a place truly of their own, Watership Down, defeating the evil General Woundwort along the way -- seems, to me anyway, directly linked to a real and truly horrible piece of recent history.\n\nHere\'s my proposition. The flight from Sandford and the search for Watership would not have taken place without the Second World War. The quest of the community in <em>Watership Down</em> mirrors the exodus of Jews from persecution and the Holocaust and their search for a homeland they could call their own forever. The similarities are too many to be ignored. The flight in the face of harsh, merciless violence and the threat of total destruction, the portrait of a tightly-knit oppressed community composed of the weak and the strong, divided into factions, held together by core beliefs. Led by the vision of the Chief Rabbi<span style=\"text-decoration:line-through;\">t</span>.\n\nThat\'s not to say Adams wouldn\'t have written something like <em>Watership Down</em> had the Second World War not happened. I simply struggle to believe it would have contained the precise odyssey -- Exodus -- the rabbits make in the story or, perhaps, have invented a rabbit Nazi like Woundwort.\n\nSo, in a nutshell, without Hitler we would never have had Fiver or Hazel or all those other elements in a truly memorable and timeless tale.\n\nOh, and we\'d never have had Art Garfunkel singing that bloody <em>Bright Eyes</em> song in the movie either, which is one more reason why even an old atheist like me can hope Hitler is now roasting in Hell.\n\nWe\'re a selfish race. Be it fantasy, kid\'s books, anthropomorphic myth cycles or just plain everyday fiction, when it comes to storytelling we still have only one subject: ourselves. There\'s a good reason for that. We are the most interesting -- and the only -- show in town.','Hitler and rabbits','','publish','open','closed','','hitler-and-rabbits','','','2011-01-28 08:08:56','2011-01-28 08:08:56','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/2009/12/hitler-and-rabbits/',0,'post','',0),(2334,1,'2009-12-09 07:10:37','2009-12-09 07:10:37','We seem to be talking about universal matters this week. The last two posts argued the case that all story-telling -- be it apparently about rabbits, distant galaxies or strange supernatural characters -- actually concerns the nature of the curious creature known as <em>homo sapiens.</em>\n\nHere\'s another universal truth. It\'s very easy to pinpoint the moment at which human beings discovered the need to tell themselves stories. It\'s the instant we became self aware, conscious of our capacity for beauty and ugliness, good and evil, alert to, most of all, the eternal truth that we\'re frail, mortal creatures, here for a blink of time, most of which will be spent frantically looking around asking ourselves, \'What the hell happened there?\'\n\nIn the Bible it begins with chapter two of Genesis.\n\n<!--more-->\n<blockquote>16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying: \'Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat;\n\n17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.\'</blockquote>\nA million parents implicitly understand what God never knew. You don\'t stop people doing stuff by pointing at things and saying, \'Whatever you do <em>don\'t</em> touch that!\'\n\nThe birth of storytelling concludes in chapter three.\n<blockquote>4 And the serpent said unto the woman: \'Ye shall not surely die;\n\n5 for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil.\'\n\n6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat; and she gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat.\n\n7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves girdles.</blockquote>\nYou have to love that woman. Without her we\'d still be stuck in some celestial zoo patting the scorpions and rattlesnakes and going, \'Ah, how cute...\'\n\nEve brought about the Fall of Man and with that happy event came self knowledge, the opening of Pandora\'s box, understanding, the birth of knowledge, reality<em>.</em> The ability to question who we were, why we existed, what possible purpose there could be to our small lives.\n\nStories were born as a way of framing and exploring those questions in a communal environment, a form in which everyone could participate, young and old, educated and illiterate.\n\nSome of the earliest are paradise myths: why exactly did we get kicked out of there in the first place? How do we get back in? That search for home, for the place we truly belong, a place of security and justice and happiness among friends and family, is still one of the most common motifs in popular narratives, in everything from Harry Potter to something as seemingly modern as a cartoon like <em>Finding Nemo.</em>\n\nThese common threads cross faiths, cultures, races. <em><a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_of_Gilgamesh\" target=\"_blank\">Gilgamesh</a>,</em> one of the earliest literary works still with us, came from the Sumerian culture of modern-day Iraq and is a fable straight out the Fall, a tale of one hero\'s search for immortality -- the return to the Garden -- after the death of a dear friend. The same themes permeate through the <em><a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iliad\" target=\"_blank\">Iliad</a>,</em> the <em><a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mah%C4%81bh%C4%81rata\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-style:normal;\">Mahabharata</span></a> <span style=\"font-style:normal;\">and scores of other classic works.</span></em>\n\nAn equally popular motif is the need to define, explain and confront evil. In simple horror stories this may be external evil -- a monster or something from another world. With more sophisticated stories the evil is often from within -- the flaw in ourselves that saw us expelled from the Garden in the first place. Our dawning, guilty consciousness that the obstacle to regaining our lost state of grace lies within us, not in others, is a wonderfully complex and rich seam that writers will be mining for as long as we have the power to invent stories.\n\nCrime fiction fits into this narrative mosaic very easily. We may think we like it because we admire stories in which good guys bring bad guys to justice. But the reality is more subtle. Crime is an outward manifestation of evil, of the reason we went \'bad\' in the first place. By confronting that evil we confront our enemies and, sometimes, ourselves. Crime fiction codifies the internal argument about blame and responsibility and works as a metaphor for our natural desire for a fractured universe to be restored to some kind of order.\n\nIn this way storytelling is a means by which we imbue our own small existences with the quality of heroic myth. I\'m always aware when I write my stories that, in a sense, I\'m trying to portray ordinary characters striving to be something greater than they are, struggling to face and embrace the big and difficult questions most of us hope to avoid in \'real life\' because we know we\'re unlikely to find any answers. Narrative is a stage, and on a stage even the bit part players are actors, part of something that must, by definition, be bolder, bigger, brighter or darker than the monochrome life we know. It\'s important, I think, to remember that. Why write a story confined by smallness when the same words can express and embrace something greater?\n\nThis too. There are many faiths and cultures out there that tell of some kind of paradise. But I\'ve yet to meet a single one that says a library is waiting for us there, provided, of course, we meet the strict entry criteria.\n\nThere are no books in Paradise because no one inside that cost little prison has any need of stories. Sounds a boring old place to me.','There are no books in Paradise','','publish','open','closed','','there-are-no-books-in-paradise','','','2011-01-28 08:08:56','2011-01-28 08:08:56','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/2009/12/there-are-no-books-in-paradise/',0,'post','',0),(2361,1,'2009-12-10 07:33:54','2009-12-10 07:33:54','I\'m now four days into <a href=\"http://www.davidhewson.com/2009/11/a-new-book-for-old/\">the rewrite of my first novel from fifteen years ago, </a><em><a href=\"http://www.davidhewson.com/2009/11/a-new-book-for-old/\">Semana Santa</a></em><em>.</em> As I\'ve said here before, this is a substantial revision, not just a few changes here and there. I\'m reimagining the book from scratch, in a way I could never do with something I\'ve just written. It\'s an interesting exercise, not least because, for the first time in ages, I\'m not writing in Scrivener. The whole of the revision process will take place in something I use very rarely, usually for writing the odd letter: a word processor.\n\nWhy?\n\n<!--more-->\n\nBecause you need to choose the right tool for the job. Scrivener is fantastic for building a book from scratch. By dividing a manuscript into sections and scenes it gives me the freedom to move around elements as I see fit, changing the timeline, watching how the balance of the narrative shifts if I juggle the different parts in the story.\n\nI don\'t need to do that with this revision. The basic storyline will stay the same. What will change will be additions and deletions. I\'m principally editing and writing <em>in situ.</em> I could do that in Scrivener if I wanted. But it\'s really better handled in a word processor. In this case Apple\'s own Pages, a very competent word processor, much better than Microsoft Word I think, though that\'s how the manuscript will appear in the end.\n\nWhen I\'m editing I want to be able to do a number of things that aren\'t much needed in the original burst of creativity that produces the initial draft manuscript.<img style=\"padding-left:4px;float:right;\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Screen-shot-2009-12-08-at-09.04.34.png\" alt=\"Screen shot 2009-12-08 at 09.04.34.png\" width=\"189\" height=\"257\" />\n\nI need to be able to find things very quickly, throughout the breadth of the document. Word is appalling at this. It simply bounces you from one instance of a word to the next, so you have to sift through all 133,000 words, in this case, looking for the one you want. Like Scrivener, Pages is smarter. Bring up the search window, type in a term and you get every instance of a word instantly, in context, as you see here. This is how search is supposed to be in the 21st century.\n\nI want to be able to comment on parts of the document, reminding myself that I need to come back and do more work or check something. Again, a piece of cake -- insert a comment and you get a simple note in the margin which you can hide if you want.\n<img src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Screen-shot-2009-12-08-at-09.08.13.png\" alt=\"Screen shot 2009-12-08 at 09.08.13.png\" width=\"467\" height=\"91\" />\n\nYou can make notes in Scrivener too. But I\'m in a different mindset when I\'m revising like this. In a way I\'m almost like an external editor for a book by someone else. I\'m not trying to change it fundamentally, but subtly. Somehow a word processor makes more sense.\n\nI also want to keep track of what I\'m changing. As a matter of course I do not work on the original manuscript file -- that\'s stored safely as a backup, and consulted when needed. But Pages has a simple and easily-understood method of tracking changes as you work on a document (so has Word but I\'ve never managed to understand it).<a href=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/revise1.jpg\"><img style=\"float:right;padding-left:4px;\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/revise-tm.jpg\" alt=\"revise.jpg\" width=\"250\" height=\"351\" /></a>\n\nThis is more easily seen than explained. If you click on the thumbnail on the right you will get an actual page from the manuscript. You can see that, when I change something, a bar appears in the margin at the point of the change. New text appears in a slightly different colour. These visual keys make it incredibly easy to whizz through the text and see what has changed and what hasn\'t (and since I\'m tracking changes, the original deleted text is still there if I want to return to it -- which is rare).\n\nI like Pages a lot. <em>The Garden of Evil</em> was written entirely using it -- before I discovered Scrivener. Its principal failings are the lack of any powerful outlining features and the ability to divide a book into manageable, separate-but-connected scenes. I don\'t think I could ever go back to a system where I\'m unable to see precisely how long a particular scene is, or the date on which I edited it. So for creative writing Scrivener is definitely home, and for normal revision too. As long as there\'s a prospect that the order of a narrative will change I will want Scrivener\'s incredibly powerful ability to shift timelines readily at hand.\n\nBut as I said... pick the right tool for the job. Pages fits the bill for this perfectly. It\'s fast, simple and powerful.','The funny old business of rewriting','','publish','open','closed','','the-funny-old-business-of-rewriting','','','2011-01-28 08:08:56','2011-01-28 08:08:56','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/2009/12/the-funny-old-business-of-rewriting/',0,'post','',0),(1647,1,'2009-12-11 07:42:36','2009-12-11 07:42:36','Modern writers are hemmed in by labels, by genres, by boundaries beyond which we are never supposed to travel. Crime writers write crime, thriller writers thrillers, those of us fixed in a specific geographical location must never cross foreign borders. How we should envy our predecessors. Think of Robert Louis Stevenson, able to pen <em>Treasure Island,</em> <em>Kidnapped</em> and <em>Jekyll and Hyde</em> without having someone yell, \'Hang on. What does this bloke think he is? A kid\'s author? A writer of adventure stories? Or a horror writer?\'\n\nO lucky man. Here\'s <em><a href=\"http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3680\" target=\"_blank\">The Man Who Was Thursday</a>,</em> an extreme oddity from G.K. Chesterton, better known for gentle Father Brown detective stories though they are but a small part of his prodigious output of novels, journalism, poetry and non-fiction work. Chesterton hobnobbed with George Bernard Shaw and Hilaire Belloc among others and was fond of a friendly public spat from time to time. A very large man, fond of food and carrying a swordstick and revolver from time to time, he was also celebrated as a witty chap. Once when a woman came up to him during the First World War and asked why he wasn\'t \'at the Front\' he replied, \'If you go round to the side, you will see that I am.\'\n\n<!--more-->\n\nChesterton had his dark side. He dabbled in the occult as a young man in a London where such experiments were not uncommon. Later he converted to Roman Catholicism. Christianity runs throughout his work and is evident in <em>The Man Who Was Thursday.</em> But don\'t think it\'s some serious, heavy tome. <em>Thursday</em> is an extraordinarily adventurous work, first published in 1908, combining a surreal view of contemporary London and a strange story, half spy and detective tale, about the infiltration of an anarchist gang. Anarchists were the common enemy at the time in the West (communism had yet to raise its head).\n\nIn the guise of a conventional battle of wits Chesterton lays out the argument between order and chaos and sets the scene for a battle, on the surface, between the forces of light and darkness, not that anything is quite that simple, of course. Lucian Gregory, the anarchist poet, sums up the conflict early on...\n<blockquote>\"An artist is identical with an anarchist,\" he cried. \"You might transpose the words anywhere. An anarchist is an artist. The man who throws a bomb is an artist, because he prefers a great moment to everything. He sees how much more valuable is one burst of blazing light, one peal of perfect thunder, than the mere common bodies of a few shapeless police- men. An artist disregards all governments, abolishes all conventions. The poet delights in disorder only. If it were not so, the most poetical thing in the world would be the Underground Railway.\"</blockquote>\nCue an extraordinary narrative involving the seven men who sit on the anarchists\' council, each of them named after a day of the week, and at odds with one another and the world itself. <em>Fantasy: The 100 Best Books,</em> edited by Michael Moorcock and James Cawthorn, describes this work as, \'one of the hidden hinges of twentieth-century writing, the place where, before our eyes, the nonsense-fantastical tradition of Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear pivots and becomes the nightmare-fantastical tradition of Kafka and Borges.\'\n\nThe writing style feels a little antiquated now if I\'m honest but that doesn’t take away from the brave originality of the work, or the plain fact that if one of us tried something like this today we\'d probably have our agents and editors shrieking to the stars.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/chesterton-the-man-who-was-thursday-a-nightmare.pdfblog/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Chesterton-The-Man-Who-Was-Thursday-a-Nightmare-.pdf\">Chesterton - The Man Who Was Thursday- a Nightmare</a>\n\nAs usual a pdf is above, click the link at the top to Feedbooks for other formats.','Something for the weekend from G.K. Chesterton','','publish','open','closed','','something-for-the-weekend-from-g-k-chesterton','','','2011-01-28 08:08:56','2011-01-28 08:08:56','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=1647',0,'post','',0),(1680,1,'2009-12-15 07:48:34','2009-12-15 07:48:34','Here\'s a wonderful myth, one you\'ll hear retold from writing class to university up and down the land. It\'s that old saw... Write About What You Know.\n\nI almost fall off my chair laughing typing those words. Shakespeare never went to Scotland but he wrote <em>Macbeth.</em> He never set foot in Denmark but he wrote <em>Hamlet.</em> He certainly never went to Italy (no -- really) yet he wrote <em>Othello, The Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Julius Caesar</em> and a few other Italian-themed plays. Was he crippled by his ignorance? You tell me.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nWriting about what you know may work for some people. For lots it doesn\'t. A while back I was teaching at a writing school when someone showed me a wonderful opening she\'d written for her book. It was atmospheric, beautifully phrased, had interesting characters and wound up with a dramatic scene that... died. I couldn’t quite believe this. Everything that went before worked fine. But what should have been the denouement was written with the verve of a business report.\n\nI asked this budding author, \'What happened here?\'\n\nShe looked at me and said, \'Oh, that\'s real. I do that job. I see that happen a lot. That\'s how it is.\'\n\nIt was boring. Most of us take what we know for granted. We don\'t see the uniqueness in what lies around us. If we try to turn that world around us into fiction we drain it of colour and life because it\'s so familiar to us we scarcely notice that colour and live ourselves.\n\nI\'ve only ever written one book set in the UK, <em>Native Rites.</em> Everything else I\'ve produced has been set abroad, normally in the Mediterranean. There\'s a reason for this. The Mediterranean is foreign. To a denizen of colder climes like me it\'s exotic, interesting, cryptic, a world waiting to be explored. When I decided to write the Costa books I took the plunge and moved to Rome, enrolled at a language school to study Italian, tried very hard to see the city through the eyes of a native. This was essential. Most writers, when they use foreign locations, view their stories through the eyes of a fellow countryman, a foreigner. I didn\'t want to do that. I wanted my characters to be, as far as I could make them, Roman through and through. (I hope I managed that to some extent -- my lovely Italian publisher Fanucci have just picked up four more Nic Costa books, taking the series to 2015 there, so perhaps I have.)\n\nTo write these books I had to build my own private Rome, stone by stone, street by street, vista by vista, in my own imagination and set that on the page. I wouldn’t have to do that if I set my book in London, a city I\'ve known well for three decades. The foreignness of Rome and my ignorance of its true nature make the eventual story, I hope, more vivid and, yes, more \'real\' than it could ever have been if I\'d written about somewhere I knew intimately and could summon up without a stroke of work.\n\nThe operative word there, by the way, is \'work\'. There are books that succeed on ingrained personal knowledge, some real-life situation that turns into fiction. But for the most part novels are the product of a fertile and adventurous imagination. Setting your story somewhere new, somewhere different, somewhere you have to invent for yourself, tasks your imagination with the creation of the world that will come to enthral and absorb the reader. I can\'t imagine doing that with the street round the corner, the place I\'ve known for years.\n\nShakespeare wrote about what he knew in one respect: he knew people, their foibles, their strengths, their weaknesses and cruelty. That interior, personal knowledge is irreplaceable, something that is essential in anyone who wants to produce writing that strikes a chord with the reader. But in terms of location and plain fact familiarity all too easily breeds contempt. For me the best stories are never found at home. You have to go out and hunt them down.','Ignorance is creative bliss','','publish','open','closed','','ignorance-is-creative-bliss','','','2011-01-28 08:08:56','2011-01-28 08:08:56','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/?p=1680',0,'post','',0),(2344,1,'2009-12-18 07:48:39','2009-12-18 07:48:39','The blog side of things is closing down today and, unless I get spurred to write something, will not resume until the New Year. It\'s been a couple of months now since I decided to turn this web site from a simple noticeboard about my books into a blog. I hope my nonconformist thoughts on the business of writing have prompted some amusement, entertainment and perhaps cogitation out there. Judging by the statistics they seem to have reached a good number of people.\n\nHow much I\'ll be able to keep this up in the new year remains to be seen. On the basis of the current workload 2o10 is going to be a very busy year indeed. Anyway, let me leave you with a seasonal goodie... and best wishes for the holiday ahead.\n\n<em>The Gift of the Magi</em> must be one of the most-copied stories on the planet. Its basic premise has been everywhere, from <em>The Simpsons</em> to <em>Futurama, Sesame Street</em> to <em>Rugrats.</em>\n\nNot bad for a simple and amusing little Christmas tale from the pen of William Sydney Porter, better known as O. Henry, a wonderful writer of short stories that were famed for their twist-in-the-tale endings.\n\n<!--more-->\n\n<a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O._Henry\" target=\"_blank\">Henry</a> led a colourful life that included a spell in jail for embezzlement and exile in the Honduras where his despatches gave us the term \'banana republic\'. Rumour has it this story was written in the famous New York bar, <a href=\"http://www.petestavern.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Pete\'s Tavern</a>, a place still happily in business. If you don\'t know of him and like the look of his work you\'ll find the names of some of his other popular stories at the end of the pdf below.\n\n<a title=\"Henry - The Gift of the Magi.pdf\" href=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Henry-The-Gift-of-the-Magi.pdf\">O. Hentry - The Gift of the Magi</a>','A Christmas story from O. Henry','','publish','open','closed','','a-christmas-story-for-the-weekend-from-o-henry','','','2011-01-28 08:08:56','2011-01-28 08:08:56','',0,'http://www.davidhewson.com/2009/12/a-christmas-story-for-the-weekend-from-o-henry/',0,'post','',0),(2449,1,'2010-01-01 09:06:42','2010-01-01 09:06:42','Maybe this year\'s resolutions are forgotten already. Perhaps it\'s for the best too. They can be silly, insubstantial things. But here\'s a general resolution I stick to, new year or not. When it comes to writing, look forward, not back. There\'s no point in dwindling over what\'s gone before, good or bad. The only thing that counts is what\'s to come.\n\nWriters have a funny relationship with their work. It\'s quite different to that adopted by readers. People who read books fix the time of the work at the point at which they turn the pages -- quite naturally. They often forget that, for an author, the diary is running on altogether different dates. My next \'new\' book is <em>The Blue Demon/City of Fear</em> which will be out next month in the UK and in May in the US.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nThat book was finished in July 2008. I\'ve written its successor, revised one book of my backlist entirely and planned another new work in the meantime. When I go out on the road to promote it later this year I will have to pick up the book to remind myself what\'s going on and why I wrote it. For most authors when a book\'s finished it\'s gone. We only have room for one live work in our heads at any one moment. It\'s best, always, that should be the book we\'re working on or about to start.\n\nI remember having a fascinating conversation with the great George MacDonald Fraser, author of the wonderful <em>Flashman</em> novels. Someone had just gone on Mastermind with the Flashman books as a specialist subject. The chap won the contest with an astonishing display of memory for dates, plots, characters, all the wealth of detail George put in, based on months of research in the Trinity College Library in Dublin if I recall correctly.\n\nGeorge was amazed by this feat. Not simply for the prolific memory the chap displayed but because most of the questions posed in the quiz he could never, ever have answered himself. He\'d forgotten the answers, lost the plots and people of those books. With good reason -- he didn\'t need them any more. Those titles were written, gone, committed to the public. Why clutter up your imagination with something that\'s no longer of use?\n\nMost of us work this way. It\'s the only sensible approach to take. In truth only two books matter, the one we\'ve just written and need to push to the world at large, and, more seriously, the book to come. Never look back. Never bask in the false glow of warm reviews or mutter bitterly about the nasty ones. Never take yesterday\'s successes for granted because a year down the road no one will remember them. Writing is like prize fighting. After every round you have to pick yourself up, go to your corner, learn what lessons are to be found in what\'s just happened, and get on with preparing for what comes next.\n\nUsually, that\'s a new book. I\'m just seeing off the revise for the ninth Rome novel, <em>The Fallen Angel</em>, but its successor, a very different kind of work, is already building in my head. I\'ll be off to Italy to start work on it in a couple of weeks.\n\nAnd last year? A weird one to be honest. The publishing world hit hard times in 2009. I\'m just an author, unqualified to pass an expert opinion on such matters as the Google Books agreement, the effects of retail consolidation and ebooks and all those other ground-breaking changes now happening. It seems to me authors, like publishers, are heading for hard times, times in which we may well find ourselves selling more books and earning less along the way.\n\nThat\'s another good reason not to look back. I can\'t do a thing to alter the fast-changing eco-climate of the world of publishing. All I do is write books. Best focus on that.','New Year&#039;s Resolution: Don&#039;t Look Back','','publish','open','closed','','new-years-resolution-dont-look-back','','','2011-01-28 08:08:36','2011-01-28 08:08:36','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/Blog/?p=2449',0,'post','',0),(2514,1,'2010-01-01 15:41:04','2010-01-01 15:41:04','Here\'s a prediction: by the end of 2010 authors and publishers everywhere will be looking at their bank accounts and wondering where the money went. Ebooks are going to be with us big time, and with the coming of mainstream digital publishing comes the the arrival of book theft so widespread it may one day make writing unviable for some.\n\n<a href=\"http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/01/01/ebook.piracy/\" target=\"_blank\">According to CNN</a> Dan Brown\'s latest opus, <em>The Lost Symbol,</em> had 100,000 illegal ebook downloads within days of its release. And these were cracked ebooks too, copies that had had the DRM \'protection\' removed by some hacker. I don\'t come anywhere near to Dan Brown in sales. But I know my own work, in ebook form and as audio, is widely available as torrent downloads out there. Thanks to Google\'s search robots set up to look for reviews of my work I get weekly reminders that someone, somewhere is ripping me off somewhere in the world every day.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nThere are those who claim book piracy isn\'t the threat it might appear. A ripped-off book is not the same as a lost sale. Some of the people who pick up your pirated work wouldn\'t have bought it in the first place. Maybe, too, someone who wouldn\'t have bought your book will get it for free and like it so much they rush out and pay money for the real thing.\n\nI\'m not convinced. Does a shoplifter who discovers they\'ve stolen something they like go back and pay for it next time? Not usually. They just go back and steal some more. And piracy, remember, is theft, nothing more, nothing less. I don\'t care if someone argues, \'Well I wouldn\'t have bought your book anyway.\' Can a shoplifter get away with saying in court, \'Well I wouldn\'t have bought that bottle of Moet, guvnor.\' Of course not. The fact there is no physical loss in digital crime doesn\'t make it less of a crime. And certainly not one of those so-called \'victimless crimes\' we hear so much about today, crimes, it seems to me, that are mainly committed by people who find it socially unacceptable to think of themselves as common thieves.\n\nDon\'t misunderstand me. I think the arrival of ebooks is a good thing. I don\'t hate the Internet. I don\'t think copy protection is a great idea -- it seems to punish the honest buyer while the ripoff merchant finds some way round. And I certainly believe there are occasions when books should be given away for free for promotional purposes (though I do think it should be the choice of the writer and publisher to hand it out for nothing, not some geek looking for someone new to pirate).\n\nBut theft is theft, and if we\'re not careful we\'re headed for a culture where millions of casual readers will simply sift the net for \'free\' books for their ereaders the way they once downloaded \'free\' music from Napster. The music industry has struggled with the problem of piracy for years. It\'s changed the way musicians work, making many more reliant on touring and appearances than music sales.\n\nWhere does that leave authors? I can\'t make money from public appearances. In fact it costs me to go on tour, and will doubtless cost more as embattled publishers cut back on their own marketing budgets and rely on authors to sell their books for them. The only income I have from writing comes from the sale of books and, at less than 50p a copy or so in royalties for a paperback, it\'s not exactly rich pickings. It\'s also worth pointing out that books are actually cheaper today than they were ten years ago, by a considerable margin. You can pick up discounted paperbacks online, in supermarkets and book chains for perhaps two thirds of what they cost a decade ago. And still some people want them for free?\n\nThere is a real danger that we\'re sliding towards a cultural shift which divides creative writers from their work, where copyright itself is somehow seen as theft, a conspiracy against a public that has a \'right\' to take what it wants from the web for nothing. If that happens we\'re headed for fewer professionally published books, a poorer range of literature, and the dumbing down of mainstream publishing to a handful of established genres and big-time authors. This is not what books should be about.\n\nI\'m deeply grateful to the vast number of decent, honest readers out there who wouldn\'t dream of pirating a book, no matter how easy it might become. But I do wonder if you are an endangered species -- and if so how soon it will be before professional authors begin to join you. Those of us who write for a living are lucky, but it\'s still a job. If we\'re just producing books for others to rip off for free it won\'t be long before some begin to find other ways to pass the time.','The biggest threat to writing is book theft','','publish','open','closed','','the-biggest-threat-to-writing-is-book-theft','','','2011-01-28 08:08:36','2011-01-28 08:08:36','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/2010/01/01/the-biggest-threat-to-writing-is-book-theft/',0,'post','',0),(2518,1,'2010-01-02 08:41:12','2010-01-02 08:41:12','<p>Well yesterday\'s post about book theft (sorry -- I am determined to have a euphemism-free year) provoked quite a lot of interest. Thanks for the comments -- for, against or somewhere in the middle. There were salient points raised in many of those comments too so let me try to address them in a few posts here because this is a big subject.</p>\n<p>First... what\'s wrong with ripping of ebooks when we all share books with friends and libraries share out books too?</p>\n<!--more--><p>I wouldn\'t dream of stopping people sharing books with people they know. Or trying to ban the sale of used books. Or arguing against something like <a href=\"http://www.bookcrossing.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Bookcrossing</a>. I don\'t get a penny out of all those extra people getting the benefit of my work. But someone, somewhere bought the original book, and sharing physical copies is something that\'s been going on for centuries, part of the way we enjoy and spread the message of the printed media.</p>\n<p>Libraries are the same, and in Europe authors are rewarded for their popularity by getting fairly modest sums of money in the form of public lending right. I\'ll be getting my own PLR statement later this month and will elaborate on that system when it turns up. It amazes me that there\'s nothing similar in the US when most other countries have adopted something similar.</p>\n<p>The problem with digital media is that sharing suddenly becomes an awful lot simpler and utterly without cost to those involved in ripping off the original. With a physical book you have to pass it on somehow and the item itself is pretty much impossible to duplicate. An ebook file can be copied with a click of a mouse and sent round the Internet to millions in seconds. That said, I still don\'t object to books being shared among friends as digital files -- something I think is built into the new Barnes &amp; Noble ebook.</p>\n<p>But cracking an encoded file and uploading it into the torrents is a very different thing. If you peruse the torrents you\'ll find my ebooks out there and all of my audio books out there, from the Audible files as far as I can see. Someone has hacked the copy protection on them and, in the case of audio, uploaded entire works lasting eighteen to twenty hours of audio. I spent a year of my life working on those books. They cost me time and money. Hosts of people at my publishers, people who also have the right to be paid for their work, were involved. My talented reader Saul Reichlin spent a month working on the script and a week in the recording studio performing them.</p>\n<p>What gives some thieving toerag the right to take all that work we\'ve put in, steal it, then regurgitate for the masses? How can they possibly compare handing that to passing on a printed book to a friend?</p>\n<p>The sites we\'re talking about here are, naturally, lurking behind fake identities, based in countries where copyright laws cannot be enforced. Doesn\'t that give you a clue that something\'s not quite right? Doesn\'t that make the high-minded arguments of the thieves -- \'You\'re making enough money anyway\' -- sound a little hollow? Torrents like these exist for the purpose of ripping off copyright material, be it music, video or books. The people running them want to make money out of that stolen material too. It\'s why they do it. And anyone who goes to one of those torrent sites surely knows why they\'re there -- to steal something they ought to be paying for.</p>\n<p>As I\'ve said before I hate DRM. I also think the music industry was deeply stupid to come down in the heavy-handed manner it did with some individuals caught with pirated music a while back. But let\'s not fool ourselves about what\'s going on here. It\'s a concerted attempt to make stolen material widely available for \'free\' across the Internet, and make some money along the way for those involved. I don\'t pretend to have the answers, though I\'ll certainly try to throw out some suggestions here. But I do think a starting point is being honest about the problem and I wish people who steal things off the Internet would at least do us all the service of being frank about what they do themselves.</p>\n<p>They can come up with an extraordinary number of excuses but the simple reason people thieve on the Internet is because it\'s easy and they know they will get away with it.</p>\n<p>Feel free to add your opinions below, for or against. I\'m happy to carry the thoughts of people who disagree with what I say but if it\'s nothing more than personal abuse -- funny how coming out in public against the idea of theft upsets some people -- it will get deleted.</p>','Book theft myths exploded: Part One','','publish','open','closed','','book-theft-myths-exploded-part-one','','','2011-01-28 08:08:36','2011-01-28 08:08:36','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/2010/01/02/book-theft-myths-exploded-part-one/',0,'post','',0),(2519,1,'2010-01-02 10:48:29','2010-01-02 10:48:29','<p>If you read the comments from people who admit to \'illegal downloading\' in my first article you\'ll see a common thread in their attempts to justify what they do. As Allison Brennan has already pointed out book thieves <i>always</i> try to come up with some justification, whatever the circumstances. But price seems to be one of the most common ones.</p>\n<p>We steal books because they\'re too expensive on our $300 ereader or $600 laptop. Simple as that.</p>\n<p>Really?</p>\n<!--more--><p>I\'m published in something like twenty languages and my English language editions sell on export in many, many different territories. Book prices vary around the world because of local market conditions. In some countries books are a luxury item. If they have to be shipped halfway across the globe as exports, then whacked with a hefty import tax, they will be pricey too. But the ripoff of ebooks and audio books mainly affects English language editions at the moment, because most ebooks and audio titles are in English. The pirate sites may flit between Korea and Uzbekistan or wherever. But the people downloading those stolen books -- the thieves -- are mostly, it seems to me in English language countries.</p>\n<p>You only have to look at where ereaders sell in big numbers to understand where most of the piracy is happening. That\'s in the US, with, I suspect, the UK coming up hard behind.</p>\n<p>Looking at the prices of printed mass market books on Amazon US and in the chains it doesn\'t seem to me that books are extortionate. I won Best Mystery of the Year from the American Library Association for <i>The Garden of Evil.</i> You can currently buy that in paperback on <a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Garden-Evil-David-Hewson/dp/0440242983/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1262428563&amp;sr=8-1\" target=\"_blank\">Amazon for $6.99</a> and on <a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/The-Garden-of-Evil-ebook/dp/B0015DTUWK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1262428563&amp;sr=8-2\" target=\"_blank\">Kindle for $5.99</a>. Less than a similar paperback would have cost five or ten years ago.</p>\n<p>The same thing has been happening in the UK where book prices have been steadily falling too. My latest paperback here, <i>The Cemetery of Secrets,</i> is listed at £6.99 but discounted to <a href=\"http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0330508768/ref=s9_sima_gw_s0_p14_t2?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&amp;pf_rd_s=center-1&amp;pf_rd_r=1CQ379Z0TYENY77X3X78&amp;pf_rd_t=101&amp;pf_rd_p=467198433&amp;pf_rd_i=468294\" target=\"_blank\">£4.86 for the paperback</a>. This is a reissue of <i>Lucifer\'s Shadow</i> and Amazon still lists that original paperback from 2001 at its original price - £9.99, then <a href=\"http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lucifers-Shadow-David-Hewson/dp/0007335148/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1262429446&amp;sr=8-4\" target=\"_blank\">discounted down to £9.46</a>.</p>\n<p>Books are considerably cheaper than they were ten years ago. So how exactly is the reader getting ripped off in the US and the UK? Are we really supposed to believe that people who currently steal books online will one day see the price fall to a level where they say, \'Oh <i>now</i> I\'ll buy it.\' Oh, come on. People steal because they want to and they can get away with it. Pricing books at 99p won\'t stop them. Yes, some theft could be attacked by making the purchasing process much easier -- as it is with iTunes or the Kindle Store, but without the ties to specific hardware and standards. But price? No.<br /></p>\n<p>It\'s worth pointing out too that falling retail book prices are nightmare for everyone in the publishing industry. They squeeze publishers\' margins at a time when business is bad anyway. For authors there\'s a significant change too. Once upon a time royalties were based on the retail price of a book. If a publisher chose to discount the title they had to make up the difference. Now, as far as I can see, authors\' royalties are based on actual selling price. So my royalty on <i>The Cemetery of Secrets</i> is half what it was for <i>Lucifer\'s Shadow.</i> Or to put it another way, I have to sell twice as many books to make the same money.</p>\n<p>No point in complaining. That\'s how things are. But it gives you an inkling, I hope, why authors view the \'it\'s all about pricing\' argument with some scepticism. Yes there are new business models that will come with digital publishing. Yes publishers need to be more creative when it comes to pricing, promotion and distribution.</p>\n<p>But can anyone in the US or the UK with enough money to own an ereader and/or a computer honestly say they steal books because they can\'t afford to buy them? Authors can spend years writing a book, putting in vast amounts of work that they never really recoup. You can buy all that for less than the price of a fancy glass of beer. Is that really too much to ask?</p>\n<p>Well if it is: try a public library.</p>','Book theft myth No 2: It&#039;s about price','','publish','open','closed','','book-theft-myth-no-2-its-about-price','','','2011-01-28 08:08:36','2011-01-28 08:08:36','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/2010/01/02/book-theft-myth-no-2-its-about-price/',0,'post','',1),(2524,1,'2010-01-03 07:44:58','2010-01-03 07:44:58','Digital book theft stems from technology. So why can\'t technology fix it? Because human beings are too human. And technology is basically stupid.\n\nThe means to encrypt and lock digital media exists. Unfortunately it\'s always, always insecure and the people it affects -- and annoys the most -- are the decent ones, the readers who buy your books legally and wouldn\'t dream of ripping you off. Someone cracked DVDs, and they were supposed to be impregnable. Same went for iTunes copy protection and, recently, the coding used to stop Kindle ebooks being shared around.\n\nThe truth is there are just a bunch of sad muppets out there who see copy protection as a challenge and will while away their sad little lives until they\'ve found a way round it. After doing that they\'ll just run it across every piece of commercial work they can -- it doesn\'t really matter what it is -- and upload the results to a torrent site run from some distant country beyond the reach of lawyers.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nWhy do they do this? I suspect because a lot of them simply hate the creative process. By denigrating the work of artists, authors, actors and musicians they make themselves feel equal: <em>I can\'t write or play or act, but I can damned well make sure you don\'t get paid just because you can.</em>\n\nYou could spend a fortune and a lifetime fighting these idiots and still they\'d come back for more. It\'s an obsession, and for some of them an evangelical mission. They really do believe that intellectual property -- the idea that artists own their own work and have a right to be paid a little by those who use it -- is an affront to the world of the web, where everything is supposed to be \'free\'.\n\nOne of the commenters on an earlier article here asked, \'What the difference between a book and a painting? Artists don\'t get paid every time someone walks into a gallery and looks at their work.\' Well the difference is this. A painting is unique, and sells to one buyer on its uniqueness. The artist makes his or her living out of its individuality. A book is a mass-produced commercial item made to be sold, hopefully, in its thousands. If you want to justify your theft of books by comparing them with paintings you really are desperate indeed.\n\nThe problem of digital book theft may stem from technology but pathetic arguments like this demonstrate to me very clearly that the real issue is cultural. It\'s the plain fact that millions of people are quietly coming to believe that anything that can be downloaded from the Internet is OK provided you keep quiet about it. That what happens between you and your computer is secret, private, nobody else\'s business. That\'s why dumb men who\'d never have gone into a porn shop and bought paedophile magazines now find themselves in jail after going out on the web and downloading filth they\'d never have touched if it weren\'t for the Internet.\n\nAnd that\'s why people who wouldn\'t dream of stealing a bar of chocolate from a supermarket will happily download books, video and music with a commercial value of hundreds of dollars while telling themselves they\'re not doing anything wrong.\n\nAny attempted remedy for book theft, then, has to be cultural too. Let me produce one more article on this subject which hopefully raises a few ways in which the tide can be, if not turned, at least kept back a little.','Book theft myth no 3: Technology can fix it','','publish','open','closed','','book-theft-myth-no-3-technology-can-fix-it','','','2011-01-28 08:08:36','2011-01-28 08:08:36','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/2010/01/03/book-theft-myth-no-3-technology-can-fix-it/',0,'post','',0),(2526,1,'2010-01-03 13:00:28','2010-01-03 13:00:28','<img style=\"float:right;\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/vega-260.jpg\" alt=\"vega-260.jpg\" width=\"260\" height=\"252\" />I got a bit sidetracked this weekend by the piracy issue. That first article I posted on Saturday provoked the biggest number of comments I\'ve ever got here in one day -- from people outraged by book theft and from those trying to justify it (most of whom won\'t use the word \'theft\' naturally).\n\nI think it\'s pretty clear where I stand on this subject. Stealing is wrong. It\'s also about to get an awful lot easier. We will see a flood of new ereaders in 2010. Not just the much-hyped Apple tablet, but a host of new devices using either Google\'s phone-based he Android operating system or its <a href=\"http://gizmodo.com/5438716/google-and-htc-working-on-a-chrome-os-tablet?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+gizmodo%2Ffull+%28Gizmodo%29\" target=\"_blank\">netbook OS Chrome</a>. I have Android on my own phone. It\'s a great product and already has a fantastic ebook reader for use on Android phones -- <a href=\"http://www.aldiko.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Aldiko</a> - which hooks into some existing legal book libraries.\n\nMy money on the mass market for ebook devices during 2010 is on products based on Google software and don\'t tie customers to a single supplier. They will probably work out a lot cheaper than the equivalents from the big, monopolistic players. I wouldn\'t be surprised to see the stores stuffed with ereaders starting at the $200 mark or less by next Christmas. All, of course, capable of displaying ripped off ebooks as readily as they will legitimate ones. Those of us who work in the publishing business -- writers, publishers, agents et al -- have a unique opportunity here. We can see the tsunami before it hits and try to work out some way of minimising the damage, based on the experiences of the music and video industry. Here are a few suggestions to kick about....\n\n<!--more-->\n<ul>\n	<li>Ebooks represent a new and potentially valuable book market that should ease at least some of the pain authors and the publishing industry is feeling at the moment.</li>\n	<li>Book theft can never be stopped in its entirety. There are always people who will steal, and the nature of the digital world is going to make it even easier for them to do that in the future. Governments will doubtless try to intervene with some anti-piracy measures. It\'s pointless for companies and individuals to try to track down and punish the army of repeat thieves out there who will never, ever pay for anything.</li>\n	<li>Most people are honest and decent and don\'t want to deprive creative workers of their income. They will buy ebooks provided they\'re sensibly priced and easy to purchase. Pricing isn\'t an issue in most large markets today. Delivery certainly is. Publishers need to deliver a variety of online sales outlets that let people buy books that aren\'t tied to specific hardware, without unnecessary technical restrictions and hassle, as easily as we buy on iTunes today.</li>\n	<li>There is no easy technical solution that will stop piracy, and heavy-handed use of copy protection may well deter legitimate buyers and make them download ripped-off copies instead.</li>\n</ul>\nIf the above is true then it seems to me clear where we should all be focusing our efforts. Not on chasing the recidivist book thieves out there, who just aren\'t worth the trouble, but in persuading decent book readers that it\'s in their interest as much as ours that they buy legitimate copies of our work. Whether you write full or part time you should be able to expect to receive recompense for your work. To those who claim writing is too important to be muddied by \'commercialism\' all I can say is I will happily write for nothing the moment supermarkets hand out free food, bars buckshee beer, petrol stations giveaway gas, and the taxman writes me a letter that starts, \'Annual return? Forget it. We don\'t need the money\'. Until then I\'d just like you to pay the modest price on the cover.\n\nThe average human being gets this argument straight away. We just need to remind them of it when the ebook reader explosion begins, and to make it simpler for them to buy a legitimate copy than a ripped off one. This is something of concern to all of us in the business. Author organisations like ITW, RWA and MWA could, if they wanted, band together and get behind it. I\'m sure the Society of Authors in the UK would come in too.\n\nI\'m no expert in these matters so I defer to wiser counsel. But I\'d happily stick a button up here that said, maybe, \'Please Don\'t Steal My Book\'. That could link to a simple web site run by a group of authors\' organisations, perhaps with quotes from well-known writers, which sets out the facts about what writers really earn, how much we actually get from book sales, and why using ripped-off copies will, in the end, damage the interest of both writers <em>and</em> readers.\n\nAny sane author wants people to read their work as ebooks. Opposing book theft doesn\'t make you a Luddite. We should encourage and welcome the birth of the digital book medium. But at the same time we need to make sure the public understands what\'s going on and appreciates the damage they do if they rip off stolen commercial material. If you want to read for free there are public libraries out there, a wealth of giveaway books (you can find two of mine on <a href=\"http://www.scribd.com/davidhewson\" target=\"_blank\">Scribd</a>) and thousands of out-of-copyright classics on places like <a href=\"http://www.feedbooks.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Feedbooks</a>. There really is no excuse for anyone to steal.\n\nThe alternative is to sit back and moan as the livelihoods of writers begin to disappear from beneath them through nothing more than widespread digital pilfering orchestrated by people who hate books and delight in the damage they plan to wreak on the ecosystem of the great and varied world of books. Don\'t let these bastards win.','Some ways we can tackle the book thieves','','publish','open','closed','','some-ways-we-can-tackle-the-book-thieves','','','2011-01-28 08:08:36','2011-01-28 08:08:36','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/2010/01/02/some-ways-we-can-tackle-the-book-thieves/',0,'post','',0),(2510,1,'2010-01-04 07:58:33','2010-01-04 07:58:33','There\'s a hoary old chestnut you hear in writing schools sometimes. It says if you haven\'t grabbed your reader by the third (or so) paragraph of your opening scene your book\'s doomed. No one will read it, least of all any busy agent or editor.\n\nThis is balderdash, and dangerous balderdash at that. I\'ve seen wannabe writers swallow it whole then agonise for weeks on end trying to formulate the perfect few opening paragraphs for a book that rarely ends up getting written. Why? Because all they\'ve done is sweat over producing a beginning that\'s supposed to be smart and clever and attention-grabbing, never giving much thought at all to what comes after: the book.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nAny agent or editor will tell you that they have a pretty clear idea from that first page whether or not the person who wrote it has any chance of becoming a published author or not. But I doubt that\'s because they\'ve been blown away by the perfect three opening paragraphs. Publishing professionals have a nose for potential. It\'s part of their job. They can spot bad writing a mile off. They can read a short extract and understand very quickly whether the author reads books too, has thought about how they work and what he or she would like to bring to the party.\n\nWriting that has potential possesses a confidence, a sense of direction, and an unhurried feel about it that\'s hard to nail down but obvious by its absence. If you\'ve been in the business for a little while you learn to spot those tell-tale signs, and the marks too of an over-anxious hurried approach or a sense that someone is trying to be rather too imitative for their own good. That\'s what people look for in a first page mostly, not some ornate piece of look-at-me writing principally designed to display how clever you are.\n\nFocussing on producing a few stunning opening paragraphs doesn\'t really tell anyone much about the book as a whole, even if they\'re very good indeed. They’re just the slogan on the tin. The contents are what matters. And this kind of writing can become so desperate and needy in itself that, for me anyway, it\'s a bit of a turn-off. What I want to know from a first page is that I\'m in the company of someone who\'s literate, interesting and trying to produce something original. Not a wisecracking smartass trying to outdo everyone else.\n\nThat\'s my approach anyway. Here, if you\'re interested, is the opening of my very first novel, <em>Semana Santa,</em> which will be republished as <em>Death in Seville</em> later this year. It\'s been heavily revised for republication but the opening hasn\'t changed much at all (though this is still draft and unedited). <em>Semana Santa</em> got me a three-book contract with HarperCollins and a movie deal. The opening could not be further from the \'grab them by the scruff of the neck from the first moment\' approach. It\'s mysterious, suspenseful, strange and, well, nothing much happens really. But talking to people after it sold I was told time and time again that it worked, and was one of the reasons they picked up the book.\n\nIf you\'re about to write an opening scene -- and I am -- don\'t be too anxious about it. You\'re setting up the reader for a long and hopefully enjoyable journey. There\'s no need to shout as they climb on board the bus.\n\nHere you go... <em>Death in Seville.</em>\n\n<a title=\"Death in Seville.pdf\" href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/death-in-seville.pdf\">Death in Seville</a>','The opening scene conundrum','','publish','open','closed','','the-great-opening-scene-myth','','','2011-01-28 08:08:36','2011-01-28 08:08:36','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/2010/01/04/the-great-opening-scene-myth/',0,'post','',0),(2583,1,'2010-01-05 08:05:21','2010-01-05 08:05:21','<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/screen-shot-2010-01-04-at-08-32-39.pngDante/Danteshow.html\" target=\"_blank\"><img style=\"float:right;padding-left:4px;\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/screen-shot-2010-01-04-at-08-32-39.png\" alt=\"Screen shot 2010-01-04 at 08.32.39.png\" width=\"220\" height=\"177\" /></a>Every author has to do public events. They made me very nervous in the beginning. Now I\'ve done so many they don\'t bother me, and I even feel bold enough to handle them in Italian in Italy so long as I warn everyone in advance that I\'m going to murder their much-loved language.\n\nMeeting readers is important and enjoyable. But I wondered long and hard for years what it was they actually expected of an author at a public event. They want different things sometimes. A few like to hear an author read from their work. Personally I hate reading and avoid it if possible, partly because Saul Reichlin does such a good job with my audio novels I hear his superior voice in my head every time I pick up a book and start to speak out loud.\n\nBut most readers don\'t know what they want really, except to be entertained, which is fair enough. Here\'s how I tackle this problem -- and you can see a little of my solution for yourself by clicking the image above, though later please, after I\'ve explained a little more.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nI don\'t think readers come to book events wanting to know much about me. I tell them a little, in a short bio, of course, and fill them in on the background to the series, again briefly. After that it\'s the current book. And you know something? I\'m not sure readers want to know that much about that either. Audiences at book events are, it seems to me, essentially curious in a very general way: curious about books and the people who write them. They want to look at you and think, \'So that\'s what a writer looks like.\' They want to know why you write books and they don\'t. Where all this comes from.\n\nSo here\'s what I do these days. I take them through the thought and research process that led up to the book that\'s just come out, and I do that wherever possible visually, using the original photos I took when I was putting the book together. This demands a slide and projector, of course, but many book stores and libraries have those already. It also demands you don\'t look like some product manager coming along with a slideshow presentation for the latest version of Microsoft Widget. To this end I use Apple\'s excellent Keynote presentation package which is a lot more personal somehow, and lets me insert video easily too.\n\nYou can get a little of the flavour of what this looks like in my export of the presentation of the <a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/screen-shot-2010-01-04-at-08-32-39.pngDante/Danteshow.html\" target=\"_blank\">slideshow for Dante\'s Numbers here.</a> This takes the audience through locations in Florence, Rome and San Francisco, and some of the threads in the story, such a Dante\'s <em>Inferno</em> and Hitchcock\'s <em>Vertigo.</em>\n\nPictures always go down well with people. Better than listening to me drone on about how I always wanted to be a writer. At least I think it is. Also it means I\'m talking about something that\'s very natural for me -- the actual process of writing the book. I don\'t need to prepare much once these photos are put together. No need to get nervous about forgetting my lines or running out of something to say. You can see the slides I use as a web presentation here and by clicking the image at the top. Unfortunately this won\'t show you the notes I use as prompts on some of the slides. For that you need to download the pdf export of the presentation at the foot of the page (but we warned - it\'s 27 MB I\'m afraid).\n\nI hope this approach succeeds. I find it a lot more fun than wittering on my own anyway. I\'m currently putting together my slideshow for this year\'s book, <em>The Blue Demon</em>. It will work in various locations around the world and for the US all I need do is a separate version showing the cover there, not the UK one.\n\nFinally... always leave room for questions, which are usually excellent, though you may have to prod to get them, particularly in the UK where audiences can be more than a little shy. My next event is in Venice at the Mondadori book store (which will be just a talk by the way, no pretty pictures). After that I\'ll be on the road with my good friend Ann Cleeves in the north east at the end of February. To find out where I\'m appearing just go to the <a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/screen-shot-2010-01-04-at-08-32-39.pngblog/calendar/\" target=\"_blank\">Calendar page</a> here. The first showing of my new slideshow will be <a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/screen-shot-2010-01-04-at-08-32-39.pngblog/calendar/\" target=\"_blank\">in Wigan</a> on February 25.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/screen-shot-2010-01-04-at-08-32-39.pngdanteuk.pdf\" target=\"_blank\"> Dante UK.pdf</a> (presentation including notes - 27 MB in size)','Show and tell','','publish','open','closed','','show-and-tell','','','2011-01-28 08:08:36','2011-01-28 08:08:36','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/2010/01/04/show-and-tell/',0,'post','',0),(2462,1,'2010-01-06 07:37:36','2010-01-06 07:37:36','I once met a writer who said, very proudly, \'I write a first draft, send it off, and that\'s it.\' He wasn\'t someone I\'d ever heard of to be honest. Most of us end up doing two kinds of revision for our work. One is pre-delivery, in other words before it reaches and editor. The other is post... when they\'ve had a look and come back with some suggestions.\n\nBoth sets of revision are, for me, very important parts of the editorial process. I\'d hate it if a first draft felt \'good enough\'. I never feel that about my work. Given the chance I\'d rewrite everything, including the book that\'s about to come out. That\'s how I am. But there is a big difference between the pre- and post- revisions. I\'m not going to talk cerebral stuff here, just plain practical advice. Here\'s how it goes...\n\n<!--more-->\n\nThe first thing has to be said about revising is that it\'s best to aim for what audio and video people call \'non-destructive editing\'. In other words you should be able to hack and change to your heart\'s content knowing that if you go too far you can always get back to the original. The simplest way to do this is to work on a copy of your original. When I do my first revisions in Scrivener, the software I use for writing the book itself, that\'s what happens. One of Scrivener\'s many wonderful tricks is its ability to let you rework the timeline of a narrative very easily -- dragging scenes around to see how they look if they go somewhere else. I once made the mistake of finishing a very rough draft of a book then exporting it into a word processor and doing the final polish there. This is fatal. You can guarantee someone will come back and say, \'But wouldn\'t scene five be better split, with one half going there and the other there?\n\nAnd they\'ll be right. <em>And</em> you\'ll discover just what a pain that is in an ordinary word process. So now all pre-editing takes place in Scrivener and stays there until I\'m absolutely sure there will be no changes in the flow of the narrative.\n\nAt that point I move to something else. It could be Word, and I\'ve still written more books in that than anything else. But these days I prefer Apple\'s Pages and here are some reasons why.\n\nAs with Word, non-destructive editing can take place within the same document. You simply turn on \'track changes\' and the software keeps an eye on what you change and excise, shows you the edits and lets you go back or merge them with the new material. I prefer Pages over Word because what I\'m looking for at this stage is speed and easy editing. Pages does all that brilliantly. Here\'s what the track editing looks like in action.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/screen-shot-2009-12-31-at-10-09-43.png\"><img class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-2495\" title=\"Screen shot 2009-12-31 at 10.09.43\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/comment4.pngblog/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Screen-shot-2009-12-31-at-10.09.43-300x154.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"154\" /></a>\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/screen-shot-2009-12-31-at-10-09-43.png\"></a>Yes, you can do this in Word too. But it\'s a lot more clumsy and hard to follow. In Pages I can see very quickly what I\'ve changed and what I\'ve deleted, go back to the original version, write something entirely new... the choice is mine. I can also make quick notes in the margin to myself too.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/comment4.png\"><img class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-2595\" title=\"comment\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/comment4.pngblog/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/comment4-300x61.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"61\" /></a>\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/comment.png\"></a>I do this for those passages I\'m still not entirely sure about. So when the first or second revision is done I go through, reread these sections, and see if they need a little more.\nScreen work is, of course, the second part of the process. The first is printing out the entire manuscript and reading it myself, in a chair somewhere, away from the computer and the phone, trying to see it as a reader will one day. You can\'t beat a piece of paper and a red pen as a starting point for the revision process. Once that is done I go back to the computer, work my way through each section, rereading it with the notes at the screen, and make the changes I want (which are not always the ones written in red biro -- this is a fluid process).\n\nAnd that really is revision for me. When there are no more nagging comments in the margin I export from Pages to a Word file and send off the revision to my editors. One point is worth making here though, since I get it a lot at writing classes. Word is designed to be an office revision medium in its own right, allowing editors to make notes directly into the document so that you, as the writer, can see them in place and deal with them there. Pages will read those Word comments too so you could, in theory, still edit your book in Pages from a Word file with editor\'s annotations.\n\nOver the last fifteen years I\'ve only dealt with one editor who works like this -- returning to you a Word document with the notes in the text. Most will give you a manuscript with stuck-on notes or a document referring you to, say Page 30, line 3. No point in moaning -- that is just the way many editors work. If you are one such, though, can I point out one possible gremlin. It\'s dead simple: your Page 30, line 3, may not be mine. In Europe we use A4 paper and in the US you have US letter. Fonts, page sizes, different kinds of printers often seem to dictate that manuscripts print differently in different locations. So a clue to the content that will allow a writer to find the spot you mean through a simple search is much appreciated -- Page 30, line 3, \'Fred is turning into an elf...\' for example.\n\nJust a thought. The revisions for <em>The Fallen Angel</em> are now done. It\'s on to the next book.','Revising, revising, revising','','publish','open','closed','','revising-revising-revising','','','2011-01-28 08:08:36','2011-01-28 08:08:36','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/Blog/?p=2462',0,'post','',2),(2600,1,'2010-01-06 13:07:17','2010-01-06 13:07:17','<p>I\'d never be in this business if it weren\'t for libraries. Bridlington and Scarborough libraries, to be specific, in the late 1960s, full of an eclectic range of books, fiction and non-fiction, that still work their way into my head today.</p>\n<p>Libraries matter. They\'re part of a civilised world. In more and more places, too, they reward authors who fill their shelves by paying them an annual sum based on book loans. This is known as <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Lending_Right\" target=\"_blank\">public lending right</a> and in the UK it\'s handled by a small, incredibly efficient organisation called <a href=\"http://www.plr.uk.com/\" target=\"_blank\">PLR UK</a>.</p>\n<p>What PLR UK does sounds simple but must be a nightmare to manage, so all the more praise to them for doing it so well, and through the web too, so paperwork idiots like me can manage everything online.</p>\n<!--more--><p>PLR UK monitors book loans in libraries for works by authors who have registered their titles with them. At the end of each year they pay you a sum based on estimated loans -- this year it\'s 6.29p for each. The total payout per individual author is capped at a maximum of £6,600 so the big guys don\'t wipe out all the available funds. This year a total of 250 authors reached the maximum payment threshold (I fell short by just a few pounds -- get borrowing books out there, will you?)</p>\n<p>PLR UK have just released the payment statistics for last year, on time as ever, by email, available through a secure web site login. Here\'s how the payouts worked out for registered authors -- this is from the PLR newsletter which you can find at the foot of this article.</p>\n<p><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/screen-shot-2010-01-06-at-12-38-54.png\" width=\"446\" height=\"195\" alt=\"Screen shot 2010-01-06 at 12.38.54.png\" /></p>\n<p>PLR is incredibly well thought out. It rewards authors on the number of books they\'ve written, and how popular they are. But it doesn\'t hand out money unnecessarily to the very popular names, who don\'t need it, and spreads the rest around very evenly. Authors don\'t make anything like as much money as the public thinks -- and given falling book prices will earn less in the future unless their sales increase. So the importance of schemes like PLR -- the result of a long and brave campaign by book industry figures a couple of decades ago -- is likely to grow in the next few years.</p>\n<p><a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Lending_Right\" target=\"_blank\">According to Wikipedia</a> PLR is now operative in 28 countries, and was first mooted, amazingly enough, in Denmark during World War Two. The cost is borne by the taxpayer but it\'s very small in government terms and does, let it be said loudly, represent payment for services rendered -- writing books that the public read for free. In the UK the money comes from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport which in the financial year 2009-10 stumped up just £7.58 million for everything -- author payments and administration. Those payments cover an estimated 133 million individual book loans. Given that where I live in Kent the county council have thrown away a few millions on a \'web tv channel\' no one watches this is surely a bargain.</p>\n<p>UK authors can also receive money from the <a href=\"http://www.alcs.co.uk/\" target=\"_blank\">Authors\' Licensing and Collecting Society</a>. ALCS stems from the original Writers\' Action Group campaign which brought about PLR. But it is a private organisation that collects payments for secondary rights, such as photocopying, and foreign PLR schemes. I neglected to register my work with ALCS for a few years, foolishly thinking that being registered for PLR also registered my books for ALCS. That\'s incorrect -- you need to do it on both sites.</p>\n<p>If you\'re an eligible author you\'d be mad not to register your work with both PLR UK and ALCS, or any comparable organisation in your own countries. My annual income from the two now adds up to something like £7,700, which is not to be sniffed at. Make sure you register all editions of your work -- hardback, paperback and large print if you have them. Do that every time an edition comes out. If your ISBN isn\'t in the system it can\'t be counted.</p>\n<p>The one gotcha in the UK system is we get no PLR for audio loans except in the rare instance they\'re part of a package that includes a book. That\'s not fair and the government ought to correct it. But that\'s a minor complaint. In the US they don\'t have PLR at all which is frankly scandalous. Authors deserve some modest payment for the mass lending of their work.</p>\n<p>PLR UK and ALCS do a fantastic job. This writer would just like to say: thanks very much!</p>\n<p><a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/2010newsletter.pdf\" title=\"2010Newsletter.pdf\">PLR 2010 newsletter</a></p>','God bless libraries, and public lending right','','publish','open','closed','','god-bless-libraries-and-public-lending-right','','','2011-01-28 08:08:36','2011-01-28 08:08:36','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/2010/01/06/god-bless-libraries-and-public-lending-right/',0,'post','',0),(2499,1,'2010-01-07 07:54:21','2010-01-07 07:54:21','Here\'s a query someone posed on Facebook the other day. I was boasting about getting the revision of <em>The Fallen Angel</em> out of the way and the fact I\'d wake up on New Year\'s Day with a blank page in front of me. Jane Burfield from Toronto asked, \'I have many times when the blank page is scary. What do you do when first sitting down?\'\n\nGood question. Let me try and answer it.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nI suppose the honest answer is I was fibbing. I never really sit down with a blank page in front of me. I spend a lot of time at the computer, more than I need probably (damn Twitter, damn Facebook, a curse be upon the Interwebs at large). But I really don\'t waste hours seated at the keyboard thinking, \'What on earth am I going to write now?\'\n\nThat\'s not to say I don\'t find ideas at the computer. Sometimes I\'ll pick up something in a book or a newspaper and want to find out more. I have a stack of titbits of information stored away in <a href=\"http://www.evernote.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Evernote</a> filed as potential story threads one day. Using the computer and the web as an information source -- albeit a very unreliable one -- makes a lot of sense to me. It\'s wonderful at that most of the time, perhaps a little too generous if anything because it can eat up whole days in pleasurable research.\n\nBut in terms of \'What will I write today?\'... nah. It\'s inevitable that writers have to sit down and face a blank page. But to do that with a blank mind too doesn\'t work for me at all. I\'d rather be somewhere else, thinking, reading, travelling, talking to people, listening, watching their faces, wondering.\n\nSo there\'s the truth. I only sit down to write something when I have some kind of idea -- sometimes fuzzy, sometimes clear -- what it is I want to attack. If I haven\'t a clue I\'ll go and do something completely contrary (walking the dog being one of the easiest and most enjoyable). I\'ve also had some damned good ideas while riding my John Deere lawn tractor, keeping down the grass or doing general chores around the garden.\n\nIt\'s hard to go digging for book ideas. I think you have to lead the kind of life -- mental and physical -- that invites them to come near then snatch the little horrors and keep them somewhere safe.\n\nThat\'s not going to happen if I spend long hours seated in front of a computer screen, waiting for inspiration to hit.','Blank page yes, blank mind no','','publish','open','closed','','blank-page-yes-blank-mind-no','','','2011-01-28 08:08:36','2011-01-28 08:08:36','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/2010/01/07/blank-page-yes-blank-mind-no/',0,'post','',0),