(2590,1,'2010-01-08 07:58:42','2010-01-08 07:58:42','<p><a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/porchetta.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/porchetta-tm.jpg\" width=\"200\" height=\"206\" alt=\"porchetta.jpg\" style=\"float:right;padding-left:4px;\" /></a>Back in 2002 I was stuck with a problem. I was writing the second book in the Costa series, <i>The Villa of Mysteries,</i> and struggling like mad with a character. He was Gianni Peroni, an older cop who was to be Costa\'s kind of sidekick in the books to come. The man just wasn\'t working. He was predictable, two-dimensional, unreal somehow. I just didn\'t know what made him tick.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>\n<p>This didn\'t worry me much at the time. The book was in its early stages and I was due to go back to Rome for more research. Then the day of the flight came... and Ryanair cancelled. Worse, they said they wouldn\'t fly me out to Italy for another four days at the very least.</p>\n<p>Great. I got a ticket on the Shuttle, and set off by car, through France, through Switzerland, down into Tuscany, eventually settling in the hillside town of Sinalunga, trying to work out what the hell I was going to write.</p>\n<!--more--><p>The problem with Peroni at that time was simple. I didn\'t know where he came from. I don\'t mean geographically -- I\'d already decided he was Tuscan, which was one reason I diverted to Sinalunga trying to pin him down. I just didn\'t understand his background -- what made him, why he became a cop. I wanted him to be a sympathetic character but with a bit of mystery. He\'s big, he\'s ugly, he\'s got scars, he looks as if he can handle himself.</p>\n<p>But appearances are deceptive. He\'s actually very gentle, kind and thoughtful. In some ways the most \'emotionally intelligent\' of the lot. Why?</p>\n<p><a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinalunga\" target=\"_blank\">Sinalunga</a> is a modest little place, a small hilltop Tuscan town a long way from the tourist tat of Chiantishire. That appealed to me as a place from which my character could come. I poked around for a while and still didn\'t have a clue what else I could add to the man. Then, after a couple of days, there was the most amazing local holiday. The streets at the bottom of the hill filled with stalls selling food and trinkets. People flocked from miles around. I wandered round, chatting to people, most of whom were utterly baffled why a solitary Brit should have been so far off the beaten track.</p>\n<p>The event had a whole line of porchetta stands, stalls where locals were selling roast whole stuffed pig. Must have been a dozen of them or more, mostly stout husbands and wives, happy as Larry, holding out bits for you to try for free and nodding at their neighbours, laughing, saying, \'Don\'t buy <i>his!\'</i></p>\n<p>I\'ve never seen anything like it, and never tasted so much wonderful roast pork in my life. They were all local, many of them farmers who\'d raised the beasts they were selling and had spent all night roasting them for the fair. All utterly contented with their lives, without ambition, fired by nothing more than a love of the moment and this beautiful, unspoilt part of Italy.</p>\n<p>And in a flash I had Gianni Peroni. I still remember excitedly scribbling down what drove him on a little notepad in a café, fingers still greasy from all that free meat. Gianni came from here and was destined to be a farmer too, happily roasting porchetta for the locals, handing it out for free, chanting, \'Don\'t buy <i>his!\'</i>.</p>\n<p>But circumstances, difficult, tragic circumstances, dictated otherwise. He was, in other words, defined by what he was not. By failure if you like. And the memory of what might have been -- selling porchetta in rural Tuscany instead of chasing bad guys in Rome -- informs him to this day every time he walks into a scene in my head.</p>\n<p>That back story is explained in full in <i>The Villa of Mysteries</i>. It gets mentioned with a diminishing brevity in the books that follow. Not so much any more though. Peroni is who he is, and while I wouldn\'t rule out his Tuscan origins reentering a book in the future I don\'t need to keep mentioning them. If readers are sufficiently interested all they have to do is go back to the early books and find out for themselves.</p>\n<p>What did I learn here?</p>\n<ul>\n  <li>The things that make books work aren\'t gifts; you have to go out and track them down.</li>\n\n  <li>Characters, like real people, can be formed as much by what <i>doesn\'t</i> happen as by what does.</li>\n\n  <li>The subterranean qualities of characterisation remain important even when they never make their way into the book, because they colour and create the individual in the writer\'s head, as foundations underpin a building.</li>\n\n  <li>If you want some great porchetta, go to Sinalunga at festa time.</li>\n</ul>\n<p>I\'ve never been back. I\'ve never needed to. But I\'m glad Ryanair cancelled that flight to Rome. If they hadn\'t Gianni Peroni would never have turned out the way he did.</p>','Porchetta and people: where characters come from','','publish','open','closed','','porchetta-and-people-where-characters-come-from','','','2011-01-28 08:08:36','2011-01-28 08:08:36','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/2010/01/08/porchetta-and-people-where-characters-come-from/',0,'post','',0),(2614,1,'2010-01-08 11:55:35','2010-01-08 11:55:35','The posts I put up here about book theft last weekend generated a lot of interest. It\'s clear authors feel ripped off by people who distribute copyright digital books around the web and those who take them for free. It\'s also clear -- and I hadn\'t appreciated this -- that many of those who steal digital books think they\'re doing nothing wrong. If you go <a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/us-reach-tm.jpgblog/2010/01/01/the-biggest-threat-to-writing-is-book-theft/\" target=\"_blank\">through the comments here</a> you\'ll see any number of frankly pathetic excuses for behaviour that any normal human being knows instinctively is just plain stealing.\n\nWhat truly amazed me is how some of the people involved in distributing stolen works don\'t just try to justify their theft but pretend they\'re stealing things for \'the right reasons\'. It\'s not about money at all. It\'s an altruistic protest against commercialism, a way of spreading books to people who couldn\'t otherwise afford them, or harmless sharing of things you wouldn\'t buy anyway just for fun.\n\nIt\'s all one big fat lie. Here\'s the truth. The thieves who are building up the illicit libraries of stolen digital work that make widespread book theft possible are doing it because they hope to make easy money. Want the proof?\n\n<!--more-->\n\nLet\'s take a look at just one site for ebook thieves out there -- <a href=\"http://ebook30.com/\" target=\"_blank\">ebook30.com.</a> This site was only created in December 2008 yet it seems to be a repository for links to thousands of books and magazines ranging from fiction to computer titles and biographies, and computer games too -- most of them stolen.\n\nIt\'s not hard to work out that something\'s not quite right about ebook30.com. There\'s no \'about page\', no explanation of what the site is for. In order to acquire books through it you seem to have to register but there\'s no indication what, if anything this costs, or what is involved.\n\nSo who are ebook30.com? Don\'t know. The ownership of the site runs through an agency that hides the identity of those behind it. This is a perfectly normal practice -- you\'ll find it applied to davidhewson.com too because I don\'t want my private address and phone number made public for obvious reasons. But at least you know who I am and you can contact me easily through a form on this site. Nowhere on ebook30 is there a contact form or the slightest indication who runs it or from where. Some records seem to indicate it originates in the Netherlands. Interestingly of the two stolen ebooks of mine they list one is a Dutch edition. At Alexa someone from Vietnam claims they created it (which would make sense -- basing a piracy site in the EU is asking for trouble). But without going out and employing someone it would be very difficult indeed to guess who\'s behind this thing.\n\nif they\'re giving away links to stolen books for free why are they running it? Take a look around and you can surely see: ads. They leap at you at every opportunity -- links to genuine companies, to books on eBay, casinos, financial companies. The site is clearly set up to generate money from web advertising. How much? Well, it\'s the Internet, isn\'t it? Who are you going to believe?\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/us-reach.png\"><img style=\"float:right;padding-left:4px;\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/us-reach-tm.jpg\" alt=\"US reach.png\" width=\"200\" height=\"282\" /></a>There\'s an <a href=\"http://www.quantcast.com/ebook30.com\" target=\"_blank\">interesting audience breakdown at Quantcast</a> which focuses on US site reach. You can see it summarised on the right. This suggests that 45 per cent of US visitors are college graduates and the majority, 39 per cent, claim to earn more than $100,000 a year -- enough to spend five or six dollars on buying a book instead of stealing it. How do they know this? How accurate are these figures? Search me. As I said, it\'s the Internet.\n\nHow much are the thieves who run eBook30.com making? Again, depends who you believe. According to <a href=\"http://www.websiteoutlook.com/www.ebook30.com\" target=\"_blank\">websiteoutlook</a> the popularity of the site, 333,131 daily page views, should bring in an ad revenue of $1001.39 <em>every day.</em> A lot more than many authors will make in a couple of weeks by writing books, not stealing them. The trouble is websiteoutlook seems much like ebook30.com -- a site with lots of ads and no obvious purpose. No contact names, no addresses. Just a lot of information about web traffic pulled from genuine research organisations like Alexa and then turned into estimates. According to them ebook30 now has an estimated worth of $731,014, which would surely make someone in Vietnam very happy if it were true.\n\nOn the other hand if you go to <a href=\"http://www.cubestat.com/www.ebook30.com\" target=\"_blank\">Cubestat</a> -- another site ranking place that seems to be run by no one and is full of ads -- you\'re told that ebook30\'s daily ad revenues are just $62 and it\'s estimated worth $45,573.90, which still doesn\'t seem bad for something a year old and based entirely on theft.\n\nNot that it matters. Look at the hard numbers on which most seem to agree. Ebook30 is big -- Google has indexed 24,700 pages there -- and attracts a lot of visitors. <a href=\"http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/ebook30.com\" target=\"_blank\">According to Alexa</a> its reach of Internet users has increased 75 per cent over the last three months and the growth over the last six months is really quite impressive/depressing. Depending on who you believe the site gets between 150,000 and 190,000 visitors a month -- most of whom are there to get something for free. If most visitors nab just one illicit title that\'s a hell of a lot of stolen books. Are we supposed to believe there\'s really not one lost sale in there?\n\nAnd one assumes that traffic is going to grow and grow as ereaders go mainstream and get cheaper. Take a look at how the site\'s traffic has been moving already.\n\n<img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/screen-shot-2010-01-08-at-10-15-39.png\" alt=\"Screen shot 2010-01-08 at 10.15.39.png\" width=\"395\" height=\"250\" />\n\nBefore the ebook thieves leap in and try to tear this apart let me say here and now that, traffic aside, the money numbers quoted here are questionable. But it doesn\'t matter whether the thieves behind ebook30 are making $70 a day or $1000. The point is those ads and the fact the site has no rationale, no public identity, no purpose whatsoever except to point people towards stolen books and grab some income along the way. <em>T</em><em>he reason </em><em>they are dealing in stolen books is to make money.</em>\n\nJust as those who read stolen ebooks are doing it to avoid paying for something that doesn\'t belong to them. End of story.\n\nIf you\'re thinking about grabbing a ripped-off book from a place like this please don\'t. Authors depend on readers for their support. There\'s also the small matter of your own personal security. Do you really want to hand over your personal details to a web site so determined to hide who runs it and why?\n\nIf they\'ve no qualms about stealing from us it doesn\'t take a great leap of imagination to start wondering how soon they might think about stealing from you.','How to make $1000 a day stealing books?','','publish','open','closed','','how-to-make-1000-a-day-stealing-books','','','2011-01-28 08:08:36','2011-01-28 08:08:36','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/2010/01/08/how-to-make-1000-a-day-stealing-books/',0,'post','',5),(2591,1,'2010-01-11 07:27:33','2010-01-11 07:27:33','I saw another author\'s site the other day. A new book was coming out. On the front page of the site were some big bright links saying, \'Buy here.\' Links that went through, if I recall, to Amazon and Barnes &amp; Noble.\n\nHm, I thought. Is that really a good idea?\n\n<!--more-->\n\nOccasionally I\'ll link to Amazon here in order to prove a point, as I did <a href=\"http://davidhewson.com/blog/2010/01/02/book-theft-myth-no-2-its-about-price/\" target=\"_blank\">recently about book pricing.</a> You\'ll also find a link to my reissued second book <em><a href=\"http://davidhewson.com/Books/standalones/epiphany/epiphany.html\" target=\"_blank\">Epiphany</a></em> in eBook, because the spot that takes you is <a href=\"https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/8007\" target=\"_blank\">the only place you\'ll find it</a>. But mostly I don\'t link to retailers for several reasons. Firstly, if someone knows how to read they surely know how to buy a book. They don\'t need me to tell them \'available in good book stores everywhere\', not least because given the economic climate none of us can take that for granted anyway.\n\nMore importantly I don\'t feel it\'s fair to point buyers to a particular retailer. I\'m grateful to anyone who sells my books, be they small independent, mass chain, online giant or a supermarket. I really don\'t want to be seen favouring one over the other. It\'s up to you where you buy your books, not me. And yes, I hope you\'ll support your local independent book store if you have one (if you fail to support it, you can guarantee you <em>won\'t</em> have one before long). But if price or convenience sends you elsewhere that\'s your business.\n\nEven more importantly, though, I think it\'s important for writers to stand back from the retail environment and focus on what we\'re supposed to be doing: writing. That\'s <em>all</em> I do to be honest. I don\'t sell books or market them. I have no truly worthwhile opinion on what makes a good cover (though I may know a bad one). I\'m ignorant about the ins and outs of the Google Book agreement and, shameful as it may be, I\'m really not sure I can be bothered to take the time to understand what it\'s about.\n\nSomething changed in the publishing world over the last decade. Authors, occasionally to our own detriment, have become \'empowered\'. We run web sites and write blogs such as these. We podcast and pontificate (as I\'m doing now). We\'re increasingly encouraged to become our own marketing departments as promotional budgets shrink within publishers themselves.\n\nI\'m with all that... up to a point, the point being where it begins to encroach on the thing I really love, which is writing. Putting up links to retailers seems to me intrinsically unfair. It will also generate pleas from other retailers asking, with some justification, \'Why not me?\' And what about foreign markets? Do we need a link for each and every country (few of which will, of course, benefit any independent booksellers out there)?\n\nSorry. I don\'t have the time or the energy to deal with all that. I\'m too busy trying to produce another book. There are plenty of places out there willing to sell you my work, as <a href=\"http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&amp;safe=off&amp;client=safari&amp;rls=en&amp;q=%22David+Hewson%22+books&amp;aq=f&amp;oq=&amp;aqi=\" target=\"_blank\">a quick Google</a> will show. You decide, please.','Authors write books, others sell them','','publish','open','closed','','authors-write-books-others-sell-them','','','2011-01-28 08:08:36','2011-01-28 08:08:36','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/2010/01/11/authors-write-books-others-sell-them/',0,'post','',0),(2640,1,'2010-01-13 07:33:13','2010-01-13 07:33:13','I was at a book convention on a panel with some of my fellow authors a while back when one of the questions thrown our way was, \'What books do you hate most?\'\n\nI could feel the writers by my side stiffen at that one. Please don\'t subject authors to questions like that, in public and in private. It\'s unfair, impossible to answer in any meaningful way, and frankly irrelevant.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nI\'m no different to anyone else. There are things I like and things I dislike. I\'m fond of most forms of music, but can\'t get on with opera, a couple of Britten pieces apart. I eat most food but I\'ve never been much impressed by desserts. And books? There are books I like and books I love. But books I hate? No. If I start a book and don\'t get on with it I simply stop reading. How hard is that? I\'m with Kurt Vonnegut who once said, \'Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae.\'\n\nThere are many good reasons why authors should focus on what they like, not what they don\'t. Firstly, publishing is a business and I\'m in it as a professional. I take my work and that of others -- whether it\'s to my taste or not -- very seriously. Livelihoods and reputations are built and destroyed on an annual basis. I don\'t feel comfortable -- or even particularly qualified -- when it comes to passing public judgement on the work of my fellow authors at the best of times, certainly not at the drop of a hat.\n\nOne reason is I\'m acutely aware that my taste is just that -- <em>my</em> taste. Pretty eclectic and out of the norm for most readers too. I read a lot of non-fiction and older books. I\'m no expert on trends in modern crime, no authority on the general run of fiction out there. I\'m just one reader with a penchant for the stuff I like. At the moment I\'m reading John Julius Norwich on Venice and also torn between  a book on Venetian architecture, some Robert Aickman stories and, if I could only find it in the house, rereading some sections in Suetonius\'s <em>Twelve Caesars.</em> Have I made my point? If I find something to my taste that\'s my business and frankly pretty unimportant too. It would be unprofessional -- unless I was also a book critic, which I\'m not -- to think otherwise.\n\nIt really is childish in the extreme to think that, because you don\'t like something, it is therefore irretrievably \'bad\'. Take Dan Brown. I\'ve tried reading him but I don\'t get very far. I find his use of English awkward. It grates with me so much I don\'t feel inclined to carry on. But millions and millions of others don\'t feel this way. Many, perhaps  most, are people who don\'t read much at all. Any way you look at it, writing books successfully for people who don\'t normally buy them -- which is what mega bestsellers do -- is a hell of an achievement, one that\'s beyond most of us. And if I did get in the habit of slagging him off in public wouldn\'t it look rather like sales-envy, never an attractive proposition in any creative field?\n\nAuthors have to get up every day and invent something to fill the blank page staring at us. To do that we need to have a reason, some motive, some driving impulse, to concoct a story out of nothing. Personally I have to feel connected to my work, engaged with it, <em>positive</em> about the reasons why I\'m doing it and what I hope it will one day achieve.\n\nI could sit here every morning griping about how someone else had got better sales or reviews or signed some mega-deal somewhere. I could trawl through the negative, sniping nasty comments on Amazon and elsewhere -- we all get them, and some are astonishingly personal and vicious. I could fume over how the Internet has \'empowered\' a small army of embittered self-appointed critics who can\'t wait to rubbish in a minute work that has taken someone a year or more to finish, yet still these idiots lack the courage to put their own names to their rants.\n\nBut why let such pointless sentiments drag you down? That snide poison will surely one day find its way into the book you\'re writing and infect it with a sourness any acute reader -- and they\'re the ones we\'re all after -- will come to recognise.\n\nLet me put it another way. Which makes you happiest? Talking about something you love? Or something you despise? The answer\'s obvious to me. Pointless, bitchy negativity harms the person who spouts it most of all. Given how many books there are out there -- and the impossibility of ever reading but a fraction of them -- doesn\'t it make more sense telling people what they should read, rather than yelling at them about what they shouldn\'t?','Thinking positively','','publish','open','closed','','think-positive','','','2011-01-28 08:08:36','2011-01-28 08:08:36','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/2010/01/13/think-positive/',0,'post','',0),(2652,1,'2010-01-14 07:20:40','2010-01-14 07:20:40','A note to photographers out there. I don\'t pose with guns. Ever. Not even silly toy plastic ones of the kind some snapper brought along to a photo-shoot in Singapore once, hoping to spice up the usual boring author picture with something a little \'exciting\'.\n\nThere\'s a reason for this. Yes, I depict violence in my work, graphic violence at times. But I do it to shock, not titillate. I <em>hate</em> violence, and I hate guns in particular, as do my protagonists. As one of them puts it in one book, they may have to use force but when it results in someone getting hurt or killed they feel a sense of failure. They were supposed to do the job differently, to get a result without people getting hurt.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nNot every author feels this way and that\'s their prerogative. In some books, perhaps most popular fiction, violence is meant to be thrilling. When the hero beats up the bad guy the reader becomes that hero, exacting justice on behalf of a bloodied innocent world. Order is restored. Good defeats evil till the next bout. That kind of reader-as-hero model has worked well for centuries, and will continue to do so for many to come. Then there\'s the Quentin Tarantino theory of violence <a href=\"http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/6975563/Quentin-Tarantino-violence-is-the-best-way-to-control-an-audience.html\" target=\"_blank\">which I\'ll leave you to discover here.</a>\n\nTarantino may go to the movies to see violence but I don\'t. Nor is extreme brutality something I want to be central to my own writing. My attitude to violence is simple: it\'s reprehensible, usually avoidable, an extension of the dark side of human nature that we would all, in ideal circumstances, like to suppress. Critics sometimes moan about the amount of violence in modern fiction and film, arguing that it provokes similar acts in real life. I\'ve never been much impressed by that argument, though there are certainly movies and books out there that turn me off through excessive brutality. The arts reflect society, not shape it. The idea that \'the pen is mightier than the sword\' is pretty ridiculous. The pen didn\'t topple Hitler.\n\nThe fictional bloodshed that does worry me is the old-fashioned kind, bloodless deaths, gentle poisonings among the aspidistras in the hothouse, Hopalong Cassidy shooting some bad guy who doesn\'t even bleed, just clutches his shirt and says, \'Ah, you got me.\' That kind of fake, sanitised violence was understandable in its day. When Agatha Christie was writing in the 1930s crime was something that happened to other people and those who committed it were exterior creatures, beyond the norms of \'civilised\' society. What is often called classic crime tends to treat criminals the way gardeners treat green fly. All you have to do is identify them, locate them, spray on the right kind of insecticide/justice and everything turns right again.\n\nIt\'s hard to write that kind of violence today except as pastiche. Crime is everywhere. Most of us will know of someone who\'s been the victim of violence, perhaps even murder. In the classic crime template all that is required for justice to be enacted is the simple matter of identification. The villain is unveiled, he puts up his hands, the police come long, a trial ensues and the world is put to rights. It\'s hard to make a convincing case for that kind of process in the 21st century. Today justice is truly blind. Even if a perpetrator is found he or she may well walk free through failures in process or the intervention of very clever lawyers.\n\nOrdinary decent citizens no longer feel safe. And at the same time more and more start to think, \'If they can get away with it, why shouldn\'t I?\' The world\'s a greyer, less certain place. When I depict violence I try to reflect that. So my violence may well not be the work of \'criminals\'. It\'s unpredictable, hard to understand, random, even unplanned. And it has consequences, lasting consequences, that affect all of those involved. I can\'t pretend that murder is simply a plot device, not when violence and crime, fear and a lust for retribution are everywhere around us, though you\'re all entitled to feel differently, of course.\n\nHere are a few hazy ground rules I try to apply.\n<ul>\n	<li>I don\'t linger, for two reasons. Given that I disapprove of violence it would be morally wrong for me to be prurient about its infliction. On a -- possibly more important -- practical front I want the violence, if it appears, to be deeply shocking. I happen to believe that is best achieved by introducing it very quickly and making it go away very quickly too. A prime example of my approach are the deaths of two important characters in the first and sixth Costa books, <em>A Season for the Dead</em> and <em>The Garden of Evil.</em> I still get email about those, and it still says the same thing, \'I never saw that coming and it took my breath away.\' Precisely.</li>\n	<li>I avoid extensive physical detail. It adds nothing to my kind of book to be told what tendons are severed, what part of the brain is lying on the pavement. I\'m squeamish in real life. I don\'t want to know, and I don\'t see why the reader should. This may be different for those writing from, say, a medical point of view.</li>\n	<li>I always ensure that I describe the emotional effect of the violence on those involved, the person who inflicts it, the victims, those who\'ve witnessed the act and those charged with bringing the perpetrators to justice. Particularly the culprit sometimes because I know from experience as a journalist that extreme violence <em>does</em> affect many of those who use it. They can be as shocked by what it achieves as anyone else. And if they\'re not -- as happens with a character in the forthcoming <em>Death in Seville</em> -- that needs to be depicted and explained too, since it says something about them.</li>\n	<li>There are a lot of myths out there -- fairy stories about \'closure\' and the like. One such fable is the idea that people, police officers especially, become \'inured\' to violence in the sense that it no longer affects them. I think it\'s true that they may not let its effects show after a while. But they\'re there usually, even if they\'re invisible to the person concerned. And again if they\'re not that tells you something about the individual concerned.</li>\n	<li>I use violence sparingly. The impact it has on the reader bears no proportion to the number of pages it takes up in a book. I well remember one book event where the moderator asked, as he was entitled, \'Why is there so much violence in this book?\' I asked him, \'How many violent scenes do you think there are?\' He said, \'Lots.\' I went through it with him. There were just three, perhaps two and a half even. It\'s not the amount that matters, it\'s the impact. You can achieve more with half a well-written page than ten pages of graphic, gruesome scalpel-wielding.</li>\n</ul>\nThat\'s my approach anyway. As always I\'m not trying to preach here and tell people how to write. Merely explaining how I go about it. In many standard forms of popular literature violence is seen as a regrettable means towards a justifiable end. In mine there\'s a touch of that, but I want more. I want my characters to feel touched by violence, damaged and tainted by it. It may resolve the problem, but what interests me as much as the event itself is the aftermath, its cost and its consequences.\n\nAnd that is why you\'ll never find a picture of me with a gun.','The question of violence','','publish','open','closed','','the-interesting-question-of-violence','','','2011-01-28 08:08:36','2011-01-28 08:08:36','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/2010/01/15/the-interesting-question-of-violence/',0,'post','',0),(2653,1,'2010-01-15 07:53:07','2010-01-15 07:53:07','Someone asked here the other day, \'I am always looking for authors that can write a great thriller without cussing and swearing in it. Can you give me some idea of where you books fit into this description?\'\n\nAh yes, foul language. You hear it everywhere these days, and read it too. Most newspapers still blank out common swear words. Follow some of their columnists on Twitter and <a href=\"http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1243109/Giles-Corens-Twitter-sex-death-rant-12-year-old-drumming-neighbour.html\" target=\"_blank\">a few curse like navvies</a>. Should books exercise the same self-censorship? Do we really need bad language in fiction?\n\n<!--more-->\n\nIn my earlier work, and the first three Costa books, you\'ll find swearing, the f-word usually, not used over-liberally I\'d say but present, spoken easily by the characters concerned. After that it\'s pretty much disappeared, though the book I\'ve just finished includes its use just once.\n\nSwearing is a bit like sex, something writers use because they feel it\'s expected of them <a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/barronseduc_2089_40466665.gifblog/2009/12/01/sex-there-i-said-it/\" target=\"_blank\">as I discussed here</a>, and like violence too, <a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/barronseduc_2089_40466665.gifblog/2010/01/14/the-interesting-question-of-violence/\">which I covered yesterday</a>. But I also included bad language in the early Costa books for what I felt were linguistic reasons. I moved to Rome for a while to study Italian and observe the locals in order to write books that hopefully reflected a little of the modern city. Contemporary spoken Italian is full of slang and profanities. If you knew what people were really saying out on the street in Rome and Florence your hair would probably curl.\n\n<img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-2655\" title=\"barronseduc_2089_40466665\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/barronseduc_2089_40466665.gif?w=178\" alt=\"\" />Anyone wanting to understand the filthy nature of modern colloquial Italian should track down a copy of Daniela Gobetti\'s hilarious and compendious <em>Dictionary of Italian Slang and Colloquial Expressions.</em> I can guarantee it will open your eyes about the <em>bella lingua</em> and how it\'s used in real life. In truth Italian has always been like this -- there are endless filthy sonnets from Caravaggio\'s time.\n\nI loved this book but it was impossible to translate any of its real-life colloquialisms into something an English reader would understand. One example: any idea what <em>dare acqua alle fave</em> (to water the fava beans) actually means? To kill someone. He\'s gone to water Giovanni\'s beans is a slang expression for the poor guy\'s going to get murdered. Take my point?\n\nThe early books, as I will discuss on another occasion, made a conscious attempt to mirror the slangy, colloquial occasionally foul-mouthed nature of working class Roman speech. Swearing was a part of that.\n\nWhen it came to book four though I\'d changed my position on this subject. I felt I was straining to make a point most people never noticed. Also Italian slang seems bafflingly varied and regional. What works in Rome, is incomprehensible in Naples. A great example is the translation of Andrea Camilleri who uses Sicilian slang very freely. Last time I checked he had different British English and American English translations -- and they were very different indeed. Why bother with this minefield? So I elected to write speech that simply sounded natural, like ordinary unaccented English. And I thought... what if I drop the swearing altogether?\n\nAs always with writing the best way to test an idea is to back up your original and leap in with the scalpel. I cut out the swearing. It didn\'t make a blind bit of difference to the text. Even when I needed people to swear I could get them to do it without uttering a single word that might offend someone. They simply curse under their breath or mutter some quiet imprecation. For my books that\'s enough. You get to know they\'re cross or under stress, which is why I used swearing in any case. The constant use of the f-word in particular never really suited my style.\n\nThat\'s not to say it\'s wrong. If you watch the Coen Brothers\' <em>Burn After Reading</em> (which I liked though many didn\'t) you\'ll find an opening in which John Malkovich\'s Osborne Cox loses it spectacularly when he discovers, in a formal interview, that his employer, the CIA, is about to demote him because of his drinking problem. Malkovich gives a wonderful performance of a man breaking up in the stiffest and most unexpected of circumstances, and swears with great gusto. No problem with that all. And once it\'s over it\'s over.\n\nWhat grates with me is the constant use of swearing, so much that it becomes repetitive and meaningless. I never did it that much, even when I felt swearing was part of being a modern popular writer. I don\'t think the f-word has appeared in a Costa book since number three, <em>The Sacred Cut</em>. It does reappear once in book nine, uttered by a character you\'d least expect, in pivotal circumstances where I think its revelatory value is essential. Note that word: revelatory. I didn\'t say \'shock\'. Bad language has absolutely no shock value these days. If anything it may have the opposite effect, generating a yawn not a frisson.\n\nMy advice to would-be writers about swearing is simple. Don\'t feel it has to be in or that using it will make you look cool and clever. Do try taking it out to see if its removal makes a difference. As always, if it has to be there, use it. If it doesn\'t, take it out.','£%&amp;^ me! What&#039;s the deal with swearing?','','publish','open','closed','','me-whats-the-deal-with-swearing','','','2011-01-28 08:08:06','2011-01-28 08:08:06','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/2010/01/15/me-whats-the-deal-with-swearing/',0,'post','',0),(2690,1,'2010-01-16 08:38:05','2010-01-16 08:38:05','<p>The photographer Dennis Stock, <a href=\"http://www.altfg.com/blog/hollywood/dennis-stock-james-dean-photographer-445/\" target=\"_blank\">died recently</a> aged 81. As so often with camera giants we probably don\'t know the name but by God do we remember the photographs. Stock is famous for two shots above all. One is the picture of James Dean walking through a rainy New York, a wonderful portrait of both the man and the city.</p>\n<p>The other picture for which he\'s famous -- though there are many more that deserve praise -- was of a Venice Beach rock festival back in 1968: a hippie chick in a loose dress, back to the camera, dancing in front of the crowd. The spirit of the time captured in an instant. You can see them both in <a href=\"http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/13/parting-4/\" target=\"_blank\">a wonderful slide show in the New York Times obituary here</a> -- the first and third shots.</p>\n<p>Wonderful pictures. Makes me wish you could write in black and white.</p>','RIP Dennis Stock','','publish','open','closed','','rip-dennis-stock','','','2011-01-28 08:08:06','2011-01-28 08:08:06','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/2010/01/16/rip-dennis-stock/',0,'post','',0),(2689,1,'2010-01-18 07:10:36','2010-01-18 07:10:36','By the time you read this I should be in Venice, ensconced in a little apartment not far from the Rialto bridge, starting to put together the framework that will -- fingers crossed -- turn into the book for 2012. I already have the rough shape of that book in my head, and some scenes written. But I\'m at the stage where I don\'t feel I can go any further until I\'ve walked the place a little myself, and will be returning to do so in early Venice too.\n\nLots of writers have written books without visiting the locations where they\'re set. Science fiction and fantasy authors do it as a matter of course. I can\'t. Why? And should you be stuck on the same obsessive need to walk the streets you want to capture for fiction?\n\n<!--more-->\n\nLet me answer the second question first, and return to this general subject tomorrow. If you can choose between going and not going then you\'re out of the loop. Those of us who are truly obsessive about on-the-spot research do it because we have no alternative. When I write a book I\'m building a world, one I want to recreate later in the mind of the reader. This is a very visual process for me. I need to see what places look like, touch them, walk them, smell them, feel the air. Without that everything\'s two-dimensional.\n\nMaybe that\'s because I lack the imagination to do it any other way. Or perhaps it goes back to my formative years as a journalist when everything had to be seen, checked out and recorded. Whatever the reason, it\'s there and it\'s unavoidable.\n\nOne reason I have to see a place I\'m writing about is because I find the visual aspect of shaping a story incredibly important. That\'s why my greatest research tool of recent years is a simple, cheap digital camera, one that fits in the pocket and gets carried everywhere. With it I photograph big things and small things, things that no one else photographs too such as street signs, names in windows and those very useful historical information placards you see in Italy all the time.\n\nYou can <a href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/hewsons/\" target=\"_blank\">browse some of my research photos at Flickr</a> and see how appalling -- in pure photographic terms -- many of them. Doesn\'t matter in the slightest. I\'m not taking them to prove my photographic skills. I just want them there so that when I\'m back in England, trying to recreate a scene, I can track down the right photo, pull it up on screen and go, \'Ah yes, now I remember.\'\n\nOf course if I tried to do this in the UK I\'d probably get arrested as a potential terrorist under the new \'harass anyone with a camera policy\'. Happily such madness hasn\'t reached Italy. When I wrote <em>The Sacred Cut</em>, I wanted to know about the various doors that lead into the Pantheon. I spent a couple of hours walking round the place, photographing the most boring brickwork imaginable. No one batted an eyelid. You can see just a <a href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/hewsons/sets/72157615808466979/\" target=\"_blank\">few of those photos here</a>.\n\nWith some books these photos are about the actual places that appear in the pages. For <em>Dante\'s Numbers</em>, which echoes Hitchcock\'s <em>Vertigo</em>, I patiently walked many of the locations he\'d used in 1957, seeing what they looked like today. You can see them -- and Scottie\'s apartment if you look carefully -- <a href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/hewsons/sets/72157615878038226/\" target=\"_blank\">in the Flickr album.</a> Photos also help me visualise imaginary places too. Sometimes I\'ll take a snap of a building and combine some of its features with those of another to get the right apartment block or office for a scene.\n\nIn one week in Venice I guess I\'ll take a couple of hundred photos (I\'ll show you a few as I go along with some blog posts if I have the time). Perhaps twenty or thirty will find their way into the final book. Of the rest some will be wasted and some will be subterranean background for the feel of the story -- or so I hope.\n\nVenice will also serve to remind me that I once tried to do this before digital cameras became commonplace. When I was researching <em>Lucifer\'s Shadow</em> in 1999 I trudged the streets lugging a film SLR and, two days before I came, dropped off my films in a photo shop in the Lido to be developed. When I came back the following day the man shrugged and said, \'Sorry, we had a problem in the lab. Everything\'s been wiped. Here…\' And gave me some replacement films.\n\nNot going there again...\n\nI\'ll be trying out two cameras on this trip, a Ricoh CX2 and a Fuji F200 EXR, both of which are supposed to capture extra colour range which ought to be useful in Venice in January. No, they won\'t match Turner. But I hope I\'ll come back with something worthwhile.','The camera is mightier than the pen, sometimes','','publish','open','closed','','the-camera-is-mightier-than-the-pen','','','2011-01-28 08:08:06','2011-01-28 08:08:06','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/2010/01/18/the-camera-is-mightier-than-the-pen/',0,'post','',0),(2708,1,'2010-01-18 07:45:30','2010-01-18 07:45:30','<p><a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0060.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0060-tm.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" alt=\"San Lio\" /></a></p>\n<p><a href=\"http://www.tavernasanlio.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Taverna San Lio</a> is in the Salizada of the same name, a busy lane running between Rialto and San Marco. This is serial restaurateur territory where the unwary can so easily set foot into some dire tourist trap where the food is poor and the bill incredibly high. Dire food used to be a Venetian speciality but the quality of grub here has come up remarkably over the last ten years. Is the San Lio -- which also doubles as a bed and breakfast place -- on the right side of the tracks or the wrong?</p>\n<!--more--><p>I was tired from the trip from London and just wanted something simple and reasonably cheap. The three course meal for 19 euros caught my eye -- though I should have looked more closely and seen it was only available at lunchtimes. Instead I opted for one of my favourites in Venice, a frittura mista, mixed fried fish, in this case served with tempura-style vegetables, and a mixed salad. The main dish was excellent -- calamari, sardines, prawns, one little sole, some scallops, all jumbled up among strips of aubergine, carrot and red onion. Decent five euro mixed salad on the side too. The house pinot grigio was well above average, service friendly and thoughtful.</p>\n<p>The bill -- 40 euros -- was I guess par for the course for this part of Venice, in other words high. The frittura was enormous, mind, and could have fed two. If it had been half the size and two thirds the price I\'d have been happy and they\'d have made more money. My one misgiving was seeing several tables order fish baked in sea salt. This is one of the most difficult dishes for any chef to make. I\'ve had it several times in Mallorca, where it really is a speciality and people are very picky about it.</p>\n<p>Good baked fish should use a large bass or bream and take a little while, coming out with a solid crust that needs a distinctive crack to break. The skin should be stuck to the salt crust, coming away to leave perfect white flesh that the waiter removes with a spoon and fork. Even at its best I find it a bit over-rated frankly. In San Lio all people got was what looked like an everyday farmed sea bass that came out covered in a bed of very unsolid rock salt. Not the same thing and I didn\'t like the look of it at all I\'m afraid.</p>\n<p>But that may be just a local oddity. If you\'re in this rather suspect area for restaurants San Lio is certainly worth a try, and the lunchtime menu looks exceptional value too.</p>','Taverna San Lio, Venice','','publish','open','closed','','taverna-san-lio-venice','','','2011-01-28 08:08:06','2011-01-28 08:08:06','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/2010/01/18/taverna-san-lio-venice/',0,'post','',0),(2715,1,'2010-01-18 11:56:49','2010-01-18 11:56:49','<p>Like all writers I get asked all the time: do I use people I know in my books? No, well not knowingly anyway. I\'d find that too distracting. I\'d be continually asking myself what the real person would do in the circumstances.</p>\n<p>But that doesn\'t mean you can\'t steal strangers.</p>\n<!--more--><p><a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/man1.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/man1-tm.jpg\" width=\"200\" height=\"150\" alt=\"man1.jpg\" style=\"float:right;padding-left:4px;\" /></a>I\'m walking along the Zattere promenade this morning thinking about the coming book. I know that one of the characters in it will be a somewhat eccentric middle-aged man, a solitary individual but likeable too. I\'m almost at the Punta della Dogana -- the point where Dorsoduro comes to an end and overlooks the waterfront around the Doge\'s Palace across the Grand Canal -- when I come across this chap.</p>\n<p>He\'s burly, about fifty and has silver hair with an incredibly long ponytail down his back. He looks as happy as Larry, as if he does this every morning and then spends the evening in the company of his mates. With him is a very large dog that runs around the whole promenade, on and off the jetties, sniffing, equally at home.</p>\n<p><a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/dog.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/dog-tm.jpg\" width=\"200\" height=\"150\" alt=\"dog.jpg\" style=\"float:right;padding-left:4px;\" /></a>Of course I\'ve no idea who this chap is. He may be the underbishop of Venice for all I know. But that isn\'t the point really. He\'s got the look I need. When I come round to writing that character I\'ve got something to build on.</p>\n<p>Here he is with his dog. They\'re not great pictures -- they rarely are. But they\'re just prods for the imagination, so this is fine by me.</p>\n<p><a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/man2.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/man2-tm.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" alt=\"man2.jpg\" /></a></p>','Stealing people is allowed','','publish','open','closed','','stealing-people-is-allowed','','','2011-01-28 08:08:06','2011-01-28 08:08:06','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/2010/01/18/stealing-people-is-allowed/',0,'post','',0),(2722,1,'2010-01-19 06:35:14','2010-01-19 06:35:14','<em> </em>\n\n<em><a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0092.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0092-tm.jpg\" alt=\"RIMG0092.JPG\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" /></a></em>\n\n<em>Cicchetti</em> are the Venetian equivalent of <em>tapas</em> -- tiny dishes, usually one euro or so, freshly made and, when good, absolutely delicious. There\'s something more northern and robust about <em>cicchetti</em> when set alongside their Spanish equivalents. <em>Baccala</em>, salt cod, is a common offering, along with lots of cheese, meat, fish, ham and any number of local inventions.\n\nYou\'ll find <em>cicchetti</em> in little bars all over the city. But here\'s an excellent place to start.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nOfficially the place is called Cantinone but you won\'t find it easily by that name. It is simple to locate though. From the Zattere vaporetto stop face the city, turn left then right along the San Trovaso canal. Walk past the last remaining <em>squero</em> making gondolas in the city and you\'ll soon find the bar. It looks like this.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0098.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0098-tm.jpg\" alt=\"RIMG0098.JPG\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" /></a>\n\nThere\'s good wine, coffee and spritz behind the counter, and a fantastic selection of Italian wines to take away. The <em>cicchetti</em> appear constantly, made by the family who\'ve run this place for a couple of generations. In warm weather people stand outside by the bridge and have a little drink and snack in the fresh air. Bit cold for that now, but it\'s still worth a stop if you\'re in the vicinity, and only a minute or two from the Accademia.\n\nHere\'s the place in moody black and white.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0094.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0094-tm.jpg\" alt=\"RIMG0094.JPG\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" /></a>','Snacking in Venice','','publish','open','closed','','snacking-in-venice','','','2011-01-28 08:08:06','2011-01-28 08:08:06','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/2010/01/18/snacking-in-venice/',0,'post','',0),(2729,1,'2010-01-19 15:18:27','2010-01-19 15:18:27','<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0117.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0117-tm.jpg\" alt=\"RIMG0117.JPG\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\"></a>\n\nThis is about food but about language too so bear with me. If you\'re in an Italian café and you hear someone asking for pasta then picking up a nice sweet cake don\'t worry -- you didn\'t mishear. I know you think you know what pasta means. Spaghetti, linguini, penne et al. And yes it does mean that.\n\nBut it also means cake. Or to be more (or less precise) dough, pastry even pie. Here\'s another confusion. If you\'re having breakfast coffee and someone asks for a \'cornetto\' they don\'t want -- sigh -- an ice cream from a passing singing gondolier. They actually want a croissant.\n\nThose cornetti and cakes in the little display on the counter -- to which you usually help yourself after asking -- are all <em>paste</em> (pastas, geddit?)\n\nHere\'s a special place to find cakes in Venice.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nRosa Salva is almost directly opposite the great church of SS Giovanni e Paolo -- San Zanipolo to the locals -- in Castello. This has a rather gruff exterior but is wonderful on the inside. It is the resting place of many of the doges you will read about in John Julius Norwich and elsewhere. Oh and the semi-preserved foot of St Catherine of Siena. There\'s an interior shot below.\n\nLike Zanipolo <a href=\"http://www.rosasalva.it/eng/index.php\" target=\"_blank\">Rosa Salva</a> is a Venetian institution, though one that dates only from 1879. The pastries are so wonderful in Venice in most places it would be churlish to claim they\'re the best. But they\'re very, very good, and the little tea room is so wonderfully 1950s you half expect Katherine Hepburn to walk through the door fresh from the set of <em><a href=\"http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048673/\" target=\"_blank\">Summertime</a>.</em>\n\nSince we\'re now approaching Carnival -- and I shall be returning to Venice for that in early February -- everywhere is full of the carnival treat <em>frittelle.</em> These are like doughnut balls with sultanas, pine nuts and other goodies in them. I\'m sure Rosa Salva\'s are wonderful -- as are so many others. Real men don\'t eat cake, of course. Except this one does in Venice. And I think I\'m right in saying <em>frittelle</em> stil only appear for carnival. They\'re not like English hot cross buns that now run all year round instead of being just Easter treats. Though I\'m willing to be corrected on that last point.\n\nOh - and I would have offered you a photo of my breakfast frittella. But unfortunately I ate it before I remembered to take a picture.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0115.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0115-tm.jpg\" alt=\"RIMG0115.JPG\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\"></a>','Pasta as in cake','','publish','open','closed','','pasta-as-in-cake','','','2011-01-28 08:08:06','2011-01-28 08:08:06','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/2010/01/19/pasta-as-in-cake/',0,'post','',0),(2737,1,'2010-01-20 08:36:08','2010-01-20 08:36:08','[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"447\" caption=\"Back street near Rialto - click to go to Flickr gallery\"]<a href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/hewsons/sets/72157623122797633/\" target=\"_blank\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0020.jpg\" alt=\"RIMG0020.JPG\" width=\"447\" height=\"336\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nSetting a book in Venice raises challenges an author will meet nowhere else in the world. You can\'t -- unless you\'re James Bond -- pretend this is the place for action. No cars, not even bikes, but boats, and in real life they are severely restricted on speed. In Venice everything happens slowly which forces you to generate pace and suspense through characters, not big, noisy events, which I happen to like by the way.\n\nAnother challenge is the simple visual reproduction of the place. Venice is like nowhere on earth. A city in the sea, usually without horizons -- though on a clear day at this time of year you may see the Dolomite mountains from some parts -- Venice demands that a writer represent at least something of its strange, otherworldly appearance. Or why be here?\n\n<!--more-->\n\nNor is that representation universal. It depends upon the individual perception of the viewer. Take Canaletto, for example. He was a Venetian determined to record the power and glory of his beloved republic. That\'s what near-photographic canvases such as the one below, the Doge\'s vessel on Ascension Day, are about: the physical beauty and mighty presence of the state.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/canaletto_bucintoro.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/canaletto_bucintoro-tm.jpg\" alt=\"canaletto_bucintoro.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"293\" /></a>\n\nThe English artist JMW Turner came along a bit more than a century later and found the place in decline: crumbling, sad, strange. This is one of his many views of it -- a view that strikes more of a chord with me to be honest.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/jmwt_mma_12.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/jmwt_mma_12-tm.jpg\" alt=\"jmwt_mma_12.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"358\" /></a>\n\nTurner is painting more than the architecture, and certainly not the pomp and glory of Canaletto. He\'s painting the <em>world</em> of Venice, its extraordinary lagoon light, its powerful sky, and the water itself. That, I think, is one of the challenges I face in this new book. To ignore history and the glorious buildings. To try to find the unique visual aspect of the city and let that form the canvas to the story.\n\nAt the moment I\'m doing this in a very simple way: taking photographs. Much of this story will take place at night. There\'s no night quite like the Venetian night. So I\'m shooting it in black and white, since colour drains from these buildings immediately once the sun goes down. You can see my rough and ready shots by clicking the photo at the top of this article or the one below. Please note -- these are raw and unedited and occasionally repetitive. I\'m simply storing my raw \'films\' here, not trying to produce some fancy slideshow.\n\nNow to the bigger challenge. To try to capture Venice in colour during the day. Below is one of my rare night colour shots by the way -- fog creeping onto the spire of the campanile in the Piazza San Marco.\n\n<a href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/hewsons/sets/72157623122797633/\" target=\"_blank\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/san-marco.jpg\" alt=\"san marco.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" /></a>','Writing in black and white','','publish','open','closed','','writing-in-black-and-white','','','2011-01-28 08:08:05','2011-01-28 08:08:05','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/?p=2737',0,'post','',0),(2744,1,'2010-01-20 11:32:09','2010-01-20 11:32:09','<p>There was an interesting article on Booksquare lately that touched upon the coming phenomenon of \'advanced ebooks\' [<a href=\"http://booksquare.com/what-are-enhanced-ebooks/?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+booksquare+%28Booksquare%29\"><cite>What Are Enhanced Ebooks? | Booksquare</cite></a>] As far as I can gather enhanced ebooks -- eebooks -- are supposed to be the Next Great Thing. We can expect to see them on Apple\'s new tablet or whatever it\'s called (that story is boring me already). They will take books to a new level -- with pictures and videos and all that extra stuff readers everywhere haven\'t been crying out for. A bit like the book equivalent of the Director\'s Cut DVD box set or something.</p>\n<p>Do I sound sceptical? You bet.</p>\n<!--more--><p>Booksquare go into this subject in detail -- and I highly recommend you read the piece because it contains some very salient questions.</p>\n<p>Before becoming an author, though, I spent a decade covering technology for the <i>Sunday Times</i>. And this whole thing has, I must say, the rank whiff of hype about it. Remember interactive CD-ROMs? These were supposed to be the new ebook too. People like Dorling Kindersley among many others ploughed a stack of money into mainly non-fiction or educational titles you could lick and listen to and do all sorts of magic stuff with. Where are they now? Is there even an interactive DVD market any more? Even the most sensible use for the medium -- encyclopaedias -- seems to have been largely destroyed by the web. Microsoft don\'t produce Encarta any more. Britannica looks a bit weedy. Why? Because we all go to somewhere like Wikipedia instead. Oh, and in case you didn\'t notice, Wikipedia has no clicky, shouty, interactive things. It\'s pretty much just text and pictures.</p>\n<p>Here\'s another misgiving. Where\'s the money going to come from? Sure -- I can do author interviews and provide research photos and the rest for an enhanced ebook edition. But there\'s still a production cost in there. I know the public equates everything digital with the word \'free\'. But it isn\'t. Trust me. The on-cost of adding multimedia to a plain ebook may be substantial. Will people really pay more to get that special edition? Or will they simply expect all those extras for free? My guess is the latter.</p>\n<p>And one final doubt. Surely all that\'s going to happen is that publishers will place their bets on the favourites. They won\'t bother with eebooks for everyone, just the bestsellers because that\'s where the money is. So the book world will divide on lines of class and marketing even more than it does today -- which is a lot actually.</p>\n<p>Though I could be completely wrong on all of this, of course.</p>','What the hell are enhanced ebooks?','','publish','open','closed','','what-the-hell-are-enhanced-ebooks','','','2011-01-28 08:08:05','2011-01-28 08:08:05','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/2010/01/20/what-the-hell-are-enhanced-ebooks/',0,'post','',1),(2753,1,'2010-01-20 15:42:48','2010-01-20 15:42:48','<p>Venetians love dogs. Have done for a very long time. Just take a look at the wonderful painting by a venerable Venetian Carpaccio which still stands on the walls of the Scuola di S Giorgio degli Schiavoni here, for which it was commissioned some five centuries ago.</p>\n<p>I was just there this morning. A group of English schoolkids was inside being talked through Carpaccio\'s wonderful work on the walls. The Augustine canvas is a complex and mysterious piece of work. But what did those schoolkids spot first? The dog naturally. Ahhhh....</p>\n<p><a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/201001201632.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/201001201632-tm.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"317\" alt=\"201001201632.jpg\" /></a></p>\n<!--more--><p><a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0111.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0111-tm.jpg\" width=\"250\" height=\"187\" alt=\"RIMG0111.JPG\" style=\"float:right;padding-left:4px;\" /></a>If you\'re a dog lover -- and I am, within reason (if such a statement makes sense) -- it\'s hard to escape the Venetian love for their mutts. Their little heads peek out from beneath the fur coats of grand ladies on the vaporetti. The pampered pets wander the streets bedecked in the most expensive and, occasionally, ridiculous of costumes (carnival ones even at times). Here are some of the current fashions in one neighbourhood pet store (and for a city with a population of a mere 60,000 people this place has a <i>lot</i> of pet stores I have to say).</p>\n<p><a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0134.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0134-tm.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" alt=\"RIMG0134.JPG\" /></a></p>\n<p>Then there are the toys. Take a look at this Castello pet store window (which is five minutes away from the shop above). Note something? It contains barely a single truly practical item. Rubber chickens, plastic bones, weird toys, igloo kennels... Everything is about maintaining your loved little one in a state of pampered bliss.</p>\n<p>And here\'s the punchline. What do they look like these spoilt canines? Pure bred aristocrats of the dog world? Not a bit of it. Most of them are mutts. Even, in the case of this little creature, ones that appear to have been crossed bred with a gremlin somewhere along the line.</p>\n<p>Remarkable place Venice. There\'s been a dog in the two books I\'ve written here. There will be a dog in the next one too.</p>\n<p><a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0133.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0133-tm.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" alt=\"RIMG0133.JPG\" /></a></p>\n<p><br /></p>','The dogs of Venice','','publish','open','closed','','the-dogs-of-venice','','','2011-01-28 08:08:05','2011-01-28 08:08:05','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/2010/01/20/the-dogs-of-venice/',0,'post','',0),(2768,1,'2010-01-21 13:39:28','2010-01-21 13:39:28','<p>Here\'s the biggest travel secret anyone\'s ever going to give you about getting around Venice. There is an incredibly efficient form of transportation that will take you to something like 80 per cent of all the sights in town. Unlike pretty much everything else in Venice it\'s free too.</p>\n<p>What? Yes, free. It\'s called your feet. You don\'t imagine Venetians spend all the time waiting for boats to turn up then chug an agonisingly short distance, do you?</p>\n<p>Walking is the best way of getting round central Venice. But you still have to get on a boat, for convenience or sheer pleasure. Just make sure it\'s the right one. Here\'s a brief guide to the usual ways the public rides the lagoon.</p>\n<!--more--><p><b>First -- buy a ticket</b></p>\n<p>Everyone wants to ride down the Grand Canal if only once. If it is just once then take a deep breath and pay the extortionate price for doing so -- six euros last time I checked. If you know you want to ride the boats a lot it pays to book in advance. Go to Venice Connected and <a href=\"http://www.veniceconnected.com/choose-service-withdrawal-date\" target=\"_blank\">reserve the ticket you want online</a>. It will be cheaper and you can pick it up quickly from several locations including the tourist booth at the airport. One week of travel on all the lagoon transport as far as Chioggia and up to Torcello just cost me 37 euros. It could have been 52 euros if I bought it here.</p>\n<p><b>The airport boat</b></p>\n<p><a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0178.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0178-tm.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" alt=\"RIMG0178.JPG\" /></a></p>\n<p>This is the Alilaguna. Depending on the season it runs between various locations in Venice and Marco Polo airport. A return is around 25 euros. It may looks a sleek, swift boat but it isn\'t. The thing is slow, handles baggage badly and has poor views from the windows. The journey from Zattere to Marco Polo can take an hour and a half. Best avoided unless you have the time and are in walking distance of a departure point. Note too that you have to catch a busy to and from the awkward landing stage at the airport (with the old airport you could simply walk out of the door and get straight on the boat which is a lot nicer).</p>\n<p><b>Water taxis</b></p>\n<p><a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0177.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0177-tm.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" alt=\"RIMG0177.JPG\" /></a></p>\n<p>A water taxi from the airport to central Venice will cost around 95 euros -- there are booths in the airport terminal where you can book a boat. Always, always agree a price first with water taxis. If it\'s your first time in Venice, the weather is lovely and you\'re feeling flush it\'s a wonderful way to arrive, watching the city emerge out of the horizon as you approach. Very expensive mind, and there can be awkward haggling moments if you try to book a taxi directly yourself. I usually just take the fast bus from the airport to Piazzale Roma, the Venice bus station. It takes 20 minutes and then if you have redeemed your vaporetto card at the airport you can walk straight onto a boat.</p>\n<p><b>Vaporetti</b></p>\n<p><a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0167.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0167-tm.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" alt=\"RIMG0167.JPG\" /></a><br /></p>\n<p>Everything gets called a vaporetto in Venice and strictly speaking none of today\'s boats deserves the name. Steam was replaced by diesel long ago. The true heirs to the vaporetto are craft like these that run slowly up and down the Grand Canal. The famed number 1 line stops at every single jetty along the way and is often overcrowded with tourists. The number 2 is somewhat faster since it makes far fewer stops. Either is great for a view of the canal but if you just want to get from Rialto to San Marco then try walking -- it\'s a lot shorter. Just look at a map.</p>\n<p><b>Fast circular services</b></p>\n<p><a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0179.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0179-tm.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" alt=\"RIMG0179.JPG\" /></a></p>\n<p>These are my favourite boats in the whole of Venice -- small, fast craft that whizz around the island, rarely touching much of the Grand Canal. Here you can see one manoeuvring outside \'Vivaldi\'s church\', <i>La Pietà</i>, not that Vivaldi would have recognised it -- the thing has been completely built. The 41/42 and 51/52 lines are a great way of getting a feeling for the lagoon and covering decent distances too. But to catch them easily you will need to be staying somewhere near the periphery, say Dorsoduro. They\'re a long walk from Rialto, though you can pick them up easily near San Marco.</p>\n<p><b>The lagoon boats</b></p>\n<p><a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0186.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0186-tm.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" alt=\"RIMG0186.JPG\" /></a></p>\n<p>These are the bigger beasts that go out to Torcello, Burano and beyond from Fondamente Nove. They\'re leisurely craft built for the open lagoon, a bit like a boat excursion. And if you come to Venice and don\'t make it to Torcello you shouldn\'t be allowed back -- it\'s a wonderful excursion.</p>\n<p><b>Gondola</b></p>\n<p><a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/venice-016.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/venice-016-tm.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" alt=\"Venice 016.JPG\" /></a></p>\n<p>We all know these, don\'t they? I\'ve had one gondola ride in my life. It was enough -- and thankfully somebody paid. Gondolas are there for the tourists along. No local would dream of using one (though they will patronise the traghetti, see below). I\'ve no idea how much a gondola costs these days but it\'s a lot. If you\'re the \'try anything once\' type then be prepared to pay. It can be interesting when you find yourself mid-channel on a busy Grand Canal. Boat fans should also make their way <a href=\"http://www.marina.difesa.it/venezia/index.asp\" target=\"_blank\">to the naval museum</a> near the Arsenale for some insight into the city\'s maritime past. And before you ask -- no, the above picture was not taken on this particular trip, but on a warm day in September.</p>\n<p><b>Traghetto</b></p>\n<p><a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0173.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0173-tm.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" alt=\"RIMG0173.JPG\" /></a></p>\n<p>Yes, I know they look like big gondolas but they\'re not. These are ferry boats used to take people, locals mainly, across short stretches of the Grand Canal at specific locations you\'ll find noted on a map. It\'s the cheapest way to get someone to take you onto the water by hand. I think the cost is one euro per passenger or less -- you just queue up and when there are enough people the chap sets off for the short journey across the water. Only tourists sit down by the way. Locals prefer to stand.</p>\n<p><b>General advice</b></p>\n<p>Do pick up a timetable -- an <i>orario</i> -- from a ticket booth if they have one. The faster boats run less frequently, currently at twenty minute intervals. And do bear in mind that boat schedules change frequently so it\'s worth checking the current situation at the <a href=\"http://www.actv.it/english/home.php\" target=\"_blank\">Actv web site</a>. This isn\'t a comprehensive list of the public transport boats in the lagoon -- there are ferries and others too. But these are the ones most visitors will encounter -- and frequently struggle with. Good luck!</p>','The best way to get around Venice','','publish','open','closed','','the-best-way-to-get-around-venice','','','2011-01-28 08:08:05','2011-01-28 08:08:05','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/2010/01/21/the-best-way-to-get-around-venice/',0,'post','',0),(2783,1,'2010-01-22 16:11:36','2010-01-22 16:11:36','People always ask, \'Why do you write books set in Rome (or Venice in the present case)?\' I don\'t actually. \'Rome\' and \'Venice\' are general descriptions for something much more complicated, the tangled, jumble mass of communities that, taken together, attract the name of a municipality. What I write about are parts of that greater whole. Finding the areas I want to focus upon has become one of the first tasks I face when putting together any new work.\n\nThe past books can easily be broken down into the key location areas I used for each. Much of <em>The Blue Demon</em> is set around the Quirinale Palace and Tarquinia, the Etruscan town north of Rome. <em>Dante\'s Numbers</em> begins in the park of the Villa Borghese, diverts to a very special building in Trastevere, then spends most of the rest of the book in the Marina and Cow Hollow areas of San Francisco. <em>The Garden of Evil</em> has the tightest focus of any book I\'ve ever written: the area between the Pantheon and the Piazza del Popolo which, in Caravaggio\'s time, was the place the Pope decreed the city\'s prostitutes should love (and for some reason the artists and writers followed very soon after).\n\nDefining a precise location enables me to peer very closely at the people and the culture of that neighbourhood. I\'m a miniaturist; I look at small things in precise detail. I prefer this to trying to paint some broad, sweeping picture. So what I wanted more than anything from this trip to Venice was to nail down the three -- three\'s a good number -- areas where most of my story will take place.\n\nIt\'s done -- here they are, though you won\'t see the final story till 2012 of course.\n\n<!--more-->\n\n<strong>Zattere in Dorsoduro, near the Punta della Dogana</strong>\n\nI knew I had to get this place in because a few years back, while on a language course in Venice, I stayed in a very special apartment here. It overlooked the Guidecca canal and introduced me to this end of Dorsoduro -- the opposite side to the Guggenheim museum for those of you who know Venice. At this time of year around noon the view from the Zattere waterfront across to Guidecca, and the great church of Redentore, looks like this. Note those time qualifications: the view is different, sometimes very different, earlier and later and, of course, at different times of the year. The light in Venice is as subtle as the shading on a Turner painting.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0065.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0065-tm.jpg\" alt=\"RIMG0065.JPG\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" /></a>\n\nLooking back to the city the streets and <em>rii</em> (small canals) looks like this...\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0071.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0071-tm.jpg\" alt=\"RIMG0071.JPG\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" /></a>\n\nI like this as a location for the following reasons:\n<ul>\n	<li>It\'s got that wonderful defining view from the promenade</li>\n	<li>You don\'t see a lot of tourists down here</li>\n	<li>This story is going to take place in the depths of winter and, trust me, it\'s damned chilly and bleak at times when you\'re by the side of that canal</li>\n	<li>That apartment I stayed in a few years ago was so damned weird it <em>has</em> to be in this book</li>\n</ul>\n<strong>The Rialto markets at night</strong>\n\nEvery morning the Rialto markets are full of tourists and locals, the latter there for the fish and vegetable market that shuts up shop at noon. The afternoons are full of tourists usually buying the most awful crap. The evenings though... I think this has happened only recently but those bleak, empty squares have become a kind of night spot for the adventurous Venetian young. Even in this weather they stand outside drinking spritz in the freezing cold, chattering, having fun. It\'s very odd and very cool, and because no one lives around here things can go on pretty late (late being unusual in a city which in many parts closes down around 8.30 at this time of year.\n\nHere is the square in front of the church of San Giacomo di Rialto, a hotchpotch building on the site of the very first church built in Venice around 421.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0057.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0057-tm.jpg\" alt=\"RIMG0057.JPG\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" /></a>\n\nThose shadowy figures are flitting from bar to bar, spritz to spritz, and will keep doing that until the early hours. It\'s pitch dark out there. There\'s a sense of anonymity, almost as if one were wearing a mask, which intrigues me.\n\nHere\'s a shot inside one of those little open bars.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0051.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0051-tm.jpg\" alt=\"RIMG0051.JPG\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" /></a>\n\nThere\'s also architectural detail like this (no, not telling, you\'ll have to read the book).\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0200.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0200-tm.jpg\" alt=\"RIMG0200.JPG\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" /></a>\n\nHere\'s what I like about this as a location.\n<ul>\n	<li>It\'s very, very creepy</li>\n	<li>In a way it\'s not very Venetian</li>\n	<li>There\'s a certain loss of individual identity in the darkness that intrigues me</li>\n</ul>\n<strong><a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/p1160001.jpg\"><img style=\"float:right;padding-left:4px;\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/p1160001-tm.jpg\" alt=\"P1160001.JPG\" width=\"250\" height=\"333\" /></a>Castello, around the Via Garibaldi</strong>\n\nVenice is divided into six city areas known as <em>sestieri.</em> Castello is the biggest, bordering on Cannaregio and San Marco and running all the way to Sant\'Elena at the tip of Venice. In parts it\'s rich and touristy. But once you get beyond the Arsenale you move into small, low streets of modest houses many of them once occupied by the thousands of workers employed by the Arsenale boatyards.\n\nIn many ways this is the closest one can get to a true Venetian community these days. You can still hear the local Veneto language in some of the cafes in the Via Garibaldi, the main street that stretches back from the waterfront (and is actually a filled in canal).\n\nThere\'s washing hanging on the line day in and day out, little shrines in odd locations, a local, distinct atmosphere you won\'t find anywhere else in the city. A few tourists make it here out of curiosity and are usually quickly gone when they realise there\'s very little see. Unless, of course, the Biennale is on and the Giardini gardens are full of exhibitions (as they will be next year).\n\nI want a very local figure to walk onto the stage in this story and this modest corner of Castello is just the place for him.\n\nAgain, the reason I like this area...\n<ul>\n	<li>It\'s nothing like the Venice most of us know</li>\n	<li>It has a very distinct and separate identity</li>\n	<li>The Venetians still living here have a special feeling of community that\'s hard to find in many other parts of the city where foreigners have come in and bought local accommodation, pushing up apartment prices (though they\'re pretty stiff in eastern Castello too these days)</li>\n</ul>\nThat, then is my groundwork done. I return to the UK on Sunday for a week of preparatory writing and planning, then it\'s back here in early February for the carnival -- since that is the other setting for this story, and something I\'ve never ever seen. Here\'s another shot of Castello before I go.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0182.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0182-tm.jpg\" alt=\"RIMG0182.JPG\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" /></a>','A spot of geographical focus','','publish','open','closed','','a-spot-of-geographical-focus','','','2011-01-28 08:08:05','2011-01-28 08:08:05','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/2010/01/22/a-spot-of-geographical-focus/',0,'post','',0),(2791,1,'2010-01-23 11:19:49','2010-01-23 11:19:49','<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/screen-shot-2010-01-23-at-09-25-14.png\"><img style=\"float:right;padding-left:4px;\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/screen-shot-2010-01-23-at-09-25-14-tm.jpg\" alt=\"Screen shot 2010-01-23 at 09.25.14.png\" width=\"250\" height=\"156\" /></a>When I was young I thought people who made lists were a bit soft in the head. I was wrong. The one who was soft in the head was me. Lists, provided you keep them simple and with you at all times, are wonderful things. I used one all the time in Venice last week, reminding myself of things to do and jotting down notes for the current project whenever they occurred.\n\nBut the odd thing is how hard it is to get lists right today. The easiest way I guess is to keep a little notebook and write them down in that. But I lose notebooks so that\'s not much use to me. There are stacks of to-do and \'task management\' offerings out there. But many of them fall down, principally for one, or both, of two reasons.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nThe first is complexity. A lot of this has to do with some strange thing out there called Getting Things Done (invariably shortened to GTD). This is a philosophy about how busy people should manage their time, with specific advice on procedures and setting up locations and all sorts of stuff that baffles me. If GTD works for you great. I have tried to understand what\'s going on -- and more importantly why I would need it -- and in spite of many wasted hours I\'ve given up. I just don\'t get it. Sorry. All I want is a few simple lists. OK?\n\nThe second is availability. If a list is going to be useful it has to be with you everywhere, on your different computers and, crucially for me, your phone. Most of my entries are now made on a phone because that\'s the easiest thing that comes to hand when an idea strikes.\n\nOn the Mac there are some great task managers. One of the best, <em><a href=\"http://culturedcode.com/things/\" target=\"_blank\">Things</a>,</em> has an iPhone app too. But I don\'t use an iPhone so that\'s not much use. And also Things is a bit more complicated than I need frankly, though nowhere near as prolix as the utterly impenetrable<span style=\"text-decoration:line-through;\"> <a href=\"http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnioutliner/\" target=\"_blank\">OmniOutliner</a></span> <a href=\"http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnifocus/\" target=\"_blank\">OmniFocus </a>which I bought too and found so impenetrable it might as well have been written in Urdu.\n\nI now switch between two web-based apps for to-dos and note-taking. The simplest is <a href=\"http://www.rememberthemilk.com\" target=\"_blank\">Remember the Milk</a>, which you can see at the top of this page. RTM is free or inexpensive, comes with apps for iPhone and Android and is very, very simple. Because it\'s web-based it frees you from worrying about syncing data between computers and phones. In fact you can even add list items -- and get reminders -- through Twitter. Just send yourself a message, \'Lunch with Fred 3 pm Tuesday\' and it recognises the dates and sets up the reminder and everything. One moan about RTM: I really wish it had a proper desktop app too, to make handling everything a lot easier on a computer.\n\nRTM is just for simple short task notes. If I need something longer I use <a href=\"http://www.evernote.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Evernote</a>. This is more an online notebook than a to do list manager. It will let you set up lists mind, though not with reminders as far as I can see. If RTM is a bit on the simple side Evernote -- which is free at its most basic level -- is a bit on the complex. These days I use both -- RTM for the top of the head \'must do this\' kind of note and Evernote for the longer stuff (and it can store pictures from your phone and audio too if you talk to it).\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/screen-shot-2010-01-23-at-12-18-28.png\"><img style=\"float:right;padding-left:4px;\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/screen-shot-2010-01-23-at-12-18-28-tm.jpg\" alt=\"Screen shot 2010-01-23 at 12.18.28.png\" width=\"250\" height=\"186\" /></a>Why are lists so great? Simple. Because they stop us forgetting things. I\'ve lost count of the many seemingly great ideas I\'ve lost over the years for no other reason than a mislaid notebook, a change in computer or something I simply don\'t understand. Once you keep your notes and ideas on the web all that goes away. You can go back and pick up stuff from a year or two ago and suddenly think, \'Oh that was a good idea..\' Or realise it was rubbish.\n\nA writer\'s life involves the constant juggling of ideas, good and bad. Trying to work out which is which is just one challenge we face. But a lost idea is just plain lost, gone forever, through nothing but a basic lack of organisation. And who knows? It could have been the best idea you\'ll ever have.','Lists can save a writer&#039;s life','','publish','open','closed','','lists-can-save-a-writers-life','','','2011-01-28 08:08:05','2011-01-28 08:08:05','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/2010/01/23/lists-can-save-a-writers-life/',0,'post','',0),(2792,1,'2010-01-25 06:01:33','2010-01-25 06:01:33','A week spent in Venice reminds me how different the language sounds from the Roman Italian I learnt when I was first studying a decade ago. It\'s not just the accent. In some areas you can still hear the original language, Veneto, which isn\'t a dialect at all, but a completely separate tongue.\n\nSo how should a writer reflect accents and foreign languages in a book? Indeed, should you at all?\n\nErnest Hemingway made a brave attempt at anglicising Spanish in <em>For Whom the Bell Tolls.</em> Great book but his efforts don\'t work for me. Spanish is one of the many languages which distinguishes between the singular and plural second person. In English we simply say \'you\'. In Spanish singular and plural are different, and just to complicate matters there are different words for formal and informal too. I won\'t bring in how modern Italian handles the second person formal here because your head will start spinning.\n\nAnd mine does when I read again how Hemingway handles this in the book. He resurrects the old English second person singular \'thou\' and puts it in the mouth of a Spanish character. Like this, \'It is not that thou art stupid. Thou art simply deaf.\'\n\nIt gets worse.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nHe also uses Spanish curses literally, or tries to until the sensitive editors of the day marched in with a red pen. A frequent curse in the book is \'<em>me cago en la leche</em>\'. This translated literally as, \'I shit in the milk\'. Except, of course, readers in those days couldn\'t handle the word \'shit\'. So what appeared in the original was, \'I obscenity in the milk.\' Which sounds rather worse to me but there you go.\n\nThis is a wonderful book. You should read it. But these linguistic contortions get in the way for me. They\'re only there because the writer is trying to make a point about anglicising a language which, at times, refused to play ball.\n\nHere are some other ways of tackling this problem that I find less than satisfactory (though they may be fine for you).\n<ul>\n	<li>Throwing known common foreign words into a sentence as some kind of flag. So a Spanish character will frequently ask for a cup of coffee and add, \'por favor\'. Shouldn\'t we know he\'s Spanish already? Does the fact he can say please tell us anything?</li>\n	<li>Accents. \'Pleeze Meester Fawlty. I no had done nerthink!\' Sorry but accents just don\'t work for me at all. They\'re hard to read and can very quickly become tedious.</li>\n</ul>\nWhen I first started writing the Costa books I did attempt to imitate the spoken rhythm of Italian. The language you hear every day in cafes and on buses is full of slang, some of it quite obscene, compressed, rapid-fire, colloquial. There\'s a strong argument for representing that in spoken English as modern colloquial American, slang-ridden dialogue. And I did this for a couple of books until I thought: why? Does anyone get the connection except me? Surely I\'m just putting up speed bumps in the road that will make readers think, \'Why do these Italians speak as if they come from New York or somewhere?\'\n\nSo now they just speak English. I try to do some subtle things with contractions and the absence of them (which I will write about some other time). But I just want them to speak normally, naturally, without any \'thous\' or other such interjections that end up making people scratch their heads.\n\nWhen they were making the movie of <em>Semana Santa</em> I flew to the set in Seville, solely as an observer, and talked to people. One of the actors, an American, asked me, \'What kind of accent should I play this character in?\'\n\nWhat sort of accent do you fancy, I asked. Spanish, the actor said, since the character was Spanish.\n\nI thought for a moment and then said, without thinking, \'But the Spanish don\'t speak Spanish with a Spanish accent.\' Which didn\'t go down too well. What I meant, I think, was this. We live in a very international world. It\'s no longer unusual to bump into someone from the other side of the planet while waiting at the supermarket checkout. Being foreign is no longer special. It\'s just part of everyday life. So I try to let my characters speak as people first and Italians second. And while I will use Italian words from time to time it\'s usually in a context in which they can be easily understood (if Peroni is munching on a porchetta panini most of us can guess what it contains). You shouldn\'t have to buy a dictionary of a foreign grammar primer to read a novel.','Talking in tongues','','publish','open','closed','','talking-in-tongues','','','2011-01-28 08:08:05','2011-01-28 08:08:05','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/?p=2792',0,'post','',0),(2811,1,'2010-01-26 07:39:12','2010-01-26 07:39:12','Glad so many of you liked my Venice research photos (which those of you new to this place <a href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/hewsons/sets/72157623122797633/\" target=\"_blank\">can find here on Flickr</a>). Several people have asked me how they were done. Here is the lowdown. All the worthwhile ones were taken with a Ricoh CX2 pocketable camera, not the cheapest on the market at around £280 in the UK but far and away the best digital camera I\'ve owned.\n\n<!--more-->\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0037.jpg\"></a><a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg00441.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-2821\" title=\"RIMG0044\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/thumb.jpgblog/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/RIMG00441-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" /></a>First, those grainy black and white photos at night and in poor light. Dead easy. The Ricoh comes with a black and white mode custom designed to produce this kind of dramatic shot. The important thing is to remember it\'s going to be a long exposure to get photos like the one on the right. Maybe as much as a second. You can\'t reliably do this while holding the camera in your hard. You need something to steady things. And there\'s a problem. I <em>hate</em> clutter. I will never own any camera that demands I wear it round my neck because it\'s so big. I only want things that can fit into a pocket. Nor do I wish to be carrying around a tripod either.\n\nThe first solution can be seen below. This is taken in a little cicchetti bar in San Trovaso. The exposure is automatic -- I haven\'t set anything special. The camera is simply sitting on the counter. And note: <em>no flash! </em>I hate flash.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg009411.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2824\" title=\"thumb\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/thumb.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" /></a>\n\n<strong>Big tip.</strong> When you take shots like this you can still rock the camera just by pressing the shutter. So set up a timer delay -- I use two seconds on the Ricoh. Hit the shutter, the camera will beep counting down, then wait for it to do its job.\n\n<img style=\"float:right;padding-left:4px;\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/41xwuankhl-_sl500_aa280_.jpg\" alt=\"41XWuAN+kHL._SL500_AA280_.jpg\" width=\"180\" height=\"180\" />What if there\'s no handy horizontal surface you can use? Simple. Buy one of the flexible tripod gizmos on the right. These can be wrapped around drainpipes, fencing, pretty much anything, or used as a normal tripod. Mine is a Gorillapod which currently <a href=\"http://www.amazon.co.uk/Joby-GP1-D1EN-Gorillapod-Original-Black/dp/B000EVSLRO/ref=cm_cr_pr_sims_t\" target=\"_blank\">costs £11.97 on Amazon UK</a>. Absolute bargain. It squeezes down small enough to fit in the pocket of my winter jacket and can be grabbed out, easily fitted to the camera, and used in seconds.\n\nAgain, remember to use the timer delay since you can get bounce using the shutter. But this is all a hell of a lot better than lugging round some gigantic tripod and a whacking great digital SLR.\n\nFinally, one trick with colour which the Ricoh, and some other cameras coming along now, will do for you automatically. Digital cameras are clever but, however many pixels they have and however smart their sensors, they are not as clever as the human eye. The light in Venice at this time of year is extraordinary and frankly the average camera cannot capture its subtleties of light and dark.\n\nThere\'s a new idea around in photography at the moment called <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_dynamic_range_imaging\" target=\"_blank\">High Dynamic Range</a> (HDR). The proper way to do this is to take several shots of the same subject using different exposures and then to combine them into one photo using specialised software. This is much too complicated and fiddly for a lazybones like me. Fortunately the Ricoh comes with a very simple, built-in equivalent called dynamic range. You can use this when there\'s a lot of contrast in a scene, so much that a camera will normally under or over expose parts of both.\n\nTwo examples, the first shot using normal exposure -- a view from Castello towards San Giorgio Maggiore.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0217.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0217-tm.jpg\" alt=\"RIMG0217.JPG\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" /></a>\n\nNice enough, but note the lack of detail in the buildings. Here is the same scene, moments later, taken with the dynamic range option.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0220.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0220-tm.jpg\" alt=\"RIMG0220.JPG\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" /></a>\n\nThis time round you get to see the brickwork. It won\'t add anything unless there is that tonal range, though. And since you are taking two shots a tripod or some firm surface is essential to stop blurring -- for this I just rested the camera on the bridge. Here\'s one of the things I was trying to capture for my research for the coming book -- the look of the water and sky of the Giudecca canal, one of the key locations. I don\'t think I\'d have got it quite right without this technique.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0078.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/rimg0078-tm.jpg\" alt=\"RIMG0078.JPG\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" /></a>\n\nWhy am I going to all this trouble? Because I want this story to be buried deep in the visual look of Venice at this time of year. I\'m going to be writing it for the next six to nine months. Even if I have the time I won\'t be able to go back to Venice and see the way the city in the lagoon looks in January and early February. Venice changes appearances by the hour. The light for the rest of the year is entirely different.\n\nThat\'s my excuse anyway.','Two quick secrets behind those Venice photos','','publish','open','closed','','two-quick-secrets-behind-those-venice-photos','','','2011-01-28 08:08:05','2011-01-28 08:08:05','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/?p=2811',0,'post','',0),(2829,1,'2010-01-27 07:54:26','2010-01-27 07:54:26','This one is so obvious you\'ve probably spotted it. But perhaps not -- it didn\'t occur to me for quite a while.\n\nWe all have to describe things. Sometimes they\'re big, complex things that require notes and research and information from several different sources. As I\'ve written earlier, I do all the heavy-lifting of research inside MacJournal these days. But what if you want to describe something that\'s quite simple? Something that can be encapsulated in a few words and a photo?\n\n<!--more-->\n\n<img style=\"float:right;padding-left:4px;\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/screen-shot-2010-01-26-at-08-54-18.png\" alt=\"Screen shot 2010-01-26 at 08.54.18.png\" width=\"246\" height=\"455\" />Dead easy. Take a look at the Document Notes field that sits at the bottom right of a Scrivener document when you open the Inspector. Got a picture and some words? Just drag or copy them in there like this.\n\nYou can see the thing you\'re trying to describe as you write. You can make notes in there, drag in new pictures (though not too many otherwise it will get a bit complicated I think. And, of course, this note is for that particular scene alone. You won\'t see it when you go on to the next one.\n\nIt\'s little things like this that add so much benefit to Scrivener. One more thoughtful touch that\'s dead easy to use once you\'ve realised it\'s there.\n\nHere\'s something else I didn\'t spot for a while too. You can also see these things while you\'re working in the calm, focused space of full screen mode. Just hit the Inspector button at the bottom and you get this -- and it\'s bigger too.\n\n<img style=\"padding-left:4px;\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/screen-shot-2010-01-26-at-08-58-50.png\" alt=\"Screen shot 2010-01-26 at 08.58.50.png\" width=\"429\" height=\"674\" />','Dead simple Scrivener tip','','publish','open','closed','','dead-simple-scrivener-tip','','','2011-01-28 08:08:05','2011-01-28 08:08:05','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/?p=2829',0,'post','',0),(2833,1,'2010-01-28 07:14:49','2010-01-28 07:14:49','I\'m now some way into the new book. Let\'s not bother with word counts on this occasion since they would be deceptive. What I know at this point is that the story idea appears viable and I have sufficient enthusiasm and interest to be willing to devote what may be another six to nine months trying to bring this project to fruition.\n\nHow do I reach that conclusion? What do I need to know in order to commit to a project and feel comfortable that it\'s worth pursuing? Here are some of the things that have happened over the past few weeks.\n\n<!--more-->\n<ul>\n	<li>I\'ve worked out who the principal characters are going to be. Some are pretty well mapped out. Others are just cards with names and brief descriptions. But I don\'t expect there to be any surprise new members of the cast. They are there.</li>\n	<li>I\'ve run through the story idea with my agent in advance and she liked it. In the past I wouldn\'t have done this but I recently changed agent and it seemed a good idea to float a rough idea, not least because this one is a little different. Confirmation that one isn\'t completely mad is encouraging. Part of an agent\'s job is to reassure authors that they\'re not insane and, of course, to point out when they are.</li>\n	<li>I\'ve been to Venice and worked out the principal locations. The canvas for the book, the world which will enclose it, is pretty much established.</li>\n	<li>I have a beginning. An event that kicks the story off. The shot that will hopefully pull the thing into focus at the start and make the reader think, \'OK, I\'m with this one.\'</li>\n	<li>I have an ambition, a very precise, specific one, not just \'write a great book\'. Ambitions are good. More of them another day.</li>\n</ul>\nFine. Now let’s list the things I don\'t have.\n<ul>\n	<li>An outline. Never done them, suspect I never will. I have various vague staging points along the way and a note for the final scene. How we get from one point to the next will be determined by the characters under my control, not by some godlike authorial plan imposed from above.</li>\n	<li>Any idea how long this is going to take. Sometimes books happen much more quickly than I expect. I started preparatory work on this project last autumn. I\'d expect it to be complete by October at the latest. But it may be sooner.</li>\n	<li>A label. Is this book a thriller, a mystery, a crime story? Don\'t know. Don\'t care. As always my three key aims are: popular, intelligent, original. If I can hit those then someone else can find the right tag.</li>\n	<li>A title. Several in mind but they can wait until the book is finished. I hate floating titles for an unfinished book. It seems pointless and deflects the mind away from the real business which is writing the damned narrative.</li>\n</ul>\nIt\'s part of the insanity of being a professional author that one can devote a substantial chunk of one\'s life to a vital project on such a flimsy basis. But if there\'s another way of achieving this end I\'ve never found it. Nor am I looking.','Starting a book - what do you need to know?','','publish','open','closed','','starting-a-book-what-do-you-need-to-know','','','2011-01-28 08:08:05','2011-01-28 08:08:05','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/?p=2833',0,'post','',0),(2838,1,'2010-01-29 07:10:56','2010-01-29 07:10:56','A sage old journalist once gave me a very smart definition of the cliché: if you\'re writing something and have one word pop in your head only to be followed immediately by another that oh-so-wants to sit alongside it then the chances are you\'re about to write a cliché.\n\nAh, the wisdom of age, to use a timeworn phrase (see what I mean?) Simple cliches are best avoided. In the course of a 120,000 words or more book it\'s going to be damned hard to avoid the juxtaposition of some words that a few people will regard as cliched, mind. I try to avoid the more obvious ones using the trick above -- if it seems so natural you can\'t wait to write it there\'s probably a reason, and it\'s rarely a good one.\n\nBut the cliché goes beyond mere words. There\'s cliched thinking and structure too, and here the waters get a little murky.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nStories have a certain structure -- loosely a beginning, a middle and an end. Some writers decry this as old-fashioned nonsense and invent their own rules. They\'re entitled to do this and good luck to them. It\'s not what I\'m discussing here, which is plain, simple narrative.\n\nThe traditional story has a form which is understood by both writers and readers. You could consider it a cliché -- some people do. To me it\'s more an agreed conspiracy between the storyteller and the audience, one that predates writing and goes back to the birth of oral storytelling. It involves setting up a narrative that draws in the listener/reader, engrossing him with its richness and the characters involved and then, after a certain number of diversions, bringing the whole thing to some kind of close.\n\nIs that a cliché? Possibly, but it\'s one that, in general terms, you challenge at your peril. On a simple event-by-event, scene-by-scene basis you can try my wise old hack\'s rules. So if a man walks in bearing a gun it may be logical that something violent is about to happen. Does that mean you should search for another outcome? Possibly. It depends. Some writers try to be extra smart by bilking the expected constantly throughout a book. They set up a scene and then come up with some completely unexpected denouement.\n\nThat\'s fine, but I suspect you need to do it judiciously. If every single expectation is defeated readers may well begin to sniff a gimmick. They are investing their own intelligence in the narrative too. If you tell them each time round they\'re wrong they may grow resentful and bored.\n\nOne of the most interesting comments you get from readers is when they say, \'I saw that coming!\' Or the opposite, \'I never expected that.\' I suspect that readers want to have <em>both</em> reactions from a book. Parts of it they want to feel they predicted, while other elements are there to surprise them. If you give them all of one or the other they will, eventually, be disappointed.\n\nHow do you do that? In a way through the cliché. Managing the expectation of readers is closely tied to your willingness to do the obvious from time to time, sparingly and with a degree of firm control. Shun it altogether and you\'re a smartass. Do it too heavily and you\'re a magician whose secrets are visible to all.\n\nThe biggest expectation -- or cliché if you like -- is that of resolution. Readers <em>hate</em> unresolved narratives even though real life is chock full of them. In standard, popular storytelling you can\'t leave a novel hanging entirely in the air in the final scene. That does <em>not</em> mean people have to walk off into the sunset or get dead. Resolution is not the same as conclusion. A story can be resolved by a simple change in character, a revelation in one individual that will change his or her outlook for the unseen future to come. You don\'t have to wrap up everything if you don\'t want to. What\'s important is that people feel some kind of end point has been reached.\n\nIf you\'re writing a series you probably want that end point to have threads dangling loosely too. Like most writers my series began with a book I thought was a standalone. I had vague feelings <em>A Season for the Dead</em> could start a series but was, thankfully, pushed into it by an insightful editor who said, \'I think Nic Costa has got more stories to tell.\'\n\nShe was right, but that doesn\'t mean there isn\'t a resolution at the end that book. It\'s what readers expect. No one wants the old cliché. But they\'re always looking for the new one.','The cliché you need and the ones you don&#039;t','','publish','open','closed','','the-cliche-you-need-and-the-ones-you-dont','','','2011-01-28 08:08:05','2011-01-28 08:08:05','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/2010/01/29/the-cliche-you-need-and-the-ones-you-dont/',0,'post','',0),(2848,1,'2010-02-01 07:19:56','2010-02-01 07:19:56','The eighth book in the Nic Costa series, <em><a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/p1010164-tm.jpgBooks/Costa/Blue%20Demon/bluedemon.html\" target=\"_blank\">The Blue Demon</a>,</em> is published this Friday so let me take a little time here this week to explain how this book came about.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/p1010126.jpg\"><img style=\"float:right;padding-left:4px;\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/p1010126-tm.jpg\" alt=\"P1010126.JPG\" width=\"250\" height=\"187\" /></a>Ideas don\'t come out of nowhere. On the other hand they\'re not easy to chase either. My attitude is to put myself in a receptive frame of mind and go somewhere they\'re likely to hit me -- Italy usually. The starting point for this book probably occurred years ago when I first walked into a lovely and often neglected museum called the <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_Giulia\" target=\"_blank\">Villa Giulia</a> in Rome, right.\n\nThis was a pleasure palace built by a somewhat dodgy pope, Julius III. Today it is the home of Italy\'s <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Etruscan_Museum\" target=\"_blank\">National Etruscan Museum</a>, and houses the most astonishing collection of artefacts from the lost Etruscan civilisation.\n\n<!--more-->\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/800px-banditaccia_sarcofago_degli_sposi.jpg\"><img style=\"float:right;padding-left:4px;\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/800px-banditaccia_sarcofago_degli_sposi-tm.jpg\" alt=\"800px-Banditaccia_Sarcofago_Degli_Sposi.jpg\" width=\"250\" height=\"150\" /></a>I knew very little about the Etruscans at the time, except that in Robert Graves\'s <em>I Claudius</em> we have the learned, crippled emperor-to-be bemoaning the loss of Etruscan civilisation and culture two thousand years ago (Graves was not making this up by the way). Being the curious type I then read a bit about the Etruscans and was stunned by what I found: a civilisation that predated ancient Rome and in many ways gave that culture, which eventually conquered and assimilated it, many of the early skills that allowed it to flourish.\n\nThe Romans destroyed Etruscan civilisation almost completely. What\'s left of Etruscan culture today -- much of it in the Villa Giulia -- shows us the magnitude of that loss. It was a sophisticated society, rich in art and music. And what\'s left? Exhibits in museums mainly, though if you take a car journey north of Rome, into the area where Lazio borders on Tuscany, you can find more. The little town of Tarquinia in particular has some stunning tombs, many of them open to the public, with rich paintings and a haunting atmosphere.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/p1010164.jpg\"><img style=\"float:right;padding-left:4px;\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/p1010164-tm.jpg\" alt=\"P1010164.JPG\" width=\"250\" height=\"187\" /></a>I went to Tarquinia trying to hunt down this book. There I marvelled at the long-dead figures dancing on walls, went to the wonderful local museum, talked to people. Here are some of the things I discovered during that early stage of research.\n<ul>\n	<li>The Etruscan language still exists in a few fragments.</li>\n	<li>One of them is an Egyptian funeral shroud now in Serbia which was made out of old Etruscan documents -- so little did Rome value Etruscan literature they used it for wrapping corpses.</li>\n	<li>Another is an extraordinary item called the <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liver_of_Piacenza\" target=\"_blank\">Liver of Piacenza</a>, a life-sized bronze model of a sheep\'s liver engraved with strange symbols. It was used as a training device for haruspices, priests who foretold the future from the entrails of animals.</li>\n	<li>Among the closed tombs at Tarquinia is one called The Tomb of The Blue Demon. Academics argue about The Blue Demon\'s meaning. But \'he\' clearly represents some new stage in the development of the thinking of the Etruscans. Until he turns up on the scene the funereal paintings are joyful. The Blue Demon, seen here, brings guilt and fear and terror with him. He\'s either the Devil or Rome, then threatening the Etruscan lands, or both.</li>\n</ul>\nPlenty there to think about. Too much in fact. If I just wanted to write about the Etruscans then maybe I could begin to encompass all this material. But history, in these books, matters principally in that it reflects the present. So at least some of this was to be junked.\n\nBut how do I put the Etruscans into a modern context? Once I thought about the other strand I wanted to weave into this book -- politics -- that soon became obvious. In modern terms the Etruscans were the victims of ethnic cleansing. Their identities, their religion, their culture was taken from them and obliterated. Plenty of politicians want to do that to their enemies. Plenty of people threatened that way respond in a form that defines them as terrorists or freedom fighters, depending on one\'s viewpoint.\n\nI remembered something else I\'d discovered in Rome a few years earlier. I had a hook, of which more tomorrow.','A bit of historic inspiration','','publish','open','closed','','a-bit-of-historic-inspiration','','','2011-01-28 08:08:05','2011-01-28 08:08:05','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/?p=2848',0,'post','',0),(2930,1,'2010-02-17 07:49:48','2010-02-17 07:49:48','So you’re part way through writing something. You think it\'s been going swingingly. Everything looks on course for completion some time in the not-too-distant-future. Life is good.\n\nThen one morning you wake up and something\'s chipping away at the back of your head like a distant woodpecker lodged in some cerebral forest. There\'s a rhythm to this sound. It forms words. They go something like this...\n\n<em>But what if it\'s all no good after all?</em>\n\nThe doubt demons have got you. What to do?\n\n<!--more-->\n\n<strong>First thing</strong>\n\nRealise, for pity\'s sake, you\'re not alone. I doubt there are many writers out there who don\'t suffer some unformed, ill-understood pangs of doubt part way through a project. It\'s only natural to question yourself from time to time. The people who think they\'re perfect and writing, first draft, straight out of the gate, a piece of genius... they\'re the ones who need to worry.\n\n<strong>Second thing</strong>\n\nMake no rash decisions. Under no circumstances let your fears take over to the extent that you start some immediate rewrite of the project. Remember: this all felt OK yesterday. That means it may well feel OK tomorrow. Books reveal themselves slowly, to their authors and their readers. You can\'t rush them.\n\n<strong>Third thing</strong>\n\nIf you\'re still feeling worried after an hour or two get the hell out of there. Walk away from the project for a while. Walk the dog, mow the lawn, paint the study, go and see a concert or an exhibition. Do something that allows the blasted thing to exit your consciousness for a little while so that, when it returns, you can see it with some objectivity and perspective. If a work in progress is worthwhile you can walk away from it for a month or more and it will only appear fresher and clearer when you return. It\'s not going to run away in the meantime.\n\n<strong>Fourth thing</strong>\n\nIf after all the above you still feel something\'s deeply wrong try the following...\n<ul>\n	<li>Go through any notes or book diary entries you made about the project to see if there\'s something you thought about earlier that hasn\'t gone in there</li>\n	<li>Print out the manuscript so far, sit down for a while and read it, pen in hand.</li>\n</ul>\n<strong>Fifth thing</strong>\n\nStill not convinced? We\'re running out of options here. What a lot of people will do is try to get a second opinion. A lot of the time these are worthless. People ask friends or relatives or others in their book group. None of whom have much of a clue how to judge an unfinished piece of work. To be frank I tend to feel that even professionals can only offer limited advice about something that\'s incomplete.\n\nYes, they will be able to tell you if they think it\'s an absolute stinker that should be flushed down the toilet immediately. But a third of a great book is a third of a great book, nothing more. Only you can write the remaining two thirds and make them great too. An editor or agent can nudge you back into the ring; they can\'t put on the gloves and fight for you. That\'s your job.\n\nDoubt is a constant companion in any creative process, be it writing, painting or music. A useful one too. We should question our own abilities and our work. We need to be able to judge what we do frankly, harshly even, and be prepared to work twice as hard to fix things when they go wrong. The secret is to use the doubt to help you, not cripple you.\n\nAnd in that we\'re lucky. Movie makers can\'t usually afford to reshoot scenes and sequences, musicians may find it difficult to muster the resources to go back into the studio and rerecord an album. Books are composed of nothing more than words, useful little things that can be changed and rewritten quickly and at will. All you have to do is find the right ones.','Dealing with the doubt demons','','publish','open','closed','','dealing-with-the-doubt-demons','','','2011-01-28 08:07:35','2011-01-28 08:07:35','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/2010/02/17/dealing-with-the-doubt-demons/',0,'post','',0),(2941,1,'2010-02-18 06:45:10','2010-02-18 06:45:10','<p>Someone asked me on Twitter the other day, \'What do you/your publishers like to have as an ideal target wordcount?\' Good question -- let me try to answer it.</p>\n<p>As I may have said around here before, on this side of the Atlantic we measure books in terms of words. In America people doggedly use \'pages\'. I have no idea how they do that given that people write in different fonts and line spacing and things these days.</p>\n<p>Pages go back to the idea we wrote on typewriters, with a monospaced font and double line spacing. Some software (maybe even Scrivener) can try to make a guesstimate of that from a computer document. Don\'t care. Don\'t like pages. I come from newspapers where we always worked in word counts, as do most European publishers, so let\'s stick with that one.</p>\n<!--more--><p>My own books tend to come in at between 110,000 and 120,000 words these days. That is somewhat shorter than some of my earlier work -- Epiphany was close to 160,000 words if I recall correctly. But books were bigger in the Nineties, and those ones could have used some judicious editing too. Now I am content to be wrapped up by 120,000 words or so. I\'m probably coming in a touch longer than most of my peers, but my books may be a bit more complex than theirs anyway. I\'d guess -- and I stand to be corrected here -- the average book length for popular fiction is around the 100,000 word mark in the UK.</p>\n<p>Budding writers often ask this question out of self-interest. They\'ve written something that\'s come out at 60,000 words or so and they\'re wondering whether anyone will publish it. Probably not over here is the honest answer (though there are always exceptions). In the US things are different. I remember having a conversation on this subject with a US publisher who said they would produce certain kinds of book -- often things like romantic or light mystery -- at 60,000 words or so. Which goes to show that the US and UK publishing industries do differ in some respects, quite markedly.</p>\n<p>If you\'re a British writer and hoping you can swing that over here then I wish you luck. You\'ll need it. Nor are you likely to get very far with a \'novella\', which can be as little as 40,000 words or less, since these are generally the territory of established writers too.</p>\n<p>So my advice is simple -- go for 100,000 words because some people will think that anything shorter than that is going to be insufficient. And unless you are brimming over with confidence, don\'t even think about delivering some Stephen King-style doorstopper of a quarter a million words or so. Again, you can try tricks like that once you\'re published (if you want). But it\'s not a great opening move for a debut author.</p>','How long should a book be?','','publish','open','closed','','how-long-should-a-book-be','','','2011-01-28 08:07:35','2011-01-28 08:07:35','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/2010/02/17/how-long-should-a-book-be/',0,'post','',0),(2950,1,'2010-02-19 07:04:43','2010-02-19 07:04:43','<p><a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/screen-shot-2010-02-17-at-16-29-43.png\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/screen-shot-2010-02-17-at-16-29-43-tm.jpg\" width=\"250\" height=\"215\" alt=\"Screen shot 2010-02-17 at 16.29.43.png\" style=\"float:right;padding-left:4px;\" /></a>I wrote about the subject of word counts yesterday. Keeping tally of how much you\'re writing is vitally important in any project. You don\'t just need to know how productive you\'re being. You also have to be able to judge the progress of the narrative as the story builds. Rhythm is important in any book, and measuring that rhythm demands that you know whereabouts you are. Being able to say very accurately this scene happens around the 50,000 word mark can be amazingly helpful.</p>\n<p>It\'s also decidedly difficult to get that information out of most word processors. Scrivener, of course, isn\'t most word processors. So let\'s look at how it\'s different.</p>\n<!--more--><p>The first new trick up its sleeve is the target box seen at the top of this story. This lets you set a target for the entire book -- here 110,000 words. And a target for the current session. The overall target shows you a bar indicating how far you are towards the planned end of the project. The bottom one stays red until you hit the session target word count you\'ve set yourself, after which it turns a comforting green.</p>\n<p>You can use these things as a blunt \'I\'ve written my 1500 words and now I\'m done\' tool. But it\'s also worth bearing in mind that the session target also takes into account words you\'ve cut out too. So if you say to yourself I want to slash a couple of thousand words from the piece it will measure that as well. As I will say here repeatedly, what matters is not the rising word count but the sense that a project is under control, growing and alive. It can be in that state just as much with a falling word count as a rising one. In fact if you simply hammer out a target word count every day and keep adding to that my guess is you ought to be asking yourself what\'s wrong.</p>\n<p><a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/screen-shot-2010-02-17-at-16-53-18.png\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/screen-shot-2010-02-17-at-16-53-18-tm.jpg\" width=\"250\" height=\"131\" alt=\"Screen shot 2010-02-17 at 16.53.18.png\" style=\"float:right;padding-left:4px;\" /></a>The overall word target is important of course. But you also want to know long individual scenes and sections are. It\'s dead easy to do this in Scrivener. Here\'s a single scene from <i>The Blue Demon.</i> As you can see there\'s a precise word count at the foot of the screen. All I have to do to get it is select the individual scene document in the binder on the left. That\'s it.</p>\n<p><a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/screen-shot-2010-02-17-at-16-53-02.png\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/screen-shot-2010-02-17-at-16-53-02-tm.jpg\" width=\"250\" height=\"136\" alt=\"Screen shot 2010-02-17 at 16.53.02.png\" style=\"float:right;padding-left:4px;\" /></a>A similar idea will get you a word count for the entire section of scenes contained in the folder. Select the folder itself and Scrivener adds up the individual word counts for each of the scene it contains. Here you can see that section two in the book comes to 19,604 words. About what I\'d been planning on for most of the sections in this story.</p>\n<p>What you don\'t get -- or if you can find it, I haven\'t -- is some indication of progress throughout the book. There is a visual way you can achieve this though. Option-select the top icon in the binder (usually called Manuscript or something). Or select it and click \'Edit Scrivenings\'. This will show you the entire book in one go -- much as it would appear in Word. This feature is one thing that sets Scrivener apart from many of its storywriting peers. Lots will let you write in separate scenes. Not many let you see them linked together like this. Scrolling through will give you a word processor style view of the story, though I haven\'t found a way in which you can stick your cursor into any part in this view and say -- now I am 62,000 words. If that kind of control is important you then maybe you should consider putting a word count in a note at the start of each section - \'At this point we\'re at 43,000 words\' for example.</p>\n<p>Here\'s how <i>The Blue Demon</i> draft looks in that view. This was my first book written completely in Scrivener. Now I can\'t imagine working without it.</p>\n<p><br />\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/screen-shot-2010-02-17-at-17-00-38.png\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/screen-shot-2010-02-17-at-17-00-38-tm.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"499\" alt=\"Screen shot 2010-02-17 at 17.00.38.png\" /></a></p>','Target practice','','publish','open','closed','','target-practice','','','2011-01-28 08:07:35','2011-01-28 08:07:35','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/2010/02/17/target-practice/',0,'post','',0),(2956,1,'2010-02-22 07:02:08','2010-02-22 07:02:08','I\'ll be out and about talking about the new book, <em>The Blue Demon</em>, this week. You can find the full details <a href=\"http://davidhewson.com/blog/calendar/\" target=\"_blank\">on the calendar here</a>. I\'m delighted to say that for the most part I\'ll be accompanied by the lovely <a href=\"http://www.anncleeves.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Ann Cleeves</a> who\'ll be talking about her new book too, <em>Blue Lightning.</em> I wonder how long it will be before we hear the first \'Blues tour\' jokes.\n\nIn a nutshell the dates are...\n\n<dl> <dt><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, \'Times New Roman\', Times, serif;color:#666666;line-height:21px;\">Monday 22nd February (7.30 pm)</span></dt> <dd><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, \'Times New Roman\', Times, serif;color:#666666;line-height:21px;\"><a style=\"text-decoration:none;color:#a21632;margin:0;padding:0;\" href=\"http://www.southtyneside.info/education-and-leisure/libraries/find-a-library/central-library.asp\">South Shields library</a>, Prince Georg Square, South Shields, NE33 2PE.<br style=\"margin:0;padding:0;\" />\nTelephone: 0191 427 1717</span></dd> <dt><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, \'Times New Roman\', Times, serif;color:#666666;line-height:21px;\">Tuesday 23rd February, 2.00pm</span></dt> <dd><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, \'Times New Roman\', Times, serif;color:#666666;line-height:21px;\"><a style=\"text-decoration:none;color:#a21632;margin:0;padding:0;\" href=\"http://www.newcastle.gov.uk/core.nsf/a/librariesnewcitylibrary?opendocument\">Newcastle Central library</a>, Charles Avison Building, 33 New Bridge Street West.<br style=\"margin:0;padding:0;\" />\nPhone: 0191 2774100 or e-mail: <a style=\"text-decoration:none;color:#a21632;margin:0;padding:0;\" href=\"mailto:information@newcastle.gov.uk\">information@newcastle.gov.uk</a></span></dd> <dt><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, \'Times New Roman\', Times, serif;color:#666666;line-height:21px;\">Tuesday 23rd, 7.00 pm</span></dt> <dd><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, \'Times New Roman\', Times, serif;color:#666666;line-height:21px;\"><a style=\"text-decoration:none;color:#a21632;margin:0;padding:0;\" href=\"http://www.northtyneside.gov.uk/browse-display.shtml?p_ID=29112&amp;p_subjectCategory=649\">North Tyneside Central Library</a>, Northumberland Square, North Shields, NE30 1QU<br style=\"margin:0;padding:0;\" />\nTelephone 0191 200 5424 for further information</span></dd> <dt><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, \'Times New Roman\', Times, serif;color:#666666;line-height:21px;\">Wednesday 24th February, 2.30pm.</span></dt> <dd><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, \'Times New Roman\', Times, serif;color:#666666;line-height:21px;\"><a style=\"text-decoration:none;color:#a21632;margin:0;padding:0;\" href=\"http://www.northumberland.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=3478#SeatonValleyLibrary\">Seaton Valley library</a>, within Astley High School, Elsdon Avenue, Seaton Delaval<br style=\"margin:0;padding:0;\" />\nTelephone: 0845 6006401</span></dd> <dt><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, \'Times New Roman\', Times, serif;color:#666666;line-height:21px;\">Wednesday 24th (7.30 pm)</span></dt> <dd><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, \'Times New Roman\', Times, serif;color:#666666;line-height:21px;\">Gateshead Old Town Hall.<br style=\"margin:0;padding:0;\" />\nDetails from Dot Cameron: <a style=\"text-decoration:none;color:#a21632;margin:0;padding:0;\" href=\"mailto:dorothycameron@gateshead.gov.uk\">dorothycameron@gateshead.gov.uk</a></span></dd> </dl>\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1em;padding:0;\"><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, \'Times New Roman\', Times, serif;color:#666666;line-height:21px;\">On Thursday February 25 I will be talking (without Ann) at Standish Library, Wigan, as part of Wigan Libraries’ Crime Week. The event will start at 7.30 pm. I’ll be talking about the new Nic Costa book, <em>The Blue Demon</em>, and showing some of my research photos from it. More information from <a style=\"text-decoration:none;color:#a21632;margin:0;padding:0;\" href=\"http://www.wlct.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Wigan Libraries.</a></span></p>','On the road up north','','publish','open','closed','','on-the-road-up-north','','','2011-01-28 08:07:35','2011-01-28 08:07:35','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/?p=2956',0,'post','',0),(2961,1,'2010-02-23 08:52:19','2010-02-23 08:52:19','<a href=\"http://www.anncleeves.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Ann Cleeves</a> and I started our brief north east tour last night in the great library at South Shields, a wonderful facility that always turns out a lively and interested audience.\n\nIt\'s always enjoyable to share a platform with Ann, one of the most thoughtful and hard-working British crime writers around. It\'s amazing to think her first book came out in 1986, ten years before mine. Next year her wonderful creation Vera Stanhope will finally be hitting our TV screens -- and about time too.\n\nWe talked for an hour so it\'s not possible to give you anything but a flavour of that discussion. But here\'s one of Ann\'s little tricks she let slip last night -- an interesting one too.<!--more-->We talked  about how we write, of course, and I briefly ran through the array of tools -- a book diary, photographs, keeping notes on my phone -- that I use to keep track of ideas. Ann does none of this -- it\'s all in her head. And when she gets stuck?\n\nSimple, she said. If she\'s struggling with a scene she abandons the computer and sits down with a pen and paper to write the old way. A fantastic example of how a little change in routine can supply that much-needed sense of perspective. Not much to use to me mind -- I can barely read my own writing.\n\nWe\'ve two more events today -- Newcastle City Library at 2pm then North Shields at 7pm. Do come along if you\'re in the area.','A secret from Ann Cleeves','','publish','open','open','','a-secret-from-ann-cleeves','','','2011-01-28 08:07:35','2011-01-28 08:07:35','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/?p=2961',0,'post','',0),(2965,1,'2010-02-24 08:58:39','2010-02-24 08:58:39','Ann Cleeves and I spent yesterday on the road again in the north east, first in a busy event at Newcastle City Library, then last night on the coast at North Shields. I have to say to those authors out there who haven\'t done an event in this part of the country: you really are missing something. The enthusiasm of the libraries and audiences is enthralling -- and the turnouts big, for Ann, not me I\'m sure, even in this rotten weather.\n\nHere\'s one more little snippet that emerged last night when Ann and I were answering questions about how we work. <!--more-->I will, not often but occasionally, write out of sequence. In other words I will sometimes find myself in this situation.\n<ul>\n	<li>I\'ve just finished one scene</li>\n	<li>I\'m not that much enthused about writing the next just yet, perhaps because it\'s not sufficiently clear in my head</li>\n	<li>But I do have a very clear and pressing picture of a <em>later</em> scene in mind</li>\n</ul>\nWhat do I do? Sometimes I write the later scene. In fact for next year\'s book I actually wrote the <em>final</em> scene, or at least part of it, two thirds into the book because I knew what was needed and wanted to set it down. Mostly I write in sequence. But I don\'t feel tied to that format and will break it from time to time.\n\nAnd Ann? When I described this roundabout way of working she thought for a second and said, \'No. Never do that. I write a book the way readers read it. As it comes.\'\n\nAnn never even jots down notes about future scenes.  She just writes.\n\nProves once again: we all work differently, and part of the challenge, a large part probably, is finding what works for you.\n\nTwo more north east gigs today -- details in the calendar above. Then I leave the north east and Ann\'s wonderful and enlightening company for a solitary event in Wigan tomorrow. After which it\'s back home.','Vive la difference','','publish','open','open','','vive-la-difference','','','2011-01-28 08:07:35','2011-01-28 08:07:35','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/?p=2965',0,'post','',0),(2968,1,'2010-02-25 08:15:35','2010-02-25 08:15:35','I\'m now on the road to Wigan for an event there tonight after four days in the north east and five events with my good mate Ann Cleeves. Amazing events frankly because, even in the depths of this grim winter, the libraries everywhere managed to draw out big, lively enthusiastic audiences, the last one in Gateshead\'s elegant Old Town Hall last night.\n\nI owe a lot to libraries. It was thanks to them I\'m a writer. Without the rich and catholic book collection of my home library in Bridlington when I was a kid I\'d never have found the range of books that fired me with the ambition to write in the first place. How often do I find myself in a library these days?<!--more-->As often as I can. I think they\'re important institutions that need defending and sustaining in the face of occasional neglect by the councils that own them. But not here in the north east which surely has one of the most vibrant and dynamic library communities in the UK. I can\'t think of anywhere else in the UK where two writers could bring out substantial audiences five times over three days, in venues only a few miles apart.\n\nHow do they do this? They\'ve got marvellous, skilled trained staff to organise the events. They\'ve got reading groups, lots of them. They\'ve got some fantastic facilities that receive investment and support. On Tuesday lunchtime we were in Newcastle\'s amazing new central library, one year old and a fantastic building slap in the centre of town. That place brings in five thousand people a day through its doors. <em>Five thousand. </em>Don\'t let anyone tell you libraries are a thing of the past.\n\nMost of all though good libraries are a community, a partnership between them and the reading public, one that authors can help sustain and nurture by going out and talking when we can. To any authors out there: if you get an invitation to the north east do take it. This place is an eye-opened in what can be achieved when councils see libraries as important social institutions.\n\nBack in my home county of Kent things couldn\'t be different. There libraries are almost seen as an embarrassment. In a fifteen year career I\'ve done one library event in Kent County Council library. I\'ve spoken more in libraries in Australia than I have in my own county. The community feel libraries have up here just doesn\'t exist in some parts of the country because the councillors who hold the purse strings don\'t have the vision to create it. That\'s a great shame and a terribly wasted opportunity.','Three cheers for libraries','','publish','open','open','','three-cheers-for-libraries','','','2011-01-28 08:07:35','2011-01-28 08:07:35','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/?p=2968',0,'post','',0),(2970,1,'2010-02-26 09:42:43','2010-02-26 09:42:43','I\'m sitting writing this on the Virgin train from Wigan to Euston (wifi on trains -- what next) after four days of events up north. Great events, all of them in libraries, none in book stores, with lively audiences and lots of interesting and thought-provoking questions.\n\nTrips like this reinforce my view that it\'s important for authors to get out and meet both the public and the busy hard-working armies of professionals in the library services out there. The occasional visit to a well-organised library event benefits everyone. Here are some of the factors that I think can make these ventures work.\n\n<!--more-->\n<ul>\n	<li>When possible always have more than one author talking. It\'s more interesting for the audience when two authors can converse with one another, and you reach a broader group too. I was lucky to be in the company of the wonderful Ann Cleeves in the north east, who made our events there far more thoughtful than they could have been on their own.</li>\n	<li>Library events work best in libraries that have developed their own communities in advance. If anyone wants to see hwo this works I\'d advise them simply to head off to the north east and talk to the skilled library people in places like Newcastle, North and South Shields and Gateshead. These are some of the best-integrated libraries in the country -i incredibly popular with many active reading groups and efficient publicity machines. The new Newcastle Central Library, for example, has five thousand walk-in customer <em>per day.</em></li>\n	<li>Publicity, well in advance, is important. A poster in the library itself won\'t suffice. All of the libraries I\'ve visited, from Newcastle to Wigan, got the publicity right long before the event took place and it showed in the turnouts.</li>\n	<li>All these libraries sold books at the events (or more accurately handed sales over to a local bookseller). Sales are important if publishers are to support library events too.</li>\n	<li>Time and money are at a premium here. Ann worked closely with the north east libraries to set up five events over three days. This was a good use of our and their resources. It would have been a lot less worthwhile for me to trek up all the way to the north east for one event. It would be very useful if different library services had some system that made the most of authors\' time by combining events in neighbouring areas into a joined-up tour. Makes a lot more sense to do five events in three days than one event in two with travelling. The north east has got this off to a tee -- the rest of the country needs to learn from them.</li>\n	<li>If it\'s just one author doing the talking something it\'s no bad idea to offer something more than a simple speech. I show photographs of locations from my books. Other people have used actors to read from their work. When we\'re on the road like this we\'re travelling entertainers. We need to remember that we have to entertain.</li>\n</ul>\nLibraries often get overlooked in the book business because, in raw economic terms, they don\'t seem very important. But as the retailing landscape changes, and bookstore events become rarer and ever more difficult, libraries are fast becoming one of the most important ways authors can reach their readers directly, in person. It\'s in everyone\'s interests -- writers, publishers, libraries and most important of all, our readers -- that we make the most of the growing opportunities available to us.','Writers need to get out more','','publish','open','closed','','writers-need-to-get-out-more','','','2011-01-28 08:07:35','2011-01-28 08:07:35','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/2010/02/26/writers-need-to-get-out-more/',0,'post','',0),(3003,1,'2010-02-27 08:40:56','2010-02-27 08:40:56','<p>Listening to the <i>Today</i> programme this morning I heard an MP complaining, half jocularly, about the perils of Twitter. She offered this advice: never tweet when you\'ve had a drink or you feel tired. You might feel embarrassed by the results.</p>\n<p>Please, <i>please</i> do not take this to heart. Half of the pleasure of Twitter comes from the embarrassing stuff that slips out so easily. Direct messages that get directed into the public gaze. Simple slips of the tongue. Daft thoughts that were best left unspoken. What a boring place it would be without them.</p>\n<p>My biggest Twitter faux pas always seem to stem from the tweets I send from my little HTC Magic phone. Whoever wrote the code for the spelling suggestions it auto-completes -- then demands you spot -- clearly was either possessed of a strange sense of humour or wasn\'t much familiar with the English language. Here are some of its quirks.</p>\n<!--more--><ul>\n  <li>Every time I try to type the word \'UK\' it wants to write \'ukelele\' instead.</li>\n\n  <li>Whenever I want to write to my mate Justin on the Telegraph it\'s desperate to address him as Justinian.</li>\n</ul>\n<p>A few days ago I wanted to write a tweet about the death of Dick Francis. I did manage to spot the fact the phone wanted to change \'turning\' to \'turnip\' and that it really through \'Francis\' to \'Franciscan\'. But I failed to spot a simpler and more serious error. So my thoughtful tribute to this great and newly-departed writer referred to him as \'Sick Francis\'. As several DMs swiftly pointed out.</p>\n<p>The lesson being... read before you hit send. Which is decidedly difficult if you\'re in a hurry, on a train, and perhaps have had a drink and feel a little tired. But who\'d be without it?</p>\n<p>As for politicians and Twitter... let them use it at their peril. Tory blogger <a href=\"http://iaindale.blogspot.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Ian Dale</a> on <i>Today</i> told the story of one of her colleagues who let loose an unfortunate tweet and then announced to the world that someone, somewhere must have edited it after the thing was posted. As Dale pointed out... this is simply technically impossible. And if you use a sensible secure password no one can \'hack\' or \'phish\' your account either.</p>\n<p>So that politician who said his message had been edited while out in the wild must have been, er... what\'s that word, now? One that gets used about politicians a fair old bit?</p>','The real danger of Twitter','','publish','open','closed','','the-real-danger-of-twitter','','','2011-01-28 08:07:35','2011-01-28 08:07:35','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/2010/02/27/the-real-danger-of-twitter/',0,'post','',0),(3026,1,'2010-02-28 09:33:40','2010-02-28 09:33:40','<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/fluency.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-3027\" style=\"margin-left:8px;\" title=\"fluency\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/fluency.jpgblog/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/fluency-300x229.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"229\" /></a>One of the many great things about Wordpress is that it\'s supported by a worldwide group of highly talented developers who are always adding extra tricks. Here\'s one I just discovered. It comes from Dean J. Robinson who also produced the Dear Diary theme used for this blog.\n\n<a href=\"http://deanjrobinson.com/projects/fluency-admin/\" target=\"_blank\">Fluency</a> rewrites the Wordpress admin system to make it look a lot slicker and, more importantly, let you find the bits you want a lot more quickly. Click on the thumbnail on the right and you\'ll see what I mean. Very neat indeed. You can change the colour to blue by selecting a different colour scheme for the user by the way.','Making Wordpress easier to use','','publish','open','closed','','making-wordpress-easier-to-use','','','2011-01-28 08:07:35','2011-01-28 08:07:35','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/?p=3026',0,'post','',0),(3006,1,'2010-03-01 08:10:37','2010-03-01 08:10:37','An American writer friend of mine, late one night in a bar in New York somewhere, leaned over to me once and whispered, \'You know the trouble with readers? They\'re dumb. You spend a chunk of your life making your books all rich and sophisticated and full of hidden meanings for them to stumble on. And they never do. They just read the story and then they\'re done.\'\n\nHere\'s another perspective on that viewpoint. Authors can sometimes be very stupid too. They can assume a level of knowledge, sophistication and commitment on the part of their readers that is simply unrealistic. They become obsessed with small details no one notices. They lose themselves in the trees and forget that people are there to see &nbsp;the forest.\n\nAn example...\n\n<!--more-->\n\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"500\" caption=\"Florian, the grand Venetian café in the Piazza San Marco\"]<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/florian.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/florian-tm.jpg\" alt=\"Florian.JPG\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\"></a>[/caption]\n\nThis is Florian, the famous Venetian café, pictured by me during this year\'s carnival. I used it -- sparingly -- in <em>The Cemetery of Secrets</em> (or <em>Lucifer\'s Shadow</em> depending where you are in the world and when you bought the book).\n\nThat story got a lot of acclaim. Here\'s part of the review by one of America\'s prize veteran critics Dick Adler writing about it in the <em>Chicago Tribune...</em>\n<blockquote>Tasty little insider jokes abound: The 1733 hero wonders in a letter why the pompous owner of a popular coffeehouse called Triofante \"doesn\'t just name the place after himself and have done with it.\" The fact that the 1733 owner\'s name was Floriano Francesconi, and the present-day coffeehouse (now the home of the $20 cup of espresso) is named Florian\'s, is part of the book\'s pleasure. Vivaldi is a sadly grotesque but still powerful musical force, and even the French writer Rousseau comes in for his share of needling.\n\nAdd horribly believable scenes of violence, enough sex to ensure the city\'s reputation for romance, as well as great gobbets of food and scenery both splendid and squalid, and you begin to see why <em>Lucifer\'s Shadow</em> is unputdownable.</blockquote>\nGreat review. Dick, though, knows Venice well. He used to live there once (and maybe still does for all I know). I reread that book shortly before it was republished in the UK as <em>The Cemetery of Secrets</em> last year. I was amazed by the number of in-jokes I\'d stuffed in. Why did I do it? For the old mountaineer\'s reason I guess -- because I could. That book was written under extraordinary circumstances, which I will explain here on Wednesday. I seriously believed it might be the last novel I ever managed to publish. So I bunged in everything I could to see what it looked like.\n\nI don\'t do that now. The problem is that those in-jokes only made sense to someone who knew Venice, and knew it pretty well. No casual visitor was likely to get them. You had to visit the place, read some serious history books, become absorbed entirely in the city. Here\'s the catch: that\'s what I\'m supposed to be doing on behalf of the reader, then recreating it for their imaginations. They shouldn\'t have to bring much more to the party themselves except some spare time, a willingness to read, and an open, receptive mind.\n\nIt is terribly tempting to be over-sophisticated when writing fiction. To assume a level of knowledge on the part of the reader that is simply impractical. We all live in an overcrowded, rushed world. Readers don\'t have the time they once had. There are so many other distractions too. Readers in Victorian times could devote themselves to long and complex books because they had nothing else to do. Today they\'re fighting not to be distracted by something else before they turn the page.\n\nSo in-jokes and arcane sophistication are, for me, out. I write fairly long and complex books in the first place. They also demand the reader be willing to imagine themselves into another country, and become acquainted with aspects of history unfamiliar to them. I doubtless tread a fine line and possibly cross over it on occasion. But you can\'t push them poor souls too far. They simply won\'t go there.\n\nThe rule I try to stick to is simple: no one should need to turn to another book in order to understand mine. That\'s not to say I hope my work doesn\'t tempt you to read something else -- or, in the case of <em>Dante\'s Numbers</em>, look at that great film <em>Vertigo.</em> But that should be your choice -- not a prerequisite to understanding my story.\n\nSophistication is fine but it needs to be kept under a tight rein. The dividing line between being simply clever and being a smartass is a very fine and grey one at times.','Sophistication ahead: write with care','','publish','open','closed','','sophistication-ahead-write-with-care','','','2011-01-28 08:07:34','2011-01-28 08:07:34','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/?p=3006',0,'post','',0),(3009,1,'2010-03-02 08:26:02','2010-03-02 08:26:02','I\'ve two books coming out over the next twelve months -- the ninth Nic Costa novel, <em>The Fallen Angel</em>, and the rewrite of my first book, set in Spain, and now titled <em>Death in Seville</em> (original title <em>Semana Santa).</em>\n\nThat means very soon I will get two sets of line edits to go through. For the uninitiated out there let me explain a little bit of the process that happens after you write a book.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nThis is how it works for me. The first edit is with my primary editors (in London and New York). Their advice is general and will help me end up with a better manuscript all round. That\'s done for both the books due over the next year.\n\nWhat happens next is a line edit. This is when a copy editor casts a critical eye on the text and hopefully spots spelling, punctuation, logic and what the movie business calls \'continuity\' -- errors of accuracy, such as someone having red hair in one scene and brown in the next.\n\nFinally I will get back galleys -- the book in its final typeset form. In theory there ought to be few problems by this stage. In practice, for reasons I\'ve never really understood, you still have to read those galleys like a hawk to see what has still slipped through.\n\nI\'m now at the second stage. I\'d like to think that at this point in my career I\'m pretty good at punctuation, spelling and continuity. But there are bound to be some logical errors in there somewhere -- events that don\'t quite link, statements that have stayed in when the references to which they pertain have been excised.\n\nHere\'s the difference between a newbie writer and a seasoned one. When those glitches become apparent the newbie will spend endless hours trying to fix them, rewriting, juggling scenes, often turning a simple knot into a horrible mess of tangles. There is a perpetual problem with changing things at this stage of a book: you always have to check the knock-on effect elsewhere in the narrative.\n\nThink of this in terms of a movie, which is always shot out of sequence, based on location not the movement of the story. Imagine an actor ad libs a line at some point. It\'s a great line. Everyone loves it. Everyone wants to see it in the finished film. But the problem is that line invalidates the content of a scene elsewhere, one that\'s already been shot. Do you go back and reshoot the earlier scene? Maybe. But if you do that another scene is ruined. And then another...\n\nIt\'s easier to rewrite a book than reshoot a movie. But it can still be a horrible pain. So let me tell you how a seasoned writer will usually respond to such bumps in the road, most of which concern, let\'s be frank, matters that are decidedly minor.\n\nYou cut them out. Gone. Vanished. Disappeared.\n\nRemember the word \'edit\'? Here\'s a definition from my Mac OS X dictionary: \'remove unnecessary or inappropriate words, sounds, or scenes from a text, movie, or radio or television program\'.\n\nMake it gone and see if the story is diminished in any way by its removal. My guess is that 90 per cent of logistical copy editor queries can be dealt with more easily by excision than by some tortuous rewrite. So save yourself the grief and wield that red pen without mercy. Editors -- and readers -- scream \'less\' more often than they shout \'more\'.&nbsp;','When in doubt, cut it out','','publish','open','closed','','when-in-doubt-cut-it-out','','','2011-01-28 08:07:34','2011-01-28 08:07:34','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/?p=3009',0,'post','',0),(3040,1,'2010-03-03 07:56:42','2010-03-03 07:56:42','<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/cemetery-of-secrets-pbb-300.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright\" style=\"margin-left:8px;\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/cemetery-of-secrets-pbb-300-tm.jpg\" alt=\"Cemetery of Secrets PBB 300.JPG\" width=\"102\" height=\"154\" /></a>Books come about in funny ways. One of my most popular, and one some people believe is among my best, came about through the oddest route of all: what I thought might be the end of my brief career as a novelist.\n\nThis story begins in 1999 when I was four books through a contract with my previous publisher, with one title to deliver. Big changes were happening with them -- new bosses, new staff, new strategies. Three things that send a shiver through any midlist author who happens to have spent a little time with the house now about to be reinvented and hasn\'t exactly set the world on fire.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/lucifer.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright\" style=\"margin-left:8px;\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/lucifer-tm.jpg\" alt=\"Lucifer.jpg\" width=\"102\" height=\"151\" /></a>Though no one said as much I was pretty convinced I was going to be dropped once I delivered that last book. Nevertheless, being, I hope, a responsible author I made serious attempts to get an opinion about what kind of book they were expecting for this new one. I wasn\'t a series writer at the time. Truthfully I didn\'t know what kind of writer I was. Nor was anyone going to enlighten me. I had to find that out for myself. No complaints there. That\'s how things are.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nWhat this meant was that I found myself writing something that had no expectations from anyone. No preconceived ideas what kind of book it might be. No genre. No style demands. Nothing.\n\nI mulled over this for a while and decided to go for broke, writing something that was rather more upmarket and \'literary\' than anything I\'d tried before. I was still a journalist with the <em>Sunday Times</em> at the time and I went on a short assignment -- to cover the launch of Hewlett Packard servers if I recall correctly -- in Venice, in the Hotel des Bains, Thomas Mann\'s place, to be precise. It was as interesting as server launch events can be but Venice started to fascinate me.\n\nI went back another time and bumped into a musician who was clearly obsessed with his work. Obsession is always a good starting point for any story. Finally, the idea of a book set around a missing instrument and a piece of music began to emerge. I started writing the contemporary element and soon realised that I needed to understand the historic back story -- in the early 18th century, the time of Vivaldi too -- too. So, purely for research purposes in the beginning, I began to write that historic tale, spending a small fortune on travel and obscure academic tomes about printing and music in the Venice of the 18th century.\n\nThe result was <em>Lucifer\'s Shadow.</em> My then publisher realised this was quite a special book. It got fabulous reviews and a good reception from readers. But by that stage they were, I suspect, mentally pushing me out of the building. So it didn\'t sell much for the simple reason it never found its way into many book stores.\n\nWhen the first Nic Costa novel <em>A Season for the Dead</em> sold in the US I pushed a copy of <em>Lucifer</em> under the nose of my editor there. She loved it and brought it out as a successful standalone title there, where it won a lot of plaudits, including a \'one of the best of the year\' award from <em><a href=\"http://www.deadlypleasures.com/dp2004.html\" target=\"_blank\">Deadly Pleasures</a></em>. Now, with my current publisher Macmillan, it\'s enjoying a very healthy second life in the UK as <em>The Cemetery of Secrets</em>, with some good coverage in book stores finally.\n\nThis is a very unusual and adventurous book, moving from the early 18th century to the present day in two linked stories which mirror very similar -- or the same? -- characters facing the same dilemmas and temptations and discovering new ways to approach them. I would <em>never</em> have written this book if an editor had said to me, \'You\'re a crime-thriller-mystery author. Go away and write something that matches the genre you\'re in.\'\n\nThe book came about because no one had any expectations of it. I was effectively writing outside of contract, a lone wolf hunting for something that would help define me as a writer, unconstricted by any boundaries whatsoever.\n\nIt did define me too. This was my first Italian book and when I was working on the revise I spent a week in Rome editing it. I wanted to be in a location that was Italian but not the actual scene for the book. Rome seemed to make sense. When I wasn\'t editing that manuscript I was wandering the city, slowly becoming engrossed in its character, making mental notes of aspects that interested me.\n\nAs I expected I was dumped by my old publisher after <em>Lucifer\'s Shadow</em> came out. They were offered first sight of <em>A Season for the Dead</em> and turned it down. Happily, Macmillan, and later many other publishers, felt differently.\n\nToday I write in the knowledge that there are expectations of my work, and that some people will feel disappointed if I fail to meet them. In a way that\'s good I guess. But those of you taking your first few steps towards this business should remember: the freedom you have now may not last, and the direction you take will probably begin to define your future somewhat.\n\nThe more one writes popular fiction, the more the expectations -- of readers and publishers -- begin to grow. That\'s both good <em>and</em> bad. And probably unavoidable.','Not so great expectations','','publish','open','closed','','not-so-great-expectations','','','2011-01-28 08:07:34','2011-01-28 08:07:34','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/?p=3040',0,'post','',0),(3052,1,'2010-03-04 07:30:39','2010-03-04 07:30:39','Writing software comes up with a million different ways to make what used to be called notes in the margin, reminders, observations, possibilities. Over the years I must have tried every one.\n\nScrivener has more than one method too. But as I get older I crave simplicity so here\'s the one I use.\n\n<img style=\"padding-left:4px;\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/screen-shot-2010-03-01-at-17-19-13.png\" alt=\"Screen shot 2010-03-01 at 17.19.13.png\" width=\"500\" height=\"88\">\n\nIt\'s called annotations. You get it by hitting a simple keyboard combo, shift-command-A. All it does is let you write in a simple piece of text that has this very visible piece of formatting. Why do I prefer this over other more techno-fancy solutions such as hidden notes? A few reasons...\n<ul>\n	<li>It\'s very easy to see which also means it\'s very hard to miss. Those notes that disappear from sight are often easily lost, at least they are for me.</li>\n	<li>It tells you what it wants to say without asking you to click on anything.</li>\n	<li>It\'s just text so it comes up on a simple search. If you have a scheme for inserting, say, an annotation called \'rewrite\' you can spot every one just by typing \'rewrite\' into the search field.</li>\n	<li>When you\'re finished with it you just delete the annotation like any other text.</li>\n	<li>The default formatting is plug ugly, which makes me want to deal with the thing even more.</li>\n</ul>\nDead simple. I like that.','Annotations: keep it simple','','publish','open','closed','','annotations-keep-it-simple','','','2011-01-28 08:07:34','2011-01-28 08:07:34','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/?p=3052',0,'post','',0),(3180,1,'2010-03-18 08:00:53','2010-03-18 08:00:53','Budding writers obsess about many things but at the&nbsp; classes I\'ve taught three often come top of the \'tell me more\' list. Characterisation. Research. And the simple business of putting words on the page -- how to find the time, how to do it properly.\n\nHere’s a subject I rarely get asked about even though it\'s one of the most important there is in the craft of modern popular fiction: point of view (POV).\n\nPerhaps this is because lots of people write their first book in the first person where POV is less important -- or more accurately, less capable of being used to enrich the narrative. But even if you\'re a first person writer a bit of understanding of POV is important.\n\nThis is a big subject, one that could make an entire book. So don\'t look to me to do much more than skim the surface here, or look at more than a single, fine point. Today that\'s simply going to be an example of how POV works in the book I\'m writing -- one you will see in 2012 -- and what it might add to the narrative at a crucial point.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nThe story is this. The lead character is in Venice looking for a relative who\'s disappeared mysteriously. It\'s carnival time. The place is full of people in disguise, in masks. She\'s no idea where to look, no idea either, sometimes, who the characters she meets really are, or whether they\'re helpful, neutral or positively antagonistic.\n\nUp to the beginning of the final act the story is written from the POV of the lead character. In other words in every scene we see things through her eyes, as if we were a little creature seated on her shoulder, able to hear her internal thoughts. Technically this is known as \'subjective third person\' to distinguish it from \'objective third person\' in which the reader doesn\'t see inside the character\'s head.\n\nI don\'t normally work like this -- though most writers do. Most of my books -- <em>The Blue Demon</em> being a good example -- use multiple points of view to represent a moving thread of story elements involving different but related characters approaching the same problem through varying paths. Since I write with an ensemble cast of regular characters, not a single dominant protagonist, this seems to make sense to me, and it gives me the breadth of story I\'m looking for.\n\nBut this book is different. It\'s about one person on her own, stranded in a very chilly and foreign Venice, looking for answers. I want readers to feel her sense of frustration and, on occasion, fear as she fumbles her way towards discovering what\'s happened to someone she loves dearly. So every scene is viewed through the character\'s eyes right up to the point that the final act -- where a resolution begins to appear -- commences, and she starts to see, she thinks, the true identity of those around her.\n\nHere\'s the problem. Any single continuous point of view naturally lulls the reader into a sense of complacency. I\'m not talking about lazy or bad writing here. This is going to happen with all writing that continues in the same vein after a while. When we find ourselves in that last act -- like a plane turning onto the final approach to the runway -- I need to signal the moment somehow.\n\nI could have a light bulb go on in her head. I could engineer some revelatory event. There are quite a few things I could do and maintain the single third person point of view I\'ve used throughout.\n\nBut I\'m after a shock here. A jolt. This is a story about someone very bad secreting themselves in a frozen winter Venice at carnival time, hiding behind a variety of masks to do terrible things. My protagonist wants, more than anything, to remove that mask and expose him to the bright, judgemental light of day.\n\nHow do I set in train that process?\n\nHere’s one other way. Totally out of the blue the narrative changes point of view entirely. Instead of the reader sitting on the shoulder of our heroine, they turn the page and find they\'re suddenly sitting on the shoulder of the villain. They\'re seeing things through someone else\'s eyes for a change. The bad guy\'s. The devil\'s. With a simple flick of POV I put the reader into the head of the person we\'ve been chasing all along, and never knowing quite who or what he is.\n\nCue: a quick and possibly cheap thrill (so long as it works I\'m not proud).\n\nThat\'s what I\'m going to try anyway.\n\nPoint of view is an incredibly powerful mechanism if you can use it creatively and against the run of the reader\'s expectations.\n\nWith the last point in mind I trust you will have forgotten all this by the time the book hits the shelves two years or so from now.','A different point of view','','publish','open','closed','','a-different-point-of-view','','','2011-01-28 08:07:01','2011-01-28 08:07:01','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/?p=3180',0,'post','',0),(3221,1,'2010-03-18 10:10:42','2010-03-18 10:10:42','<p><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/the-deadly-percheron.jpg\" width=\"162\" height=\"242\" alt=\"The Deadly Percheron.jpg\" style=\"float:right;margin-left:8px;\" />Sometimes you say things on Twitter without thinking. Well <i>mostly</i> you do that -- let\'s be honest. Today I read a news story on the BBC about two bank robbers, one of them dressed as a leprechaun, getting shot dead by cops in Tennessee. \'Put that in a book and no one wd believe you,\' I wrote.</p>\n<p>I then remembered. There\'s one truly great and much-ignored crime classic that <i>does</i> have leprechauns in it. A wonderful book, one that\'s both entertaining and richly imagined too. If you haven\'t read it, or tried the work of the author, you ought to honest.</p>\n<p>It\'s <i><a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Deadly-Percheron-John-Franklin-Bardin/dp/1933618108\" target=\"_blank\">The Deadly Percheron</a></i> by John Franklin Bardin.</p>\n<p>Here is Allan Guthrie\'s excellent summation of the opening from a review on Amazon...</p>\n<blockquote>\n  <p>Dr George Matthews, a psychiatrist, encounters a patient who claims he is paid by a leprechaun to wear a flower in his hair. Another, he claims, pays him to whistle at Carnegie Hall during performances. A third pays him to give quarters away. Jacob Blunt wants Dr Matthews to confirm that he\'s mad. Dr Matthews is curious, so he accompanies his patient to a rendezvous with one of the leprechauns. His name is Eustace and he isn\'t at all pleased to see the doctor.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>Magical stuff. Do try it. Oh, and best ignore that tweet.</p>','Leprechauns rob banks - true or false','','publish','open','closed','','leprechauns-rob-banks-true-or-false','','','2011-01-28 08:07:01','2011-01-28 08:07:01','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/2010/03/18/leprechauns-rob-banks-true-or-false/',0,'post','',0),(3188,1,'2010-03-19 07:54:24','2010-03-19 07:54:24','This has been a big week for the current work in progress. I\'m now firmly on the path to the close, for the first draft anyway. So the past few days have been spent not just writing but also wrangling with some of the perennial problems of bringing to an end a book that is only outlined in the roughest of senses.\n\nThere\'s a lot to do in terms of structure and sequencing of events. There are also a lot of notes to be made about material that I\'ve already written that will need to be looked at again in the light of what happens over the next few scenes. This is always the case with me. The first thing I do when I\'ve finished a first draft is go back and start the rewrite process. I can\'t see any way round this -- and actually I think it\'s quite a positive chore too. It makes you look more closely at what you\'ve done.\n\nBut here\'s one lesson from the past few days. Not a new one for me, but I always forget it until the need comes up, as it usually does at this stage.\n\nProblem: I\'ve got a few sequenced scenes leading to the denouement. The content works fine. The people are right. So are their actions. But there\'s something not quite there.\n\nWhat do I do?\n\n<!--more-->\n\nWhen I was starting out the answer was plain: start rewriting the whole thing, even though in my heart I felt it was essentially OK. I\'m older now and if not wiser, a little more experienced. The solution happens to be a lot easier.\n\nThese scenes took place during the morning, directly after a pivotal event in the previous chapter. <em>Wrong decision</em>. What I needed to do was put them back so that they take place at night. This is more atmospheric. It better suits the kind of denouement I have in mind. And it leaves the space for a brief scene at the front of this section which will serve a couple of purposes...\n<ul>\n	<li>To feed in some essential information for the narrative</li>\n	<li>To act as a buffer to the rhythm. The previous scene ended at quite a pace. Some writers try to do pace constantly. I like to vary it. By throwing the pace from fast to medium/slow I get in some essential background and, if I do it well, manage to <em>increase</em> the tension. How? Because readers know they\'re heading to the end and if you just hold back a little bit on the finale they\'ll be all the more anxious for it by the time they get there.</li>\n</ul>\nThat\'s the theory anyway.','Small change, big difference','','publish','open','closed','','small-change-big-difference','','','2011-01-28 08:07:01','2011-01-28 08:07:01','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/?p=3188',0,'post','',0),(3238,1,'2010-03-19 14:47:15','2010-03-19 14:47:15','<strong>Rome under siege: past  meets present in the world of politics</strong>\n\n<img class=\"alignright noborder\" title=\"the-blue-demon.jpg-n7005b1005d-2\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/the-blue-demon-n7005b1005d-2.jpg?w=201\" alt=\"\" width=\"201\" height=\"300\" /><img class=\"noborder alignright\" title=\"city-of-fear-2\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/city-of-fear-2.jpg?w=203\" alt=\"\" width=\"203\" height=\"300\" />\n\nThe  eighth novel in the bestselling Nic Costa series takes a thrilling  journey into the world of real-life international politics. <em>The Blue  Demon </em>(in the US <em>City of Fear) </em>is now available in the UK  from Pan Macmillan and in the US from Bantam  Dell.\n\nThe book is set entirely in Rome and the nearby Maremma  countryside, and tell the story of a terrorist attack on a Rome already  crippled by a G8 summit. The Italian president, locked in a political battle with his bitter enemy, the prime minister, enlists Costa and his colleagues to get to the bottom of a mystery that has dogged the nation for a quarter of a century.\n\nWho is behind the mysterious terrorist group known as The Blue Demon? And how far do their tentacles reach into the heights of Italian politics?\n<blockquote>Hewson at the top of his form -- Yorkshire Evening Post\n\nWell-drawn characters, a brisk pace, and some unexpected plot twists provide a satisfying read -- Publishers Weekly\n\nAnother of Hewson\'s impeccably written thrillers with (once again) perfect balance between the exigencies of the thriller plot and the carefully conjured locales -- Good Book Guide\n\nIn past reviews, we’ve called  this series a “superb mix of history,  mystery, and humanity.” That  assessment is further reaffirmed with each  new entry -- Booklist, Starred Review</blockquote>\n<strong><img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-3772 noborder\" title=\"seville\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/seville1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"203\" height=\"315\" />Death in Seville: the Spanish classic is back</strong>\n\nCompletely rewritten, with new scenes and research on location in Seville, David\'s first book will be back on the shelves in November as <em><a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/seville1.jpgbooks/standalones/death-in-seville/\">Death in Seville</a>. </em>\n\nFirst published<em> </em>in 1996 as<em> Semana Santa,</em> the book was later made into a movie starring Mira Sorvino and Olivier Martinez.<em> </em>It was one of the winners of the WH Smith Fresh Talent Competition for the best first novels of the year.','The new Nic Costa is here','','draft','closed','closed','','front-page','','','2010-03-19 14:47:15','2010-03-19 14:47:15','',0,'http://s91710.gridserver.com/?page_id=3238',0,'page','',0),(3236,1,'2010-03-19 18:26:30','2010-03-19 18:26:30','You can contact me through the form here.  I regret I\'m unable to blurb any books right now or offer individual responses on writing technique, software, ebook and other publishing issues including piracy. There just isn\'t time. If you want to know what I think about these matters please take a look at the blog.\r\n\r\n[si-contact-form form=\'1\']','Contact','','publish','closed','closed','','contact','','','2011-04-18 09:39:46','2011-04-18 08:39:46','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/?page_id=3236',0,'page','',0),(4354,1,'2010-03-19 13:56:44','2010-03-19 20:56:44','<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img class=\"size-large wp-image-3381  aligncenter\" title=\"david hewson\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/david-hewson.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"\" width=\"497\" height=\"329\" /><em>Picture: Mark Bothwell</em></p>\r\nSome basic facts. My novels have been translated into a wide range of languages, from Italian to Japanese, and my debut work, <em>Semana Santa</em>, set in Holy Week Spain, was filmed with Mira Sorvino.\r\n\r\nI was born in Yorkshire in 1953 and left school at the age of seventeen to work as a cub reporter on one of the smallest evening newspapers in the country in Scarborough. Eight years later I was a staff reporter on The Times in London, covering news, business and latterly working as arts correspondent. I worked on the launch of the Independent and was a weekly columnist for the Sunday Times for a decade before giving up journalism entirely in 2005 to focus on writing fiction.\r\n\r\n<em>Semana Santa</em> won the WH Smith Fresh Talent award for one of the best debut novels of the year in 1996 and was later made into a movie starring Mira Sorvino and Olivier Martinez. Four standalone works followed before <em>A Season for the Dead, </em>the first in a series set in Italy. The titles are published in numerous languages around the world including Chinese and Japanese… and Italian.\r\n\r\nI\'ve featured regularly on the speaker lists of leading international book events, including the Melbourne and Ottawa writers’ festivals, the Harrogate Crime Festival, Thrillerfest, Bouchercon and Left Coast Crime. I\'ve taught at writing schools around the world, notably at the Book Passage Mystery Writers Conference in Corte Madera, California, where I\'ve worked alongside writers such as Martin Cruz Smith and Michael Connelly.\r\n\r\nIn 2006 I launched a campaigning web-site save-wye which was instrumental in a successful battle to prevent one of the largest environmental threats to the countryside of Kent in southern England. My non-fiction book on the campaign to defend Wye from development, <em>Saved</em>, was published in May 2007. I live close to Wye, Kent.','About','','publish','closed','closed','','about-2','','','2011-02-05 19:40:51','2011-02-05 19:40:51','',0,'http://s91710.gridserver.com/?page_id=2',0,'page','',0),(3302,1,'2010-03-20 03:40:00','2010-03-20 03:40:00','Since the first Nic Costa title,&nbsp;<em>A Season for the Dead</em>, appeared in 2003 the series has grown a book a year, and spread to some twenty different languages around the world including Japanese, Thai, French, Spanish and Italian. It has won multiple plaudits including, most recently the American Library Association award for Best Mystery of 2008 for the sixth book,&nbsp;<em>The Garden of Evil</em>.\n\nI never expected any of this, trust me. In fact when I wrote&nbsp;<em>A Season for the Dead</em> I honestly believed my career as a writer might well be over.\n\nAfter I wrote&nbsp;<em>Lucifer’s Shadow</em> – now rereleased in the UK as&nbsp;<em>The Cemetery of Secrets</em> – I found myself out of contract with my then publisher.&nbsp;<em>Lucifer</em> was the first book I ever set in Italy. I loved writing it, and edited the final draft in a little apartment in Rome, simply because I felt like being in Italy, though not in Venice where it was set.\n\nI’d visited Rome a couple of times before as a journalist. But on this occasion I was there for a whole week and the place took my breath away. I determined to set the next book there, enrolled at a language school to study Italian and tried, as best I could, to see the city through the eyes of Romans.\n\nNic Costa came out of knowing what I didn’t want to write: a conventional crime character. In other words someone who was melancholic, alcoholic, middle-aged, dour, divorced…. you get the picture. Instead I wanted someone full of integrity and enthusiasm, young, a little naive, someone who was looking for something. Enter the young agente who’s grown steadily over the years to become the character he is today, now surrounded by a mature and familiar cast of regulars.\n\nThat was the serendipitous path that led to&nbsp;<em>A Season for the Dead</em>. With my customary sense of great timing I managed to deliver to my then publisher on September 11, 2001. He rejected it quite harshly as ‘unpublishable’. A few months later I was in a new home, the enthusiastic hands of Pan Macmillan, with a new editor, Maria Rejt, who told me what I wanted to hear: this wasn’t a standalone novel at all, it was a new series.\n\nAnd here we are. Which, for those of you trying to write yourselves, demonstrates two eternal facts about books. First, this can be a very odd business indeed. And second, they don’t grow on trees. You have to go out there and chase them down. Books are about life, and if you don’t experience much of that you’ve got no stories to tell.','The Costa series','','publish','closed','closed','','the-nic-costa-series','','','2011-02-01 12:51:51','2011-02-01 12:51:51','',0,'http://s91710.gridserver.com/?page_id=3302',0,'page','',2),(3304,1,'2010-03-20 03:43:26','2010-03-20 03:43:26','<img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-3412 noborder\" title=\"THE BLUE DEMON\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/the-blue-demon.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"237\" height=\"353\" />The eighth Nic Costa novel, <em>The Blue Demon</em>(UK) and <em>City of Fear</em> (US), is set entirely in Rome and the area north of the city stretching towards Tuscany known as the Maremma. It’s the first book in the series set in the world of international politics.\n\nThe narrative takes place over a few days in which Rome comes to a halt with the arrival of a world G8 summit due to take place in the Quirinale Palace, the former pope’s palazzo that sits atop the Quirinal Hill. A minor Italian politician has been kidnapped, apparently in an attempt to extract information about the summit. Costa and Falcone are summoned to the Quirinale for a meeting with the Italian president, Dario Sordi, and his security advisers. There they learn that a former terrorist band known as The Blue Demon, long thought dead, has seemingly revived and is threatening to bring chaos to the city for the summit. Sordi, a wily friend of Costa’s late father, believes there is more to the story than meets the eye and wants him and his friends to look more closely at the background of these home-grown terrorists, led by a former professor of Etruscan studies, Andrea Petrakis.\n\n<img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-3413 noborder\" title=\"City of Fear\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/city-of-fear.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"239\" height=\"353\" />As always I try to blend real Italian history into a modern fictional tale. Part of the story concerns the tragically limited legacy of the Etruscan nation, the predecessors of Imperial Rome who saw their language and culture effectively destroyed when they were defeated by the predecessors of Caesar. While most of the story takes place in Rome there is a brief detour into the Maremma where the vivid and occasionally shocking tombs of the Etruscans have been excavated (and there is a real life Blue Demon, not that he’s easily seen).\n\nThe story also embraces more modern history, that of the tragic ‘Years of Lead’ when Italy was gripped by domestic terrorism from both left and right. The true nature of these outrages is now largely known. Their real-life provenance may come as a shock to those unfamiliar with recent Italian history which is why I provide a detailed author’s note at the end of the book. Truth sometimes really is stranger than fiction.\n\nI also wanted to delve a little into Costa’s family background. His father died in the first book of the series, A Season for the Dead. He always struck me as a very interesting character, and I know a number of readers felt the same way. So in this book, through the character of Dario Sordi, we learn more about him and begin to understand something of his fate, and how his own personality shaped that of his son.\n\nBut these are subterranean currents in what I hope is a fast-moving and exciting story, a tale of intrigue and political assassination of the cruellest kind. It’s no coincidence that Sordi reveals to Costa in the book that a gift he gave his late father comprised the two books Robert Graves wrote, <em>I, Claudius</em> and <em>Claudius the God,</em> about the dangers of life in the Imperial court of Rome two thousand years ago. I write about history not for history’s sake, but to try to point up how little human beings have changed over the millennia. Sordi’s fondness for the books finds him reading them towards the story’s climax, and this is no accident.\n\nI started writing this story in the summer of 2007 and finished it around July 2008. During that time real-life Italian politics changed enormously. I’m merely a storyteller. I foresaw none of this, nor any of the more recent shenanigans that have shaken the nation’s political classes of late, however much they may seem to mesh with certain aspects of the story.\n\n<em>Reviews</em>\n\n<em>Publishers Weekly</em>\n\nA threatened terrorist attack during a G8 conference spells trouble both personal and professional for sovrintendente Nic Costa in Hewson\'s assured eighth novel to feature the Roman police detective (after <em>Dante\'s Numbers</em>). Italian president Dario Sordi, a former friend of Costa\'s late father, asks Costa to look into the re-emergence of the Blue Demon, a strange terrorist group fascinated with Etruscan civilization, which is linked to past and present-day murders of bland civil servants and an imminent strike against the conference delegates. As Costa and his team of investigators examine the trails of evidence more closely, what they find does not match the official facts and reveals uneasy connections to the government and other agents that may point to a larger conspiracy. Well-drawn characters, a brisk pace, and some unexpected plot twists provide a satisfying read for the political thriller fan.\n\n<em>Good Book Guide</em>\n\nAnother of Hewson\'s impeccably written thrillers with (once again) perfect balance between the exigencies of the thriller plot and the carefully conjured locales. Hewson’s Italian-set crime sequence has, as protagonist, the resourceful Nic Costa, and Costa’s stamping grounds -- Venice and Rome -- are conjured for the reader in novels that combine atmosphere with judicious plotting. Hewson fans will find <em>The Blue Demon</em> has the usual level of storytelling acumen – with Nic investigating the ritual murder of a politician during a G8 summit in Rome. The plotting has a satisfyingly labyrinthine complexity, proving that Hewson has lost none of his grip.\n\n<em>Yorkshire Evening Post</em>\n\nThe Italian-based mysteries featuring detective Nic Costa have enabled David Hewson to carve out a prominent position in the crime fiction genre.  And rightly so:  his thoughtful plots and excellent characterisation are a formidable combination.  <em>The Blue Demon</em> – volume eight in the Costa series – finds Hewson at the top of his form’\n\n<em>Booklist</em>\n\n*Starred Review* Hewson’s eighth novel starring Rome police  sovrintendente Nic Costa returns to the rich themes that drove The  Garden of Evil (2008): the commingling of sensuality and perverted  idealism. In Garden, the subject was Caravaggio; here it is the  Etruscans, whose hedonistic, life-affirming civilization was crushed by  the Romans.\n\nAs always, Hewson builds an elaborate  plot, extending deep into ancient history but evoking fascinating  parallels with contemporary situations. Here, the sensitive but largely  ineffectual Italian president, himself sympathetic, like the terrorists,  to the Etruscan way of life, seems overwhelmed by the ruthless,  power-hungry conspirators he opposes, much as the Etruscans were  vanquished by the Romans’ “burning desire to own and rule.” But will  Costa and his determined band of ruggedly individual, antiauthoritarian  colleagues be able to alter the equation? In past reviews, we’ve called  this series a “superb mix of history, mystery, and humanity.” That  assessment is further reaffirmed with each new entry. --Bill Ott\n\n<em>Richmond Times-Despatch</em>\n\n...as Hewson spins his tale, the heroics of Nic\'s squad lead to what may prove to be a significant departure in the author\'s next installment. What will not change, though, given his body of work, is Hewson\'s compelling storytelling and elegant prose, his ability to give depth to his characters and his knack for making Italy\'s past part of each of his novels.\n\n\"City of Fear\" succeeds as a thriller, of course, but this is a novel of greater importance, grounded in history and geopolitics and the inherent falsehoods in each. The weapons-of-mass-destruction crowd might find this smart work of fiction instructive.','The Blue Demon (City of Fear)','','publish','closed','closed','','the-blue-demon-city-of-fear','','','2011-02-01 12:50:51','2011-02-01 12:50:51','',3302,'http://s91710.gridserver.com/?page_id=3304',1,'page','',0),(3306,1,'2010-03-20 03:43:45','2010-03-20 03:43:45','<em><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-3474 noborder\" title=\"danteuk\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/danteuk.jpeg?w=196\" alt=\"\" width=\"196\" height=\"300\" />Nic Costa and team step outside Italy for the first time…</em>\n\nIn the gorgeous grounds of Rome’s Villa Borghese park the glitterati of the movie world are gathered for a world premiere. A legendary Italian movie director has come out of retirement to create a blockbuster based on Dante’s Inferno. But, as Nic Costa and his colleagues attempt to guard the precious collection of historic artefacts attached to the event, the premiere is disrupted by tragedy and a horrific murder.\n\nIs a disgruntled admirer of Dante taking his revenge on the cast of the movie? Or are more mundane motives, the dubious financing of the film through criminal connections, to blame? Before Costa and crew have the chance to find out they are removed from the inquiry and find themselves sidelined by the Carabinieri.\n\n<img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-3476 noborder\" title=\"dante us\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/dante-us.png?w=189\" alt=\"\" width=\"189\" height=\"300\" />But when the movie premiere shifts to California and the iconic surroundings of the Marina in San Francisco his inspector, Leo Falcone, manages to bring them along to work on the investigation from the sidelines. And as life begins to resemble art, Costa and his friends come to realise that the inspiration behind these crimes may be more recent than the Carabinieri suspect. Resonating between Dante’s famous classic and Hitchcock’s masterpiece movie <em>Vertigo</em>,<em>Dante’s Numbers</em> (<em>The Dante Killings </em>in the US) is an elegant, original thriller destined to break new ground — and has already won the praise of some of the most famous authors in the world.\n\nWhat some other authors think of <em>Dante’s Numbers</em>\n\n<strong>Jeffery Deaver</strong><em>\n</em>\nThe return of Nic Costa is a true cause for celebration! Dante’s Numbers is a literate, page-turning tale that finds our hero—one of the most appealing in crime fiction — zipping between two of the most iconic cities in the world: Rome and San Francisco. Hewson is a daunting talent — a writer who is a master stylist, who respects the audience’s intelligence and who effortlessly keeps the thrills coming a mile a minute.\n\n<strong>Linwood Barclay</strong>, author of <em>No Time for Goodbye</em>\n\nThis is a tour de force from one of the most original thriller writers around. With Dante-inspired villainy, Hitchcock obsessives, and an abundance of imaginative twists and turns David Hewson pulls out all the stops. Unmissable.\n\n<strong>Douglas Preston</strong>, author of <em>The Monster of Florence</em> and <em>Blasphemy</em>\n\nOne of my all-time favorite fictional detectives is David Hewson’s Nic Costa, and <em>Dante’s Numbers</em> brings Nic for the first time to American shores. From the opening scene of murder and mayhem at a movie premiere to the final, mind-blowing surprise, Dante’s Numbers is an elegant, clever, and terrifying tale of intrigue and murder involving Dante’s first circle of Hell and Hitchcock’s classic film <em>Vertigo</em>. An outstanding novel.\n\n<strong>Steve Berry</strong>, best-selling author of <em>The Venetian Betrayal</em>\n\nDavid Hewson is one of the finest thriller writers working today. A born stylist. <em>Dante’s Numbers</em>is politically wise, multi-dimensional, and psychologically intuitive. Action braids suspense on nearly every page, creating a reader’s delight from beginning to end. A superb effort by a master storyteller.\n\n<strong>David Morrell</strong>, author of<em> First Blood</em> and <em>Creepers</em>\n\n<em>Dante’s Numbers</em> is action-packed suspense at its smartest and most gripping. Transplanting Nic Costa and his fellow Italian detectives to the dizzying world of Hitchcock’s <em>Vertigo</em> is a master stroke from a brilliant author. It’s impossible not to be swept up in the memorable, compelling world that is David Hewson’s specialty.\n\n<strong>David Corbett</strong>, Edgar-nominated author of <em>Blood of Paradise</em>\n\nDavid Hewson is a marvel, writing riveting suspense with a wistful grace. <em>Dante’s Numbers</em>might very well be his best, a white-knuckle joy that’s smart, poignant, and acidly fun as Hollywood meets Dante via Italy’s notoriously over-the-top slasher films, known as the<em> gialli</em>. I got caught up in the story instantly, learning much, laughing too, all the way to the heart-pounding, heart-wrenching, heartbreaking end. If only all page-turners were this intelligent, witty and human.\n\n<em>Reviews</em>\n\n<em>Publishers Weekly</em>\n\nHewson’s fine seventh crime novel to feature Nic Costa (after <em>The Garden of Evil</em>) takes the Italian police detective to San Francisco, where aging, ailing director Roberto Tonti is preparing for the premiere of his first major film in 20 years, Inferno. Based on Dante’s <em>Divine Comedy</em>, the $150-million blockbuster, which was filmed in Tonti’s native Italy, is to be the capstone of the director’s career.\n\nIn San Francisco, the Questura (Costa’s outfit) and the carabinieri—the former charged with security for Dante artefacts in a tie-in exhibit, the latter with security for the actors—pursue separate, often conflicting agendas after a series of bizarre incidents, including a priceless artifact’s theft, a movie star’s kidnapping and an attack on another star that results in death. The SFPD also gets into the act as more murders plague the film’s debut. A convoluted plot, eccentric characters and numerous sinister connections to Hitchcock’s Vertigo all contribute to the suspense.\n\nIn the <em>Times Record News</em>, Wichita, Amy Hawkins writes…\n\nIn the seventh in his series featuring the suave Italian detective Nic Costa, David Hewson takes his leading man to San Francisco to track down spectacularly crafted crimes set against the backdrop of a film premiere in <em>Dante’s Numbers</em>. Hitchcock-type intrigue fuses with modern crime investigation as Nic and his two colleagues track down the missing death mask of Dante, preclude the infiltration of a historical exhibit at Golden Gate Park, and deduce the killer’s MO and identity – all while dodging the San Francisco team and the Carabinieri, their Italian counterparts, also on the case.\n\nNot one to gloss over Costa’s romantic nature, Hewson slowly reveals a delicious subplot involving Nic and Maggie Flavier, the star of the murder-embroiled film. Hewson leads you on an exciting journey, tumbling back and forth from San Francisco to Rome, wrapping it up in a classic Hitchcock climax that literally made me gasp – out loud. Like a whitewater rafting trip, over the rapids one minute and cruising along calmer waters the next, you find yourself catching your breath after each chapter for the next rush. Flawless suspense is intertwined with Dante’s eternal intrigue.\n\nIn <em>Bookreporter</em> Joe Hartlaub hailed the book as ‘the author’s best to date’, writing….\n\n<em>Dante’s Numbers</em> is arguably the most accessible of Hewson’s works, which is not to say that the plot is necessarily a simple one. Nor does Hewson fail to inform while entertaining. Indeed, the ins and outs of film financing, motion picture history, the differences between a producer and a director, and a little-known but centuries-old financial version of the game of “chicken” are all explored here, against the backdrop of one of the world’s most interesting cities and, of course, the dip and swirl of romantic relationships. All of this is done within the context of an elaborate murder mystery, and exquisitely so.\n\nIn <em>Mystery News</em> Harriet Stay gives the book five stars and writes….\n\nI always have a special feeling when I begin a new book by a familiar author, especially one like David Hewson, who has never disappointed and at times created unexpected surprises. This is no exception. Hewson propels the reader from page one through a twisted whodunit, unraveling cryptic clues, converging with potential suspects, enjoying a romp beyond the cable cars and Union Square, touching the technology world of overnight billionaires, all the while still maintaining himself as a magician with the English language. This is a top-notch, thrilling ride.\n\n<em>Booklist</em>\n\nHewson never loses the reader’s attention, and for fans of this outstanding series, the latest chapter in the interlocked lives of Costa and friends… is as delicious as ever.\n\nMargaret Cannon in the Toronto <em>Globe &amp; Mail</em>\n\nThe seventh of Hewson’s series featuring Nic Costa of the Italian State Police is as smart and sophisticated as the other six. Hewson always uses some bit of Roman or Italian history or literature to focus his modern crime novels, and this is one of his best. Maybe that’s because the central theme is built around the work of Dante, or maybe it’s because Hewson moves the action, but not the mood, from Rome to Los Angeles, the centre of glitz and glamour. Dante and movies? If you think it won’t work, think again.\n\n<em>Winston-Salem Journal</em>\n\nWith his carefully prepared stories, larded with tasty historical tidbits and spread out across the series’ sumptuous Roman setting, David Hewson has created a growing clientele of satisfied readers. His handsome, slightly rumpled detective, Nic Costa, has led the reader through a feast of multilayered plot concoctions in the past six novels. The seventh in the series will be equally pleasing to his fans’ palates.\n\nWhen this series left Italy, it did not leave good writing behind; Hewson’s stories are simply well-done police procedurals in an exotic package.\n\n<em>Richmond Times-Dispatch</em>\n\nSending his cast to America is a masterful touch from Hewson, who works diligently to keep his series from becoming stale… As illusion fuses with reality and builds to a shattering climax, Hewson keeps his readers grounded in what’s real. Rich in characters, complex of plot, <em>Dante’s Numbers</em> is a worthy entry in an erudite, entertaining series.\n\n<em>Edmonton Sun</em>\n\nDavid Hewson’s Rome-based trio of Italian detectives, Nic Costa, Leo Falcone and Teresa Lupo, move their operations temporarily to America in this new novel. A multimillion dollar movie is being shot in Rome, based on Dante’s masterpiece, Inferno, with an international cast which includes two American movie stars, Allan Prime and Maggie Flavier. The Italian premiere is accompanied by an exhibit of the poet’s priceless death mask, but a macabre intervention showing Prime’s kidnapping and murder brings the detectives into the case. As the movie premiere moves to San Francisco, they are along to protect other artifacts. Eerie coincidences turn up involving Alfred Hitchcock’s movie <em>Vertigo</em>. Other murders and an obsessive killer heighten the suspense. Another Nic Costa winner.\n\nThe <em>Mystery Gazette</em>\n\nThe Dante connection in Italy is one of the best police procedural opening segues in years… fans of the series will enjoy Costa and his mates as they travel the mean streets of San Francisco.\n\nClaire Emsberger in the<em> Sullivan County Democrat</em>\n\nAllow me simply to announce this eighth of David Hewson’s Rome suspense novels—the third I’ve reported on in the last two years, again featuring the brilliant and soulful detective, Nic Costa. These are contemporary novels, but also steeped in the lore of different periods of the city’s history (which has plenty of history to draw on). In this one, for the first time in the series and in his life, he leaves Rome—for San Francisco. With an American movie star. But Costa remains gloomily philosophical, just the way we like him, and the story is just the way we like it.\n\n<em>Bookbag</em>\n\nNic Costa is a breath of fresh air in detective fiction in general. The absence of clichéd police officers is to be highly commended. Although the pathologist is a light-hearted character, she doesn’t hang around making horrible jokes about sandwiches for black humour. All four police officers are thoroughly plausible human beings. I was really pleased with <em>Dante’s Numbers</em>. It’s played dead straight but contains just enough that is quirky and off the wall. The ending is over the top but utterly utterly brilliant, and even in the very few parts which are predictable it’s all a huge amount of fun. Hewson’s writing is solid and engaging, and he’s clearly at ease with his regular cast of characters.','Dante\'s Numbers','','publish','closed','closed','','dantes-numbers','','','2011-02-01 12:50:58','2011-02-01 12:50:58','',3302,'http://s91710.gridserver.com/?page_id=3306',2,'page','',0),(3308,1,'2010-03-20 03:43:59','2010-03-20 03:43:59','<em><img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-3449 noborder\" title=\"garden of evil_2\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/garden-of-evil_2.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"248\" height=\"349\" />The Garden of Evil</em>, has won rave responses from the critics, including coveted starred reviews from <em>Publishers Weekly</em> and <em>Booklist</em> and won best mystery of 2008 title in the American Library Association’s annual genre awards.\n\nPW describes the work as ‘this dark jewel of a thriller’. Booklist’s Bill Ott declares, ‘Arturo Pérez-Reverte has long set the gold standard for mixing history, mystery, and modern life into literary stews of mouthwatering flavor and incredible subtlety, but it’s time to agree that Hewson now shares that position—and is on the verge of claiming it outright.’ The ALA awards citations call it, ‘this masterfully crafted puzzler’.\n\nIn a deserted artist’s studio in the heart of Rome, detectives stumble upon a scene of shocking brutality: two bodies, freshly killed. Looming over them is a painting that bears all the hallmarks of a Caravaggio: a brilliantly coloured canvas depicting a violent tableau of beauty and depravity. This grisly discovery sends Nic Costa on a desperate chase through the streets of his city. The consequences are devastating. And for Nic, the case has only just begun.\n\nAt the crime scene, detectives find a treasure trove of evidence—from fresh blood to lurid photos of dead prostitutes. For Costa, finding the killer who escaped him is intensely personal. But his prime suspect arrogantly hides in plain sight behind a fortress of money, power, and the law.\n\nTeaming with an art expert, Costa follows clues hidden in the mysterious Caravaggio canvas. As he moves through a maze of history, he begins to make stunning connections to the present case. And each discovery brings him closer and closer to a secret buried in a priceless work of art, a conspiracy dating back four hundred years—and men who will stop at nothing to protect their own private garden of evil.\n\n<em>Reviews</em>\n\n<em>Publishers Weekly (starred review)\n</em>\nAt the outset of this dark jewel of a thriller, Hewson’s sixth to feature Roman detective Nic Costa (after The Seventh Sacrament), Costa and his team are just starting to process a crime scene in an artist’s shabby studio, where two corpses lie sprawled before a painting of a rapturous female nude redolent of Caravaggio, when they flush out a hooded gunman. The gunman escapes in the ensuing chase… While Costa is taken off the case, his rule-bending boss finds a way for him to help on the sly, assisting the unusual art expert—young Sister Agata Graziano—called in to investigate whether the canvas could really be a Caravaggio and what light it might shed on the murders. You don’t have to be much of a sleuth to foresee danger for Sister Agata, but that’s about the only predictable element in a plot otherwise as serpentine—and suspense filled—as the ancient Roman byways through which Costa stalks his prey.\n\nBill Ott of <em>Booklist</em>, the magazine of the American Library Association (starred review)\n\nHewson’s latest Nic Costa thriller opens with a shocker that will have series fans reeling, just as it does the principal players: Rome police detectives Costa and Gianni Peroni and their boss, the brooding Leo Falcone. What follows is another gritty, compelling mix of mean streets and ancient history, as the detectives attempt to unravel an appalling series of murders that seems to connect to an unknown Caravaggio painting depicting a tableau of startling depravity.\n\nWith the help of lay sister and Caravaggio expert Agata Graziano, the detectives quickly determine that a group of wealthy Roman aristocrats, impervious to the law, are re-creating the violent, orgiastic lifestyle enjoyed centuries earlier by Caravaggio and his circle, who called themselves the “Ekstasists”—and if a few prostitutes die in support of the hedonists’ revels, what of it? As usual, Hewson mixes art history and contemporary crime perfectly, but this time he digs deeper, finding connections between art and life that go to the very heart of humanity’s conflicted cravings for the sensual and the spiritual. And emerging from the complex, masterful plot, its sinews intertwined between past and present, is the towering, tragic figure of Caravaggio, whose still-unsolved murder in Rome in 1606 holds the key to bringing the modern-day Ekstasists to justice.\n\nArturo Pérez-Reverte has long set the gold standard for mixing history, mystery, and modern life into literary stews of mouthwatering flavor and incredible subtlety, but it’s time to agree that Hewson now shares that position—and is on the verge of claiming it outright.\n\n<em>BookBrowse’s</em> Kim Kovacs writes…\n\nI have a rule: I won’t call a book a page-turner unless reading it causes me to miss my bus stop. Engrossed in David Hewson’s latest mystery, The Garden of Evil, I missed my stop not once but twice – and that was before I was halfway through the novel. This one’s a page-turner all right! It’s also a top-notch, high-quality detective procedural that will appeal to readers who enjoy a literary mystery.\n\nSetting his novel entirely in Rome, Hewson does a wonderful job of recreating the city for his readers, allowing its atmosphere to permeate the book. His readers not only “see” the city with their imagination, they “feel” the cold stones of its streets and buildings and experience the claustrophobia of its alleys as the detectives pursue their suspect.\n\nAuthors with the ability to create such vivid descriptions of time and place sometimes fall short when it comes to writing action sequences. Such is not the case with Hewson who delivers action that is both riveting and cinematic. What truly draws the reader, though, are the sections of the novel that concentrate on revelation – revelation of clues to solving the crime as well as the illumination of the principals’ characters.\n\nIn the <em>Richmond Times-Dispatch</em> Jay Strafford writes…\n\nWhen art imitates life, the result can be powerful. And when it takes inspiration from death, it’s at once mesmerizing and terrifying.\n\nSuch is the case with David Hewson’s The Garden of Evil (480 pages, Delacorte, $24), the sixth book in the British author’s series featuring Nic Costa, a police detective in Rome, and his colleagues.\n\nHewson draws his characters well; each book continues their growth and the reader’s affection for them. In The Garden of Evil, a new character, Agata Graziano, a sister in a convent and an art expert, particularly engages the imagination. And Hewson’s imagery is striking — a police car’s “blue light flashed down the alley, like some mutant Christmas decoration newly escaped from the tree.”\n\nA thought-provoking blend of art history and mystery, The Garden of Evil is primarily a novel about sin — original sin, as well as old sins made new. A chilling tale rendered in evocative prose, it’s Hewson’s latest triumph — and a treat for readers who like their entertainment literate.\n\nMargaret Cannon, in the Toronto <em>Globe &amp; Mail</em>…\n\nThe Nic Costa series, set in Rome, is one of my favourites. Hewson sets his stories so firmly in place that it’s possible to go from street to piazza to alley, and almost feel the stones of the walks or touch the ancient Roman bricks. <em>The Garden of Evil</em> is the best book so far in the Costa series, and that’s saying a lot. But Hewson takes his plotting here a giant step further than in the usual cop/chase story.\n\nPeter Burton in the <em>Daily Express</em>\n\nThe Garden of Evil is the sixth in the Costa series and is even more gripping than its predecessors. Hewson is a cunning storyteller… What follows is a deadly cat-and-mouse game during which the body count steadily rises and Roman history once again proves to be a vital component in the case. <em>The Garden of Evil</em> is impossible to put down.\n\nIn <em>Mystery News </em>Harriet Stay writes…\n\nI have loved all of Hewson’s thrillers or suspence procedurals and this was no exception. It sizzles with grisly murders, well-drawn characters you care about (there were times I wanted to scream or cry), dialogue to envy and all in all a story not to forget.\n\nAt <em>Bookreporter</em> Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum writes…\n\n<em>The Garden of Evil</em> is one of the best literary police procedurals written this season. The breadth and intense accuracy of David Hewson’s research is the palette he uses for the landscape against which (the book) is juxtaposed. With the stroke of his pen, he transports readers to times and places buried in eons of history while seamlessly bringing them back to the present. In each of his books his protagonist, Nic Costa, has slowly shed his picaresque role and is now a man with a real sense of self. No longer the naïve beat cop, he has earned his stripes as a detective, which adds verisimilitude to the way he ferrets out the clues that he needs to solve the murders in this labyrinthine drama.\n\nThose who are already fans will not want to miss The Garden of Evil. And new readers will find themselves enchanted by Hewson’s storytelling abilities.','The Garden of Evil','','publish','closed','closed','','the-garden-of-evil','','','2011-02-01 12:51:06','2011-02-01 12:51:06','',3302,'http://s91710.gridserver.com/?page_id=3308',3,'page','',0),(3310,1,'2010-03-20 03:44:22','2010-03-20 03:44:22','<div>\n<div><img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-3467 noborder\" title=\"sacrcov\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/sacrcov.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"227\" height=\"239\" />It begins on one of Rome’s least-known hills, the Aventino, in the public piazza fronting the mansion of the Knights of Malta. There a curious keyhole to the knights’ estate reveals an astonishing view, a direct line across the Tiber to the dome of St. Peters in the distance.&nbsp;\n\nFor seven-year-old Alessio Bramante the act of peeking through the keyhole on his way to school each day is a ritual, a way of establishing a bond with his difficult, distant father, one of Rome’s most famous archaeologists, Giorgio Bramante. Then one day, after an unexpected visit to one of Giorgio’s underground excavations, Alessio disappears. A group of students who had slipped into the site, an ancient Mithraic temple, attract the blame. A tragedy occurs. Alessio is never found, and it’s his father who goes to jail.\n\nFourteen years later, in an arcane shrine by the Tiber known as the Little Museum of Purgatory, a tee-shirt belonging to Bramante’s son begins to show fresh bloodstains. No one can understand how the marks have appeared behind the glass.\n\nSoon it becomes apparent that the newly-released Giorgio Bramante is bent upon a vicious and terrifying revenge on all those he blames for the loss of his son, and numbers Inspector Leo Falcone, a member of the original investigating team, among his targets. In the depths of the labyrinth he knows better than any man, a distraught father seeks his vengeance against those he hates.\n\nNic Costa, watching Falcone move relentlessly into the man’s deadly grip, realises the answer to the deadly present must lie in solving a cold case that, like the forgotten Alessio Bramante, has long been regarded as dead and buried for good.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_3468\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"180\" caption=\"Saul Reichlin\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-3468\" title=\"saul\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/saul.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"180\" height=\"221\" />[/caption]\n\n<strong>Audio crime book of the year</strong>\nIn 2008 <em>The Seventh Sacrament</em> 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.\n\nI’m really honoured and flattered to get such a plaudit for the work, and delighted too that I quite rightly share it with Saul Reichlin, right, the series narrator, whose astonishing performance of the books is surely one of the main reasons for their popularity in audio.\n\n<em>Reviews</em>\n\n<em>Booklist</em>, the American Library Association’s influential magazine…\n\nHewson’s uncompromising trio of antiestablishment Roman cops—Nic Costa, Gianni Peroni, and their boss, Leo Falcone—are back in the Eternal City and up to their necks in another vat of hot water. As with the previous four entries in this always-captivating series, the crime on the front burner—a dead body discovered in a Roman church—is merely the entrée point to a case with tentacles extending deep into ancient history…Hewson keeps his readers securely tethered to a narrative lifeline; like Theseus on the trail of the minotaur, we follow the plot around countless blind corners but never lose our way out of the maze. The interplay between Hewson’s three cops—and between them and the especially rich supporting cast—lift this novel far above the plot-driven Da Vinci Code and its many imitators. A superb mix of history, mystery, and humanity.\n\nAmazon’s top reviewer Harriet Klausner writes…\n\nCosta’s last outing (The Lizard’s Bite) was one of the top police procedurals of 2006; The Seventh Sacrament will prove likewise in 2007. The story line is fast-paced while it smoothly moves back and forth between the present and the past. The investigation is top rate filled with twists and turns while Leo brings a human element with his feelings of inadequacy and guilt. Fans will appreciate David Hewson’s superior Roman adventure.\n\nI Love A Mystery’s Bob Walch declares…\n\nA clever and utterly surprising ending will stun even the most jaded reader. If you are one of those individuals who believe there are very few writers left who can make you sit up and applaud, be forewarned. You’ll be putting your hands together in appreciation of David Hewson!\n\nPublisher’s Weekly says…\n\nThe intricate fifth thriller from British author Hewson to feature Roman detective Nic Costa (after 2006’s The Lizard’s Bite) artfully weaves several points-of-view as it shifts between past and present. Fourteen years after seven-year-old Alessio Bramante, the son of an eminent archeology professor, disappeared underneath Rome’s ancient Circus Maximus, someone seeking revenge attacks Costa’s colleague, Insp. Leo Falcone, who worked on the unsolved case of the missing boy. Falcone and Costa start asking questions that should have been asked during the original bungled investigation. The subterranean labyrinths just may hold the answers to a mystery whose poignant resolution few readers will anticipate.\n\nFrom The Times Literary Supplement…\n\nThere are hints of Dan Brown here, but David Hewson handles the material intelligently and plot and characterization remain the novel’s strengths. Bramante, the anti-hero, has some of the hall marks of Thomas Harris’s Hannibal Lecter though without the misplaced comedy. He is a monstrous creation with a terrifying sexual appetite matched only by his murderous cruelty. The policemen, from the new commissario down to the old sergeant on the front desk, are lively and well drawn, as are the three main characters, Costa, Peroni and Falcone, and their love interests.\n\nThe <em>Calgary Herald</em> says…\n\nBeneath the Vespa-crowded streets of Rome, there are other, much older incarnations of the Eternal City. These older Romes are littered with clues to a mysterious pagan past, clues that can be found in the rubble of middens, roads and religious altars. It is this hidden Rome that fascinates David Hewson. Here, in his fifth book featuring his misfit cops Leo Falcone, Gianni Peroni and Nic Costa, he explores both the secrets that haunt old Rome and the terrible secrets that haunt families. Hewson’s work has been compared to that of Donna Leon and Dan Brown, and it will certainly appeal to fans of both writers. His stories are fresh, original, brightly written and very smart, and his latest book is his best so far. This is definitely among this spring’s must-read crime fictions.\n\nThe <em>York Press</em>…\n\n<em>The Seventh Sacrament</em> is Yorkshire-born David Hewson’s fifth mystery set in Italy featuring detectives Nic Costa and Gianna Peroni. Back in Rome after their dramatic adventures in Venice, the detectives set about rebuilding their lives. But the sudden appearance of fresh bloodstains on a T-shirt in a local museum soon has the old team back in action again, and it’s not long before they are embroiled in a mystery involving both the ancient cult of Mithras and a sinister ossuary, The House of Bones. If you’re a fan of Dan “Da Vinci Code” Brown you’ll love this.\n\n<em>Reviewing The Evidence</em> …\n\nDavid Hewson can really evoke an Italian atmosphere well – whether the modern city or the frightening underground city. The twists of the story are cleverly done – even when the situation seems obvious he can produce a strange response that can turn the tale on its head. The climax is absolutely shattering.\n\nThe <em>Reading Post</em> says…\n\nHewson is a talented writer with the gift of creating a good, old-fashioned page-turning thriller. His characters shine with real depth and conviction and the plot is breathtakingly imaginative. A superb read for crime fans who like their mysteries both ancient and modern.\n\n<em>Woman</em> magazine (circulation 536,364, which has made the title a Book Club choice)\n\nA thrilling tale…with the author’s captivating descriptions of long-forgotten passageways and temples, and his skill in creating a sinister undertone keeping you, hooked from the off. A highly dramatic tale for those who like a sprinkling of culture with their crime thriller.\n\n<em>Choice</em> magazine\n\nThis gripping novel incorporates modern Rome, mysterious happenings in churches and the Roman cult of Mithras. David Hewson has a superb sense of pace and place, his characters feel real, and he writes a page-turner detective story like no other.\n\nThe <em>Mystery and Thriller Club</em> (UK) magazine says…\n\nThe fifth Nic Costa and Gianna Peroni mystery is a devilishly compelling brew of conspiracy, vengeance and murder. Brilliantly entertaining and deftly written, <em>The Seventh Sacrament </em>is a sophisticated and original thriller that cements David Hewson’s burgeoning reputation as one of crime writing’s most exciting talents.\n\n</div>\n</div>','The Seventh Sacrament','','publish','closed','closed','','the-seventh-sacrament','','','2011-02-01 12:51:15','2011-02-01 12:51:15','',3302,'http://s91710.gridserver.com/?page_id=3310',4,'page','',0),(3312,1,'2010-03-20 03:44:42','2010-03-20 03:44:42','<img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-3452 noborder\" title=\"lizard\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/lizard.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"227\" height=\"239\" />In a dilapidated glass furnace off the island of Murano the fire races out of control. Two people are dead, and for Leo Falcone, exiled to Venice, with Nic Costa and Gianni Peroni, the question is whether he’s dealing with one murderer or two.\n\nFor Costa, life in Venice is more perplexing on other fronts too. His relationship with Emily Deacon is deepening, and she is missing the law enforcement work she’s abandoned for a different, quieter career. Slowly, the sluggish world of the lagoon begins to enfold the Romans in its sinister grip, as they try to untangle the complex family ties of the tragic Arcangeli family on a private island falling into ruin.\n\n<em>The Lizard’s Bite</em> is in part a companion piece to the earlier standalone novel, <em>The Cemetery of Secrets</em>, bringing several characters from that story into the tale of murder, betrayal and deceit which Costa and his colleagues must unpick in the heady, close heights of the Venetian summer.\n\nThe Venetian police turn to the Romans to wrap it up quickly and cleanly, in time for the English tycoon, Hugo Massiter, to complete his purchase of the island. To Falcone, this seems a small matter, a domestic murder of little more than intellectual interest. But as the summer heat takes hold, and the Romans’ investigations begin to grate with a local force more interested in tidy solutions than awkward questions, the island’s spell begins to cast a wider net.\n\n<em>Reviews</em>\n\n<em>Publishers Weekly starred review</em>\n\nBritish author Hewson’s wonderfully complex and finely paced fourth crime novel (after 2005’s<em>The Sacred Cut</em>) to feature Roman detective Nic Costa and his unconventional partner, Gianni Peroni, finds the pair exiled to Venice, where they look into the case of glassmaker Uriel Arcangelo, who apparently killed his wife, Bella, then committed suicide. Instead of coming to the foreordained conclusion higher authority demands, Costa and Peroni determine, “We’re no longer trying to understand the means Uriel Arcangelo used to kill his wife. But why, how and with whom the late Bella appears to have conspired to kill him.” An urbane and wealthy Englishman who wants to buy the Isolo degli Arcangeli glassworks becomes an important suspect. Hewson is particularly strong on characterization, revealing each personality subtly and naturally as he or she reacts to the intricate plot developments. Newcomers as well as series fans will be enthralled.\n\n<em>Bookreporter</em>, Joe Hartlaub\n\nDavid Hewson may well be the finest mystery writer of our time. In my humble opinion, he’s also one of our best contemporary writers, period. There are elements of Agatha Christie, Graham Greene and William Shakespeare in his work, but when you sit down and crack the spine of A SEASON OF THE DEAD or THE VILLA OF MYSTERIES, what you have is all and uniquely Hewson.Hewson peppers THE LIZARD’S BITE with a number of interesting – and fascinating – factoids about places and subjects that compel the reader to find out more on their own. But this common thread (among others) through Hewson’s novels is not performed by rote. Think instead of a tightrope walker who performs his work daily for the same audience but introduces a new, and jeopardous, element every time. That’s a Hewson novel. Very highly recommended.\n\nMargaret Cannon, <em>Toronto Globe and Mail</em>\n\nIf you haven’t already discovered this brilliant series featuring Nic Costa and a cast of Roman detectives, you have a treat in store. The Lizard’s Bite is the fourth book in the set and, like the other three, it is superb. Hewson likes to combine history, art and detection, and he delivers them all with different focuses for different books. The Lizard’s Bite is about glass. Followers know that Nic Costa and Gianni Peroni have been exiled from Rome and sent to Venice. Only a Roman would find that a trial. Leo Falcone, meanwhile, is assigned to the Carabinieri’s art-theft division. Everyone converges on the Veneto in summer, a blistering season of sirocco winds and dry, burning heat. In Murano, the glassmakers spin the exquisite spirals and colours that have been the trademark of Venetian glass for centuries.One stifling night, Uriel Arcangelo tends the family furnace. His job is to have the molten glass ready for the glassblowers in the morning. But more than glass is burning in the Arcangelo furnaces, and the terrors of the night turn into death and destruction, exposing a secret that can destroy the entire family. Hewson manages to tuck in plenty of art secrets and thrills, and some nods to the fad for Da Vinci Code-style mysteries. This is another great novel by a fine author.\n\n<em>The Literary Review</em>\n\nHewson’s very enjoyable Italian mysteries are cleverly worked out and sharply written, and his take on the secretive city is much more uncomfortable and sinister than Leon’s (Donna Leon’s Through a Glass, Darkly, which is reviewed previously). In his hero’s eyes it is like ‘a bad yet familiar relative, dangerous to know, difficult to let go’.\n\n<em>New York Times</em>\n\nThe mises-en-scene of David Hewson’s elaborate Italian-based novels are always so flamboyantly operatic that I keep expecting the principals to break out in song…. told with dashing style, in atmospheric set pieces that capture the theatrical grandeur of Venice and the pockets of miserable squalor behind its splendid facade.\n\n<em>Boston Globe</em>\n\nThis complex novel, a journey to hell and back, is leavened with food and humor and propelled by suspense and action. The atmospherics are extraordinary — Hewson does Venice every bit as well as Tony Hillerman does New Mexico. The ending is particularly satisfying, like watching a multistage finale to a spectacular fireworks display.\n\n<em>Denver Post</em>\n\nLayered into the story are some complex relationships among members of the withdrawn and insular Arcangelo family, clinging to their ancient art in a world overrun by tourists looking for cheap trinkets, as well as a stalled love affair between Costa and former FBI agent Emily Deacon. And it is complicated further by a rich, powerful and amoral Englishman (from an earlier non-series book, Lucifer’s Shadow), who holds the key to the whole mystery but can’t be touched by the Venetian police. Venice itself, a “beautiful graveyard of a city,” as one of the characters calls it, is always the heart and soul of this rich, complex and thoroughly bewitching book.\n\n<em>Toronto Sun</em>\n\nThis fourth book in David Hewson’s original series… again features Roman detective Nic Costa and his colleagues. On a tiny island near Murano, the glass furnace of the Arcangeli family is dangerously overheating. Uriel Arcangelo is killed by a savage fire, which almost consumes the furnace. His death is deemed an accident. But when his wife’s body is found, the Roman detectives are asked to conduct their own investigation in time for English tycoon Hugo Massiter to finish buying the Arcangeli island.Massiter is on his way to becoming a modern-day Doge in Venice, in terms of power and influence, and although the detectives suspect he is involved in the deaths at the glass factory, he seems untouchable. The densely plotted story needs to be carefully followed, but the drama and characters make it an absorbing read.','The Lizard\'s Bite','','publish','closed','closed','','the-lizards-bite','','','2011-02-01 12:51:22','2011-02-01 12:51:22','',3302,'http://s91710.gridserver.com/?page_id=3312',5,'page','',0),(3314,1,'2010-03-20 03:44:55','2010-03-20 03:44:55','<img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-3463 noborder\" title=\"cut\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/cut.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"227\" height=\"239\" />It’s approaching Christmas in Rome and snow is falling in a way that only happens every twenty or thirty years. The city is soon paralysed by an unseasonal icy grip, and in the dark corners of the Pantheon a grim and mysterious story begins to unfold.\n\nNic Costa and his partner Gianni Peroni are called to reports of an intruder. Instead they find a woman’s naked body, scarred in a geometric pattern. Almost immediately they are met by a team from the FBI determined to take over an investigation into what they claim is a killer murdering American tourists around the world, in ways which link back to the mystical structure of the Pantheon itself.\n\nBut one agent, Emily Deacon, has a different story to tell, one that has a tragic personal dimension. Through her and an elusive Iraqi girl Laila, only witness to the death in the Pantheon, Nic Costa is pulled relentlessly into the world of the Iraq war and the shadowy secret agents whose job was to penetrate the regime of Saddam Hussein before the armed forces attacked.\n\nSoon he is aware that there is a conspiracy at the heart of these deaths that runs back to Washington, and the past of Emily Deacon’s dead father, a tangle of connections he has to unravel, even if it comes at a considerable personal and professional cost.\n\nA madman is loose in the frozen winter landscape of Rome, and as Costa soon realises, he is one the American agents know only too well.\n\n<em>Reviews</em>\n\nThe third novel in the Nic Costa series was made one of 2006’s Top 10 crime novels by <em>Booklist</em>, the influential magazine of the American Library Association. Booklist’s Bill Ott describes the book as ‘ a corruption-drenched Italian procedural that blends historical detail with contemporary cynicism’, and adds, All the historical detail gives the proceedings a tasty complexity comparable to Pérez-Reverte, but what really makes the novel work is the interplay between the anti-establishment Roman cops.’\n\nP.G. Koth of the <em>Houston Chronicle</em> comments…\n\nFor all the high-stakes action, in which a serial killer with possible ties to the black ops of U.S. intelligence wreaks havoc in snowbound Rome, it is the compelling character of… three men that drives the book. The fiercely principled trio, rare enough in the ranks of Rome police, are especially distinct in comparison to the arrogant FBI team, partnered with Italy’s own intelligence ‘ghosts,’ that takes control of the investigation of a murdered woman Costa and Peroni find inside the Pantheon.\n\nShe is buried in snow beneath the oculus: ‘a steady swirling stream … , pirouetting around itself with the perfect, precise symmetry of a strand of human DNA, [falling] in the dead center of the room.’ Similarly fine passages further describing the snowstorm that has cloaked the city in silence punctuate the plot, which hinges on a homeless Iraqi girl who is a compulsive pickpocket, and inexperienced FBI agent Emily Deacon, who also has a personal stake in the case.\n\nThe novel’s contrast between the gray areas that spies negotiate and the clear imperatives of the law is stark. Peeling away the layers that obfuscate those imperatives becomes a mesmerizing experience.\n\nJoe Hartlaub, of <em>Bookreporter</em>, writes…\n\nHewson, perhaps more than any other contemporary author, has combined a sense of grand concept – so popular these days – with believable, sympathetic characters who one cares about. Hewson is nothing short of marvelous, as always, mixing in legitimate conclusions with red herrings so that readers and characters both engagingly stumble along to conclusions that may or may not be correct.\n\nAs entertaining as this is, however, nothing can match Hewson’s ability to capture the flavor of Rome – a heady stew composed of its people, culture and geography in equal parts – so that what we ultimately are favored with is a mystery steeped in a culture that is contemporaneously familiar and exotic.\n\nHank Wagner in <em>Mystery Scene</em>…\n\nA happy blend of police procedural and international thriller, Hewson’s third Nic Costa novel finds the trinity of Costa, Peroni and their irascible chief Leo Falcone in fine form, fearlessly grappling with criminals, bureaucracies, their significant others, and the American intellligence community in the pursuit of the truth. Providing laughter and thrillers in equal amounts, Hewson makes it look easy.\n\nThe <em>Sacred Cut</em> is totally compelling, one of those rare thrillers which emphasis character over action, although Hewson acquits himself admirably in that department as well. It’s the attention Hewson lavishes on his entire cast that keeps readers; interest piqued; all the rest, as they say, is gravy.\n\nMarilyn Stasio in the <em>New York Times</em> Book Review writes…\n\nHewson can dress a stage with operatic panache, and here his mise-en-scène is spectacular; the Pantheon, its ancient dome open to ‘a steady, swirling stream of snow, pirouetting around itself with the perfect, precise symmetry of a strand of human DNA’ and enveloping a mutilated body in a funnel of ice. (The) Nic Costa novels, set mainly in Rome and featuring a personable young homicide detective, are built with pleasing symmetry. In the previous books… the settings range from the Vatican library to an archaeological site at Ostia Antica, and the reference points include a Caravaggio painting and ancient Bacchanalian rituals. The killings, despite their savagery, have theatrical flair and are put to vivid use in fascinating lectures on Italian art and history.\n\n<em>Publishers Weekly</em>\n\nHewson’s solid writing and multidimensional characters command attention from start to finish of this smart, literate thriller.\n\n<em>Kirkus Reviews\n</em>\nHewson’s literate prose, bolstered by local color and historical tidbits, makes for top-flight entertainment.\n\nMargaret Cannon of the <em>Globe and Mail</em>, Toronto, says…\n\nThis is the third novel in this Roman cop series, and I’m hooked. I love the way Hewson combines 4,000 years of Roman history with 21st-century police plots. I love the Ed McBain style, with recurring characters who play different roles in each book. Most of all, I love the atmosphere and the beautifully crafted plots.','The Sacred Cut','','publish','closed','closed','','the-sacred-cut','','','2011-02-01 12:51:29','2011-02-01 12:51:29','',3302,'http://s91710.gridserver.com/?page_id=3314',6,'page','',0),(3316,1,'2010-03-20 03:45:09','2010-03-20 03:45:09','<img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-3471 noborder\" title=\"villa\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/villa.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"227\" height=\"239\" />It’s spring in Rome. Nic Costa is just back at work after the cataclysmic events of <em>A Season for the Dead</em>, with a new partner, Gianni Peroni, a disgraced vice inspector bounced down to the ranks. And on the edge of the city an American couple make a discovery that will rock the city. As the jacket says…\n\n<em>The Villa of Mysteries</em> appropriates the beauty and savagery of classical Rome and sets it off against the corruption and sleaze of the present day.\n\nTeresa Lupo, a maverick pathologist, thinks she has the victim of an ancient pagan ritual on her hands. Inspector Leo Falcone, however, knows this case is recent history and one that desperately needs a solution. So begins an investigation that will take the police deep into the dark underworld of Rome’s most disturbing and sinister secrets.\n\nEmilio Neri, the local mafia boss, seems to be one of the keys to the mystery, and he can’t even trust his own wayward son. Retired US mobster Vergil Wallis is another key player who’s reluctant to talk. Meanwhile, someone is trying very hard to kill the pathologist. And now another beautiful young woman has gone missing in familiar circumstances.\n\nThe second book in any series is always important. It needs to lay the foundations for the stories, and the characters, that follow. Unlike A Season for the Dead, this book shifts the viewpoint from beyond Nic Costa alone, to those around him, men and women with more years in law enforcement, more than a touch of cynicism in some cases… and a habit of catching their breath when Costa, bright, young, incorruptible, comes on the case.\n\n<em>Reviews</em>\n\nMargaret Cannon, <em>Globe and Mail</em>, Toronto writes…\n\nIf you missed <em>A Season for the Dead</em>, the first novel in this series set in modern Rome and featuring Inspector Leo Falcone, you’re in for a treat. This one’s even better and the cast of characters, some just touched on in the first book, is coming alive.\n\nHewson’s strong suit is his ability to blend ancient and modern Rome, a feat that happens naturally if you’re standing at the edge of the Janiculum, but is difficult otherwise. Hewson’s plot, woven with ancient lore, has just the right amount of information and deduction.Teresa Lupo is a pathologist longing for the big find. When a woman’s body is found in a peat bog near the Tiber, she thinks she has it. The body is recent, but there are signs pointing to an ancient ritual, a killing in a manner not seen for centuries. A hidden cult? Lupo is set on uncovering the secret. That determination is deadly, as Insp. Leo Falcone knows. He fears for Lupo’s life as the investigation takes the Rome police into the inner sanctums of criminals hidden not only by power but by history.Along the way, the story picks up the tales of detectives Costa and Peroni, mafioso Emilio Neri, and an American mobster on holiday. All that, and then another young woman is missing and presumed murdered. This is a terrific novel by a fine emerging British talent.\n\n<em>Strand Magazine</em> says…\n\nNo less intricate and atmospheric than the first novel in this series, A Season for the Dead, Hewson’s second police procedural set in today’s colorful, corrupt Rome… seethes with intrigue and depravity. This psychologically wrenching novel delves deep into the theme of Euripedes’ enigmatic classical tragedy Bacchae – that humanity ignores or tries to sublimate its unconscious drives at its own risk. Peroni sums it up succinctly: ‘One day when you’re least expecting it, the crazy gene wakes up and you know it’s pointless trying to fight.’ And that ‘crazy gene’ overcomes ethics, morals, even reason itself.\n\nIn the leading book website <em>Bookreporter</em> Joe Hartlaub writes…\n\nHewson is nothing less and never less than marvelous throughout. He does not even attempt to explain the labyrinthine and uneasy connections between the Italian police and organized crime and the always blurry line which is both a line of demarcation and commonality between the two, but illustrates it so sharply through anecdotal description that one comes away with an understanding which is difficult to articulate but easy to know.\n\nHewson does not wait until the end… to begin reigning in his numerous plot lines, choosing instead to introduce and resolve issues from beginning to end, so that by the end of this magnificent work, there is no sense of a rush to resolution, even as, unknown to the reader, there is much to be resolved.\n\nThe depth of what Hewson has accomplished, however, goes beyond his considerable plotting and narrative skills. For what Hewson has created… may arguably be one of the most strongly and subtly feminist novels of recent note. The women at the beginning of this work are all victims; by the end…things are…well, they are not the same. This is a work, and an author, of unforgettable stature.\n\nJay Strafford of the <em>Richmond Times-Dispatch</em> writes…\n\nOn the heels of his stunning first entry in the Nic Costa series, A Season for the Dead , British author David Hewson returns to modern-day Rome for a second book involving the police detective. As The Villa of Mysteries opens, Costa is back on the job after six months recupation from what befell him in the first book. He and his new partner, Gianni Peroni, are getting to know each other when a woman reports that her teenage daughter has been abducted… Among the nasty secrets uncovered are a Dionysian cult, a mob connection, and government corruption. As he did in <em>A Season for the Dead</em>, Hewson writes a compellingly complex novel, one with numerous twists. Near the end, one surprises-and a second stuns. A haunting portayal of evil-and damaged women- <em>The Villa of Mysteries</em> will leave readers eager for Costa’s third adventure.\n\nJennifer Baker of <em>Booklist</em> says…\n\nOnce again capturing the imagination of historical mystery lovers, the author of <em>Lucifer’s Shadow</em> brings an ancient Dionysian ritual to light as a clue in this riveting and fast-paced thriller… A complex and satisfying mystery from a master plot maker.\n\nFrom <em>Mystery News</em>\n\nThis is a richly layered crime novel. It takes the reader into a sometimes slow but always fascinating journey through the rituals of ancient Rome as well as the rites of the modern mob. Background is as important as is the back story of all the major characters. This makes them all more believable, more human, and much more interesting.The author’s sense of place is wonderful. The city of Rome lays before us as we sip coffee in one of the sunny piazzas, wander through a narrow back street half in shadow, stare at monuments to the powerful ancient empire. I can almost taste the chilled white wine or the ice cream in the Piazza Navona… An intriguing and thoughtfully complex story. Many things are not what they seem and the author delights in surprising the reader more than once in this finely done crime novel.\n\nBeth Cason, of the <em>Anniston Star</em> writes…\n\nAfter losing his partner, Luca Rossi, on his previous case, and after six months of recuperation, Italian detective Nic Costa rejoins the police force… his commanding officer pairs him with a veteran officer from vice, Gianni Peroni.On their first call they are sent to investigate the discovery of the body of a young girl found in a peat bog. At first it looks like a find for archaeologists instead of detectives. However, when the chief pathologist begins to examine the body, she quickly finds that the girl has been dead for only 16 years, not 1,600. The mystery becomes a puzzling mass of threads, becoming increasingly entangled as it moves along.While Nic and Gianni struggle to find a lead to the missing girl, their boss, Falcone, struggles with the anti-mafia unit and local mobster Emilio Neri. Whatever happened sixteen years ago, at the last celebration of the Liberalia, has twisted emotions and resulted in a storm of revenge. It’s enough to say that Congreve was right when he pronounced, “Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned”.Hewson’s gift lies in character creation.\n\nIn a previous book, A Season for the Dead, the author made Luca Rossi a perfect foil for Nic; the same is true here, as he substitutes Peroni for Rossi. Peroni, by any definition, is a crooked cop. Yet he carries an air of stability and decency about him, despite the shady company he keeps; recall Sipowicz in the early years of NYPD Blue. Here the well-worn plot angle of wily veteran mentoring less-experienced partner is carried off with fresh insight.While British writer Hewson’s books may seem too literary for some readers, they are well worth the effort for those willing to take the plunge. Characters as memorable as Nic and Gianni are hard to find in any genre.\n\nThe UK magazine <em>Crime Time</em> wrote…\n\nThese modern Roman cops are as richly disparate as in any longer-running series (this is Hewson’s second) and the atmosphere is as densely layered as cold lasagne, but I’m trivialising what is, in truth, a beautifully structured and absorbing thriller. The characters polish up as individuals, freshly drawn. The city of Rome, her cops, bureaucrats and criminals, shine hard and clear as sunlight bouncing off the Trevi fountain. But they’re a lot less pretty. And this is tasty stuff.\n\nA four-star review from <em>Ink</em>\n\n…a novel to savour – imagine the deceptively relaxed atmosphere of Donna Leon’s Brunetti novels mixed with the darkness of Ian Rankin’s Rebus sequence. Excellent.\n\nFrom The <em>Good Book Guide</em>…\n\nA riveting tale of revenge brought to life by sharp characterisation and powerful dynamics.','The Villa of Mysteries','','publish','closed','closed','','the-villa-of-mysteries','','','2011-02-01 12:51:36','2011-02-01 12:51:36','',3302,'http://s91710.gridserver.com/?page_id=3316',7,'page','',0),(3318,1,'2010-03-20 03:45:26','2010-03-20 03:45:26','<img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-3447 noborder\" title=\"season-1\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/season-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"227\" height=\"239\" />It’s a scorching summer in Rome. Sara Farnese sits in the Vatican Library. The streets are deserted. A man walks towards her. He is familiar. He is carrying a blood-stained bag…\n<blockquote>Stefano’s left arm, the one holding the weapon, swept the table, swept everything on it, the precious volume of Apicius, her expensive notebook computer, down to the hard marble floor with a clatter. He said in a loud voice that was half crazy, half dead, ‘The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.’</blockquote>\nAs the media gathers and Vatican officials close ranks, a young detective is sent to the forefront of the case. Nic Costa is the son of an infamous Italian Communist, a connoisseur of Caravaggio, and a cop who barely looks his 27 years of age. Thrust into the heart of a killing spree that will rattle his city down to its ancient bones, Nic begins to see a pattern in the killings that follow, murders that seem to mimic the grisly martyrdoms of the early Church.\n\nRacked by personal anxiety over his dying father, Costa starts on the long journey to uncover the truth about these horrific crimes, whatever the cost, whatever the pain. From the inner quarters of the Vatican, desperate to hide a financial embarrassment, to the poorer, squalid bed-sits where the city’s immigrants try to eke out a living, Costa takes on any who crosses his path, however influential, however damaging the cost to his career.\n\nShunned as the son of a Communist, treated with suspicion by many of those around him, Costa relies on his own intelligence and integrity to find a way into the life of the mysterious Sara Farnese, and unlock the key to the case. But it’s a journey that comes with a terrible risk, and a cost he can never foresee.\n\n<em>Reviews</em>\n\n<em>BookReporter.Com</em>\n\n‘…breathtaking… a dark delight, a story that one is compelled to read at one sitting while simultaneously wishing it will never end.’\n\n<em>Publisher’s Weekly\n</em>\nOutsized, eccentric characters, a complex story and an abundance of historical detail make this engrossing book more than just another cookie-cutter, religious-nut serial killer thriller.\n\n<em>Washington Post</em>\n\n<em>A Season for the Dead</em>, like <em>The Da Vinci Code</em>, is a thriller that takes an unflattering look at the Catholic Church, but it is better written and more sophisticated than Dan Brown’s phenomenal bestseller… The books differ, too, in that Hewson, far more than Brown or most thriller writers, has a serious concern for character.\n\nHewson gives us lyrical moments (during a storm, “the city looked like the bowl of some fantastic fountain designed by a drunken Bernini”) and bizarre moments, as when the killer, in clerical robes, awaiting a victim, listens on headphones to Cannonball Adderley’s great recording of “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy,” the point being that he has none. Amid revelations of police corruption, unexpected parentage, incest and betrayal, Hewson concocts a climactic scene in a little church called San Luigi dei Francesi…\n\nLit by candles, Caravaggio’s painting of the martyrdom of Saint Matthew gazes down from the wall (”the naked madman murdering the prone Matthew on the ground, sword raised, ready to deliver the final blow”). One crazed character “stumbled forward, colliding with terrified bodies in the darkness, yelling every obscenity he could think of, screaming his father’s name, begging the black maw of the nave to give up his body for vengeance.”\n\nLet me tell you, this is great stuff. <em>A Season for the Dead</em>, if sometimes blissfully over the top, is intelligent entertainment… Praise be!\n\n<em>Dallas Morning News</em>\n\nMr Hewson’s suspenseful, fascinating mystery has an appealing detective and many complex characters on both sides of the law. Twisting and turning through Italian history and art, Nic Costa’s first case gives the serial murder mystery a new look.\n\n<em>Chattanooga Times Free Press</em>, Tennessee\n\nThis enthralling story has it all: believable heroes, villains and even minor characters, exotic setting, history, religion, gruesome violence and steamy sex. Best of all, it’s so seamlessly put together that time flies as you flip pages to get to the end. Atmospheric and captivating, Hewson’s novel has all the elements needed for the complete thriller-reading experience. This is one not to miss.\n\n<em>Rocky Mountain News</em>\n\nThere will be inevitable comparisons between this novel and <em>The Da Vinci Code</em> because of the Italian setting, the Vatican connection and the Caravaggio association. But <em>A Season for the Dead</em>does not expose artistic or religious frauds nor attempt to rewrite history. This is, instead, a complicated and engrossing mystery so compelling that it begs for a one-night reading.\n\nThe good news is that this is only the first novel to star Nic Costa. Hewson said in a recent interview that he created Costa as “a good guy, an unfinished, slightly naive, innocent person … a character who was in transition.” In a proposed six-book series, he will follow the policeman and his cohorts through other adventures as they attempt not only to solve crimes but deal honestly with a society that is not always honest itself.”Most of my books aren’t whodunits; they’re more whydunits,” Hewson explained. And that is just what makes them so fascinating.\n\n<em>Star Tribune</em>, Minneapolis\n\nThis atmospheric thriller begins in the Vatican library and winds around the ancient streets and churches of Rome. Detective Nic Costa is working on a series of gruesome murders that mimics the martyrdom of early Christian saints – and seems to revolve around the mysterious Sara Farnese, a professor of Early Christian history. Costa finds himself drawn to her cool beauty as well. Hewson’s absorbing series debut features a memorable cast of fully human characters, imagines the distorted mind of a serial killer and takes a chilling glimpse into the Vatican’s less-than-godly dealings with the secular world.\n\n<em>Library Journal\n</em>\nIt’s a suspenseful thriller, cleverly plotted with great characters and a real look at the back streets of Rome and the darker streets of the Vatican.\n\n<em>Oklahaman</em>\n\n… a delicious and compelling view of the public art of Rome and the private intrigue of the Vatican. Recommended for most popular fiction collections; blooming Costa fans will be pleased to know that Hewson plans a series of novels featuring the detective.\n\n<em>Mystery Lovers.Com</em>\n\nA fast-paced tour of Rome with a nice combo of serial killer thriller and Vatican conspiracy novel.\n\n<em>Deadly Pleasures</em>\n\nWhat makes Hewson worth reading is not only the well-realized setting, but also, to Americans, the exotic European characters, especially the two Italian cops. The action is well paced, the plot nicely twisted, the characters often chameleon-like, and the setting is definitely fascinating for many readers. Overall, this is a well written mystery with some real surprises at the end.\n\n<em>Birmingham Post</em>\n\nDavid Hewson… has written mysteries set abroad before now, especially Spain, and is one of several crime writers opting for an Italian setting these days. On this form, Hewson is certainly the leader of the pack.\n\n<em>Publishing News</em>\n\nThe first in a promising Italian crime series set in Rome … Hewson’s way with the Roman milieu is as cutting edge as his adroit narrative.\n\n<em>Sunday Mercury</em>\n\nAn oddball detective mistrusted by his bosses, a beautiful woman, the elegant backdrop of Rome and sinister goings-on in the Vatican all add up to a new spin on the serial killer tale…All of this works not simply because of the frenetic plot but because Hewson has two beguiling, fascinating characters to hold our interest… (he) has a lightness of touch, an eye for the macabre and an understanding that you can’t beat the old fatal attraction between an all-too-human cop and a beautiful woman.','A Season for the Dead','','publish','closed','closed','','a-season-for-the-dead','','','2011-02-01 12:51:45','2011-02-01 12:51:45','',3302,'http://s91710.gridserver.com/?page_id=3318',8,'page','',0),(3320,1,'2010-03-20 03:45:40','2010-03-20 03:45:40','<img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-3425\" title=\"nativeger\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/nativeger.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"160\" height=\"250\" />I never wanted overnight success, which is just as well the way things turned out. What I sought most from writing was the chance to tell a range of stories over an extended period of time. A career that allowed me free rein to explore the kinds of material that have always interested me.\n\nI know I get logged as a mystery, crime or thriller author these days, but I honestly haven’t seen myself this way. What I try to write is intelligent, popular fiction, the kind of book that’s been around for centuries. Some of my favourite authors – Robert Graves, MR James, Somerset Maugham, to name a few – managed to do this long ago without the need for labels. Today they seem inevitable but I don’t really try to fit into any particular genre myself.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/sombra.jpeg\"><img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-3426\" title=\"sombra\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/sombra.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"163\" height=\"250\" /></a>Literature is, in a large part, about the frailty of humankind, and our sad realisation of those weaknesses in ourselves, and how they contrast with the beauty and self sacrifice that sits alongside the bleakness in us all. Crime is a way of representing that dichotomy in our natures, which is why writers have used it as a focal point for their stories for centuries. Does that make<em>Hamlet</em> a crime story? Or <em>Treasure Island</em>? I don’t know and frankly I don’t much care. Stories should speak for themselves, and I think they do.\n\nBefore Nic Costa came on the scene my career was something of a rollercoaster ride as I tried to identify what exactly I added up to as an author. I veered from thriller sci-fi in <em>Solstice</em> to rural gothic in<em> Native Rites</em>. And where exactly books like <em>Epiphany </em>and <em>The Cemetery of Secrets</em> fit I’ve no idea. Anyway, for the sake of record you can browse my back catalogue here. Not all of these books are in print, however, though most are available on audio. You can still usually find them second hand on places like Amazon if you’re interested.','Standalones','','publish','open','closed','','standalones','','','2011-01-27 17:02:19','2011-01-27 17:02:19','',0,'http://s91710.gridserver.com/?page_id=3320',0,'page','',0),(3322,1,'2010-03-20 03:45:56','2010-03-20 03:45:56','<img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-3428 noborder\" title=\"DEATH IN SEVILLE PBB r6\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/death-in-seville-pbb-r6.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"168\" height=\"258\">\n<strong>Available in a new and fully revised edition from Pan Macmillan, November 2010</strong>\n\nHoly Week in Seville… and a murderer is loose. Academic Maria Gutierrez can see something in his ways that the police are missing. But her insight does nothing to help her popularity in the force-and draws her to the attention of the killer.\n\nThe Angel Brothers, two controversial modern artists, are found dead in a southern Spanish city, in a killing that emulates a famous painting. Visiting academic Maria Gutierrez was supposed to be an observer to the police investigation. But her own past in the city soon puts her one step ahead of the cops… and in the killer’s sights.\n\nTranslated into many languages, and a continuing summer hit in Germany,&nbsp;<em>Semana Santa</em> was first published in 1996 and marked my world debut as a novelist with a dark and powerful tale set in a region of Europe most English language writers ignored at the time. The story was later made into a movie with Mira Sorvino and Olivier Martinez, marketed in the US as <em>Angel of Death.</em>\n\nI\'ve now rewritten the book, placing the story in real-life Seville and introducing some new elements, and will be republished as&nbsp;<em>Death in Seville</em> by Pan Macmillan in autumn 2010. Many thanks to all of you who went out and bought the reissue of&nbsp;<em>The Cemetery of Secrets</em> since it was the success of that revived book that helped make this possible.\n\n<strong>Now available on audio</strong>\nThanks to my very enthusiastic audio publisher you can now get this book in&nbsp;<a rel=\"external\" href=\"http://www.wholestoryaudio.co.uk/catalogue/title/semana_santa/6551\" target=\"_blank\">the original edition on audio</a>, beautifully narrated by Sean Barrett. I\'m grateful to everyone at WF Howes for making this possible','Death in Seville','','publish','open','closed','','death-in-seville','','','2011-01-28 14:27:15','2011-01-28 14:27:15','',3320,'http://s91710.gridserver.com/?page_id=3322',-8,'page','',0),(3324,1,'2010-03-20 03:46:16','2010-03-20 03:46:16','<img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-3441 noborder\" title=\"cem1\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/cem1.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"218\" height=\"331\" />In an ancient burial ground on an island off Venice, a young woman’s casket is pried open, an object is wrenched from her hands, and an extraordinary adventure begins. Crossing centuries, encompassing music, passion and murder, <em>Lucifer’s Shadow</em> gained the ‘highest possible recommendation’ from Bookreporter.com and was hailed as ‘one of the best of 2004? by Deadly Pleasures. Unavailable in the UK for several years, it is now available in a revised edition from Pan Macmillan as <em>The Cemetery of Secrets</em>. The fourth Nic Costa book, <em>The Lizard’s Bite</em><em>, </em>is a companion piece to this book, featuring some of the same characters.\n\nFrom the moment he arrives in Venice, Daniel Forster is seduced by the city’s mystery. An earnest young academic, Daniel has come for a summer job cataloguing a private collector’s library.\n\nBut when Daniel’s employer sends him to buy a stolen violin from a petty thief, a chain reaction of violence and deception ignites. Suddenly Daniel is drawn into a police investigation-and a tempest swirling around a beautiful woman, a mysterious palazzo, and a lost musical masterpiece dating back centuries.\n\nWith each step he takes, Daniel unwittingly retraces a journey that began in 1733, when another young man came to Venice. And when, in this realm of intrigue and beauty, two lovers came face-to-face with a killer-and a mystery was born.\n\nSeparated by centuries, two tales of passion, betrayal, and danger collide. Sweeping the reader from the intrigue of Vivaldi’s Venice to the gritty world of a modern cop, from the genius of a prodigy to the greed of a killer, the story builds to a shattering crescendo-and one last, breathtaking surprise.\n\n…a reassuring sense of solid research underlying the descriptions of Venice, past and present. Hewson handles the two storylines of this brisk, intelligent thriller with aplomb, using each to counterpoint the other in a way that is entirely appropriate to a plot that has so much to do with music. Con brio, one might say. <em>The Spectator</em>\n\nRichly enjoyable, sophisticated and beguiling entertainment. <em>Sunday Times</em>','The Cemetery of Secrets','','publish','open','closed','','the-cemetery-of-secrets','','','2011-01-28 14:26:49','2011-01-28 14:26:49','',3320,'http://s91710.gridserver.com/?page_id=3324',-7,'page','',0),(3330,1,'2010-03-20 03:53:35','2010-03-20 10:53:35','<div>\n<div><img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-3445 noborder\" title=\"promised\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/promised.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"240\" height=\"360\" />Bierce was a happily married cop with a bright future. Then one sunny day in July his wife, Miriam, and their young son, Ricky, were savagely beaten to death. Bierce was convicted of the murder of his family. Languishing on Death Row twenty-three years later, he still has no memory of the incident.\n\nWith his execution only seconds away, he is suddenly, inexplicably, released. But the world has moved on without him and the city he knew has become a strange and dangerous place.\n\nReturning to the only home he knows, Bierce meets Alice Loong – a tough, half Chinese woman who can guide him through the confusing new world of the twenty-first century. But it soon becomes clear that Alice is hiding dark secrets of her own.\n\nAfter the horrifying discovery of a corpse nailed to a post outside Bierce’s house, the pair go on the run, pursued by dangerous enemies. Bierce now knows for certain that he was released to be the pawn in some vicious game he doesn’t understand. He knows, too, that he still doesn’t remember what happened the night his wife and son died. And that, perhaps, he is not as innocent as he’d like to think.\n\n<em>The Promised Land</em> was new territory for me, a first person tale that is compelling sequential in nature, an experiment in narrative that is half dream, half nightmare, begging to be read in a single sitting.\n\nIt’s a story about feeling old, lost and frightened. And like the Costa series, it’s fundamentally a story about a human being trying to find his way home.\n\n</div>\n</div>','The Promised Land','','publish','open','open','','the-promised-land','','','2011-01-28 14:26:53','2011-01-28 14:26:53','',3320,'http://s91710.gridserver.com/?page_id=3330',-5,'page','',0),(3332,1,'2010-03-20 03:54:17','2010-03-20 03:54:17','<img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-3439 noborder\" title=\"saved\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/saved.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"227\" height=\"341\" />Get this book immediately on <a href=\"http://www.amazon.co.uk/Saved-English-Village-Fought-Future/dp/B004RR1696/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;s=digital-text&amp;qid=1299917013&amp;sr=8-2\" target=\"_blank\">Kindle UK</a> for 86p and on <a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Saved-English-Village-Future-ebook/dp/B004RR1696/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;m=A7B2F8DUJ88VZ&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1299917073&amp;sr=8-2\" target=\"_blank\">Kindle US</a> for $1.40\r\n\r\nI thought my journalism days were behind me. But sometimes life has a habit of turning things around in ways you least expect. In December 2005 I was in Rome researching what was to become <em>The Garden of Evil</em>. Out of the blue I took a phone call which revealed that the large London university Imperial College had very big designs on the area where I was lucky enough to live.\r\n\r\nThe next ten months saw an extraordinary battle by ordinary people pitched against an army of well-paid professional developers trying to turn some of the most beautiful – and protected – countryside in England over to the bulldozer. They were just ordinary citizens appalled by what was being planned, in secret and with the covert support of our own public representatives. The most extraordinary part of all is… we won. After concerted local opposition and a string of revelations on save-wye.org , the web-site I set up as a public forum to discuss Imperial’s plans, the project collapsed.\r\n\r\nYou can read this amazing saga in full for free at the foot of this article. I wrote this story because there are many other people out there who are desperate to know how Wye won where so many others failed. The answer is through luck, determination and some very single-minded people. So in some ways this isn’t a story that far from fiction at all… though every last word is true, even though I occasionally had to pinch himself when reminded of that fact.\r\n\r\nSAVED is a full length account of the true story of this campaign from its opening to close. It’s not hagiography or triumphalist, because this may be a short-lived victory. Nor does it seek to hide the mistakes that were made along the way, because one important thing we learned during this fight was that honest and openness were often the most powerful weapons the Wye campaigners had – and sometimes the only ones.\r\n\r\nI’m grateful to everyone who helped with the Wye campaign, in particular my colleague in the site, Justin Williams, without whom this story would not have had such a satisfactory ending.\r\n\r\n<strong>What people said about </strong><strong><em>Saved</em></strong>\r\n\r\nRobin Page, the countryside writer and broadcaster who was for many years the host of One Man and his Dog, says of the book...\r\n<blockquote>David Hewson writes thrillers. Saved is a real life thriller, exposing the sham of “local democracy”. A must for all those wanting to save their countryside and communities from the concrete mixers and the planning fixers.</blockquote>\r\nJonathon Porritt, the well-known environmentalist who is now Founder Director of Forum for the Future, writes...\r\n<blockquote>This is a fascinating book, full of insights into the workings of local politics, new, web-based ways of campaigning, different environmental tactics, and institutions as powerful as they are unaccountable.\r\n\r\nAs a result of a wonderfully effective campaign, this little corner of an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Kent is safe for now. But as the author himself points out, the agents of the kind of wholly unsustainable development that is still eroding our countryside will never give up and never go away. With local democracy in such a state of disrepair, in so many parts of the land, many more battles of this kind will still need to be fought.</blockquote>\r\nShaun Spiers, chief executive, Campaign for the Protection of Rural England, said...\r\n<blockquote>Imperial College’s science park plan for Wye was in essence a smash and grab operation, designed to let the university cash in on its greenfield AONB landholding around a beautiful Kent village.\r\n\r\nThat it failed was largely thanks to the website save-wye, the brief but gripping history of which is chronicled in this book. We in CPRE were delighted to offer the local campaigners help and support.\r\n\r\nThere is much in <em>Saved</em> to worry countryside campaigners, but also much to cheer them. The role of the local council is depressing, as is the failure of most local media to question the developer’s official line.\r\n\r\nYet the book also shows that schemes such as Wye Park can be defeated, however impressive their official backing, and that journalism and the democratic process in their truest forms can triumph when the established media and body politic have gone bad.</blockquote>\r\nProfessor Roy Greenslade, former editor of the Daily Mirror, and now Professor of Journalism at City University, London, and one of the country’s leading media commentators, has kindly contributed the foreword to the book.\r\n\r\nIn it he writes, ‘…this is not a story about Nimbyism. It is about right versus wrong; about transparency versus secrecy; about truth versus lies; about democracy versus authoritarianism.’','Saved','','publish','open','closed','','saved','','','2011-03-12 08:07:26','2011-03-12 08:07:26','',3320,'http://s91710.gridserver.com/?page_id=3332',-3,'page','',0),(3334,1,'2010-03-20 03:54:55','2010-03-20 03:54:55','<h4><a rel=\"external\" href=\"http://www.scribd.com/doc/4470167/Native-Rites\" target=\"_blank\"><img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-3436 noborder\" title=\"native\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/native.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"172\" height=\"272\" />Read this book for free now on Scribd</a></h4>\n<em>Native Rites</em> is a book about a set of people who will do whatever it takes to safeguard their own, precious, privileged existences. A young couple move to a new rural home. Miles commutes to the city each day leaving his American wife Alison to get to know the locals.\n\nOne September day they both visit the ancient bonfire ritual. Maybe Alison was drunk. Maybe not. But she felt sure something terrible happened, and that at least some of those close to her knew it too.\n\nIs she paranoid? Or is there really some dark conspiracy happening in this small piece of paradise? Alison is determined to find out, whatever the cost, however much the truth may shatter her illusions about the cosy, comfortable green heaven she’s found herself in.\n\n<em>Native Rites</em> asks how far we would go to defend our notion of Englishness. Answer: as far as we need.\n\nThe landscape in which the book is set is still glorious, and hopefully a little too remote for the house builders and sightless urban politicians of England to despoil it soon. And you can visit without fear of winding up in the middle of some secret, sacrificial rite. Take a copy of Rites to the area of east Kent, between Wye, Folkestone and Canterbury, and you will encounter strange commons called Minnis, and beautiful remote villages that look as if they haven’t changed for centuries. You may even bump into the occasional author too.','Native Rites','','publish','open','closed','','native-rites','','','2011-01-28 14:26:53','2011-01-28 14:26:53','',3320,'http://s91710.gridserver.com/?page_id=3334',-4,'page','',0),(3336,1,'2010-03-20 03:55:17','2010-03-20 03:55:17','It’s hot, unbearably hot, in a way that makes people wonder if the world isn’t changing fundamentally for the worse. Back in 1996 when this book was first started, that seemed an unusual idea. Today no-one would question it.\n\n<em>Solstice</em> is a book about man’s neglect of his own planet and a group of people who decide to take matters into their own hands. A core of hardened eco-terrorists have taken control of a Cold War weapon developed in secret by the Reagan administration. It gives them the power to turn the focus of the sun’s radiation on any part of the world they choose.\n\nMichael Lieberman, a renegade scientist who knows the leader of the gang from his academic work in the past, is reluctantly force to take on the role of their opponent, trying to stop their deliberate attempt to force an environmental disaster on some of the world’s major cities.\n\n<em>Solstice</em> presaged the emergence of terrorists who were willing to sacrifice their own lives for no other end except to harm others. It also foresaw the use of the then new technology of the internet to foster havoc among agencies grounded in the practices of another era. This is a dystopian image of a damaged future, one that persuaded Time Warner to take me on as a future techno-thriller writer in the vein of Michael Crichton. But that just wasn’t me… though I still have fond memories of this book.\n\n<em>Independence Day</em> reimagined for grown-ups. A smart synthesis of science fiction and planet-in-peril cliffhanger. <em>Sunday Times</em>\n\nA remarkably well-written thriller… Hewson’s science is both complex and authentic. And-perhaps even more impressive for a techno-thriller-so are his characters. <em>Kirkus Reviews</em>\n\nRichly imagined… as high-tech concepts go they don’t get much hotter than this. Michael Cordy, author of <em>The Miracle Strain</em>','Solstice','','publish','open','closed','','solstice','','','2011-01-27 17:47:02','2011-01-27 17:47:02','',3320,'http://s91710.gridserver.com/?page_id=3336',-1,'page','',0),(3338,1,'2010-03-20 03:55:49','2010-03-20 03:55:49','<strong><img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-6145\" title=\"Epiphany\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/epiphany.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"207\" height=\"275\" />Now available for the first time in a decade. Get it instantly as a Kindle ebook on <a href=\"http://www.amazon.co.uk/Epiphany/dp/B00480OQS0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;m=A3TVV12T0I6NSM&amp;qid=1288867675&amp;sr=1-1\" target=\"_blank\">Amazon UK </a>and <a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00480OQS0\" target=\"_blank\">Amazon US</a>.</strong><em></em><em></em>\n\n<em>Palo Alto, northern California, 1975</em>\n\nA child goes missing in northern California. Twenty years later, people want to know why, and the past begins to unravel for a group of former friends who thought they’d escaped it forever.\n\n<em>Seattle 1995</em>\n\nA group of students retire to a remote house to experiment with LSD. One, Michael Quinn, kidnaps a child. A body is found. And for the rest of the group the battle to escape justice begins.\n\nTwenty years on, with Quinn about to be unexpectedly released from jail, a mysterious young Englishwoman, Joni Lascelles, arrives in the city, asking questions about the kidnapping, unravelling the past for those who thought it was long dead. The horror of the past comes to engulf the present, leaving no-one untouched by its power. Turn by turn, shifting effortlessly between two eras twenty years apart, the story is played out with relentless compulsion to an overwhelming climax.\n\n<em>Epiphany</em> was my second book. It was completed it in the summer of 1995 while he was still waiting for Semana Santa to be published. At the time he was spending a lot of journalistic time visiting San Francisco and Seattle. The contrast between the two – California with its lost innocence, and Seattle with its hard, uncompromising Nineties materialism- was what provoked the book. It’s a complex, ambitious piece of work.\n\nI’m still pretty pleased with this work. I’ve written nothing quite like it since and, to be honest, it’s pretty damn scary. I’ve now taken a scalpel to the original and revised it from top to bottom. It’s been republished as an eBook on Smashwords for $4.95, in a variety of different formats for modern ereaders and PCs. This is very much an experiment on my part. I’d like to see what happens if an established author puts backlist out there this way. I’ll be telling you how it goes in the blog too.\n\nJohn Fowles on acid. <em>The Guardian</em>\n\nThe atmosphere of mystery, menace and guilt is sustained with great skill, building tension to a seismic explosion as ghoulish characters squirm to escape a relentless past returning to destroy them. <em>Daily Telegraph</em>\n\nDavid Hewson has an altogether wider range of literary and cultural reference than most thrillers. Impressive… <em>Esquire</em>','Epiphany','','publish','open','closed','','epiphany','','','2011-01-27 17:49:46','2011-01-27 17:49:46','',3320,'http://s91710.gridserver.com/?page_id=3338',-1,'page','',0),(3385,1,'2010-03-20 05:47:15','2010-03-20 12:47:15','We have a range of publicity shots available for free. The shots are by <a href=\"http://www.bothwellphoto.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Mark Bothwell</a>. You can browse the gallery by clicking the photograph below. This will take you to Flickr where you can choose the size of the image you’d like to download. Please credit the photographer.\n\n<a href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/38965942@N00/sets/72157603745591103/\" target=\"_blank\"><img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3386\" title=\"me\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/me.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"415\" /></a>','Media resources','','publish','open','open','','media-resources','','','2010-03-20 05:47:15','2010-03-20 12:47:15','',4354,'http://s91710.gridserver.com/?page_id=3385',0,'page','',0),(3390,1,'2010-03-20 06:05:06','2010-03-20 06:05:06','Over the last through years, largely thanks to my membership of <a rel=\"external\" href=\"http://www.thrillerwriters.org/\" target=\"_blank\">International Thrillerwriters</a>, I’ve been able to collaborate with some great writers around the world. You can read about details of a few here, including <em>The Chopin Manuscript</em>, which won the audiobook of the year award and its new sequel, <em>The Copper Bracelet</em> as well as <em>Thriller 2.</em>','Collaborations','','publish','open','closed','','collaborations','','','2011-01-27 17:02:07','2011-01-27 17:02:07','',0,'http://s91710.gridserver.com/?page_id=3390',0,'page','',0),(3392,1,'2010-03-20 06:05:27','2010-03-20 13:05:27','<img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-3416 noborder\" title=\"chopin\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/chopin.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"227\" height=\"339\" />Former war crimes investigator Harold Middleton possesses a priceless, previously-unknown manuscript by Frederic Chopin. Within the notes of this work, which was originally found and hidden by the Nazis during World War II, lies a secret that has left death in its wake – and could kill tens of thousands more.\n<h4>Winner 2007 Audiobook of the Year</h4>\nThe Chopin Manuscript is a unique collaboration among 15 distinguished international thriller writers who came together to create a single audiobook with each author contributing a chapter to the ongoing story.\n\nJeffery Deaver conceived the characters and the setting and put the plot in motion with the first chapter. Then I take the threads of Jeff’s opening chapter opening section to produce a second which spins the story out of its opening in Warsaw to Rome, and sets it on the way to a climax in the US. From there the story was turned over to thirteen authors – including Lee Child, Lisa Scottoline, Joseph Finder, S. J. Rozan, and P. J. Parrish – who each wrote a chapter that propelled the story along. Along the way the plot took twists and turns as each author lent his or her own imprint on the tale. Characters were added as the action moved around the world — and the stakes got higher and higher. The book wrapped with Jeff writing the final two chapters bringing The Chopin Manuscript to its explosive conclusion.\n\nThe plot unfolds like this: Former war crimes investigator Harold Middleton possesses a priceless, previously-unknown manuscript by Frederic Chopin. Within the notes of this work, which was originally found and hidden by the Nazis during World War II, lies a secret that has left death in its wake – and could kill tens of thousands more. As Middleton races to unlock the mystery of the manuscript, he is accused of murder, pursued by federal agents and targeted by assassins. But the greatest threat comes from a man known only as Faust – a shadowy figure from Middleton’s past.\n\n<em>The Chopin Manuscript</em> was the world’s first audio thriller, delivered serially, read beautifully by that great actor Alfred Molina. Readers received a new installment of 2-3 chapters every Tuesday, beginning September 25th. with the final instalment delivered on November 13th. It proved one of the fastest-selling audio titles of 2007.','The Chopin Manuscript','','publish','open','open','','the-chopin-manuscript','','','2010-03-20 06:05:27','2010-03-20 13:05:27','',3390,'http://s91710.gridserver.com/?page_id=3392',0,'page','',0),(3394,1,'2010-03-20 06:05:46','2010-03-20 13:05:46','<img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-3420\" title=\"thriller2\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/thriller2.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"217\" height=\"331\" />The first Thriller anthology, edited by James Patterson, was a phenomenal success for the then-fledgling ITW organisation and helped pay a lot of ITW’s bills in the early days.\n\nIt was seeing the success of Thriller that helped push ITW into taking a brave and unique decision — to drop all membership fees for eligible author members. As the board member who suggested this innovation I’m somewhat biased as to whether it’s a good idea or simply mad. But I do think the idea of a writers’ organisation that lives on its wits and creativity, not a tax on its members, is rather appealing. So here comes Thriller 2, this time edited by the redoubtable Clive Cussler, and published once again by the excellent Mira.\n\nThe list of authors on board with short stories for this edition includes Jeffery Deaver, Kathleen Antrim, Sean Chercover, Lisa Jackson, Tim Maleeny, Philip Margolin, Carla Neggers, RL Stine, Ridley Pearson… and lots more. Oh, and me.\n\nMy story is called <em>The Circle</em> and I can reveal that…\n<ul>\n	<li>is not set in Rome</li>\n	<li>does not feature any of my regular characters</li>\n	<li>has absolutely no historical antecedents</li>\n	<li>is pretty much unlike anything else I’ve ever written (no, there are no vampires or aliens — it’s not that off the wall)</li>\n</ul>\nIt was enormous fun to get the chance to write something different. Thanks to everyone in ITW, Tim Maleeny, in particular, for extending the opportunity to me.','Thriller 2','','publish','open','open','','thriller-2','','','2011-01-27 17:46:22','2011-01-27 17:46:22','',3390,'http://s91710.gridserver.com/?page_id=3394',-2,'page','',0),(3396,1,'2010-03-20 06:06:15','2010-03-20 13:06:15','<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/copperbracelet_verti14f17b1-198x300.jpeg\"><img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-3418\" title=\"copperbracelet_verti14F17B1-198x300\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/copperbracelet_verti14f17b1-198x300.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"198\" height=\"300\" /></a>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 <a rel=\"external\" href=\"http://www.thrillerwriters.org/\" target=\"_blank\">ITW</a> 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 the audiobook of the year — not a genre thing. Amazing.\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 fun. 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. If you’re in the US head off over to www.audible.com/copper. In the UK go to www.audible.co.uk/copper. There you’ll find the first chapter for free and other freebies including an audio interview in which Jeff, Lee, Jim Fusilli and I discuss the project. You’ll have to register but you won’t need a credit card.\n\nAs 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.','The Copper Bracelet','','publish','open','open','','the-copper-bracelet','','','2011-01-27 17:46:22','2011-01-27 17:46:22','',3390,'http://s91710.gridserver.com/?page_id=3396',-1,'page','',0),(3398,1,'2010-03-20 06:06:45','2010-03-20 13:06:45','<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/screen-shot-2009-12-22-at-15-05.png\"><img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-3422\" title=\"Screen shot 2009-12-22 at 15.05\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/screen-shot-2009-12-22-at-15-05.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"236\" height=\"339\" /></a>Both <em>The Chopin Manuscript </em>and <em>The Copper Bracelet</em> were conceived as written as audio thrillers, designed to be heard more than read. But after they came out and hit the airwaves through Audible and iTunes we were inundated with people who wanted to buy them as a book.\n\nThere was, when we had just <em>Chopin</em>, a problem. These were designed for audio, and a little short for conventional publishing - 60,000 words or so. But then along came the sequel <em>The Copper Bracelet</em> and we had the makings of a book.\n\nThat’s what <em>Watchlist </em>is. A book version of the two stories, connected novellas mirroring the story we first told through Alfred Molina’s wonderful narration. The book was published by <a rel=\"external\" href=\"http://www.vanguardpressbooks.com/home.php\" target=\"_blank\">Vanguard Press</a> in January 2010.','Watchlist','','publish','open','open','','watchlist','','','2011-01-27 17:46:22','2011-01-27 17:46:22','',3390,'http://s91710.gridserver.com/?page_id=3398',-3,'page','',0),(3400,1,'2010-03-20 06:13:52','2010-03-20 13:13:52','For all book inquiries please contact Carole Blake of <a rel=\"external\" href=\"http://www.blakefriedmann.co.uk/\" target=\"_blank\">Blake Friedmann</a>.<a rel=\"self\" href=\"mailto:Carole@blakefriedmann.co.uk\">Carole@blakefriedmann.co.uk </a>\n\nFor film and TV inquiries please contact Conrad Williams at Blake Friedmann.<a rel=\"self\" href=\"mailto:Conrad@blakefriedmann.co.uk\">Conrad@blakefriedmann.co.uk</a>\n\nBlake Friedmann Literary, Film &amp; TV Agency\n122 Arlington Road\nLondon NW1 7HP\n\nTelephone: 020 7284 0408\nFax: 020 7284 0442','Representation','','publish','open','open','','representation','','','2011-01-27 17:46:01','2011-01-27 17:46:01','',4354,'http://s91710.gridserver.com/?page_id=3400',-1,'page','',0),(3402,1,'2010-03-20 06:14:37','2010-03-20 13:14:37','Almost all of the books listed here are widely available in a variety of media including audio. For details of individual titles please contact my audio and large print publisher <a rel=\"external\" href=\"http://www.wfhowes.co.uk/\" target=\"_blank\">WF Howes</a>.\n\nYou can buy titles, and listen to previews, at <a rel=\"external\" href=\"http://www.wholestoryaudio.co.uk/\" target=\"_blank\">Whole Story Audio</a>. You will also find my audio books available for download on <a rel=\"external\" href=\"http://www.audible.co.uk/aduk/site/audibleSearch/searchResults.jsp?D=David+Hewson&amp;Ntt=David+Hewson&amp;Ntk=S_Keywords_Uk&amp;Dx=mode%2bmatchallpartial&amp;Ntx=mode%2bmatchallpartial&amp;N=0&amp;BV_UseBVCookie=Yes\" target=\"_blank\">Audible UK</a> and <a rel=\"external\" href=\"http://www.audible.com/adbl/site/enSearch/searchResults.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=Yes&amp;N=0&amp;Ntx=mode%2Bmatchallpartial&amp;D=David+Hewson&amp;Dx=mode%2Bmatchallpartial&amp;Ntk=S_Keywords&amp;Ntt=David+Hewson&amp;x=0&amp;y=0\" target=\"_blank\">Audible US</a>.\n\nPlease note that all of my audio books are unabridged.','Audio','','publish','open','open','','audio','','','2010-03-20 06:14:37','2010-03-20 13:14:37','',4354,'http://s91710.gridserver.com/?page_id=3402',0,'page','',0),(3222,1,'2010-03-22 08:30:45','2010-03-22 08:30:45','Barring unforeseen circumstances, the first draft of the present work in progress will be finished this week, coming in at somewhere between 110,000 and 120,000 words. I started it last November. This is faster than usual for me, especially since it includes two research weeks in Venice. Sometimes books happen quickly. Often they\'re the better for that I think.\n\nFor the sake of record I thought I ought to put down a few things I\'ve noticed about this closing stage of the process.\n\n<!--more-->\n<ul>\n	<li>The writing happens very freely. I now have a pretty clear idea of what\'s ahead. I want to see what this looks like when it\'s set down on the page. I don\'t have to worry about planning or continuity. I just have to write from A to B. If I had the energy I could probably do this in a couple of very long days. But there\'s no rush so I\'ll stick to my usual 8-5 thank you.</li>\n</ul>\n<ul>\n	<li>Here\'s another oddity. This is, in some ways, the least fun part of the writing process. Until this last stage I\'m flailing in the dark, tearing off the outer garments of the mystery to find out what lies beneath. No more. Now I <em>know</em>. I\'m not saying that means the work is prosaic. But it\'s not far off. Memo to self: <em>remember that the reader is not in the same position.</em> There are a lot of cogs and wheels whirring and churning to bring this story to a close. It\'s important they don\'t appear too mechanical or that I come across as running through the motions.</li>\n</ul>\n<ul>\n	<li>I\'m increasingly aware of the problems with this work too. I don\'t know all of the things I have to fix. But I do know there are plenty. I\'ll tell you later of the process I go through when I have a first draft. But it\'s going to be a lengthy and detailed one. A very complete revision of every single word of every sentence in the book. And there\'s a lot of logistical work ahead, tying up loose ends.</li>\n</ul>\n<ul>\n	<li>I\'m pretty happy with what I have so far. It feels as I expected and wanted. Original, dark, scary and different to my other books, but not so much that people will say: he\'s gone somewhere else. This is a purely subjective opinion, of course. My head is now so deep inside this story that even if it\'s completely rubbish I\'d never notice.</li>\n</ul>\n<ul>\n	<li>I feel under no pressure. This book won\'t appear till 2012. There\'s time to think things over, revise, edit. Make the whole work better. Time to do that before I ever pass it on to someone else too -- which I intend to use.</li>\n</ul>\n<ul>\n	<li>As always I have no precise idea of when I will write the final paragraph. Endings sneak up on you. I\'m writing this at 103K. I suspect there are perhaps seven new scenes remaining to be written. That would bring in the final book at around 115K. I don\'t know if I will write one of those scenes today or three. It doesn\'t actually matter anyway.</li>\n</ul>\n<ul>\n	<li>I\'m knackered. The last few weeks have seen me writing around 15K words over a five day period. This is quite tiring physically more than anything. At some point soon I am going to have to walk away from the computer and sniff the fresh air.</li>\n</ul>\nThat\'s what I\'m looking forward to this week, hopefully.  I\'ll take you through the post first draft process when it starts.','Cleared for landing','Barring unforeseen circumstances, the first draft of the present work in progress will be finished this week, coming in at somewhere between 110,000 and 120,000 words. I started it last November. This is faster than usual for me, especially since it includes two research weeks in Venice. Sometimes books happen quickly. Often they\'re the better for that I think.\n\nFor the sake of record I thought I ought to put down a few things I\'ve noticed about this closing stage of the process.','publish','open','closed','','cleared-for-landing','','','2011-01-28 08:07:01','2011-01-28 08:07:01','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/blog/?p=3222',0,'post','',0),(3494,1,'2010-03-23 08:00:16','2010-03-23 08:00:16','This may not come as news to you, but boy I hate Microsoft Word. It is a necessary evil -- publishers expect you to deliver your work as a Word file. That doesn\'t mean you have to use the bloated old monster to write your book. Like an increasing number of Mac-based authors these days I use something else, in my case <a title=\"Scrivener\" href=\"http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.html\" target=\"_blank\">Scrivener</a>.\n\nLet me give you a quick example of one reason why. It\'s to do with the revision process, and how you can feel free to edit and rewrite your work at will, knowing full well that the original will never be lost.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nOne simple way to do this, of course, is just to save a backup file before starting revising. Everyone should do this, and drop it into something like <a href=\"http://getdropbox.com\" target=\"_blank\">Dropbox</a> too just in case.\n\nBut it\'s also important to see revisions against the original. How does Word suggest you do this? Using some big, complicated overfussy thing called \'Track Changes\'. This is what it looks like.\n\n<img class=\"noborder\" style=\"margin-left:0;\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/screen-shot-2010-03-22-at-12-02-23.png\" alt=\"Screen shot 2010-03-22 at 12.02.23.png\" width=\"600\" height=\"405\" />\n\nAll I\'ve done here is delete one paragraph and inserted a few words elsewhere. What do you get? Colours. <em>I</em> <em>do not want to see colours when I am writing a book.</em> There are no colours on the final page. Get them out of there.\n\nWhat else do I see? The deleted text pulled out as an aside. Which makes for a very wide screen -- try using this on a small laptop. You can tweak things so this disappears. But then you can spend half your life tweaking things in Word, and end up wondering why you\'re ninety years old and <em>still</em> haven\'t finished the damned book.\n\nAnd what is all this about? Being able to edit an original text without losing what you started with. Something very simple indeed. Here\'s how Scrivener handles it.\n\nGo to a scene. Hit the command 5 button. Scrivener then takes a \'snapshot\' of the current scene. In order words it\'s stored a complete copy. You can work on the new version knowing the old one\'s safe and sound. And if you want just go to the Documents menu and choose \'Show Snapshots\'. You see the old version. And you also realise you can store multiple snapshots, each with names and dates, so you can have several different working versions of the same scene and never, ever lose anything.\n\n<img class=\"noborder\" style=\"margin-left:0;\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/scriv.png\" alt=\"scriv.png\" width=\"600\" height=\"383\" />\n\nYes, there are things that Word can do that Scrivener can\'t. But they\'re things that I don\'t need. I\'m not writing technical documents edited by a team of people, which is what Word seems to think. And if you use a Mac and need that level of tracking I suggest you try Apple\'s Pages which does the whole thing better, reads Word files, and is a lot more user friendly (though it still has colours -- damn).\n\nScrivener\'s way of tracking revisions seems, to me anyway, simple and actually very powerful. So long as you remember to hit Command 5 before you start on that groundbreaking rewrite then not a lot can go wrong.','Snapshots and the revision process','','publish','open','closed','','snapshots-and-the-revision-process','','','2011-01-28 08:07:01','2011-01-28 08:07:01','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/?p=3494',0,'post','',0),(3514,1,'2010-03-24 08:08:30','2010-03-24 08:08:30','My normal daily target when writing is 1,500 words. Yesterday I wrote 4,600. Why? Simple reason. I\'m now in the closing stages of this particular book and yesterday, for the first time, I finally saw in detail how it would move to the end.\n\nUsually this happens a bit earlier but every book is different. With this one -- which is very much a mystery I guess, more than a thriller -- there were some tantalising unknowns right up to the 105K mark in a book that will probably, on first draft, come in at around 117K.\n\nShould I worry about this?\n\n<!--more-->\n\nWell yes, in the sense that an author with a draft manuscript should, in all honesty, be worrying about everything. What happens to me when I see the finishing line is something very simple: I want to cross it. I can\'t wait to try to phrase the resolution of the book. And so I write very quickly. Had I the energy I\'d still be writing now -- but I think 4,600 words is enough for one day frankly.\n\nLong experience has taught me that enthusiastic writing like this is, in the main, good for the book. Work that comes easily is often better than work I have to slave over. That\'s my experience. It says nothing about the experiences of others.\n\nBut you do have to keep an eye on fast writing . Here are some of the things I always find I need to look out for.\n<ul>\n	<li>Literals and typos. Usually I\'m composing on screen. When I\'m writing quickly I\'m setting down the words that are forming already in my head. They may be the right words there but the wrong ones when they come through my fumbling fingers. All work needs reading carefully. Passages that have been written quickly need proofing with special care.</li>\n	<li>Logistical hiccups. When something\'s screaming at you to be written it may well be that you haven\'t fully thought it through. This isn\'t such a problem at the end of the book. If you take a wrong turning there you don\'t have far to track back. But if you\'re writing furiously a third of the way through beware -- because you may set up something that sends you down a blind alley.</li>\n	<li>You miss opportunities. I\'m a great believer in squeezing scenes for all they\'re worth (in moderation, if that makes sense). When you\'re writing quickly that doesn\'t always happen. Simple example: I have a key climactic scene which happens in an unusual and strange Venetian location. In the first, rapidfire draft this was on ground level in a deserted little square near the Rialto in the dead of night. Fine, but looking at it, and reading the first effort through, it was immediately obvious how much more resonant this scene would be if it was all of this <em>and</em> an underground room too, a basement, a cellar, somewhere out of the way and hidden from view. Had I been writing at a more considered pace I would have seen this immediately, I suspect. Hammering away to get to the end it escaped me.</li>\n</ul>\nWriting quickly is good and we should never forget that books are made up of nothing more than text. Architects have to tear down walls to correct their mistakes. Film directors have to reshoot or recut scenes. All we need do is find new words at no cost to anyone but ourselves.\n\nBut it\'s still important to keep your eye on them, especially when they\'re flowing.','Writing like the wind','','publish','open','closed','','writing-like-the-wind','','','2011-01-28 08:07:01','2011-01-28 08:07:01','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/?p=3514',0,'post','',0),(3520,1,'2010-03-24 08:38:28','2010-03-24 08:38:28','I\'m not doing too many public events this year and <a href=\"http://fearthenextpage.blogspot.com/2010/03/meeting-david-hewson.html\" target=\"_blank\">when I read things like this</a> I almost feel glad. It\'s an account of the final event <a href=\"http://www.anncleeves.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Ann Cleeves</a> and I did in the north east last month, the seventh in three days, during which we met hundreds of people, all of whom I found very charming I must say.\n\nThe real reason I\'m cutting down on events this year is because I want to focus more on writing. Going out and meeting the public is time-consuming, expensive and, let\'s be frank, probably doesn\'t shift as many books as we’d like to think. I do it primarily because it\'s fun and often enlightening for me, particularly in the company of someone like Ann.\n\nObviously it wasn\'t for this chap much, or at least that’s how I read it. I thought we did some quite entertaining events, particularly the one that this refers to (if I got it right). But this chap thought I was \'dry, downbeat and a bit crusty... and very ill at ease.\' That\'s not how I remember it, and given I\'ve already been invited back by the library in question I suspect it\'s not the way they do either.\n\nBut leaving me aside let me make one important point for authors out there who brave the public at events.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nIn the old days these were personal, almost private matters. You could tell a slightly risque story or anecdote without fear that it would go any further. You could be frank and forthright in a way you wouldn\'t in an interview on the BBC.\n\nNot any more. We now have the Internet. Every word you utter may be written down, perhaps misreported then put online for anyone who\'s interested to see and pass on. People will record you, even video you then publish the results without ever asking permission. I was once alarmed to see a blogger make references to an author he\'d seen having dinner with an attractive young lady -- nudge, nudge, wink, wink. Don\'t suppose it mattered to the blogger concerned in the slightest that the chap happened to be married, and for all I know was just doing that -- having dinner with someone.\n\nI\'ve always loved the anonymity of being an author, the fact that even the biggest names in the business can walk down the street and never be recognised. We\'re losing that. No point in arguing. But there are lessons to be learnt here, and one is you have to watch your lip in public, however small the event, because any slip may well come back to haunt you on the web somewhere. It\'s a great shame really but thanks to the web that intimacy we once had at events has gone. Or you enjoy it at your peril.\n\nAs for the author of this odd post I can only say... sorry I disappointed you. My work is my writing, not legging it up to the north east to talk to public gatherings, pleasant as that is. I\'m not a salesman, a marketeer, or a public relations man and I make no apologies for any of that. &nbsp;And I\'m equally sorry that, among the hundreds of books I signed up there, I didn\'t spot the obscure humour in the message you asked me to write or have time, at a very busy public meeting, to discuss a comic about a chimp.&nbsp;\n\nVery remiss of me.','In public means in public','','publish','open','closed','','in-public-means-in-public','','','2011-01-28 08:07:01','2011-01-28 08:07:01','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/2010/03/24/in-public-means-in-public/',0,'post','',0),(3527,1,'2010-03-25 08:25:48','2010-03-25 08:25:48','Yesterday I completed the first draft for the new book -- the one you lot should get in 2012. Over the next eight weeks I intend to turn this into something that\'s good enough to be delivered to She Who Matters (aka the agent). I\'ll try and take you through this process as it happens. If there\'s anything you see as an insight in this fumbling process feel free to take it.\n\nHere\'s where I stand at the moment. The manuscript is as you see it about -- at 113K. The draft target, originally, was set at 110K. I changed that to 115K a few days ago when it was apparent this thing would run a bit over.\n\nThat number is of little interest to be honest. A book of this kind could run anywhere between 105K and 125K with no problems. What matters is that it works, that it is shorn of fat where necessary and beefed up in any areas that are weak.\n\n<!--more--><img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-3531\" title=\"Screen shot  2010-03-24 at 16.25.29\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/screen-shot-2010-03-24-at-16-25-291.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"302\" height=\"242\" />Also I should make a confession here. When I say it\'s finished that\'s not strictly true. The final two scenes, both quite short, are there only in very rough note form only. Little more than outlines about what they will contain.\n\nI often leave these closing sections to the very last revision process. I\'ll be editing the entire manuscript, word by word, line by line, in the meantime. It will be highly unusual if I don\'t see something during that process that will allow me to improve other parts of the story. Those closing scenes in particular. So the last sentence isn\'t written even though, in my head, the first draft of the book is most definitely done.\n\nWhat do I do when I reach this stage? A few things. I\'m religious about backups. My documents folder gets backed up locally and online once a day, and I use Mac\'s Time Machine facility too. But at this point I want an absolute snapshot stored elsewhere in case of emergencies. Scrivener makes that dead easy.\n\n<img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-3529\" title=\"Screen shot  2010-03-24 at 16.33.56\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/screen-shot-2010-03-24-at-16-33-56.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"381\" />Just go to file and hit Backup Project. This will let you save a zipped version of the entire book, and in my case that will go in a Dropbox folder. Once that\'s done the house could burn down and I\'d still have a secure copy of the original, easily accessible from elsewhere. The other backups are still there, of course, and this is an entirely illogical exercise in some ways. But it makes me feel better.\nNext I look at any prelims involved. Quotations or extras the book may require. These are simple things. I often put them in during the writing process. Occasionally I change them or take them out entirely. It\'s no big deal, and there\'s no point in having them unless they mean something.\n\nBut more of that tomorrow.\n\nAccording to my book diary this project got under way on November 29 last year with a simple note outlining what it was going to be about and a rough idea of the story. That, I\'m happy to say, is a pretty good reflection of what I\'ve ended up with. Getting to this point has taken around three months of pretty constant work with two research trips to Venice. Most books don\'t happen this quickly. Why has this one?\n\nPerhaps because I had the idea set very clearly before I started. And also because this year I\'ve done a lot less travelling than usual. Twelve months ago I was on a two week tour of the US which took a big bite of the schedule.\n\nAnyway, that\'s where we are. This book is nowhere near being fit to be seen by another human being. But in my head it\'s achieved a kind of completion, even though there\'s a lot more work, and one more trip to Venice, to come before it can remotely be considered \'done\'.','The end of phase one','','publish','open','open','','the-end-of-phase-one','','','2011-01-28 08:07:01','2011-01-28 08:07:01','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/?p=3527',0,'post','',0),(3535,1,'2010-03-26 08:00:02','2010-03-26 08:00:02','I write fairly complex books set in&nbsp; a country that, for most of my readers, is foreign. I have rules about trying not to overburden them with details they might find puzzling. I use foreign words sparingly, for example, try to avoid mystifying phrases as much as possible, and hope no one ever feels the need to buy a dictionary in order to understand my work.\n\nEven so there are always going to be things you can\'t do in the text itself. Should we make fiction easier to read by adding informational material too? Possibly. Here are some that can work.\n\n<!--more-->Firstly, a map. My UK editions usually have maps now. Overseas ones vary according to the policy of the publisher. I wish they all had maps but that’s out of my hands. If publishers asked readers \'map or no map?\' I know what the answer would be: \'Yes, <em>please</em>!\' The absence of maps in some editions is one reason we\'ve brought on line the new <a target=\"_blank\" title=\"Places\" href=\"http://places.davidhewson.com\">Places section</a> which lets you see locations, photos and maps in one place.\nIf you\'re writing a story set in a real city, one that is tightly integrated into its geography and buildings, as many of mine are, a map really helps. Not all of my books need one. But when they do I hope they\'ll appear. The same goes for fictional landscapes that use invented places as if they were real. Oddly enough fantasy fiction often attracts maps when stories set in the real world don\'t. Maps for the <em>Rings</em> have been around for decades. And quite rightly too.\n\nSecond, a cast list. I\'ve only ever done this once, for <em>The Seventh Sacrament</em> which has a fairly big list of players, and takes place in two different eras too. I\'m less sure about this one. No reader\'s ever come back to and said anything good or bad about them. Perhaps they\'re useful to some and not to others. I simply don\'t know. If you\'re writing a dynastic saga set in Imperial Rome they\'re doubtless essential. In a modern story where people have different names I\'m not so sure.\n\nThirdly, a glossary. When would you need one in a work of fiction? When the writer wants to use the right words to give you a local flavour or inside knowledge, but knows that, while you may have heard of them, you probably are a little hazy on detail.\n\nThis is exactly the situation with the present work in progress. It\'s set in Venice. I want it to be absolutely soaking in Venetian atmosphere. I can\'t but help using words that will bring that... carnival words such as \'frittelle\'... gondola terms such as \'forcola\'... architectural descriptions such as \'salizada\'. If I use \'doughnut\', \'rowlock\' and \'paved street\' instead it just won\'t work. In order to drag you to Venice I have to adopt the local vernacular.\n\nSo there will be a short glossary at the front of this book, and it will, I hope, contain every word that may raise doubts in the reader\'s mind. Not a custom I\'ll make a habit of but when it\'s needed it\'s going to be there.\n\nFinally, an author\'s note. I started writing these with <em>The Seventh Sacrament</em> and people seem to appreciate them. They\'re principally there to separate fact from fiction and to give some historical and cultural background to the stories. I always place them at the end so they won\'t spoil anything. And unless they add something -- like all other extras -- they will be avoided altogether. This book won\'t require one, I don\'t think, though I may change my mind before it\'s done.\n\nThe first task I have with this new manuscript is to sort out those prelims. Next week I will get round to the book itself.','Making it easier for readers','','publish','open','open','','making-it-easier-for-readers','','','2011-01-28 08:07:01','2011-01-28 08:07:01','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/?p=3535',0,'post','',0),(3585,1,'2010-03-26 08:44:37','2010-03-26 08:44:37','<p>I was lying in bed at 6.40 this morning listening to the radio when the Today programme came on with the news that the paywall for my old paper <i>The Times</i> is finally going love in June. After that it will cost you £1 a day to read any content for the <i>Times</i> and <i>Sunday Times.</i></p>\n<p>Are they bloody mad, I thought? Who\'s going to pay £1 a day? Sure enough the story\'s everywhere with that headline. I was even rash enough to put out a tweet saying I thought the whole idea was \'as mad as a van-full of badgers\'.</p>\n<p>Silly me. You need to get your facts right first. And the fact is... yes, it\'s £1 a day for a casual reader. But for £2 you get a whole week\'s worth of content from both daily and Sunday newspapers, plus some extras that are <a href=\"http://www.timesplus.co.uk/welcome/index.htm\" target=\"_blank\">talked about a bit here</a> but the public have yet to see.</p>\n<p>So it\'s not £30 a month. It\'s £8 a month for a newspaper delivered to your PC, phone or -- Lord help us -- iPad. Bit different eh?</p>\n<p>If it\'s good enough that doesn’t sound mad to me at all. I\'d pay £8 a month for something that turned up and let me read properly at home, on a train or at the airport. <i>If</i> it was good enough. So I\'ve registered for the trial. We\'ll see.</p>\n<p>Lesson here: rival media are very nervous about Murdoch\'s attempt to put a paywall in place. If he gets away with this one I suspect the others won\'t be far behind.</p>','You can&#039;t always believe what you read/hear','','publish','open','closed','','you-cant-always-believe-what-you-readhear','','','2011-01-28 08:07:01','2011-01-28 08:07:01','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/2010/03/26/you-cant-always-believe-what-you-readhear/',0,'post','',0),(3589,1,'2010-03-27 08:19:11','2010-03-27 08:19:11','<a href=\"http://www.prestonchild.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Douglas Preston</a>, author of that wonderful real-life crime story <em>The Monster of Florence</em> and a string of fiction bestsellers, doesn\'t do workshops often. He\'ll be at Thrillerfest this year, but if you really want to hear Doug at length -- and he is one of the most thoughtful writers of popular fiction around -- here\'s one hell of an opportunity.\n\nLater this year he\'ll be <a href=\"http://abiquiuworkshops.com/schedule/the-writers-vision/\" target=\"_blank\">teaching a workshop at Abiqui</a> in New Mexico. It\'s aimed at both writers and photographers, and will be jointly hosted with the renowned photographer <a href=\"http://www.walterwnelson.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Walter Nelson</a>.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nThis is the idea, in Doug\'s own words...\n<blockquote>The workshop will teach writing skills, but it goes beyond the mere technical. This is not a traditional workshop and there will be no ‘critiquing’ of work in classroom-like settings. The goal of the workshop isn’t so much to teach participants how to write but how to see. To do this, the workshop will engage body, mind, and spirit in a retreat-like atmosphere at a remote ranch outside Abiquiu, New Mexico. We will work mostly outdoors, in the heart of the high desert country where Georgia O’Keeffe painted her famous landscapes. The workshop involves intensive creative exercises, isolation in the landscape, close observation of nature, and mindfulness. We will employ various techniques to sweep away blockages and overcome fear—with the aim of helping participants achieve a profound creative breakthrough. But the heart of the workshop is something entirely new: the innovative use of photography to push participants into seeing the world in a fresh and original way. (My most influential writing teacher once said to me: You want to be a writer? Then you must become a photographer.)</blockquote>\nDoug also adds...\n<blockquote>This workshop is open to all. It involves some hiking in rough, high-desert country, so participants should be in good physical condition and ready to meet the challenge of a high-desert environment. You will be challenged physically and mentally and you should be ready for unusual and surprising occurrences.</blockquote>\nThere are just ten places. I just wish had the time to be one of them. The event runs from September 1 to October 1. If you\'re interested I suspect you\'d better book soon.','Wish I could be there...','','publish','open','closed','','wish-i-could-be-there','','','2011-01-28 08:07:01','2011-01-28 08:07:01','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/2010/03/27/wish-i-could-be-there/',0,'post','',0),(3608,1,'2010-03-28 09:11:34','2010-03-28 08:11:34','<p>The <i>Bangkok Post</i> <a href=\"http://www.bangkokpost.com/mail/34696/\" target=\"_blank\">reviewed The Garden of Evil today</a> and was very kind indeed (thank you). <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Trink\" target=\"_blank\">Bernard Trink</a> closes his piece...</p>\n<blockquote>\n  <p>There are many Italian crime fiction writers around, but none hold a candle to David Hewson.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>Praise indeed. But I can\'t just pass on this pleasant news without telling you a little more about the legendary Bernard. Back in the early 1980s when I first visited Thailand as a journalist Bernard was writing his famous <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Trink\" target=\"_blank\">Night Owl column</a> in the <i>Bangkok World</i>, a very individual diary of the more salacious side of the city\'s nightlife. No one wrote anything quite like <i>Night Owl</i> though many have tried. So famous did Bernard\'s nocturnal musing become that he even found himself profiled in <a href=\"http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/2000/1016/books.horn.html\" target=\"_blank\">Time magazine</a> on the occasion of an unauthorised biography called <i>I Don\'t Give A Hoot!</i>, his usual column payoff line.</p>\n<!--more--><p>That biography noted of his columns, \'Each one [is] a snapshot of what was going on in the city that week, whether it was a flood, a military coup, an economic crisis or a shortage of Dinty Moore\'s beef stew.\'</p>\n<p>And that sums it up really. On the surface a cataloguing of the girlie bars, restaurants and perennial pitfalls for the <i>farang</i> of living in Bangkok, it actually turned into an occasionally surrealist snapshot of a remarkable city in a state of perpetual transformation.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>\n<p>They don\'t, sadly, produce many newspaper columnists as individual and, on occasion, outrageous as Bernard Trink any more. You can find <a href=\"http://www.oocities.com/doxyblue/alltrink.html\" target=\"_blank\">a number of his articles on this fan site</a>. To get a touch of his personal style <a href=\"http://web.archive.org/web/19980122042819/www.bangkokpost.net/trink/trink980110.html\" target=\"_blank\">try this column</a>, where he offers a funny story about being \'given\' a car -- he doesn\'t drive -- to illustrate what he calls the Thai version of persuasion and then offers a few paragraphs of local useful information such as, \'THE air-conditioned King\'s Love Boat Beer-Bar (ground floor of the Bat Boat, Patpong 2) is now in operation. Whether or not it catches on, only time will tell.\'</p>The column moved to the <i>Bangkok Post</i> in the mid 1980s and was dropped by the paper a few years back, prompting a storm of protests from outraged readers. But it\'s good to see he\'s still writing for the paper. They don\'t make reporters like that any more. Thank you Bernard -- and for the review too.','A review from Thailand and an extraordinary journalist','','publish','open','closed','','a-review-from-thailand-and-an-extraordinary-journalist','','','2011-01-28 08:07:01','2011-01-28 08:07:01','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/2010/03/28/a-review-from-thailand-and-an-extraordinary-journalist/',0,'post','',0),(3540,1,'2010-03-29 07:14:18','2010-03-29 06:14:18','The first thing any author wants to do with a new virgin manuscript is start rewriting it. At least I do and one of the reasons I\'m writing this post is so that I can scream at myself.... for pity\'s sake.... no!\n\nWe all become a little insane at the end of the book. Can\'t get it out of our heads. Can\'t see the wood for the trees. There is an argument for believing that the entire process of writing a piece of fiction is simply a thinly-controlled and highly-internalised nervous breakdown designed, with a bit of luck, to produce something worthwhile at the end. Revision is the part of the game where you wake up and find yourselves strapped into the white jacket and staring around thinking: what next?\n\nA very dangerous phase in other words. What we need more than anything is some perspective on the piece. The ability to try to see it through&nbsp; a fresh pair of eyes.\n\nThis is impossible, of course, but that doesn\'t mean it\'s not worth trying. Let me summarise the principle challenge I find myself facing at the this stage of the game. It can be broken down into three questions that need to be asked of every individual scene...<!--more-->\n<ul>\n	<li>Does it work in itself?</li>\n	<li>Does it work as part of this section of the book?</li>\n	<li>Does it work in the whole scheme of things, from beginning to end?</li>\n</ul>\nSometimes you get scenes that are lovely but expendable. A dumb blonde starlet that\'s talked her way onto the set through nothing more than looks. <em>They have to go. </em>Sometimes a scene reads perfectly well but jars with what came before or what comes after. This needs attention.\n\nAnd sometimes the thing raises a problem -- some narrative link, some unanswered question -- that needs to be addressed elsewhere, perhaps miles away in the story, and isn\'t. So either that has to be written in elsewhere or the source has to be removed.\n\nOne simple, unshakeable fact joins all these issues: you can only see them if you read the whole thing from beginning to end without serious interruption. It\'s fatal to start serious rewriting and try to read effectively at the same time. The point where you can do that safely will come. But it\'s not when you\'ve got a rough, raw manuscript that you haven\'t yet considered in its entirety.\n\nThe first thing you need to do is read. I used to print things out at this point. Thanks to Scrivener that moment can wait. It has the simple annotations feature you can see below - clear, easy to use, hard to ignore.\n\n<img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3576\" title=\"Screen shot 2010-03-25 at 09.57.11\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/screen-shot-2010-03-25-at-09-57-11.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"592\" height=\"149\">\n\nSo all I will do at this stage is go through it page by page on screen and make notes as I go.\n\nYes, if I see an obvious typo it will get corrected. But rewriting?\n\nNo. We\'re not there yet. In fact we\'re not even close.','Read first, revise later','','publish','open','open','','read-first-revise-later','','','2011-01-28 08:07:01','2011-01-28 08:07:01','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/?p=3540',0,'post','',1),(3565,1,'2010-03-30 07:35:42','2010-03-30 06:35:42','One of the greatest things about Scrivener, as I\'ve discussed here before, is that it sees a book as a set of scenes, chapters, or parts, whatever you choose, and lets you edit them separately. This becomes incredibly useful when you start to reread or revise your manuscript. I tweak things a little to make the system work according to my workflow.\n\nHere\'s how.\n\n<!--more-->In each scene in Scrivener you can choose to have an Inspector window, below. This gives you the chance to record and see details about the individual scene in your book. As we already know Scrivener lets you keep a separate word count for each scene and section. Here are some very powerful tools to let you control the revision process.\n\n<img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-3566\" title=\"Screen shot  2010-03-25 at 09.37.33\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/screen-shot-2010-03-25-at-09-37-33.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"204\" height=\"345\" />Look first of all at the dropdown window on the right. This allows you to do a number of things. You can write a synopsis for the scene and put in notes and even photos for it. Very useful during the writing, and a reminder during the revision of what was supposed to be happening here.\n\nBut honestly... I\'m past this phase now. What I really want to do at the moment is record my thoughts and changes. Remember this from earlier posts: I have a complete backup of the original version and as I go through each scene I am making notes directly in the text as annotations. I wouldn\'t use the Inspector Notes feature here -- I\'d be likely to miss something.\n\nOne of the most useful revise tools here is the Status label. This lets you mark each scene with a status. What\'s more you can customise the status labels too just by going to Edit . I like to have a Revise Read so I\'ve added that into the different labels. As I go through each scene I change the label from First Draft to Revise Read.\n\nThe next phase of the process will be to go through and do another edit based on the annotations in the text. As each scene finishes I change the status to Revise Draft. Then I will print out the whole thing and go through and do a another run. If I\'m happy with the scene I will switch the status to Final Draft. If not I\'ll simply leave it at revised and come back later.\n\nNone of this ties you into any commitment, of course. You can rewrite anything again at any point. It\'s simply a reminder of what you\'ve done and how far you think it is to completion. When I was working in Word I was constantly asking myself: did I revise this? Was I happy with it? When did this happen?\n\n<img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-3567\" title=\"Screen shot 2010-03-25 at 09.35.17\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/screen-shot-2010-03-25-at-09-35-17.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"141\" />In Scrivener you never get those doubts. And here\'s one other little gem hidden by that dropdown. Whenever you edit an individual scene, even changing that label, Scrivener will record the date and time of the change.  So you know whether you\'ve worked on it recently or not.\n\nOnce you get used to features like this you wonder how you worked without them.','Tracking revisions in Scrivener','','publish','open','open','','revision-notes-1','','','2011-01-28 08:07:01','2011-01-28 08:07:01','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/?p=3565',0,'post','',0),(3615,1,'2010-03-30 08:40:55','2010-03-30 07:40:55','No one knows what impact ebooks will have on the publishing business. All we do have is a series of guesses based on assumptions and a few -- very few -- hard facts. Yesterday one of the latter came out -- Apple\'s price policy for books sold through its store for the iPad. In a nutshell it appears to mean that Apple will insist that all books -- including most new popular hardbacks -- must be priced at no more than $9.99 in the US. In other words the premium for being both new and hardback is now gone.\n\nHere\'s <a href=\"http://industry.bnet.com/technology/10006525/apple-dictates-max-e-book-prices-and-big-publishing-is-scared/\" target=\"_blank\">an analysis of the implications of that from BNET</a>. It\'s pretty sound on some points and, for me, way off on others.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nRounding down prices to this level in the US is earthshaking stuff for that country\'s massive publishing industry on two levels. It cramps their margins. But also, and perhaps more worryingly, it takes pricing out of their hands and gives control of it to their distributor, in this case Apple. Most companies feel it\'s their job to decide the selling price for their wares. Apple certainly doesn\'t allow its own products to get much in the way of competitive pricing through retailers -- which is why iPods cost pretty much the same everywhere.\n\nBut it\'s different when you hold the distribution channels it seems. Apple will determine prices, just as Amazon are doing through Kindle. How new is this?\n\nWell actually, here in the UK not that new at all. Over the last few years the retail trade has shrunk to a few big channels. Some of the most important ones, the supermarkets, are effectively running a very similar kind of pricing scheme. It\'s nothing formal on paper, but everyone knows -- unless you offer your books at a discount price they won\'t make their way onto the supermarket shelves. Book prices in the UK have fallen considerably -- along with publisher margins and author royalties -- as a result.\n\nNow clearly that\'s on the way in the US too. Tough times ahead.\n\nWhere I depart from the BNET analysis is in the increasingly common view that this all somehow represents a great opportunity for authors to branch out on their own and self publish their way to success. Here are the factors the article cites...\n<blockquote>Given the variety of tools and services to turn manuscripts into books, creating an e-book is becoming ever easier.\n\nAs a reader of this blog pointed out publishers frequently use less care and editing in e-books than in printed versions, resulting in more typos and sloppy production. Perhaps this is a result of lower prices. In any case, authors may not get the same professional care as with print.\n\nMost authors already must do most of their own sales and marketing.\n\nIt’s relatively easy to get an e-book into “print,” and so the one-time publisher advantage of having access to necessary title distribution is disappearing.</blockquote>\nHard to argue with any of them. <i>Technically</i> it\'s never been easier to get a book into digital print. But here you hit a perennial problem. Successful books aren\'t just&nbsp;<i>printed</i>. They\'re <i>published.</i> Anyone can print something. Few can publish successfully. Publishing involves a chain of skills -- editing, revision, marketing, design, positioning and building an author\'s career slowly and carefully. It\'s also an increasingly global business. Maybe 35 to 40 per cent of my own income now comes from sales outside my home market.\n\nYes, self publishers could go out there and try to buy in some of these skills. If you\'re a massive bestseller maybe you could afford to hire some of the most talented publishing names out there to do the job for you. But few people are massive bestsellers. I\'m not, and even after sixteen years and just as many books I have neither the time nor the skill to get involved in the business side of publishing. It\'s hard enough writing books. I simply don\'t want to take on the job of selling them too, even if I thought I was capable of it -- which I don\'t.\n\nThe publishing industry makes mistakes from time to time -- what industry, what author doesn\'t? But the plain truth it works on an invisible army of unsung heroes who find talent, put books together, rescue botched projects, bring them to market, sell them into retailers, follow up on orders, book you into festivals and public events, and nag the media and websites for reviews.\n\nDoes anyone seriously think you can replace all that simply by uploading a file to Apple and announcing your new work on Facebook?\n\nWell, some people do obviously. But I suspect they\'re in for a big shock when the truth -- and the miserable sales figures -- hit. This kind of tack may well work for a few authors whose work models and target audiences are early adopters who can\'t wait to buy into the next digital fad. For the rest... it\'s a pipe dream waiting to fall apart.\n\nBig changes are ahead in publishing. If the past teaches us anything, though, they will happen more slowly than the pundits predict, and the winners will, for the most part, be those big players of yesterday who were smart enough to adapt and run with the wind.','The ebook tsunami - how will publishing survive?','','publish','open','closed','','the-ebook-tsunami-how-will-publishing-survive','','','2011-01-28 08:07:01','2011-01-28 08:07:01','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/2010/03/30/the-ebook-tsunami-how-will-publishing-survive/',0,'post','',3),(3596,1,'2010-03-31 08:08:26','2010-03-31 07:08:26','Geoff Frewin asked in a comment here the other day...\n<blockquote>I know you often post photos of locations on the site, but would be interested to know both from yourself and any other writers if the taking of the Photograph in itself helps or do you use it purely as a record (reminder) of the location to refresh your memory?</blockquote>\nLet me try and answer that very interesting question.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nI\'m slightly worried when people read this blog and think I\'m some incredibly organised writing machine. I\'m not, honest. All I\'m doing here is setting down some of the habits I\'ve acquired over sixteen years of writing books. I\'m still learning and always will be. My greatest discovery of recent times -- the book diary -- only came to me fully a year or so ago.\n\nI\'ve always tried to use photography to record locations. I think this started when I was researching the book that was to become first <em>Lucifer\'s Shadow</em> and now <em>The Cemetery of Secrets.</em> Back then I was shooting on film. I had three rolls as a result of ten days spent in Venice. I took them to be developed the day before I was coming home... and the camera shop ruined every one.\n\nThings have been digital since then.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/rimg0019_1.jpg\"><img style=\"float:right;padding-left:4px;\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/rimg0019_1-tm.jpg\" alt=\"RIMG0019_1.jpg\" width=\"250\" height=\"333\" /></a>I don\'t take photos in order to get pretty pictures. Sometimes it\'s just the easiest way of making a \'note\'. This is a sign down by the Tiber in Testaccio, an area I used extensively in <em>The Seventh Sacrament</em>. I wanted to set an important scene there so, naturally, I walked up and down looking, thinking, dreaming. One of the things I saw was this. It\'s a poster describing some of the local wildlife.\n\nAmazingly enough there are coypu -- giant rats originally imported for their fur -- feral by the Tiber in the heart of Rome these days. That gave me an immediate idea for a passing detail you\'ll find in the book.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/dscf0042_4.jpg\"><img style=\"float:right;\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/dscf0042_4-tm.jpg\" alt=\"DSCF0042_4.jpg\" width=\"250\" height=\"187\" /></a>I also habitually snap signs and notices. With a half decent digital camera it\'s easy enough to capture the detail. Makes a lot more sense to me than writing down a note from the sign itself. This one is from the wonderful Palazzo Altemps by the way and records something I\'ve never used and probably never will. That\'s another thing I do. Capture everything. You just never know.\n\nHere are two photographs of a kind that help me too, though in truth they have very little in the way of memorable detail in them.\n\nThis is Saint Mark\'s Basin at sunset in February.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/r0010275.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-3599\" title=\"R0010275\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/r0010275.jpg?w=600\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" /></a>\n\nThis is a (very old) photograph of a vaporetto crossing the same stretch of lagoon in January.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/vaporetto.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-3600\" title=\"Vaporetto\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/vaporetto.jpg?w=600\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"444\" /></a>\n\nBoth serve as reminders of something very Venetian that I need to get into these books if they are to bring the reader into the location in the story. The light in Venice is extraordinary. It\'s different not just by season but according to the time of day. That washed out blue you see above is bright and harsh during summer. That cerise sunset changes according to season too.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/venice-jan-2004-002.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-3602\" title=\"Venice Jan 2004 002\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/venice-jan-2004-002.jpg?w=225\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" /></a>Photographs help with atmosphere and local culture. Here\'s one I took during the writing of <em>The Lizard\'s Bite. </em>It\'s a pretty dull photo. A man lugging hunks of meat around a back street in Murano.\n\nThis is a story setting in a community suffering from severe economic decline. It\'s a long way from the flash and glitz of San Marco. A picture like this reminds me of that and that a perennial fact of life in Venice is the physical labour involved in living there. Everything has to be lugged around the streets by sturdy, hard-working people like this.\n\nIt\'s not an easy life at all.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/dscf0046.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-3604\" title=\"Dscf0046\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/dscf0046.jpg?w=225\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" /></a>Then there are architectural details too. Here\'s a rio, a small canal in San Cassian. It could be anywhere in the city. Look at the brickwork, the washing line hanging over the water. The windows, the balconies. The green shutters.\n\nI could sit down and make notes of all that. But why bother when it can just be captured in a photo?\n\nLooking back I suspect that very few of my photos are genuine aids to memory. I use them more for writing atmosphere and setting than I do exact architectural detail. They\'re there to help be build the picture of the world I want in my head.\n\nThat\'s exactly the case with the present book which is entirely set in a very cold Venice during carnival, much of it at night. I spent long hours walking parts of the city trying to capture the feel of the place. The photos I got mirror the atmosphere I hope I\'m going to create in the book. Here\'s one example -- the Rialto arcades on a freezing February evening. I won\'t extract any exact description from this. But it reminds me what it was like at that moment. Given that the final revise of this book will take place in Venice in May -- when hopefully the weather will be much more pleasant -- that seems invaluable to me.\n\nFinally there\'s one benefit that didn\'t occur to me until Geoff asked this question. When I try to see my coming fictional world through the lens of a camera I force myself to limit and define the locations it will contain. I don\'t feel happy writing a scene anywhere I haven\'t visited and recorded -- and very rarely do. So in that sense photography brings the story into close focus, fixes the potential locations, and urges me to get on and write the hard part, the narrative.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/rimg0074.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-3605\" title=\"RIMG0074\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/rimg0074.jpg?w=600\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" /></a>','Photography and creative writing','','publish','open','closed','','photography-and-creative-writing','','','2011-01-28 08:07:01','2011-01-28 08:07:01','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/?p=3596',0,'post','',0),(3635,1,'2010-03-31 18:49:27','2010-03-31 16:49:27','It wasn\'t until I was published in America till I realised how many people there are out there who want your books for free. The moment I had a US book out, though, they surely came out of the woodwork. Fans who would \'hand sell\' me to complete strangers in book stores, if only I\'d send them a free autographed copy so they could bone up on the work beforehand. Schools and charities wanting prizes for draws. And  \'needy\' individuals too, the most persistent of whom, as I\'ll reveal, is Canadian, not American.\n\nLike most people I try to do a bit for other people for free. Mainly, in my case, it\'s been through working with <a href=\"http://www.thrillerwriters.org/\" target=\"_blank\">International Thrillerwriters</a>, helping build its web site and other parts of what\'s become a very worthwhile organisation. And on a personal level working with my good friend Justin in the environmental campaign that is documented in <a href=\"http://davidhewson.com/books/standalones/saved/\" target=\"_blank\">Saved</a>.\n\nIn theory I don\'t mind signing away a free book for a good cause. In practice, though, I have to say I don\'t respond to most such requests these days, and if you\'re an author I\'d advise you to think carefully about doing so too.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nFirst, to the individuals out there who want a free book in order to promote my work. Sorry, no. It doesn\'t work like that. Yes, I know some of you are genuine. But some just want signed first editions to sell on eBay, and frankly I don\'t have the time to work out which is which. Also I have to say... most fans are used to the idea of supporting an author or anything else they like by buying their work. Isn\'t that what the word \'fan\' entails?\n\nAs to the charities and the schools and the other organisations.... I have to say I posted off a lot of books to you guys over the years, at no small expense when sending something by air mail from the UK to the US. Here are a couple of things I noticed. The letters you get asking for them often sound very much like stock ones straight out of the database. Sometimes they don\'t even go to the trouble of mentioning the name of your book, always a giveaway.\n\nAnd here\'s the big thing. However genuine you are, a thank you is still necessary. The number of notes of gratitude I got for all those airmailed books I could count on one hand. If a free book isn\'t worth so much as an email by way of thanks it clearly isn\'t terribly important. Result: they don\'t go out any more.\n\nThe truth is there are people who think we\'re mugs. None more so than a chap apparently called Michael Risen from Toronto. A few years ago he friended me on Facebook then sent a long and detailed letter explaining how sick he was, how he faced lots of operations, an uncertain future from cancer...\n\nLet me give you a flavour of it...\n<blockquote>It is quite some time that I learned what a great Author you are! I live in Canada and had hoped and planned to hear you read. That is no longer a possibility and I am likely the last person left in this world without an ipod or Kindle.\n\nOver the last six months, due to Cancer, I have had my Prostate taken, my Ureter bisected and - now - my Kidney removed. Now, I am a shut-in restricted to bed rest.\n\nI can live without a TV, in a tiny dreary Hospice Room, and with the daily pain. What I cannot survive is living without Books. Good books help me escape my problems while I am absorbed in the characters and plot. My problem, frankly, is that this disease has also left me broken financially as well as its emotional and physical issues. Is it possible for you to please send me your Books and - perhaps - a couple by Authors you admire. This may be asking too much. But, I NEED good Books right now more than ever before.</blockquote>\nMaybe I\'m a hard-hearted, cynical bastard but I detected a rat-like odour here and I didn\'t send a damned thing. I deleted him from my FB friends. So he came back twice more and tried exactly the same trick.\n\nI asked around some of my real Facebook friends, fellow authors. Guess what? Mr Risen had been writing exactly the same letter to them. The only details that changed were those of his medical complaint which seemed remarkably variable over time and the one line that personalised each message to the particular author.\n\nGoogle is a miraculous thing. I decided to try to work out if there were other items that an unfortunate soul in this condition might need, for free naturally. Guess what?\n\nPoor old Michael sent the same letter <a href=\"http://blindman.15.forumer.com/index.php?showtopic=33953\" target=\"_blank\">to a blues music forum</a>. Except in that he said...\n<blockquote>What I cannot survive is living without Music. And, I so admire your work. Is it possible for you to please send me CDs of you and - perhaps - if possible, from some of the Artists who inspire you? This may be asking too much. But, I NEED good music right now more than ever before. My days are long, boring and very painful. My refuge - as always - is Music.\n\nEveryone suggests an ipod to me but, frankly, this disease has devastated me financially as well as physically and emotionally. I have been left penniless. If I am not imposing too much, might you also include a few CDs of your favorite Artists? I must gather a good Music Collection. It is terrible to be without the haven that music provides to me.</blockquote>\nIt\'s not just music he needs either. Almost every \'men\'s grooming supplier on the net\' <a href=\"http://www.menessentials.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=94099\" target=\"_blank\">has heard from him</a> too. Because --what do you know?\n<blockquote>MY GROOMING RITUAL IS EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE! But, it is mandatory! If there is anywhere that your products are essential, it is in a Shelter! While a good number of people never wash or groom, I find I must even more often than usual due to the unseemly aromas around me. Also, as I am so sick, I must keep clean to avoid infections and such as I have no immune system. (We are infested with Bed Bugs and the like, who feast on me.)</blockquote>\nThere then follows a list of essential items he\'d like for free, namely...\n<blockquote>Proraso Shaving Cream (all you can spare)\n\nBaxter of California After Shave Balm\n\nProraso After Shave Splash\n\nProraso Pre-Post Shaving Cream\n\nPacific Oil - All Natural Shaving Oil\n\nClubman Pinaud Special Reserve Cologne After Shave Lotion\n\nProraso Liquid Cream After Shave Balm\n\nTaylor of Bond Street Mr. Taylor Collection After Shave Balm\n\nCol. Conk Styptic Pencil\n\nMenaji Moisturizing After Shave\n\nJack Black Post Shave Cooling Gel\n\nNickel Fire Insurance After Shave\n\nBrave Soldier Code Blue After Shave Gel\n\nCalifornia North O2XYGEN Eau De Toilette\n\nSharps Daily Prep Skin Tuner\n\nMusgo Double Edge Razor\n\n100 Blades for said Razor (I can no longer afford Gillette Blades)\n\nSoaps (all you can spare)\n\nShampoo\n\nConditioner\n\nPLEASE TWO COLOGNES OF YOUR CHOOSING!! (The aromas here are terrible!) I HAVE USED \"D.R. HARRIS\" AND IT SHOULD BE ONE OF THEM.</blockquote>\nJudging by the response on the link above I don\'t think he got them. Is this a scam? Of course. Is the man genuinely sick and in straightened circumstances? I have no idea.\n\nBut you know what? I actually don\'t care. True or false, behaviour like this demeans people who are genuinely sick, and don\'t pass their time sending out begging letters to all and sundry, trying to scrounge everything from free books to expensive cologne.\n\nThese days I only give out free books in person, to people and causes I know. I hope you understand why.','No free books around here','','publish','open','closed','','no-free-books-around-here','','','2011-01-28 08:07:01','2011-01-28 08:07:01','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/?p=3635',0,'post','',0),(3652,1,'2010-04-07 08:00:34','2010-04-07 07:00:34','I described yesterday how I\'ve moved this present project from Scrivener to the word processor Pages. In a little while, probably next month, I will finish the book there and export it as a Word document, which is what the publishing industry expects.\n\nThis export process is inevitable, but it\'s not the only reason I abandon Scrivener once the basic shape and feel of the book is in place. Working on the manuscript in a different format has its own advantages too. You get to see the thing differently for some reason, and that added perspective is enormously helpful in trying to extract the maximum from your work. As I often say, I view books as mosaics, and scenes as the individual pieces of the picture I\'m trying to create. I\'ve now reached the stage where I think each of those pieces is in the right place and has pretty much the correct complexion. What I\'m concerned with now is working out how to make the picture better overall, and for that I need to focus on it, for the first time, as a single, discrete entity. <!--more-->\n\nLet me give you a simple example. Very soon I will get the typeset galleys for <em>Death in Seville</em>, my backlist Spanish book which I\'ve rewritten for republication in November. Here\'s one thing I can guarantee. I\'ve been through this book with a fine toothcomb, on screen and as a manuscript printout on paper. When it comes back as typesetting, the way it will appear to the reader, I doubt I\'ll reach page three before I see something and screech, \'How the hell did I miss that?\'\n\nWords, sentences and paragraphs all change appearance according to the way in which you see them. I don\'t know why. I just know they do.\n\nIn Scrivener I write in <a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/screen-shot-2010-04-04-at-18-14-371.png2009/03/30/picking-a-font-for-writing/\" target=\"_self\">P22</a>, a typewriter font. It suits the way I think at that moment. I\'m writing a book, not a letter to the bank manager. Having that fake, damaged typewriter look on the screen puts me into a private, creative state of mind (hopefully).\n\nI don\'t need that by this stage. I normally deliver manuscripts electronically in Optima, an easy font to work with on screen. So when I export to Pages I switch to that. And things look different. I see typos and missing words I never picked up before, even without printing out the pages.\n\nOh yes, and when I print them out I can do something spiffy. Instead of printing them out as A4 Optima 12pt with, say 1.5, line spacing, I can turn them into book-style pages, side-by-side, much as they will appear to the reader one day.\n\nYou can print out the same manuscript A4, double spaced 12pt, then churn it out single spaced as small 9 or 10pt pages. And yes, they will look different. Just try.\n\nWhat I\'m after at this stage is perspective. Being able to see my work the way a reader will one day. That\'s not really possible for a writer, but it\'s certainly worth a try.\n\nWhat does revision look like? Depends what you want to see. Below is the maximum view page. It shows you what\'s been deleted and what\'s been added, and tells you the details in the sidebar. No one wants to see all this when they\'re writing or revising, of course. So it\'s a doddle to turn it all off so that it looks as if I\'m editing an ordinary document, changing and replacing words as I go. Except Pages is keeping track and will allow me to change, accept or reject those edits at a later stage.\n\nVery powerful stuff it is too. But let me emphasise again -- what you see below is a view I\'d only use if I wanted to retrieve something I\'ve \'deleted\' earlier. For general work I choose something much simpler.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/screen-shot-2010-04-04-at-18-14-371.png\"><img class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-3680\" title=\"Screen shot 2010-04-04 at 18.14.37\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/screen-shot-2010-04-04-at-18-14-371.png?w=600\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"616\" /></a>','Getting some perspective on your work','','publish','open','open','','getting-some-perspective-on-your-work','','','2011-01-28 08:05:48','2011-01-28 08:05:48','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/?p=3652',0,'post','',0),(3711,1,'2010-04-08 08:00:50','2010-04-08 07:00:50','Since I mentioned Apple\'s great Pages word processor earlier this week lots of people have expressed surprise I prefer it over Word. I don\'t just prefer it -- it\'s a complete Word replacement for me. A fantastic all-purpose word processor, the best there is once you get the hang of it. It\'s part of <a href=\"http://www.apple.com/iwork/download-trial/\" target=\"_blank\">Apple\'s relatively inexpensive iWork package</a> which is available on a 30-day free trial too.\n\nAnd much more powerful than you might think at first glance too. So let me kick off here with A Few Great Things about Pages you may not have spotted to give you a bit of insight. And to balance things -- because balance is important -- I\'ll return tomorrow with A Few Stupid Things about Pages to give you the, quite limited, downside.\n\n<!--more-->\n\n<strong>Speed</strong>\n\nPages is fast in just about everything (with one exception which I\'ll discuss tomorrow). Much, much faster than Word, and much less clunky to use. No idea why this should be the case. It just is.\n\n<strong>File format</strong>\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/screen-shot-2010-04-07-at-16-29-44.png\"><img style=\"float:right;padding-left:4px;\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/screen-shot-2010-04-07-at-16-29-44-tm.jpg\" alt=\"Screen shot 2010-04-07 at 16.29.44.png\" width=\"158\" height=\"193\"></a>\n\nPages stores documents in a good old-fashioned file format in which everything is kept in a single file. This means that you are unlikely to face problems with cloud services such as Mobile Me, Dropbox and Sugar Sync. Some Mac apps, Scrivener among them, don\'t do this. They produce things called packages, which are essentially a folder of files that look as if they\'re just a single document. You can check whether a file is a file or a package just by right clicking on it. If you see the message \'Show Package Contents\' it\'s really a folder.\n\nThere are arguments for packages. If something goes wrong you can just open them up and retrieve the basic components -- text files in the case of Scrivener. It\'s a personal preference but I\'m more in favour of standard, simple single files for word processing documents. I like the security you get from Dropbox and Sugar Sync (though if you want to use Scrivener with them just work out the simple \'backup to a zip file\' option on the File menu and you\'ll be fine).\n\n<strong>Search</strong>\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/screen-shot-2010-04-07-at-16-35-59.png\"><img class=\"alignright\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/screen-shot-2010-04-07-at-16-35-59-tm.jpg\" alt=\"Screen shot 2010-04-07 at 16.35.59.png\" width=\"188\" height=\"152\"></a>Pages has a search function designed for the 21st century, not 1985. Search for something in Word and many other word processors and all you get is the search box and the ability to go from instance to instance of your chosen word. This is ridiculous.\n\nYou can do that in Pages if you want. But you can also call up a global search sidebar which will go through the whole document and show you instances of the word in context, as on the right. This is incredibly fast -- I assume the document must be indexed beforehand somehow. It\'s a fantastic way of finding character and location mentions very quickly, a replacement for bookmarks in many ways.\n\nIf you\'re trying out Pages for the first time I suggest you pull in a Word doc and try this out for yourself. It sold me immediately.\n\n<strong>Outline</strong>\n\nOutlining only came to Pages with the latest version. It\'s simple, but outlining should be. It works, ties into document headings and styles very easily, and can be used to plan out a linear book if you like. I wrote <em>The Garden of Evil</em> entirely in Pages, before outlining came to it. Would be a lot easier now.\n\n<strong>Compatibility</strong>\n\nPages imports and exports Word documents with ease. There are issues with footnotes and endnotes I think. But I don\'t use them. If you do -- check out the problems.\n\n<strong>Commenting and track changes</strong>\n\nAgain these are new to the latest version (I think). They work very well and don\'t stray into the body of the document too much. They also transfer to Word in both directions too. So if your editor sends you back a commented Word doc you can read the remarks and deal with them in Pages (a lot more quickly and effectively in Word in my opinion).\n\n<strong>Word count</strong>\n\n<img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/screen-shot-2010-04-07-at-16-43-14.png\" alt=\"Screen shot 2010-04-07 at 16.43.14.png\" width=\"333\" height=\"24\">\n\nThere it is at the bottom. On the Mac Word stops giving you a running word count at 99,999 words for some reason. Pages just keeps on going.\n\n<strong>Reasonable navigation controls</strong>\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/screen-shot-2010-04-07-at-16-44-45.png\"><img style=\"float:right;padding-left:4px;\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/screen-shot-2010-04-07-at-16-44-45-tm.jpg\" alt=\"Screen shot 2010-04-07 at 16.44.45.png\" width=\"212\" height=\"201\"></a>Take another look at the bottom of the screen and you\'ll see this. It will let you navigate by styles, bookmarks, comments and a lot more besides. I use it during the revision process like this. I go through the book on screen and make comments on what needs to be addressed. Then I bounce from one to the next using this. Nothing to it.\n\nI\'m sure there are a lot more things I like about Pages. But that\'s as much as I can think of for now. Once you get the hang of it this is a very friendly and surprisingly powerful app. In fact the whole of <em>Saved</em>, my non-fiction book, was not just written but typeset using it too.\n\nIf you\'re a Mac user looking to take on a book from Scrivener or something into a fully formatted Word document, it could be just the thing.\n\nBut there are gremlins. More on them tomorrow....','A few great things about Apple Pages','','publish','open','closed','','a-few-great-things-about-apple-pages','','','2011-01-28 08:05:48','2011-01-28 08:05:48','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/?p=3711',0,'post','',0),(3740,1,'2010-04-08 08:14:46','2010-04-08 07:14:46','<p>This first draft was supposed to be put to bed tomorrow, in very rough fashion anyway. My deadline, as always. No one else\'s. I have lots of room in the schedule for delivery -- next year\'s book is written so this one won\'t appear till 2012. But I still like to hit my own deadlines and this time I won\'t.</p>\n<p>Why?</p>\n<!--more--><p>Because there\'s something wrong in the flow of events to the climax. Maybe something\'s missing that needs to be put in. Maybe something\'s in there that needs taking out. More likely it\'s a combination of both and what I need to do is take out the offending elements, flush them down the pan, then rebuild with something better that works.</p>\n<p>All of this is happening at the very end of the book. At about the 105,000-word mark in a work that will probably end up around 120K in length. There are several options I could take at this stage.</p>\n<ul>\n  <li>Put the offending sections to one side and go on and finish the final, closing sections of the book anyway. They won\'t be changed by this glitch in the narrative (it\'s a technical issue to do with the progression of the story, not something that changes the outcome).</li>\n\n  <li>Go back and take one more pop at rewriting the thing (which has been rewritten three times this week already).</li>\n\n  <li>Walk away from the whole thing for a few days and see if my head clears.</li>\n\n  <li>Take a briefer break this morning and come back this afternoon to see if it looks different.</li>\n</ul>\n<p>It\'s five past eight in the morning right now. I\'ve already taken out two offending paragraphs that were -- I realised around three this morning -- part of the problem. I\'m sitting here finishing a cup of coffee wondering which option to take.</p>\n<p><b>Writing the end</b> is appealing because I know what happens there and can\'t wait to try putting it down. That would be the <i>easy</i> option. I am temperamentally opposed to easy options. If this issue were less annoying then maybe the idea of dealing with the conclusion first would appeal. At the moment it doesn\'t.</p>\n<p><b>Taking a few days off</b> doesn\'t really feel right if I\'m honest. That works when you\'re either so close to or far from the solution you need to walk away from it for a while and get some new perspective. I don\'t need a new perspective. I just need a sequence of events that feels right, feels natural, not, as it does right now, a touch manufactured.</p>\n<p><b>The lawn</b> is long and could do with a mow. I think a lot while riding my John Deere out there, honestly. It\'s a great way to mull over a book away from the computer. But it\'s eight in the morning, the lawn is sopping wet. This is not a mowing time. So...</p>\n<p>It\'s back in there for one more rewrite. Maybe this time it\'ll work. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p><br />','Dealing with the awkward party','','publish','open','closed','','dealing-with-the-awkward-party','','','2011-01-28 08:05:48','2011-01-28 08:05:48','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/2010/04/08/dealing-with-the-awkward-party/',0,'post','',0),(3716,1,'2010-04-09 08:01:58','2010-04-09 07:01:58','I wrote about the things I like about Apple Pages yesterday. Now let me take a look at a few of the problems. None of these are killers for me, in the sense that they are so annoying I want to give up on the thing. But they do grate at times so it\'s only fair I tell you about them.\n\n<!--more-->\n\n<strong>The look and feel</strong>\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/screen-shot-2010-04-07-at-16-50-27-tm.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/screen-shot-2010-04-07-at-16-50-27-tm.jpg\" alt=\"Screen shot 2010-04-07 at 16.50.27.png\" width=\"160\" height=\"88\"></a>Pages doesn\'t go much for toolbars -- which I like. But it pushes you instead towards a separate floating Inspector window that handles everything from page layout to text and even video issues. I found this very difficult to deal with when I was moving over from Word. A lot of it seems counter-intuitive, largely because Pages doesn\'t work or look as most other word processors do. I still don\'t understand some of the features.\n\nIn truth it doesn\'t take that long to get a basic hang of things and Pages in general is a <em>lot</em> cleaner to look at than Word, with all its buttons and bars.. But I suspect some people simply give up along the way, or come to the conclusion that Pages can\'t do much of any interest. This isn\'t true. It\'s a fantastic word processor than can typeset a whole book if you want. Persevere.\n\n<strong>Spelling language</strong>\n\nI write in UK English. My Mac is set up to use that as the default language. Pages has a mind of its own about spelling, particularly when you import a document from another program. It seems determined to use US English instead, without asking you. Switching that off involves fiddling around in the Inspector and doesn\'t work sometimes unless you try repeatedly.\n\n<strong>Double space removal</strong>\n\nA standard task before sending off a manuscript is to remove any double spaces that have crept in through poor typing (lots of them in my case). I have no idea why this is such a problem but for me it will always crash Pages if I try to do this using Search and Replace and clicking Replace All. I can do it one by one. In a single pass -- disaster. Been like that for several versions and Apple never fix the bug, even though it\'s been reported.\n\n<strong>Hyphenation</strong>\n\nFor some bizarre reason hyphenation appears to be on by default. Why, I have no idea. Surely most people write documents that <i>don\'t</i>&nbsp;require hyphenation than do. I suspect this is just Apple showing off it knows about typesetting (yes, there are fancy kerning and other controls too which are equally unnecessary for the vast majority of users).\n\n<strong>Keyboard shortcuts</strong>\n\nToo many things -- showing and hiding the Comments window for example -- demand the use of the mouse. You can\'t change that through the program. You can try and change it using the system keyboard shortcuts. But they don\'t work reliably. For example I have shortcuts set up for show and hide comments (you need one for each this way). They don\'t work all the time for some reason. They should be in the program from the outset.\n\n<strong>Unnecessary toolbar</strong>\n\nToolbaritis has gone crazy on Word. But the insistence on showing you stuff is there in Pages too. This is the one that gets me -- the bar that comes up when you\'ve got track changes turned on.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/screen-shot-2010-04-07-at-16-55-58.png\"><img style=\"padding-left:4px;\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/screen-shot-2010-04-07-at-16-55-58-tm.jpg\" alt=\"Screen shot 2010-04-07 at 16.55.58.png\" width=\"500\" height=\"33\"></a>\n\nI do <em>not</em> need to see that unless I want to, thank you. And there\'s no way of turning it off short off going into \'full page view\'. On the subject of which...\n\n<strong>Ridiculous \'full page view\'</strong>\n\nFull page view is handled brilliantly by Scrivener. You just see the words and \'paper\' behind it. In Pages full page view shows you the printed page with headers and footers. No one goes into full page editing to see peripheral information like that. Waste of space and quite distracting if you allow it. The thing needs a proper draft view.\n\n<strong>Saving, saving, saving\n</strong>\n\nI like to save a lot. Hit the save shortcut all the time. It\'s because I\'m old. Pages takes <em>ages</em> to save. Don\'t ask me why. It just does. Do something, Apple. Please.\n\n<strong>No autosave</strong>\n\nI\'m so used to Scrivener\'s autosave I forget you need to do a proper save with Pages. Autosave should be standard for most software these days. I know there are addons that will do it but it should be there from scratch. Here\'s one I\'m trying -- &nbsp;<a href=\"http://www.tool-forcesw.com/foreversave/\" target=\"_blank\">Foreversave.</a> Does a lot more than just save -- it will back up versions of your file too. Seems pretty good.\n\nAnd there the whining ends. These are small things, more due to odd design decisions than omissions usually. We can\'t be far off a new version of Pages soon. It will be interesting to see what that adds from the point of view of the creative writer.\n\nPages isn\'t a Scrivener-substitute for me anyway. But it\'s a very fine word processor, perfect for that last pre-delivery revision and format check, and one I will always use in preference to anything else.','A few stupid things about Apple Pages','','publish','open','closed','','a-few-stupid-things-about-apple-pages','','','2011-01-28 08:05:48','2011-01-28 08:05:48','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/?p=3716',0,'post','',0),(3670,1,'2010-04-12 08:10:38','2010-04-12 07:10:38','I put up a status report about the current project on Facebook. Not as riveting as Farmville, I know, but there you go. In response Gwynne Conlyn from South Africa asked, \'I am purple with envy. How do you write with such seeming ease?\'\n\nAnyone who writes a book a year or more gets that question a lot. Let me try to answer it.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nFirstly, you have to remember this is what I do for a living. A job. A warped kind of career. Monday to Friday, eight till five thirty or so, I will be working on something to do with a book. It would be very remiss of me if I achieved nothing with all that time.\n\nDoes writing get easier the more you do it? In some ways I think. When I was starting out, and working simultaneously as a journalist, I was constantly worrying about one thing or another. Would I manage to complete the book? Was it any good? Was I pursuing the right career path? When would the money run out?\n\nI don\'t worry so much any more. Not because there aren\'t things to worry about. More because I\'ve come to realise there\'s no point in worrying about things over which I have no control. A writer really has power over one thing alone, whatever it is he or she is writing. It\'s an absolute power too. Only you can wield it, only you can make something good or bad. Agents and editors can help, but they can\'t fix something that\'s broken. Your career is your responsibility, not theirs.\n\nSo these days I just try to write the best book I can and leave the nagging doubts to others. Yes, the publishing business appears to be going to hell in a hand cart in some ways. But I\'m a writer, not a publisher. What do you expect me to do about it?\n\nI also don\'t worry about key aspects of the book any more. I <em>know</em> I have the ability to finish it, and the time too these days. I know I can rewrite and edit and juggle aspects of the story, quite substantially sometimes, if it\'s needed. I have no fear of that process. In fact I welcome it.\n\nI don\'t worry about covers. I don\'t worry about marketing campaigns. I don\'t even worry that much about sales figures, to be honest, though like any author I probably should. My publishers around the world know that if there\'s anything I can do to help with these things all that they have to do is call me. But I\'m not going to sit at home chewing my fingernails over matters that are really somebody else\'s business. Authors write books. Other people sell them. That may change in the years to come but it hasn\'t, for most of us anyway, just yet. Thank goodness.\n\nAlso, more and more I\'m cutting back on public engagements. By this time last year I\'d been on the road for almost a month, legging it around the US mainly. My sole travelling this year has been two weeks for research in Venice and a week on the road with Ann Cleeves in the north of England. The current book is a month ahead of last year\'s at the moment. These two things are not unconnected. Events can be fun but they\'re horribly time consuming and expensive. In the past I\'ve said yes to just about everything. In the future I\'m going to be more picky. However hard you try working on the road is not as productive as working at home, for me anyway.\n\nOnce you take the worry factor out of things you\'d be amazed how much free time you have left to do what matters, work on the book. And time, it seems to me, is the busy writer\'s most precious commodity, provided you\'re mentally prepared to do something useful with it (a subject I\'ll address later).\n\nSo if there\'s \'seeming ease\' in the way I work it comes, I think, more from what I don\'t do than what I do.','Writing with ease: it&#039;s all about time','','publish','open','closed','','writing-with-ease','','','2011-01-28 08:05:09','2011-01-28 08:05:09','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/?p=3670',0,'post','',0),(3786,1,'2010-04-13 07:16:50','2010-04-13 06:16:50','<p>I know we\'re supposed to be in a business where niceness and a collegiate spirit go hand in hand. Sometimes it\'s like that. Not always. If you\'re still labouring under this illusion please take a look at this brief post by the agent Colleen Lindsay.</p>\n<p>It\'s the simplest of email exchanges: a wannabe author emailing a literary agent to see if she might consider representing him. I wish I could say it was atypical but it isn\'t. It\'s just that few agents are brave enough to show these vitriolic attempts to get someone to work for you to the world at large.</p>\n<blockquote cite=\"http://theswivet.blogspot.com/2010/04/what-not-to-do-when-you-get-rejection.html\">\n  [From <a href=\"http://theswivet.blogspot.com/2010/04/what-not-to-do-when-you-get-rejection.html\"><cite>The Swivet [Colleen Lindsay]: What NOT to do when you get a rejection: Example #873</cite></a>]\n</blockquote>','Idiocy and writing sometimes go hand in hand','','publish','open','closed','','idiocy-and-writing-sometimes-go-hand-in-hand','','','2011-01-28 08:05:09','2011-01-28 08:05:09','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/2010/04/13/idiocy-and-writing-sometimes-go-hand-in-hand/',0,'post','',0),(3757,1,'2010-04-13 07:54:36','2010-04-13 06:54:36','I\'m close to the end of the present book right now. Most of it, as I\'ve said before, takes place in Venice during carnival. One of the key characters is seen throughout, but always in disguise, behind a mask. At the end, of course, that mask is removed.\n\nSo what do we see?\n\n<!--more-->\n\nPeople have a horrible habit of judging others by their appearances. Not just other human beings either. We had a crow wandering round the garden and someone said, \'I <em>hate</em> crows.\'&nbsp;\n\nWhy?\n<ul>\n	<li>Because they walk with a gait we interpret as a swagger</li>\n	<li>Because, being bigger, they will steal food over smaller, \'nicer\' birds</li>\n	<li>Because they have a reputation as bird killers</li>\n	<li>Because they\'re black and we associate the colour black with the night, with death and with \'evil\'</li>\n</ul>\nFor a couple of millennia human beings <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crow#In_culture_and_mythology\" target=\"_blank\">have had a thing about crows</a>. This anthropomorphic approach makes not the least sense, of course. They walk that way because they\'re built that way. They\'re bigger because they\'re bigger. If you\'re judging them in \'niceness\' terms you perhaps ought to look at woodpeckers, which will tear open tits\' nesting boxes to snack on live chicks. Or that loveable robin, the male of which is so territorially aggressive it will habitually peck to death other birds -- including other species -- that happen to stray onto its patch.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/rimg0088.jpg\"><img style=\"float:right;\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/rimg0088-tm.jpg\" alt=\"RIMG0088.jpg\" width=\"250\" height=\"187\"></a>But woodpeckers and robins aren\'t big and black and \'strutting\'. Appearance matters. We coo at butterflies and shriek at moths. We admire ladybirds but recoil at a flying beetle. All of these creatures are, in our terms, \'wearing masks\'. The reality of their \'nature\' -- which isn\'t nature at all as we know it -- is disguised by how they look. Our attitude to towards them is determined not by reality, but by nothing more than an arrangement of feathers or a differently coloured carapace.\n\nDo we treat human beings this way too? You bet. People recoil from the disabled and the disfigured. In some countries -- Italy among them -- disability is associated by some with evil. There\'s a belief that the disabled have somehow \'earned\' their condition, either by sins in another life or the sins of their parents. It\'s karma, dude. We fear the different and try to avoid it.\n\nIn writing this sometimes manifests itself in predictable ways. The bad guy is the one with a scar, a limp, some condition -- being an albino say -- that sets him or her apart from the rest of humanity.\n\nIt\'s entirely up to others how they approach this issue. But I try to avoid it like the plague. I deliberately gave Peroni a scarred face when he came into this series in <em>The Villa of Mysteries</em> to try to get away from associating physical appearance with character. Peroni is a good guy, kind, sensitive, perhaps the most \'emotionally intelligent\' of the regulars. He also looks like a scarred thug. Live with it. Scars don\'t equal evil.\n\nThe flip side to this argument is equally interesting. Evil, when you see it in real life, is extraordinarily ordinary. As a reporter I\'ve been very close to some evil people. They weren\'t <em>all</em> politicians either. A few were real-life murderers. What usually links them is how very unremarkable they look. See them on a bus and you wouldn\'t look twice. That\'s how it is.\n\nSo, at the end of my book, when we take the mask of this man, what does he look like?\n\nHere\'s a spoiler.\n\n<em>He looks like the rest of us.</em>','Taking off the mask','','publish','open','closed','','taking-off-the-mask','','','2011-01-28 08:05:09','2011-01-28 08:05:09','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/?p=3757',0,'post','',0),(3789,1,'2010-04-14 07:00:22','2010-04-14 06:00:22','We all want to know how well we\'re doing, whether we\'re writing a book, working on a painting or just doing the day job. The question, always, is how do you measure that? Particularly with something as oddly intangible as a book?\n\nThe blunt way is the daily word count. Scrivener does a fantastic job of that as you can see below. You can set yourself a session target and a project target. Then aim for both and away you go.\n\nIs this a good idea? Yes and no.\n\n<!--more-->\n\n<strong><span style=\"font-weight:normal;\"><img style=\"float:right;margin-left:0;\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/screen-shot-2010-04-13-at-08-13-24.png\" alt=\"Screen shot 2010-04-13 at 08.13.24.png\" width=\"259\" height=\"217\"></span>For the yes party</strong>\n\nBooks are finite objects. They will run to a certain length -- between 105,000 and 125,000 words usually in my case -- and must do their job within that length otherwise something has gone wrong. Anyway you look at it you need to monitor the length of a book, and its individual components -- scenes, sections, parts. You can read <a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/screen-shot-2010-04-13-at-08-13-24.png2010/02/19/target-practice/\" target=\"_blank\">more on this subject here.</a>\n\n<strong>For the no camp</strong>\n\nBooks aren\'t written they\'re created. Writing just means putting words on paper. Creating means building a story and polishing it to something hopefully approaching perfection. Cutting five thousand unnecessary words from a draft manuscript is a creative act. A blunt word count will whine that you\'ve done something wrong. You\'re failing, going backwards even. <em>This simply isn\'t true.</em>\n\nDaily word counts in particular can be highly deceptive. We\'ve all done the calculations. This book will be 100,000 words long. I will write 10K words a week. In ten weeks I\'ll have a book! Fat chance. And if you <em>do</em> have a book using this production line technique the chances are you\'ve got one that needs a hell of a lot of work (unless you are exceptional, and exceptional people do exist).\n\nThe purpose in writing a book is to produce a story that reflects the best of your abilities. Not to meet a daily production target. A word count only tells you how many words you\'ve written. This is useful but not vital, and certainly not an infallible indicator of how a project is proceeding.\n\n<strong>How it works for me</strong>\n\nI don\'t work to a particular daily target when I\'m writing. My personal habits tend to revolve around scenes, not word counts. I find it difficult to leave a scene in mid-air at the end of the day. Generally speaking my scenes run anywhere between 800 and 2,500 words. So I\'ll tend to crack on until that scene is finished, or left with sufficient notes to complete the following day.\n\nYes, I keep an eye on that session target in Scrivener above. But that\'s mainly to check on the length of the scene in question, not to convince myself the book is still on track. That 1,500 session target you see above is just a median length for the average scene or chunk-of-scene. I want to know I\'m not going too much above that or below it (normally the former) too often.\n\nWhat\'s important for me is to feel that a project is alive and kicking. That I\'m wrapped up in it, have some idea of its direction and eventual conclusion, even if I\'m not completely clear how I will get there. This means that inevitably there will be weeks when the overall word count may not shift much at all, and may indeed fall back because I\'m cutting to get the flow of the narrative right. That doesn\'t mean the thing is going backwards. In fact the worst way to deal with a floundering book is to keep on writing regardless in the hope that at some stage you will break through some imaginary wall and work out what the hell is going on.\n\nNever happened for me. Though, as always, it may be different for you.','The dangers of the daily word count','','publish','open','closed','','the-dangers-of-the-daily-word-count','','','2011-01-28 08:05:09','2011-01-28 08:05:09','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/?p=3789',0,'post','',0),(3799,1,'2010-04-15 08:00:37','2010-04-15 07:00:37','Yesterday, after rather more last-minute wrangling than I expected, I put the first draft of the new novel, the tenth in my Italian series, to bed. No, let me be more precise. The narrative is there in its entirety, beginning to end, characters, events, locations.\n\nThat doesn\'t mean it\'s \'finished\'. In a way books never are. But I have the fundamental structure in place and it feels pretty good (not that another living soul has seen it or will for a little while).\n\nWhat happens next?\n\n<!--more-->Nothing. It\'s safely stored and backed up online. I do not intend to go near it for a week or so. After that I will print it out and read it on paper, where it will look different and demand any number of revisions, most I suspect minor copy editing (at least I hope so).\n\nSetting your work to one side is a wonderful idea. You come back to it refreshed. You see things you never saw before. And, much as you order it, your subconscious carries on mulling over the story in your head. With any luck when you do look at it anew you see possibilities that weren\'t there before.\n\nIn an ideal world books would be like wine. We\'d lay them down for a few years then take them out for checking and adjustment then lay them down a few years more before releasing them into the wild.\n\nWe don\'t live in an ideal world. I want this book wrapped up when I\'m back in Venice in May. I\'ve something else in mind to write after that.','First draft now in the can... what next?','','publish','open','closed','','first-draft-now-in-the-can-what-next','','','2011-01-28 08:05:09','2011-01-28 08:05:09','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/?p=3799',0,'post','',0),(3801,1,'2010-04-15 08:45:42','2010-04-15 07:45:42','<p>I was having one of those media discussions we have from time to time when one of the participants, a very knowledgeable TV exec, asked, \'Why did you call it the Nic Costa series? It\'s not really, is it? It\'s about a bunch of characters.\'</p>\n<p>Ah, how perceptive. Let me try to explain. I never meant this to be a series. I wrote one book called <i>A Season for the Dead</i> and my editor at the time whooped about it and said, \'This would make a great series.\'</p>\n<p>So I wrote another. And in that I brought in a bunch of new characters because the idea of writing about just one person alone, book after book, frankly appalled me.</p>\n<!--more--><p>I never consciously called this the Nic Costa series, though the name seems to have stuck and we now use it here and lots of other places too. Costa is an important character, the moral fulcrum for the books. A young, slightly naive individual whose integrity and dedication remind those around him they have to get on with the job even if they\'d rather bunk off.</p>\n<p>But he\'s not necessarily the main protagonist. <i>The Blue Demon</i> is very much an ensemble affair, with Teresa Lupo, Peroni and Falcone to the fore. <i>The Fallen Angel</i> next year is very much Nic\'s book, just as <i>The Garden of Evil</i> was. I change things around, for fun and because I don\'t want to be bored (partly because I know if I am you will be bored too).</p>\n<p>How do you put a label on this? If it was TV they could use something geographical maybe. <i>Centro Storico</i>. Or something to do with Italy or Rome.</p>\n<p>For a while I did call the books the Rome series, but I was never happy with that one. Then along came the TV series and it called up images of burly men in leather skirts doing naughty things in Imperial-era stables.</p>\n<p>So the Nic Costa series it is. It\'s the best I can come up with I\'m afraid, and probably too late to change. These things happen when you have a long-running title. After all TV\'s <i>Taggart</i> continued to bear the name of the fictional detective long after the actor playing him had died, and Taggart had departed the scene altogether.</p>\n<p>It\'s a problem. Not a big one. But if we ever do make our way to TV as a series it will have to be addressed one way or another.</p>','So what do I call these books?','','publish','open','closed','','so-what-do-i-call-these-books','','','2011-01-28 08:05:09','2011-01-28 08:05:09','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/2010/04/15/so-what-do-i-call-these-books/',0,'post','',0),(3779,1,'2010-04-16 07:53:24','2010-04-16 06:53:24','Here\'s a jokey exchange from Facebook the other day....\n\n<strong>James Gracie</strong> Damn you. You had me up until 3am reading <em>The Villa of Mysteries</em>. Just had to finish it.\n\n<strong>Me</strong> Well if it\'s any consolation I wrote that eight years ago and barely remember it myself. I am thereby absolved of all blame.\n\nI\'m sure everyone thought... yeah, right. But it\'s true honestly. And I think it\'s true for lots of authors too. We have a very strange relationship with our past work. They\'re ships or lost lovers that passed in the night. Once they\'re gone, they\'re gone. You remember their names but not an awful lot more.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nThis is one reason why I frequently struggle when readers come up to me at an event and ask questions about something I wrote five or six years ago -- or eight, in the case of <em>The Villa of Mysteries.</em> It\'s not just that the detail of the book is missing. It\'s the context -- the why it got written.\n\nWhy is this? I suspect because in order to write a new book it\'s important to clear your head of everything that gets in the way. That includes the thing you\'ve just turned out. Yes, if it\'s a series it\'s vital to maintain continuity -- how people look, act, speak. But that\'s something for the book diary (you are keeping one, aren’t you?).\n\nThe past book itself has to go. It wasn\'t like that in the early days. I used to agonise over the things -- what should I have changed, how could I have made it better? Now I\'m old enough to realise that\'s pointless. On very rare occasions you get a chance to take a second look at a book when it comes back into print ages later -- I\'m doing that with <em>Death in Seville</em> which will be substantially rewritten from the original <em>Semana Santa</em> when it reappears in November.\n\nBut mostly writers live in the present. The only work that matters is the one you\'re writing (except when you go on the road and have to talk about something you\'ve probably already forgotten).\n\nSo glad you liked that old book of mine, James. But I meant it. I can\'t remember it much at all. And I am therefore absolved of all blame for your sleepless night, though I\'d quite like the credit if that\'s OK.','Hang on... I wrote that???','','publish','open','closed','','hang-on-i-wrote-that','','','2011-01-28 08:05:09','2011-01-28 08:05:09','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/?p=3779',0,'post','',0),(3805,1,'2010-04-16 09:54:48','2010-04-16 08:54:48','Back in 1996 or so I was sitting in the front row of the old Aladdin hotel in Las Vegas, listening to Bill Gates give the keynote address at Comdex. For those of you of a tender age Comdex was once the biggest business convention in the world, five days of madness in which as many as a couple of hundred thousand people would descend on Vegas to find out what was going in the world of technology.\n\nGates talked about the future. I wish I had a video of that now. The future was bright and shiny. We\'d have a new \'input device\' for the things around us, and it would be the human voice. Computer... find me a hotel in Schenectady, not more than $75 a night with a view. Computer... track down Bernie and inform him he\'s fired. Computer... you get the drift.\n\nFourteen years on and we still can\'t do that. Instead we\'re looking at a new \'paradigm\' for telling our machines what to do. The iPad typifies it as this excellent piece from Cult of Mac demonstrates&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href=\"http://www.cultofmac.com/for-writing-and-real-work-ipad-needs-keyboard-dock-review/37984\"><cite>For Writing and Real Work, iPad Needs a Keyboard Dock [Review] | Cult of Mac</cite></a>]\n\n<!--more-->\n\n<a href=\"http://www.cultofmac.com/for-writing-and-real-work-ipad-needs-keyboard-dock-review/37984\" target=\"_blank\"></a><a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/img_9172.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/img_9172-tm.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"332\" alt=\"IMG_9172.jpeg\"></a>\n\nIt\'s called touching the screen. Don\'t faff with the mouse. Just waggle your finger around the monitor instead. And note that, at the moment, that\'s <i>all</i> you can do with the iPad. There is no option for a mouse, though surely one will appear.\n\nWould you want to write with a setup like this? Not me. The point about the iPad is it\'s light and portable. That ceases to be of much use if you have to lug around a dock and a Bluetooth keyboard too. Yes, I know they don\'t weigh much. But it\'s three bits of kit, any of which you can drop or lose. How is this better than a laptop when it comes to work (I\'m not talking about doing all that content stuff the iPad\'s supposed to be good for here -- I\'m talking about <i>input)?</i>\n\nWorse though, for me anyway, is that loss of a mouse and its replacement with a touchscreen. A phone with a touchscreen is fine -- my HTC Desire works very well like that. But a computer screen?\n\nTwo issues...\n<ul>\n	<li>You get grubby finger marks all over it which, after a while, will annoy the hell out of you. <a href=\"http://www.reghardware.co.uk/Design/page/hub/hpts201004/\" title=\"\" target=\"_blank\">Take a look at this demo here</a> and ask yourself: how smeared would the screen be after a few goes of that?</li>\n	<li>Reaching up and running your finger around a screen like this is <i>more</i> work than a mouse, not less</li>\n</ul>\nI spend a lot of time at the computer. Ergonomics are important to me. I currently use a standard Apple wired keyboard (the wireless one is too small) and a Logitech Performance wireless mouse. That\'s a clever mouse, and fits my hand a lot better than Apple\'s wireless one. It can do mouse things, search on words, move backwards and forwards in pages, all sorts of stuff...\n\nWhy would I abandon that for running my grubby fingers across a screen only to get bugged by the smears there?\n\nTouchscreens seem to be all the rage. HP are among those bringing out desktop models for Windows users like this Touchsmart 600 which will cost you around £1200.\n\n<img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/hp-touchsmart-600.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"424\" alt=\"HP TouchSmart 600.jpeg\">\n\nThis does have a mouse of course. But you\'re still meant to sit there flicking through pictures and stuff too, getting arm ache along the way and probably having the screen an awkward distance away to see properly.\n\nMaybe I\'m just old-fashioned. But what exactly is wrong with a mouse?','What’s so wrong with a mouse?','','publish','open','closed','','what%e2%80%99s-so-wrong-with-a-mouse','','','2011-01-28 08:04:45','2011-01-28 08:04:45','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/2010/04/16/what%e2%80%99s-so-wrong-with-a-mouse/',0,'post','',0),(3810,1,'2010-04-19 08:11:14','2010-04-19 07:11:14','As <a href=\"http://davidhewson.com/2010/01/15/me-whats-the-deal-with-swearing/\" target=\"_blank\">I wrote a while back</a> I try to keep down the language in the books these days. I don\'t have any moral objection to swearing. I do find myself <span style=\"text-decoration:line-through;\">pissed off</span> annoyed by unnecessary words.\n\nSometimes you can kill both with one well-aimed stone. Here\'s the original sentence from the first pre-revise manuscript...\n<blockquote>They turned into a short, bleak cul-de-sac littered with rubbish: paper and rotten fruit, abandoned market boxes, plastic bags of rubbish. The stench of cat’s piss was everywhere.</blockquote>\nHere\'s the rewrite...\n<blockquote>They turned into a short, bleak cul-de-sac littered with rubbish: paper and rotten fruit, abandoned market boxes, plastic bags of rubbish. The stench of cats everywhere.</blockquote>\nBetter I think, on both counts.','The difference one word can make','','publish','open','closed','','the-difference-one-word-can-make','','','2011-01-28 08:04:45','2011-01-28 08:04:45','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/?p=3810',0,'post','',0),(3819,1,'2010-04-20 08:09:57','2010-04-20 07:09:57','I\'m indebted to <a href=\"http://www.theleftroom.co.uk/\" target=\"_blank\">Steve Mosby</a> for the following. As books steadily work their way into the digital realm we\'re constantly told that ebooks, self publishing and -- who knows? -- one day book subscriptions (aka streaming) will come to take the place of conventional publishing.\n\nFor readers... maybe. But what about authors? How are they going to receive some reward for the vast amount of work that goes in to writing a book?\n\nMusicians have gone through this pain barrier already. Now someone has worked out how much you need to sell in a variety of musical media in order to earn the US minimum wage. It doesn\'t come as a surprise to me to learn that \'old\' media win the day hands down over new, but the gap in earnings is simply breathtaking.\n\nIn a nutshell you can get to that pauper\'s wage through 143 self-pressed CDs, 155 general CD sales or 1,161 through a major label. To get the same amount of money you need a staggering 1.5 million plays per month on Last.fm or more than 4.5m on Spotify.\n\nThe full graph is below but make sure you read the article too at  <a href=\"http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2010/how-much-do-music-artists-earn-online/\"><cite>How Much Do Music Artists Earn Online?</cite></a>\n\n<!--more-->\n\n<a href=\"http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2010/how-much-do-music-artists-earn-online/\" target=\"_blank\"><img class=\"noborder\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/how-much-do-music-artists-really-earn-online.png\" alt=\"How Much Do Music Artists Really Earn Online?.png\" width=\"550\" height=\"3178\" /></a>','How Much Do Music Artists Earn Online?','','publish','open','closed','','how-much-do-music-artists-earn-online','','','2011-01-28 08:04:45','2011-01-28 08:04:45','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/2010/04/20/how-much-do-music-artists-earn-online/',0,'post','',0),(3840,1,'2010-04-22 08:00:17','2010-04-22 07:00:17','A long, long time ago a famous British journalist disappeared to France to \'work on his novel\'. When the poor chap came back he wrote a piece about how his book would never appear. Someone nicked his laptop. Those precious words were gone, gone, gone. I vaguely knew him and he was, trust me, terribly cut up. So much he never did write a novel in the end.\n\nI\'m paranoid about losing things. Before there was online backup I used to leave floppies round with my in-laws in case the house burned down. Today computers are more reliable than ever. I can\'t -- touch wood -- think of the last time I lost something because a file went bad. Usually the screeches are self-induced -- a lost file, something deleted that shouldn\'t have been.\n\nNone of this need be fatal. Here\'s how I try to ensure how. It is overkill. Sane people will use less.\n\n<!--more-->\n\n<img class=\"alignright\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/155504-2tb_time_capsule-tm.jpg\" alt=\"155504-2tb_time_capsule.jpeg\" width=\"250\" height=\"220\" />First, I use Apple\'s Time Machine, which backs up duplicate copies of old stuff to an external Time Capsule drive. Dead easy, and you can retrieve things with a minimum of fuss. If the house burns down it\'s all dead, of course. But for the minimal investment it seems worthwhile to me.\n\nTime Machine works in the background, backing up your stuff on a regular basis. If you do something wrong you can go back an hour or a day or whenever and, with luck, retrieve a copy from there. Any work between catastrophe and recovery will, of course, be lost.\n\nSecond I use standard offline backup, in my case the one that comes through Apple\'s MobileMe. This is the same old backup people have been using for years. At a set interval it stores copies of your documents on Apple\'s servers. This means you only get back yesterday\'s copy if you back up once a day.\n\nOn the rare occasion I\'ve had to try to get stuff back from this I\'ve had problems. Missing files, error messages. It\'s not as good as it appears frankly, and if I could be bothered I\'d probably kill the whole thing altogether. Not least because there\'s something much more interesting around now, and that\'s intelligent \'cloud\' backup.\n\n<img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/dropbox-secure-backup-sync-and-sharing-made-easy.png\" alt=\"Dropbox - Secure backup, sync and sharing made easy.png\" width=\"290\" height=\"75\" />\n\nI first encountered this through <a href=\"http://www.dropbox.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Dropbox</a>. This is a clever service that creates a special folder on your computer. Anything inside it gets replicated to Dropbox\'s servers. There you can share it among other computers and people. It\'s not backup of the traditional kind. But in all honesty I\'m only dealing with five or six active documents these days. It\'s good enough for me.\n\nBasic Dropbox is free. If you want more storage than you get for nothing you need to shell out $9.99 for 50gb of storage. This seems a silly leap for me. They should have a $4.99 plan. I don\'t need much storage and I would be willing to pay. Just not $9.99 a month.\n\n<img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/screen-shot-2010-04-21-at-16-02-53.png\" alt=\"Screen shot 2010-04-21 at 16.02.53.png\" width=\"170\" height=\"55\" />\n\nThen I discovered <a href=\"http://www.sugarsync.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Sugar Sync</a>, a Dropbox rival. At first glance this looks very similar. But don\'t be fooled. SugarSync has that magic replicated folder too. But it will also replicate your ordinary folders. So now all I do is choose the folders used for my current projects. SugarSync backs them up <em>as I save</em>. What\'s more it keeps the last five versions too. So the gap between disaster and recovered file is tiny -- the last time I saved.\n<blockquote>Update May 2010. Having taken out a subscription to SugarSync I now see its reliability go south -- even their website is unavailable. Currently everything is down and has been for a while. My advice is: stay away. Hope I can get my $49 back.</blockquote>\nAlso I can sync those ordinary files between computers. So my main WIP folder is automatically replicated to my laptop <span style=\"font-style:italic;\">even if I forget to copy over the files before I head for the airport. </span>It just happens next time I go online. This is good. No, this is wonderful. Here\'s a little of what it looks like for me -- as you can see you can keep any number of computers in sync.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/screen-shot-2010-04-21-at-16-14-16.png\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/screen-shot-2010-04-21-at-16-14-16-tm.jpg\" alt=\"Screen shot 2010-04-21 at 16.14.16.png\" width=\"500\" height=\"213\" /></a>\n\nYou can also get a free companion app for an iPhone or Android phone that will let you browse these folders. So I can drop pdfs of travel documents into a synced folder and get easy access for them, and send up stored photos from my phone too. All very useful stuff indeed.\n\nWhy do I need conventional backup with something like this around? I probably don\'t. But as I said, I\'m paranoid on this subject.\n\nOne word of warning for Mac users. Cloud backup systems sometimes don\'t like Mac apps that store documents as \'packages\', folders of files masquerading as single documents. Scrivener is one such app. Some people have reported problems on the Scrivener forums with corrupted files on Dropbox because of this. I saw the same problem. I haven\'t with Sugar Sync, but it\'s important you don\'t edit the same file on two different computers, and that you close down the document on one machine before opening it on the next. And if you want to be extra safe in Scrivener simply save a backup file in zip format which will make it absolutely safe.\n\nWith those caveats all I can say is... at $4.95 for 30GB this is a steal.','Some new ways to make sure you don&#039;t lose stuff','','publish','open','closed','','some-new-ways-to-make-sure-you-dont-lose-stuff','','','2011-01-28 08:04:45','2011-01-28 08:04:45','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/?p=3840',0,'post','',0),(3849,1,'2010-04-23 08:05:37','2010-04-23 07:05:37','... is line editing. From an author\'s point of view that is. In my humble opinion. And I\'m probably wrong. Line editing is a very necessary part of the process of getting a book from my head into a book store or ereader near you. Without it the book would be a lot worse. It has to happen. I just find it very, very frustrating for some reason.\n\nWhat is a line edit? Let me take you through the process. I write a draft. It goes through several versions read by no one but me (I don\'t believe in showing stuff around for opinions from anyone who happens to have one). When I feel I can\'t add any more to it the thing goes to my agent who, if happy, passes it on to the publishers.\n\nThere then follows a top level editing process with my inhouse editor(s). They make general comments on any problems they see, any changes they think would improve things, anything that can be cut. I go back to the draft and do another revise on that basis.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nNormally when that goes back the book is done (though there might be a few extra revisions on occasion). After that the manuscript goes to a copy editor, usually someone working outside the publishing house. They go through it word by word with a fine toothcomb, looking for errors of language, logic and continuity. That manuscript comes back as the line edit. These people can save your skin on many occasions. Copy editing is a difficult and demanding task. Occasionally you get a bad one but mostly I\'ve been blessed with some excellent copy editors over the years (and have one of the very best right now).\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/edit.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/edit-tm.jpg\" alt=\"edit.jpg\" width=\"250\" height=\"187\"></a>So why do I screech when this envelope comes through the door? Several reasons...\n\n<strong>Timing.</strong> It always turns up when I\'m busy writing a completely different book. I will have to put that to one side to go back to something I wrote the year before.\n\n<strong>And timing.</strong> The book is in the production cycle now. You will usually have at most two weeks or so to get it back in one piece.\n\n<strong>I don\'t remember writing this stuff.</strong> Or rather I do but it\'s not at the front of my head. As I\'ve discussed before, the only book that matters to an author is the one he or she is working on right now. The one with the line edit is in the past. I <em>hate</em> having to fork the current work out of my head and try to go back to thinking about what was there when I wrote this one. It feels unnatural and wrong.\n\nHere are a few observations about this process too that I\'ve noticed over the years.\n\n<strong>Copy editors vary.</strong> I\'ve had mostly good ones. But occasionally a publisher will try someone new who isn\'t so hot. I\'ve only ever had one real horror, who turned out to be someone who\'d never edited fiction before. In the end I simply had to go back to the publisher and say... sorry but you need to find someone else to look at this. Don\'t do that rashly or come across as a pain in the butt who doesn\'t like being edited at all. We <em>all</em> need editing. But stick up for yourself if things look bad.\n\n<strong>Copy editors get things wrong.</strong> Just because they\'ve changed something doesn\'t mean they\'re in the right. I\'ve had Italian words misspelled and dates inserted wrongly over the years. Not as many Italian words as I\'ve misspelled or inaccurate dates as I put in myself, of course. But you have to check the people who are checking you too. They\'re not infallible, any more than you.\n\n<strong>There are no shortcuts.</strong> Taking up the point above, you can\'t skip chunks of this process. This is your book. Your name will be on the cover. You have to read the thing from beginning to end, looking at everything that\'s been changed, and making sure you\'re happy with it.\n\n<strong>Sometimes copy editors spot things even they haven\'t seen.</strong> If the editor is puzzled about some narrative process this may be more than a simple matter of a few words. Maybe you\'ve made a structural mistake somewhere. The copy editor is your first real reader. If they\'re confused the paying public may be too. Fix it and fix it properly.\n\n<strong>You don\'t need to tackle a copy edit sequentially.</strong> The way in which edits are delivered varies. Few are done electronically in my experience anyway. Usually I will get a full marked manuscript and some sheets listing queries. <em>You don\'t have to go through these one by one.</em> I always deal with the easiest ones first then keep narrowing down the remaining ones so the hardest are last. This isn\'t pure cowardice and laziness. It also means that by the time I get round to the most difficult ones my head is a little more back in the book.\n\n<strong>If you want to change things big time do it now.</strong> After this we go to typesetting, and your publisher will screech and threaten you with production fees if you want to make major changes. Get them out of the way at the line edit.\n\n<strong>It\'s never as bad as it looks. </strong>I always open that envelope with a sinking heart. So many pages! So much to check again! But really... it\'s not as bad as it seems. This one was out of the way in a couple of days. Despair not. Or rather save your despair for something that deserves it more. I\'m sure there\'s a suitable candidate around.\n\nThis isn\'t the end of the production process for an author. I\'ll take you through more of that when we reach the next stage. But it is important and you can\'t skip it. When I was grumbling about this work someone on Twitter asked, \'Can\'t you employ someone to do this bit? It seems awful boring for someone creative.\'\n\nNo, you can\'t. This is your book and it\'s your responsibility to see it\'s published properly.','The worst writing job in the world...','','publish','open','closed','','the-worst-job-in-the-world','','','2011-01-28 08:04:45','2011-01-28 08:04:45','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/?p=3849',0,'post','',0),(3859,1,'2010-04-25 08:53:55','2010-04-25 07:53:55','I first started using Facebook because a publicist suggested it. It\'s been an interesting few years. On occasions FB has been incredibly useful. At other times it\'s been boring. Occasionally it\'s been infuriating. The vast majority of the people I\'ve interacted with there have been lovely. The wonder, for me anyway, is that there have been <a href=\"http://davidhewson.com/2010/03/31/no-free-books-around-here/\" target=\"_blank\">so few oddballs and nutters</a>.\n\nBut that\'s over now. Later today I am deleting my FB account and fan page, and deleting it permanently, if I possibly can (not letting FB hang on to things in \'private\' which it will do with a \'normal\' account deletion). Why? That last sentence gives you a clue. I don\'t like the way this massive company deals with privacy, and it\'s clear to me things are getting worse.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nBack in the beginning Facebook was great on several fronts.\n<ul>\n	<li>You could reach people easily and track them when they moved to different places</li>\n	<li>You could post photos and interesting snippets of information</li>\n	<li>You could crack jokes with people who usually shared your sense of humour</li>\n</ul>\nHere are a few of the bad things that have emerged though.\n<ul>\n	<li>Applications. Farmville. All that dross. I want none of it and while you can block some of it there\'s always something new that comes along demanding you deal with it. I don\'t want to waste time this way.</li>\n	<li>People pestering you. To go to things you can\'t possibly attend even if you knew what they were. To become a fan on their pages, often for things that mean nothing to you. There isn\'t a day goes by that I don\'t have to delete something that\'s frankly a waste of time.</li>\n	<li>Round robin messages of no importance in the inbox.</li>\n	<li>The plain fact you accept as friends people you don\'t even know. Most are lovely. A few aren\'t.</li>\n</ul>\nAll of this I could swallow were it not for the fact that Facebook is messing with my privacy. I accept the thing is free, and that means you get to see ads. But the privacy issue goes a lot further than ads. There\'s a stack more information they keep about you, and the people you interact with. And the way they handle that data -- like the look of FB itself -- keeps changing, without ever so much as asking the people affected -- you and me.\n\nLast week FB introduced some new rules on privacy. What they means is that unless you opt out your FB data will be shared widely, outside FB, with any company FB chooses. That causes me great concern. Not just me either. Read what the Canadian government\'s <a href=\"http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/facebook-users-risk-blackmail-privacy-czar-warns/article1545444/\" target=\"_blank\">privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart thinks about the whole thing</a>. This quote in particular...\n<blockquote>I’m very concerned about these changes. More than half a million developers will have access to this data. The information will be stored indefinitely and it opens the possibility that a lot of people can be blackmailed from all corners of the world.</blockquote>\nAnd later down the article, this.\n<blockquote>Although the commission\'s powers are limp by global standards, Ms. Stoddart said she decided after some “sleepless nights” that her office “could not duck” the privacy issues posed by Facebook.</blockquote>\nThat\'s the way we think about Internet giants these days. We feel they\'re too big to argue with. We accept what they do and never question it.\n\nI had a lot of misgivings about what I\'ve read of the FB privacy changes over the last few days. Yesterday I decided to sleep on it and see how I felt about the whole thing today. It wasn\'t a sleepless night. What\'s going on here is just plain wrong. We\'re handing over unknown amounts of private information to unknown people who are looking to make a buck out of it. Worse, those of us who encourage people to join Facebook and fan pages <b>are leading others to offer up their privacy too.</b>&nbsp;\n\nI took the FB and FB fan page link off this site a while back because I was getting worried about this issue.&nbsp;But that\'s not enough. Later today I am closing my presence on Facebook. And, if the procedure outlined here actually works, I will endeavour to make sure everything to do with me is deleted from their servers. It says something about FB that you have to go through some awkward manoeuvres just to manage this. You can find the detail <a href=\"http://en-gb.facebook.com/help/?search=i%20want%20to%20permanently%20delete%20my%20account\" target=\"_blank\">here</a>, and it\'s for the UK only -- whether it will work elsewhere I don\'t know.\n\nTo the people I\'ve corresponded with on FB over the years all I can say is thanks... it\'s been fun mostly. But I don\'t feel happy acquiescing to this kind of behaviour by a multi-billion dollar corporation. Nor, more importantly, do I feel comfortable encouraging others to offer up their identities to this organisation.\n\nYou can still find me on twitter of course at <a href=\"http://twitter.com/david_hewson\" target=\"_blank\">david_hewson</a> and through this web site. I\'m not disappearing. I\'m just going to be more picky and more inquiring about the social medias sites I use in future.','Bye bye Facebook','','publish','open','closed','','bye-bye-facebook','','','2011-01-28 08:04:45','2011-01-28 08:04:45','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/2010/04/25/bye-bye-facebook/',0,'post','',0),(3874,1,'2010-04-26 08:06:51','2010-04-26 07:06:51','<p>The dog is mad. Yesterday I announced I\'d deleted my Facebook account. There now seems to be a widespread belief that means that Eddie, a ten-year-old wire fox terrier of an independent and libertarian nature, has followed suit. None of this is true.</p>\n<!--more--><p><a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/dscn0010.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/dscn0010-tm.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"DSCN0010.JPG\" /></a></p>\n<p>Eddie\'s Facebook account continues. As I said in the beginning -- though no one believed me -- it has absolutely nothing to do with me. He wouldn\'t delete it if I told him (since he doesn\'t do anything else I say). Not that I would be so bold. It\'s his decision, or that of his handler, as it is for the rest of you.</p>\n<p>And now you\'ll have to excuse me. He is in the position you see below and expects his breakfast.</p>\n<p><a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/dscn0006.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/dscn0006-tm.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"DSCN0006.JPG\" /></a></p>','Eddie Hewson: an apology','','publish','open','closed','','eddie-hewson-an-apology','','','2011-01-28 08:04:45','2011-01-28 08:04:45','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/2010/04/26/eddie-hewson-an-apology/',0,'post','',0),(3880,1,'2010-04-27 08:05:40','2010-04-27 07:05:40','Some time next week this current book will go off to the agent for her perusal. I started it back in November. The first rough draft was finished three weeks ago or so. The last few have been spent variously reading and revising. I\'m now close to the final read through and revise before delivery.\n\nWhat\'s the best way to go through this process? Easy. Put yourself in the position of your eventual reader and try to see it through his or her eyes. It\'s easier than you think.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nI always read a manuscript from several different perspectives. First, in Scrivener when it\'s written. Then, when I\'m happy everything is in the right order, in a standard word processor -- currently Pages -- to see how it looks there. After that it gets printed out in the fashion writers have been doing for years -- as A4 pages, in a big font in 1.5 line spacing in my case, though you may choose other formatting.\n\nThese are all great methods for seeing a MS the way an author or editor or agent should. But we need more. Something happens when that final MS gets turned into typesetting. As authors we understand this implicitly. Whenever we get final typeset galleys back for the book we always stare at something on the page and think, \'How the hell did I let that through?\'\n\nChanging from 12 pt Optima at A4 to 10 pt times to a book size does something. The same words appear differently.\n\nHere\'s another truth too. When readers have a book in front of them things change again. They see your work two pages at a time, not one. As authors and editors we tend to focus on the paragraph in front of us and check how that works against the three or four around it. Not so readers. They can glance back to the previous page and see a much greater context.\n\nSo how about doing a final read through in the form a reader will one day see the book -- as facing pages in the small type and line spacing of a paperback?\n\nIt\'s dead easy usually. You just set it up in your print settings. Here\'s what it looks like for me.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/screen-shot-2010-04-27-at-08-01-22.png\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/screen-shot-2010-04-27-at-08-01-22-tm.jpg\" alt=\"Screen shot 2010-04-27 at 08.01.22.png\" width=\"500\" height=\"291\"></a>\n\nMy business printer is an ancient Kyocera 1020D that\'s been doing stalwart service for six years or more. Fantastic machine. It will print out the pages side by side, two per sheet. As you can see here it can also do two-sided or duplex printing too. That means it sucks the page back after it\'s printed and prints the following pages on the other side. Nice feature if you have it. Saves paper and makes the whole thing more book-like too.\n\nI would never, ever dream of sending off a book without printing it out this way. However carefully you\'ve proofed, on screen and on standard A4 output, you will always see something that needs to be fixed.\n\nHere (smaller than life size even when you click on it) is what it looks like when printed.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/pages.png\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/pages-tm.jpg\" alt=\"Pages.png\" width=\"500\" height=\"351\"></a>','The final proof: do it on paper','','publish','open','closed','','the-final-proof-do-it-on-paper','','','2011-01-28 08:04:45','2011-01-28 08:04:45','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/?p=3880',0,'post','',0),(3890,1,'2010-04-28 08:32:53','2010-04-28 07:32:53','The seventh in my Roman series is <a href=\"http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385341493\" target=\"_blank\">out in paperback in the US through Dell</a> today. It\'s always nice to see a book come out in mass market, three years after it was completed in this case. That means three new books have gone through my head in the meantime, which is a salutary thought.\n\nIn the US the book bears the title <i>The Dante Killings.</i> The brand new title, number eight, will be out there on May 25 and carries the title <i><a href=\"http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385341509&amp;ref=rec&amp;name=search\" target=\"_blank\">City of Fear</a>.</i> In the UK these books were known respectively as <i>Dante\'s Numbers</i> and <i>The Blue Demon.</i>\n\nWhy the change?\n\n<!--more-->\n\nIn a word: marketing. Or perhaps more accurately, markets. <a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/9780385341493.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/9780385341493-tm.jpg\" alt=\"9780385341493.jpeg\" style=\"float:right;padding-left:4px;\" height=\"153\" width=\"94\"></a>These books have appeared in something like twenty different languages over the last eight years, and in every one there have often been some changes, usually small ones. In Romania, I think it was, Nic Costa was renamed <i>Nico</i> Costa because the word \'nic\' means something specific.\n\nTitles change all the time. If you look at my Dutch editions, which have been among the most successful in other languages, just about every book bears a different title to the UK original.\n\nCountries, happily, are all different. Publishers have a variety of ideas about how best to tackle their readership with a particular title. In my case that doesn\'t mean a different book usually. There are subtle changes from the UK to US editions, but mainly down to spelling and local language issues.\n\nBut titles can and will change. <a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/9780385341509.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/9780385341509-tm.jpg\" alt=\"9780385341509.jpeg\" style=\"float:right;padding-left:4px;\" height=\"140\" width=\"93\"></a>Sorry if it causes confusion from time to time but that\'s publishing. We all want to reach the greatest readership we can in individual markets, which means there will be a little local tailoring on occasion.\n\nMy next \'new\' book by the way is <i><a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/9780385341493-tm.jpgbooks/standalones/death-in-seville/\" target=\"_blank\">Death in Seville</a></i> in the UK in November. Which, just to confuse matters, began life in 1996 as my first ever novel, <i>Semana Santa,</i> though this version has been substantially rewritten for republication.\n\nIt\'s a complicated business when you\'ve been in it for a while.','The Dante Killings... and the question of titles','','publish','open','closed','','the-dante-killings-and-the-question-of-titles','','','2011-01-28 08:04:45','2011-01-28 08:04:45','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/2010/04/28/the-dante-killings-and-the-question-of-titles/',0,'post','',0),(3894,1,'2010-04-28 09:01:59','2010-04-28 08:01:59','The issue of how private you are on the web is, it seems to me, something that really isn\'t going to go away easily. I described here the other day <a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/screen-shot-2010-04-28-at-09-00-51-tm.jpg2010/04/25/bye-bye-facebook/\" target=\"_blank\">how I quit Facebook</a> because I wasn\'t happy about its new privacy issues. They\'re difficult to understand, intrusive by default, and according to at least <a href=\"http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/facebook-users-risk-blackmail-privacy-czar-warns/article1545444/\" target=\"_blank\">one government official leave users open to blackmail</a>.\n\nThe Huffington Post picked up this story in <a href=\"http://www.huffingtonpost.com/pam-atherton/who-told-facebook-they-co_b_551185.html\" target=\"_blank\">an excellent article by Pam Atherton</a>. Now it\'s had a very interesting sequel.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nI don\'t know a lot about Huffpost, except that it seems a pretty good source of news and opinion and is one of those new-model media that breaks fresh ground by, er, not paying many of its writers if I recall correctly. Fine by me if that\'s what people want to do.\n\n<img class=\"alignright noborder\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/screen-shot-2010-04-28-at-09-00-51-tm.jpg\" alt=\"Screen shot 2010-04-28 at 09.00.51.png\" width=\"250\" height=\"587\">And Pam\'s article, prompted by a tweet to my FB post, is very good, summing up the issue and bringing to a wider audience something that\'s little understood at large.\n\nI wanted to comment on the article so I logged into Huffpost with my Twitter profile (I think -- it got a little confusing, I\'ll admit. All this logging in stuff does sometimes, don\'t you think?)\n\nThe principal reason I wanted to say something was because Facebook\'s David Swain had placed a comment so anodyne I could scarcely believe it, and went on to point out that Huffpost used some of FB\'s own technology too. My offering to David Swain was very simple -- when he can convince someone like Canada\'s privacy commissioner he\'s doing the right thing I\'ll go back to Facebook again. But I haven\'t had an answer yet.\n\nThen today I thought I\'d take a look at the Huffpost front page again. And what did I see but this, on the right?\n\nMJ Rose is one of my oldest, dearest friends in this business. On the basis of my FB login Huffpost not only <em>knows</em> this but is happy to tell me what she\'s been reading.\n\nIs this Huffpost using Facebook\'s oh-so-clever technology to make my life on the web more fun? Or something that\'s potentially rather scary? Something that will expose your web reading habits to others across the world without you even knowing?\n\nSounds like the latter to me. I will go back to Huffpost again. I am <em>not</em> logging in except when I have to, and then I\'m logging out straight after.\n\nIn case you\'re wondering why it\'s this. What MJ or anyone else reads online is none of my damned business unless <span style=\"font-style:italic;\">they</span> want to tell me. Not have some some faceless web media giant rat on them because it\'s sitting back watching us constantly as we go about our daily business.','We&#039;re back to the privacy thing again... and it&#039;s not good','','publish','open','closed','','were-back-to-the-privacy-thing-again-and-its-not-good','','','2011-01-28 08:04:19','2011-01-28 08:04:19','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/?p=3894',0,'post','',0),(3904,1,'2010-04-29 08:03:54','2010-04-29 07:03:54','I had been thinking I might be ending up doing the final, final revise of this book with something new. Originally, I thought that might be an iPad. The book\'s turned up before the Jobsian wonder. And <a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/revise-tm.jpg2010/04/06/why-i-wont-be-buying-an-ipad/\" title=\"\" target=\"\">as we now all know</a> the iPad is currently about as much use for editing a book as an Etch-a-Sketch machine.\n\nBut I have come up with something that I\'ll take to Venice next week to put this book to bed. It\'s in harness right now. And even I couldn\'t believe what it would turn out to be. More details next week when I\'ll try to give you a full run-down on what I\'ve been using. Suffice to say it\'s great, even though some of it\'s in beta. It\'s also cheap and fantastic to use.\n\nHere\'s what it looks like. The full details when the book is out of the way.\n\n<!--more-->\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/revise.jpg\"><img src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/revise-tm.jpg\" alt=\"revise.jpg\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\"></a>','A sneak peek of the new revision system','','publish','open','closed','','a-sneak-peek-of-the-new-revision-system','','','2011-01-28 08:04:19','2011-01-28 08:04:19','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/?p=3904',0,'post','',0),(3908,1,'2010-04-30 06:28:00','2010-04-30 05:28:00','The present project is approaching its final moments. Next week, once I’ve done some final revisions in Venice, it will go off to my agent. There will be revisions, of course. Maybe a few. Maybe a lot. It’s always possible this has all been a red herring too, a waste of time, a book that simply won’t work.\n\nBy this stage my head is so far inside the thing I wouldn’t see that even if it were true. Not that I feel it is. In fact this feels one of the best things I’ve ever done. But we’ll see.\n\nThe question I want to address here is a simple one: how do you know when a work in progress has reached the stage to send off for consideration? What are the signs?\n\n<!--more-->First things first. Books are never done really. As I’ve said before I’d rewrite any of mine, and with the reissue of <em>Death in Seville</em> later this year I will have done just this. Books are never complete. We simply say, ‘That’s as far as I can go with this one. Take it please. I want to write something else now.’\n\nThat doesn’t mean they should <em>feel</em> incomplete to the reader. The very opposite. They should read like a rounded piece of work, one that poses a question, takes them through the hunt and chase, then offers some kind of resolution. But in terms of the writing ‘finished’ isn’t a work I much like.\n\nWhen it comes to sending stuff off to publishers though you need some benchmarks. Here are some of mine.\n<ul>\n	<li>I will never send off half-complete for consideration, asking, ‘Does this work?’ That sounds unprofessional and unfair on the recipients. It’s my job to know that. Agents and editors are great sounding boards. They’re not there as proxy psychologists. Nor are they clairvoyant. The only answer to that question with regard to a half-finished book is either no or maybe, maybe because the unfinished part could fail too. What’s the point?</li>\n	<li>I never work the versions trick. You know the one? Send off something one week. Then send an ‘improved’ version the next. This wastes people time and makes you look like an amateur.</li>\n	<li>I always let things settle before despatching them. There’s no rush here, for me anyway. Setting something to one side for a couple of weeks will let it mature.</li>\n	<li>I always read it in several different formats before the final, final revise. On screen, in Scrivener first then, with this book Pages, and now – as I’ll describe later – in the Word 2010 beta on a PC. It’s also been printed out twice as an A4 manuscript and once in B5 format, double sided, two pages to one sheet, like a paperback book.</li>\n</ul>\nWhen that’s all done and I’ve been through the thing with a fine toothcomb I know I’m approaching the moment of delivery. But here’s the final benchmark: the book goes off when I know I can do no more to it without some outside feedback.\n\nI recognise that point now. <i>It\'s when I understand that any further work on the project is futile until a third party has seen it.&nbsp;</i>\n\n<i></i>We’ll be there next week. Cue sigh of relief…','When is a book really done?','','publish','open','closed','','when-is-a-book-really-done','','','2011-01-28 08:04:18','2011-01-28 08:04:18','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/?p=3908',0,'post','',0),(3914,1,'2010-04-30 08:42:56','2010-04-30 07:42:56','Are people starting to wake up to what’s going on with Facebook when it comes to the creeping erosion of users’ privacy? I hope so. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is certainly on the case.\n\nTake a look at <a href=\"http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/04/facebook-timeline/\" target=\"_blank\">their article here</a> which documents the changing wording of the Facebook privacy policy since the service first began in 2005 up till last week’s continuing changes. It’s quite illuminating. I’ll leave the detail to you but here’s a shortcut…\n\nIn 2005…\n<blockquote>No personal information that you submit to Thefacebook will be available to any user of the Web Site who does not belong to at least one of the groups specified by you in your privacy settings.</blockquote>\nIn 2010…\n<blockquote>When you connect with an application or website it will have access to General Information about you. The term General Information includes your and your friends’ names, profile pictures, gender, user IDs, <a href=\"https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/04/handy-facebook-english-translator#connections\">connections</a>, and any content shared using the Everyone privacy setting. ... The default privacy setting for certain types of information you post on Facebook is set to “everyone.” ... Because it takes two to connect, your privacy settings only control who can see the connection on your profile page. If you are uncomfortable with the connection being publicly available, you should consider removing (or not making) the connection.</blockquote>\nAnyone out there understand the latter? Me neither. Many thanks to my agent Carole Blake for spotting this one.','More Facebook privacy issues','','publish','open','closed','','more-facebook-privacy-issues','','','2011-01-28 08:04:18','2011-01-28 08:04:18','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/2010/04/30/more-facebook-privacy-issues/',0,'post','',0),(3924,1,'2010-05-03 08:37:20','2010-05-03 07:37:20','I bought my first Mac in 1984. Apart from a few years during the 1990s I’ve used nothing else for my main work. I love Macs, though I am less fond of Apple, and given the control freak noises emanating from that company of late I grow less and less fond by the day.\n\nBut let me be frank. I’m no acolyte. If something better comes along I’m going to use it. Tomorrow I set off for Venice to put the finishing touches to my new book <em>The Plague Doctor</em>. I had thought that this final, final read through and revise would happen on an iPad. Not so. They’re not in the UK yet and, as we now know, they’re no good for book revision, for the moment anyway.\n\nI needed some alternative because my ancient MacBook Air has slowed to a crawl. So I’ll be taking along something new and inexpensive. A Windows laptop which is as much a surprise to me as it is to you, honest. It’s a good idea to reappraise your tools of the trade from time to time. I’ve been doing that of late and it strikes me that Windows is about to become a real contender in the creative writing stakes again. Over the next few days I’ll tell you why. But first, let’s look at Windows itself.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nA brief history of Windows…\n<ul>\n	<li><em>Pre-1995: Windows 3 and all that stuff. </em>Best forgotten.</li>\n	<li><em>Windows 95: </em>buggy, slow, over-complicated bad Mac OS rip-off.</li>\n	<li><em>Windows Me: </em>95 with a few bits taken out and some more stuffed in. Still buggy and slow.</li>\n	<li><em>Windows NT: </em>great if your hardware worked with it. Useless if not.</li>\n	<li><em>Windows XP: </em>NT for the rest of us, solid, useful and clever in the beginning, gradually atrophying with age, but still the best Windows of the early years.</li>\n	<li><em>Windows Vista: </em>what happens when someone gives computer programmers free Listerine but forgets to tell them not to swallow.</li>\n	<li><em>Windows 7…. </em>Ah….</li>\n</ul>\n[caption id=\"attachment_3928\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"The new revision system: more on the hardware tomorrow\"]<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/revise1.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-3928\" title=\"revise\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/revise1.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\"></a>[/caption]\n\nI got Windows 7 when I bought a cheap Asus netbook for some location work in Seville. The netbook ran for eight hours between charges. It never crashed. It was a pleasure to use. It cost £250 and paid its way in a week.\n\nWindows is Windows. It will never be as elegant as the Mac. Frankly I’m at an age where I no longer <em>care</em> about elegance though. I want something that works and is good value. And Windows 7 delivers on both those counts. Yes, there are complexities, but I basically use very modest software in very simple ways – word processing, web, mail, a bit of photography, and keeping a journal. This is dead easy on Windows 7.\n\nHere was a real killer too. One of the biggest things that drove me from Microsoft in the first place was the need for additional software to handle security and virus issues. Norton and McAfee drove me nuts. They slowed down the computer, they nagged, and they cost money. And while they may still come as trials on many new PCs you don’t need them any more.\n\nMicrosoft have their <a href=\"http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/\" target=\"_blank\">own free security essentials package</a>, which does a good job according to the computer press. And does it unobtrusively. Put that on your PC and you can forget about it.\n\nWindows 7 with security essentials is reasonably simple, secure, and seems to run on relatively modest PCs without squawking (I am not trying to edit movies here – if you are, seek better advice elsewhere). As far as I’m concerned it works and it does some things rather better than Macs (I found it a sight quicker setting up two PCs to talk to each other than a couple of Macs to be honest – they spotted each other straight away and understood what was wanted).\n\nIf you run a blog it also comes with the free blog editor Live Writer which is, quite simply, the best of its kind I’ve ever come across, even better than Mac’s Ecto, which you have to pay for. Call me happy there – which is why you’re reading this from Live Writer on Windows 7 64-bit running Boot Camp on my Mac mini so I can choose between the two.\n\nThe big problem: most of my working day during the book development phase is spent in Scrivener. Scrivener doesn’t run on Windows yet, though there’s a rumour there will be a version for it some day. So with my present working method there’s still no way I could abandon the Mac if I wanted too.\n\nIt is a sight easier to work with the two than it used to be though. Evernote is just as happy on Windows as it is on the Mac, since it’s web based. So is Remember the Milk, my reminder service. My backup app SugarSync works on both too so I can mirror the same folder on my Mac to directories on any Windows machine and keep them all in sync. All the pain of keeping files up to date across several computers and systems has suddenly gone.\n\nThe biggest obstacles to writing and revision on Windows remains Microsoft Office 2007, one of the ugliest and most baffling pieces of software known to mankind, with its hideous blue background and intrusively counter-intuitive ribbon.\n\nI knew I could never ever revise a book with Office 2007. It’s almost as bad as Office 2007 on the Mac. But then I saw there was a &nbsp;<a href=\"http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/en/default.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">beta for Word 2010 on the web</a>. Worth a try, I thought, in spite of <a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/revise1.jpg2010/04/09/the-next-microsoft-word-a-peek/\" target=\"_blank\">a product page that makes it sound utterly horrendous.</a> Never believe what Microsoft tell you in their marketing. Sometimes they undersell themselves rotten.\n\nA quick run of Word 2010 on my netbook made me think… hmmm…. this could work. But you can’t revise a 125k word book on a ten-inch netbook screen. I needed some hardware. Let me deal with that tomorrow then go on to tell you about Word 2010 on Wednesday.','Writing on Windows: It&#8217;s not a nightmare any more','','publish','open','closed','','writing-on-windows-its-not-a-nightmare-any-more','','','2011-01-28 08:04:18','2011-01-28 08:04:18','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/?p=3924',0,'post','',0),(3934,1,'2010-05-04 08:00:00','2010-05-04 07:00:00','By the time you read this I should be in Venice beginning to revise the new book. As <a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/lenovo_thinkpad_edge_13_open1.jpg?p=3924\">I wrote yesterday</a> I had planned to do this on an iPad. Why? For some things I need a small device. I’ve been using a MacBook Air since they first came out. It was a pricey luxury and it’s paid its way over the last couple of years.\n\nBut of late it’s just been slowing to an unusable crawl and the battery life is pathetic. Also it’s horribly hampered by having only one USB port and no camera card slot. If I were buying again today I’d give it a miss and go for the very attractive 13 inch MacBook Pro which has plenty of ports and a long battery life. It also costs more than £1,000. If I was going to use the thing every day then <em>maybe</em> this is justified. But I’m not and it isn’t.\n\nSo when I realised Word 2010 was a promising option I thought I’d look around and see what was on offer of a similar spec for Windows. My was that an eye-opening experience.\n\n<!--more-->\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/lenovo_thinkpad_edge_colors.png\"><img style=\"display:inline;margin-left:0;margin-right:0;border:0 none;\" title=\"lenovo_thinkpad_edge_colors\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/lenovo_thinkpad_edge_colors_thumb.png\" border=\"0\" alt=\"lenovo_thinkpad_edge_colors\" width=\"244\" height=\"171\" align=\"right\"></a>The machine I settled on was a Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 13.3 inch with an AMD processor, 320 gb drive and 4gb of RAM. It cost around £390 plus VAT. Less than half the price of the MacBook Pro. Here’s what it looks like…\n\nLenovo is the spin-off from IBM hence the ThinkPad name and that little red tip for moving the cursor around. It comes with a trackpad too, of course. It’s a sturdy little box, light and&nbsp; fast. The battery life could probably be squeezed to eight hours, a little less than the MacBook Pro’s. But to be honest I’m not going to work for five hours straight on a battery so it’s fine by me.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/lenovo_thinkpad_edge_13_open1.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-3936\" title=\"lenovo_thinkpad_edge_13_open\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/lenovo_thinkpad_edge_13_open1.jpg?w=219\" alt=\"\" width=\"219\" height=\"300\"></a>The selling point was this – click for a better view. There are a lot of crappily-designed Windows machines out there. Lenovo, being a big company, spend a lot of time trying to make sure theirs aren’t among them. You can read <a href=\"http://lenovoblogs.com/yamato/?p=666&amp;language=en\" target=\"_blank\">more about that here</a> – interesting that they looked at the MacBook Air’s keyboard as part of this exercise.\n\nThe Lenovo keyboard is absolutely amazing. Without hesitation the best computer keyboard I’ve used in my life for typing – fast, fluent, quiet, with just the right amount of key travel and feedback. I use Apple’s chiclet keyboard for the desktop. That’s good but if I could buy a desktop version of the Lenovo one I’d get it straight away. Sadly this machine isn’t sold from the High Street as far as I can see so you may find it difficult to try before you buy. But for me – and I use the keyboard a lot – it’s magic.\n\nSo, with my Asus netbook, that brings the number of Windows 7 machines around here up to two, and I still haven’t spent two thirds of the money I would have done on a single MacBook Pro 13 inch. Are they as cool as Apple? Probably not. Do I care? Not one bit.\n\nApple’s business model is that they and they alone build Mac computers. Microsoft’s is that it’s an open market; they leave most hardware to others. Both have their attractions and drawbacks. Macs should, in theory, be more reliable because only one maker is involved but your choice will inevitably be limited. Microsoft’s should deliver you a better range but you need to be picky about what you buy.\n\nI prefer the latter to be honest. With good manufacturers like Lenovo the hardware’s sound and reliable anyway. And I like being able to pick and choose the machines I want. I don’t want an iPad because it won’t do what I need of it. Apple won’t let me buy a Mac netbook because Jobs thinks they’re rubbish (spawning an army of people hacking things like Dell minis into clandestine Macs). There’s also a gaping hole in the Mac range between the tiny, closed Mac mini and the huge, expensive Mac Pro. Something ought to fill that but it won’t because Apple doesn’t want to produce it.\n\nIs Apple’s stance sustainable in the long run? I don’t know. They’re certainly selling lots of machines on the back of the iPhone and there\'s no doubt Macs are very, very good machines. But any way you look at them they are expensive and very limited in range. If I can do the same job on something cheaper and with a choice of hardware then that’s the route I’m going to go.\n\nAlso I do wonder how interested Steve Jobs is in the Mac these days. Newer pastures – iPhones and iPads – seem to grab him more somehow. He certainly brings in more profit that way. One of the attractive things about Macs is that they last for a long time. I don\'t see me having a need to replace my systems -- that Air apart -- for years.\n\nIn any case when it comes to Word the choice isn’t between something that can do the same job. Word 2010 on Windows is actually <em>better</em> than the Mac, better than Word 2007 and Apple’s own Pages too. In fact, once you clear the junk out of the way – and there’s a lot of that – it’s a real revelation in terms of creative writing.\n\nMore on that later.','Hardware: do you choose or does Steve Jobs?','','publish','open','closed','','hardware-do-you-choose-or-does-steve-jobs','','','2011-01-28 08:04:18','2011-01-28 08:04:18','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/2010/05/04/hardware-do-you-choose-or-does-steve-jobs/',0,'post','',0),(3955,1,'2010-05-05 07:00:00','2010-05-05 06:00:00','Writers want so little of a word processor it’s a miracle we’re disappointed so often. With my own work it’s all very simple: I need control, speed, reliability and the ability to get on with the job without unnecessary complexity or a long learning curve.\n\nWord’s been letting us down on most of those points for years. The present version for the Mac is simply appalling. Office 2007 for Windows introduced a hideous blue background and a new ribbon instead of dropdown menus. Why? What did we do to deserve this?\n\nWhen I looked at the product page for the forthcoming Word 2010 my heart sank. All it talked about was fancy fonts and collaboration features mainly. Who do Microsoft talk to about these things? How many users have been sitting out there wondering, ‘How can I possibly write the third quarter financial report without some 3D glowing versions of Helvetica Neue?’\n\nI dunno. But I downloaded the beta for Word 2010 anyway and set a pickaxe on it. And what do you know? Beneath all that bling there’s a very fine word processor for creative writers here. Probably the best there is, and one that certainly blows my present favourite Apple’s Pages straight out of the water. Let’s see why.\n\n<!--more-->\n\n<strong>Appearances</strong>\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/image.png\"><img style=\"display:inline;margin-left:0;margin-right:0;border-width:0;\" title=\"image\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/image_thumb.png\" border=\"0\" alt=\"image\" width=\"244\" height=\"82\" align=\"right\" /></a> I can’t work with ugly software. It hurts. At first glance Word 2010 is horrendous – all ribbon tabs and complexity. Stick with it. Here’s how to get rid of the crap. First choose a nice, dark, minimalistic look by going to File, Options, General and choosing the Black colour screen. Things look better already.\n\nWhile you’re in Options go to Customise Ribbon and untick the tabs you don’t want to see.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/image1.png\"><img style=\"display:inline;border-width:0;\" title=\"image\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/image_thumb1.png\" border=\"0\" alt=\"image\" width=\"215\" height=\"244\" /></a>\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/windows2.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-3986\" title=\"windows2\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/windows2.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"175\" /></a>After that click the little up arrow on the right of the ribbon. The blasted thing will then disappear and stay gone till you want it. Your editing space will now look like this. Go on. Click and see what it looks like. You know you want to.\n\nPretty good, eh? Bear in mind this is on a <em>big</em> screen at maximum size, hence all the grey space. It can be got rid of easily enough. Customising this thing is very, very easy indeed.\n\nIn short: it may look like an X-Factor finalist doing a Lady GaGa impersonation out of the box. But it\'s easy to tone things down to the stuff that really matters.\n\n<strong>Finding things</strong>\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/image2.png\"><img style=\"display:inline;margin-left:0;margin-right:0;border-width:0;\" title=\"image\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/image_thumb2.png\" border=\"0\" alt=\"image\" width=\"199\" height=\"576\" align=\"right\" /></a> One of my pet hates of most word processors is the way finding text hasn’t changed since 1985. You hit Find, up comes a dialog box, you type in the word you want and then the WP bounces from one instance to the next. Pages doesn’t work this way. Nor does Scrivener. They <em>can</em> if you want. But more usefully they will let you search for text and see it in all instances and in context.\n\nMicrosoft must have been watching because they’ve introduced something very similar in Word 2010. First call up the Navigation pane which you’ll find under the View tab. This is a very handy thing all round as we’ll see later. Choose the rightmost icon at the top, type in a word and you’ll see it in context throughout the whole document. Choose the middle icon and you see all the instances in thumbnails of the page. The left one gives you it in the outline.\n\nCaveat: Pages will do this for every word. Word 2010 squeals if there are ‘too many’ instances and won’t show you them. I’ve no idea what ‘too many’ is. But it’s no big deal and this is a beta, remember, so maybe it will be better in the release version (though on past form I won’t hold my breath).\n\nNow for more from that Navigation pane.\n\n<strong>Outlining gets better… at last</strong>\n\n<img style=\"display:inline;margin-left:0;margin-right:0;border-width:0;\" title=\"image\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/image3.png\" border=\"0\" alt=\"image\" width=\"182\" height=\"244\" align=\"right\" />You could always outline in Word. But it was ugly and unintuitive. No more. The basics are the same as ever – you set outline styles then type in headings and sub-headings in an outline view. But now you can see them in the navpane – and this, trust me, is something potentially huge.\n\nOnce you’ve started creating headings and sub-headings they are visible <em>and changeable</em> in the navpane. Here’s an example. If I want to move chapter two to chapter one I just drag it, much as I’d do in Scrivener.\n\nAnd because that heading is auto-numbered the numbering will update. Watch...\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/number1.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-3976\" title=\"number1\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/number1.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"172\" /></a>\n\nI just type a simple outline and put automatic numbers on it with a right click.  Then...\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/outline2.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-3977\" title=\"outline2\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/outline2.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"157\" /></a>\n\nI just drag the outlines around in the sidebar and make one of them a subsidiary heading with a different numbering style. Bang goes the chapter numbering nightmare (yes, I always get them wrong too when I do them manually).\n\n<img style=\"display:inline;margin-left:0;margin-right:0;border-width:0;\" title=\"image\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/image4.png\" border=\"0\" alt=\"image\" width=\"237\" height=\"244\" align=\"right\" />It gets better. Choose one of those items – it can be a heading, sub-heading, any outline element at all. Then pick Select Heading and Content here.\n\nAnother bugbear about standard word processing is that it doesn’t let you easily break a project into manageable bits. To get a scene word count in Word and most other word processors you have to select the text manually which is so painful most of us wouldn’t bother. The instant word count you get from granular writing tools like Scrivener is something that becomes second nature after a while – and it’s just not there usually.\n\nExcept it is now. Once you select Heading and Content, look at the status bar in the footer. You get this.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/image5.png\"><img style=\"display:inline;border-width:0;\" title=\"image\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/image_thumb3.png\" border=\"0\" alt=\"image\" width=\"126\" height=\"31\" /></a>\n\nThe first count is for the selected text. The next for the entire book. So you have scene, part, episode word counts, all from a simple sidebar command, for the first time in any general word processor I know. It\'s not Scrivener. But it is Word, and something I suspect I\'ll find very useful in the revise process.\n<strong>Two page proofing</strong>\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/image6.png\"><img style=\"display:inline;margin-left:0;margin-right:0;border-width:0;\" title=\"image\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/image_thumb4.png\" border=\"0\" alt=\"image\" width=\"160\" height=\"244\" align=\"right\" /></a>One final feature before I knock off. Word’s full screen reading view also bugged me because I thought it was just that – something for reading. It isn’t, and it’s even better now. Click the icon in the status bar to get there. Then choose the drop-down top right to see this.\n\nHere you can adjust what’s on screen and what you can do with it. You can get the full print view, with headings and footers, see comments  and do lots of other things. Hit Ctrl F for the find bar and the navpane will come up too. Here’s what the whole thing looks like on my 24-inch Apple LED Cinema Display.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/image7.png\"><img style=\"display:inline;border-width:0;\" title=\"image\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/image_thumb5.png\" border=\"0\" alt=\"image\" width=\"604\" height=\"379\" /></a>\n\nAnd yes – you can edit and find and do anything else you’d normally do in this view. On my ThinkPad Edge’s 13.3 inch screen? I get two pages that look very much like those of a paperback book.\n\nSo I hoped I’d come to Venice able to proof the new book on screen in a form that looks like the published page. And you know what? I did, though I’d never have guessed I got there by this route.\n\nDoes this make Word 2010 a Scrivener replacement? Of course not. Scrivener whacks Word into the long grass with the ability to tag, note, count and manage individual components of a narrative. The best you could do here is add a comment into the start of each element and hope to keep it up-to-date. But as a post-Scrivener revision tool this is second to none. And for authors out there who can’t ‘write in bits’, as one of them put it to me the other day, this may be just the thing.\n\nEven in a late beta it’s fast, powerful and, once you’ve cleared away the ribbon junk, very easy and intuitive to use. Also the proofing tools – spell-checker and thesaurus – are infinitely better than the built-in ones used on the Mac.\n\nI’m hooked. The only question is this: how similar Word 2011 for Mac will be when it comes out at the end of the year? Are Mac users going to be sold short yet again? Microsoft have already said Mac Word will have the ribbon. I thought this was appalling news, but if the implementation is as good as it is here we should be in for a happy surprise. The only thing keeping me tied to the Mac right now is Scrivener. Just as well my Mac mini makes such a useful Windows machine too.\n\nThat\'s enough being kind to Microsoft for this week. My current thoughts on Windows end here.','Word 2010 for Windows: wonders well hidden','','publish','open','closed','','word-2010-for-windows-wonds-well-hidden','','','2011-01-28 08:04:18','2011-01-28 08:04:18','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/2010/05/05/word-2010-for-windows-a-writing-wonder-well-hidden/',0,'post','',0),(3990,1,'2010-05-06 05:55:00','2010-05-06 04:55:00','One of the things I’m doing on this Venice trip is checking detail. This is, before you ask, ridiculous. It’s the kind of detail no one’s going to spot. So why do I do it? Because detail is important to me and it’s my name on the book. I have the <em>right</em> to obsess like this. OK?\n\nThis is the kind of ridiculous detail I’m talking about. Close to the climax of the book a character gets off a boat near the San Basilio vaporetto stop on the Giudecca canal and thinks about the basilica of Redentore across the channel, a place that has some special significance to her and the story.\n\nIn the draft, written in the UK, she can see Redentore from the place where she gets off. I wrote that knowing full well that just maybe that’s not possible. So last night I set out to check.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nGuess what? I was right. You can’t quite see <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Il_Redentore\" target=\"_blank\">Redentore</a> from there. It’s just round the corner of the canal, out of sight. So clearly I had to rewrite the section. But it got better than that. Standing there made me think about the scene itself again and I realised I needed to explain just a little more – one sentence, that’s all – about what significance that thought had for the character. Now she isn’t seeing Redentore but she’s aware it’s there, just out of reach. That gives me a little more to play with than if she <em>could</em> see it. At least I hope it does.\n\nThat’s just an example of the kind of small thing I try to put into the book at this stage. They strike me at the oddest of times, and very rarely while I’m sitting at the keyboard. I’ve learnt now that inspiration strikes when you least expect it. Some means of recording it is essential. A notebook by the bed if you’re the sort who wakes up in the eureka moment in the night.\n\nUsually for me it happens during the waking hours – when I’m out somewhere, sitting on a bench, mooching, doing something else. The godsend I have now is the mobile phone. I use <a href=\"http://www.rememberthemilk.com\" target=\"_blank\">Remember the Milk</a> on it and just make a quick note. By the time I get back to the apartment that’s waiting on the computer. I know what to do.\n\nJust a few more tonight and then I think this book will be done.','You never know when inspiration hits','','publish','open','closed','','you-never-know-when-inspiration-hits','','','2011-01-28 08:04:18','2011-01-28 08:04:18','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/2010/05/06/you-never-know-when-inspiration-hits/',0,'post','',0),(3993,1,'2010-05-06 14:14:28','2010-05-06 13:14:28','Sometimes the internet is just plain baffling. Things happen there that clearly come from someone trying to make a buck in some pathetically odd way. Being a curious type I can’t help but wonder: why? And who are these people?\n\nThe comment spam you get on any Wordpress blog is a good example. These are comments that are trying to sneak past your Akismet spam filter, make some observation that rarely has any relevance to your post, and then throw in a link to buy something.\n\nWhy do people write these things? Does it ever really work? Here – with the links taken out – are some current examples from the spam queue here.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nA chap called Cheap Fat Loss supplements writes…\n<blockquote>Hey there guys, Im looking for some good Fat loss supplements, the one im currently usingBSN Thermonex are there any better ones, these guys sell loads but I just aint sure I see alot of the articles on the web these days are about acai berrys but I dont know if they are like a scam product.</blockquote>\nNot sure what the relevance is to someone getting banned from MySpace.\n\n‘Farmville Mastery Guide’ has this to say about an article on Windows.\n<blockquote>This is getting a bit more subjective, but I much prefer the Zune Marketplace. The interface is colorful, has more flair, and some cool features like ‘Mixview’ that let you quickly see related albums, songs, or other users related to what you’re listening to. Clicking on one of those will center on that item, and another set of “neighbors” will come into view, allowing you to navigate around exploring by similar artists, songs, or users. Speaking of users, the Zune “Social” is also great fun, letting you find others with shared tastes and becoming friends with them. You then can listen to a playlist created based on an amalgamation of what all your friends are listening to, which is also enjoyable. Those concerned with privacy will be relieved to know you can prevent the public from seeing your personal listening habits if you so choose.</blockquote>\nAnd finally, my current favourite because it’s short, this little gem from ‘free stuff uk’ who, apropos of an article on politics says…\n<blockquote>not talking.</blockquote>\nWho are all these people? Why do they do it? Wouldn’t it just be easier to go out and get a job?','The art of Wordpress comment spam','','publish','open','closed','','the-art-of-wordpress-comment-spam','','','2011-01-28 08:04:18','2011-01-28 08:04:18','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/2010/05/06/the-art-of-wordpress-comment-spam/',0,'post','',0),(3999,1,'2010-05-07 05:48:00','2010-05-07 04:48:00','It’s tempting to think that Italian food is universal. Pizza, pasta everywhere. This is all a great myth. In truth there’s no such thing as Italian food. Just lots of very regional dishes many of which never find their way out into the outside world.\n\nHere’s one speciality I doubt you’ll ever heard of. It’s nothing more than an onion, though if you come from the Calabrian town of <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropea\" target=\"_blank\">Tropea</a> an onion is no merevegetable.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nTropea is a beautiful seaside town on the western coast of Calabria, midway between Lamezia Terme and Reggio. Here’s a picture I took a while back to give you an idea. <a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/2595129361_1100184a3e_b.jpg\"><img style=\"display:inline;border-width:0;\" title=\"2595129361_1100184a3e_b\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/2595129361_1100184a3e_b_thumb.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"2595129361_1100184a3e_b\" width=\"604\" height=\"454\" /></a>\n\nPretty place, eh?\n\nBut what Tropea is most famous for in Italy is an onion. A red onion usually eaten raw. Buy red onions in Italy and if they say Tropea on them they cost more and, usually, taste better.\n\nThey’re sweet and special and even appeal to people who don’t like onions at all. If you go to Tropea you’ll see everywhere on menus ‘Insalata Tropeana’. This is little more than local tomatoes and onions in good olive oil and vinegar. When good it’s astonishing. Honest.\n\nLast year I brought back some onion seeds from Tropea and tried to grow them back in the UK. Same plant. Same seeds. Didn’t work at all.\n\nThe last time we were in Calabria, some way south, we caught a train to Tropea. Should have been an hour or so each way. The trains on the way back suddenly stopped working so we had to faff around in town and then spend 100 euros on a cab.\n\nWhile there I reminded myself of the Tropea onion fetish. You can buy red onion jam, sauce,  even red onion ice cream. They love the things. And yes, they are just incredible.\n\nSo if you find yourself in Italy and get offered Tropea onions my advice is: take them. I’m not a huge raw onion fan myself. But these really are something special.','The red onions of Tropea','','publish','open','closed','','the-red-onions-of-tropea','','','2011-01-28 08:04:18','2011-01-28 08:04:18','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/2010/05/07/the-red-onions-of-tropea/',0,'post','',0),(4003,1,'2010-05-13 08:26:32','2010-05-13 07:26:32','One book gone, pretty soon I need to start thinking about another. Authors constantly get asked: where do books come from?\n\nThere’s no easy answer. Just a few fragments of clues. I’ll try to assemble some here over the next few days. First though, a general point about books, and I suspect anything else creative too. It’s to do with aspiration. What ambitions do you have for a project? What, in broad, general terms, are you trying to achieve?\n\n<!--more-->\n\nI imagine most new writers starting out will have some very simple ones.\n<ul>\n	<li>To finish the blasted thing</li>\n	<li>To sell it</li>\n	<li>To see it published successfully</li>\n</ul>\nAll well and good. But really these aren’t aspirations at all. They’re just fundamental objectives in most writing projects any author would like to see come to fruition. What I’m talking about is something much narrower and more specific. With each new book I always set out some very defined ambitions for the project, goals I want to reach when it’s done.\n\nFor example, let’s take the current book, <em>The Blue Demon. </em>Like most of my work it’s set in Rome and features the same set of characters. Like most books too it’s unlike its predecessors in some significant ways. As a writer I don’t want to keep walking the same path. I like to move around a little, surprise people. So you could say that one permanent aspiration for every new book is…\n<ul>\n	<li>Be different. Stretch yourself.</li>\n</ul>\nBut I need something more specific too. In the case of <em>The Blue Demon</em> the objectives included…\n<ul>\n	<li>Paint a picture of the world of modern Italian politics.</li>\n	<li>Link that world with the ancient world of Roman politics, through a little of the story of the Etruscans, and some references to the work of Robert Graves in his Claudius books.</li>\n	<li>To reveal, in a very unexpected way, a little more of what has come to shape the character of Nic Costa.</li>\n	<li>To produce an ensemble story, one in which my cast of characters take pretty much equal parts.</li>\n</ul>\nNext year’s book is called <em>The Fallen Angel</em>. Again, that’s very different. Here the aspirations included..\n<ul>\n	<li>Make this a story which is very much Costa’s alone, with him as the central lead character</li>\n	<li>Explore the tragic story of a young Roman girl called Beatrice Cenci who was executed in the last sixteenth century for the murder of her abusive father. And ask, in particular, how we would have treated the Cenci case today.</li>\n	<li>Focus on a very small geographical area of Rome, as I did in <em>The Garden of Evil. </em>In this case it’s the ghetto.</li>\n</ul>\nI write down these aspirations in my book diary before a word of the actual story is written. Aspirations like these help me focus on the core of the book to come. I try to keep them simple and specific.\nThere are other, thematic threads that crop up during the writing of the book, more subtle and less general ones. The funny thing is that the latter often shift and disappear entirely during the writing of the book. The general aspirations rarely change. They are, for me, the building blocks of the narrative to come, and absolutely essential.','How much aspiration do you need?','','publish','open','closed','','how-much-aspiration-do-you-need','','','2011-01-28 08:04:18','2011-01-28 08:04:18','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/2010/05/13/how-much-aspiration-do-you-need/',0,'post','',0),(4010,1,'2010-05-14 10:13:00','2010-05-14 09:13:00','<p>Here’s another thought on how you might better evaluate a book project <em>before</em> you embark upon it and, potentially, waste vast amounts of time that could have been better spent on something worthwhile.</p>  <p>Who are you really writing this book for? Yourself? Or the person you think may want to buy it?</p> <!--more-->  <p>Commercial fiction – which is the only kind of fiction I know – works on a spirit of compromise. As a writer I try to produce something original and intelligent but I’m always aware it has to have the potential to be popular too. That’s not <em>just</em> because I earn my living this way. I like being read. I don’t want to write niche fiction, aimed at a tiny sliver of the public. Other people do, and that’s their prerogative – good luck to them. But I’m aiming at the more general audience of ‘people who like interesting books’. </p>  <p>So I’m always aware that there are areas I can’t go. I need to try to have a strong narrative to keep the reader engaged. I can’t go off into deeply esoteric corners and start quoting passages in Greek. Like most popular authors I’m an entertainer at heart. I need to keep the audience engaged.</p>  <p>There is, though, one huge pothole in this particular road. Where do you draw the line between chasing an audience and allowing them – or rather your expectations of them -- to dictate what you write? </p>  <p><em>The Cemetery of Secrets</em> is one of my most original pieces of work, still the favourite for some people. <a href=\"http://davidhewson.com/2010/03/03/not-so-great-expectations/\" target=\"_blank\">As I discussed</a> here, it came about in unusual circumstances – effectively when I was out of contract, writing for no one but myself. </p>  <p>If you’re an unpublished author you probably think that’s the worst place in the world. In some ways it may be. But in others… Take it from me, when you sign multiple book contracts, as I’ve done in the past, your focus narrows. You try to deliver what you think your publisher and readers want. Maybe you do that. Maybe you fail. Either way you’re not that lone hunter out on the plains, chasing down some unseen, unrecognised prey. You’re the guy who’s been paid a retainer and told, ‘Go fetch me one like the last one.’</p>  <p>This may work. But it is decidedly different. </p>  <p>So if you’re sitting there, an unpublished author or one who’s out of contract, thinking about a book-to-come here’s something to consider. Are you going to get the best book by chasing the market? Or by finding what it is that you <em>really</em> want to write?</p>  <p>I think you know what my answer would be. Some readers, God love them, always think they know what you should be writing. Occasionally they’ll squawk when you do something different. <em>Do not listen to them. </em></p>  <p>The way it runs is this. </p>  <p>When you write your first book they’ll say, ‘Love it – but can you do it again?’ </p>  <p>When you write your second they’ll say, ‘You can! Well done. But the third’s always difficult…’</p>  <p>When you write your third they’ll say, ‘Right. You are… er, consistent.’</p>  <p>And when you write your fourth they’ll mutter under their breath, ‘When is this guy going to get a life and do something <em>new?’</em></p>  <p>I’m not sure about the old saw that a writer should write for himself. That’s too narrow. We need a defined horizon. But it has to be <em>our </em>horizon, not someone else’s. If yours is being fixed by someone else’s expectations you could be heading for stormy waters.</p>','Whose book is it anyway?','','publish','open','closed','','whose-book-is-it-anyway','','','2011-01-27 22:50:13','2011-01-27 22:50:13','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/2010/05/14/whose-book-is-it-anyway/',0,'post','',0),(4013,1,'2010-05-17 09:57:02','2010-05-17 08:57:02','I’m at that awkward stage where I’m thinking about what to write next. Over the past fifteen years I’ve assembled something like a hundred and fifty possible scenarios for stories. I still have them all even though some of the older ones really do make me blush.\n\nHere, for example, is one from 1998 when an American publisher was courting me with the idea I could be ‘a Michael Crichton who could write.’\n<blockquote>Apocalypse 16\n\nA renegade Gulf War veteran is threatening to release Sarin poison gas on a pre-Christmas New York in the belief that he’s the ‘seventh angel’, sent to fulfil a biblical prophecy that triggers the end of the world. Frank Chesterton, a misfit thrown out of the UN chemical weapons inspectorate, starts to convince city cop Sandy Duke the threat exists. But they get caught up in an accident at one of the Angel’s makeshift gas factories which leads the police to believe that Chesterton is the one behind the terrorist threat. Duke, against her better instincts, throws her lot in with him, convinced there isn’t time to catch the real villain before he commits a major attack on the city. Chesterton and Duke are forced to combine their very different talents to apprehend the Angel through a combination of intelligence and direct action that leads to a final showdown as the city sits on the edge of disaster.</blockquote>\nSee? I’m not proud. I’ll even show you my old embarrassments. But, rubbish ideas apart, keeping thoughts is important. The big question is: how the hell do you manage them over the years?\n\n<!--more-->\n\nThe old answer was: folders. You create one called Ideas and throw everything in there. Been there, done that. The trouble is folders are like old metal filing cabinets. When I became a reporter on <em>The Times</em> they gave me one of them. I felt I’d finally made it. Every time I came across a piece of paper I thought I ought to keep I threw it in the filing cabinet.\n\nOne day the news editor came over and said, ‘You know that story you wrote three weeks ago? Someone’s threatening to sue. We need to see the source material.’\n\nNews editor leans down and looks me in the eye then says, ‘You <em>do</em> have it, don’t you?’\n\nI patted the filing cabinet, smiled and replied, ‘Course I do.’\n\n‘Good. Well find it.’\n\nGulp. <em>Find it? </em>I thought filing cabinets were about storing things. Not <em>finding </em>them.\n\nSame on a computer. Yes, we now have fancy searching things that can track down a word in a document. But that’s just a word. What I want is something fuzzier, something that doesn’t mind where the thing you’re hunting lives and won’t go into hiding if you file it into the wrong folder.\n\nWhat I need is a tag.\n\nIt’s very easy to tag files in Vista and Windows 7. You can <a href=\"http://lifehacker.com/232891/tag-files-and-save-searches-in-windows-vista\" target=\"_blank\">find the instructions here</a>. In Word you just fill in the tags you want in the properties box (remembering to separate them with a semi colon, not a comma) when you save the file. It looks like this.\n\n<img style=\"display:inline;border-width:0;\" title=\"tags\" alt=\"tags\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/tags.jpg\" border=\"0\" height=\"387\" width=\"604\">&nbsp;\n\nI have now tagged the outline above ‘Ideas; Rubbish’ and it will happily appear every time I type either word into the Windows search box <em>even if I move it to a different location on my computer</em>. See the difference between this and having a folder marked Ideas? With a tag it doesn’t matter where the file sits. You can have umpteen different project folders and tags will be found across them. Tagging is also available on the Mac, though in a slightly more cumbersome fashion. The easiest way to deal with it is through a free add-on app <a href=\"http://www.ironicsoftware.com/tagit/index.html\" target=\"_blank\">Tagit</a>. Mac users who want to tag as you save need to fork out $34.95 for <a href=\"http://www.stclairsoft.com/DefaultFolderX/\" target=\"_blank\">Default Folder X.</a>\n\nThis is based on using your computer as your filing cabinet which may be a bit big and cumbersome for many (and you need to remember to tag of course). There’s a strong argument for using tagging in a specific app that handles nothing but ideas.\n\nOn the Mac you could do this in MacJournal or even Scrivener, both of which handle tags. The same goes for OneNote and WinJournal on Windows. And Evernote, which runs on pretty much everything, uses tags too, of course. With these you tag a single entry, be it text or image, web page or video.\n\nYou need to work out which filing system works best for you. The pros and cons seem to me to be…\n\n<strong>Leave it to the computer’s filing system</strong>\n\nIn favour…\n<ul>\n	<li>Works with all sorts of files. You can tag a Word doc as a possibility just as easily as you can a photo</li>\n	<li>Simple to use (particularly on Windows)</li>\n	<li>Easily portable – the tag sticks with the file, and can be read when you transfer it to your laptop</li>\n</ul>\nAgainst\n<ul>\n	<li>It’s easy to forget to tag when you save a file – more obvious when you’re using an information app, not just the ordinary computer filing system.</li>\n	<li>Can’t transfer across operating systems – Macs can’t read Windows tags and vice versa (though I suspect there may be some coming interoperability for Office files). But if you really want to do this across different kinds of computers Evernote, clunky as it is, probably represents your best bet.</li>\n	<li>Messy for tagging web pages. You either have to print or save them first somehow.</li>\n</ul>\n<strong>Use a specific info app such as MacJournal or OneNote.</strong>\n\nIn favour…\n<ul>\n	<li>Tagging <em>ought</em> to be second nature when using these things because you’re in the business of storing info already.</li>\n	<li>You see the results more clearly since they’re confined to the app, not a bunch of different files in Explorer or the Finder.</li>\n	<li>You can just copy and paste web pages straight into an entry</li>\n</ul>\nAgainst\n<ul>\n	<li>You need to decide in advance where you’re going to keep your basic ideas store – a journal or document dedicated to possibilities for example.</li>\n	<li>Info apps don’t search everything. They’re very specific, discrete filing cabinets and can only see what’s inside them.</li>\n	<li>Unless you’re careful it’s easy to lose stuff.</li>\n</ul>\nIn short… if you’re as disorganised as I am it’s just a good idea to tag everything that might of future use as you save it – idea, possibility, whatever suits you. If you’re half organised it may be worth setting up a specific ideas store in MacJournal, Evernote or OneNote or something and stuffing everything in there.\n\nThe main battle over possibility ideas is, in my book, the fight not to lose them. I need, from time to time, to be able to go back to my computer and just retrieve a bunch of notions very easily and quickly.\n\nIf you can’t do that you will, one day, kick yourself. And you won’t even be able to remember why.','Ways to save your ideas','','publish','open','closed','','ways-to-save-your-ideas','','','2011-01-27 22:49:37','2011-01-27 22:49:37','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/2010/05/17/ways-to-save-your-ideas/',0,'post','',0),(4018,1,'2010-05-18 07:58:00','2010-05-18 06:58:00','<p>At the moment I’m working on my paper for the forthcoming <a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/pietro_longhi_009_thumb.jpg2010/03/17/st-hildas-crime-and-mystery-conference-oxford/\" target=\"_blank\">St Hilda’s Crime and Mystery Conference</a>. It will be on the subject of the masks of Venice. One thing I will be mentioning is the wonderful eighteenth century artist Pietro Longhi, who recorded many half-satirical scenes in Venetian drawing rooms and public places.</p>  <p>You only need to see Longhi’s work to understand that the wearing of masks in Venice was, at the time, as common as the wearing of hats. Here’s Casanova talking about his plans for an evening up to no good…</p>  <blockquote>   <p>But I was determined upon revenge, and I went on dressing myself and revolving in my mind the darkest plots. It seemed to me that I was entitled to the most cruel revenge, without having anything to dread from the terrors of the law. The theatres being open at that time I put on a mask to go out.</p> </blockquote> <!--more-->  <p>Most of Longhi’s paintings in Venice are in the Grand Canal mansion of Ca’ Rezzonico, which was just round the corner from where I stayed a few weeks ago. A great place, if a little disorganised at times. Somehow I never managed to find the painting I was looking for while I was there, though perhaps it was on tour. </p>  <p><a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/pietro_longhi_009.jpg\"><img style=\"border-bottom:0;border-left:0;display:inline;margin-left:0;border-top:0;margin-right:0;border-right:0;\" title=\"Pietro_Longhi_009\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Pietro_Longhi_009\" align=\"right\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/pietro_longhi_009_thumb.jpg\" width=\"195\" height=\"244\" /></a> It was this one. A remarkable painting – who on earth would wear a mask to go and see a rhinoceros. And there’s an amazing story behind it too.</p>  <p>Clara was a famous creature for twenty years or so. Orphaned in India, she was toured in Europe as an extraordinary specimen – probably only the fifth rhinoceros ever to reach us at the time. She met Frederick II of Prussia, Francis I and Empress Maria-Theresa of Austria, and Louis XV in Versailles. So taken were the French with Clara that for a while Parisian ladies adopted a style of wig known as ‘à la rhinocéros’. The Venetians merely watched from behind their disguises. </p>  <p>Perhaps most bizarrely of all she died while on show at the Horse and Groom pub, Lambeth (now known, I suspect, simply as <a href=\"http://www.horsebar.co.uk/index.php\" target=\"_blank\">the Horse bar</a>). Tickets cost between six pence and a shilling at the time.</p>  <p>Whatever did <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_the_rhinoceros\" target=\"_blank\">we do before Wikipedia?</a></p>','Serendipity and the story of Clara the rhinoceros','','publish','open','closed','','serendipity-and-the-story-of-clara-the-rhinoceros','','','2011-01-27 22:50:13','2011-01-27 22:50:13','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/2010/05/18/serendipity-and-the-story-of-clara-the-rhinoceros/',0,'post','',0),(4030,1,'2010-05-19 08:29:13','2010-05-19 07:29:13','Sane people don’t come into this business. They don’t want self-created strangers wandering around their head twenty four hours a day. Writing is, it seems to me, ultimately obsessional. The point at which a book becomes optional – maybe I’ll finish it, maybe not – is often the point at which at dies.\n\nObsessional people need to arrange their lives correctly. I know writers who can’t work without having their desks settled in the ‘right’ order, with the ‘right’ pens in the ‘right’ places, even though they rarely if ever get used. I’m only mildly obsessional in this respect. Here are a few of my fixed requirements for a working day at home.<!--more-->\n\nFirst, the view. When I look outside the window by my desk I see this. <a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/rimg0030.jpg\"><img style=\"display:inline;border:0;\" title=\"RIMG0030\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/rimg0030_thumb.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"RIMG0030\" width=\"604\" height=\"454\"></a>\n\nIt’s sunny today. That long cold winter seems finally to have come to an end. I’m pleased about this but make no mistake. The writing goes a lot better when it’s grey and raining out there.\n\nI find it difficult writing unless I’m near a window. I like looking out and reminding myself there’s a world out there, one I’m trying to record I guess. Don’t ask me to analyse it further than this. I can’t.\n\nI’m obsessional about the things I touch when I’m writing. Principally the keyboard and mouse. Here’s the current set.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/rimg0031.jpg\"><img style=\"display:inline;border:0;\" title=\"RIMG0031\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/rimg0031_thumb.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"RIMG0031\" width=\"604\" height=\"454\"></a>\n\nThat is a very battered Apple ‘chiclet’ keyboard. It deserves to look well worn. I’ve typed something like 300,000 words on that thing. Something about the keys makes them easy to use. It’s quiet too. I can’t handle clacky keyboards.\n\nThe mouse is a wireless Logitech Performance. It’s big which suits my hands and – this is a killer point – the wheel on the top scrolls when you spin it. The spin carries on so there appears to be a physical relationship between the window on the screen and the thing in my hand.\n\nI like that. Don’t know why.\n\nI am using this Apple keyboard on Windows at the moment though (am taking a break from the Mac). It works, but a little oddly at times. So I’m also looking at this new Microsoft Arc keyboard which has very much the same idea.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/rimg0032.jpg\"><img style=\"display:inline;border:0;\" title=\"RIMG0032\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/rimg0032_thumb.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"RIMG0032\" width=\"604\" height=\"454\"></a>\n\nNot had enough time to reach an opinion yet.\n\nScreens. Big, and one only. I currently use Apple’s ridiculously overpriced 24 inch LED Cinema Display. Lovely piece of kit. Would never have bought it if I understood Apple had given it a connector that meant you couldn’t hook up a PC or even an older Mac <s>without paying £100 for a signal converter </s>&nbsp;even if you pay £100 for a signal converter they sell from the Apple store which is supposed to work but doesn\'t. There has to be something better around but this is what I have. For now anyway. Tomorrow I may dump Apple from my life altogether.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/rimg0036.jpg\"><img style=\"display:inline;border:0;\" title=\"RIMG0036\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/rimg0036_thumb.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"RIMG0036\" width=\"604\" height=\"454\"></a>\n\nI cannot revise a printed manuscript with anything but a red Biro.\n\nAlso I cannot go through a satisfactory day without taking this thing for a stroll and having a – usually very one-sided – conversation about the work in progress.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/dscn0112.jpg\"><img style=\"display:inline;border:0;\" title=\"DSCN0112\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/dscn0112_thumb.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"DSCN0112\" width=\"604\" height=\"454\"></a>\n\nThose are all the small obsessions I can think of for the moment. They make a kind of sense to me anyway.','The zen of writing: small things matter','','publish','open','closed','','the-zen-of-writing-small-things-matter','','','2011-01-27 22:50:13','2011-01-27 22:50:13','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/2010/05/19/the-zen-of-writing-small-things-matter/',0,'post','',0),(4039,1,'2010-05-24 09:21:45','2010-05-24 09:21:45','Every time I finish a book I try to sit back, look at the working process of the months before and ask myself: how did that go? Not in terms of the book itself but in how I managed the process. How much time did I waste in over-researching the thing? What can I try to do better next time round?\n\nOn this occasion the conclusion has been pretty earth-shattering, and one I could never have predicted. As I related earlier I found myself revising this book in Venice not with my customary Mac but with a ThinkPad and the beta version of Word 2010. For Windows. Yes, the dread Windows, the computer OS creative people are supposed to shun.\n\nAfter much thought my conclusion is this: Apple can take a hike. Mainly – though not entirely – through Word 2010, I’m going to see what it’s like to be a Windows-based writer for a while. Maybe, who knows, forever.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nWhy am I doing this? Principally because Word 2010 <a href=\"http://davidhewson.com/2010/05/05/word-2010-for-windows-wonds-well-hidden/\">feels the best word processor for my working habits I’ve yet encountered</a> – after some tweaking. But it also coincides, if I’m frank, with some growing misgivings I’ve had about the Apple route for some time.\n\nI bought my first Mac in 1984. Macs are great. Apple, on the other hand, seem to drift ever further towards egotistical control freakery with each passing year. The clincher that finally drove me into the arms of Windows was the discovery that I’d been rooked over the purchase of my very expensive 24-inch Apple LED Cinema display. It’s just a computer monitor, right? A very nice one.\n\nWell no actually it isn’t. It’s a computer monitor that’s got only one connection port, a port designed to work only with the latest Macs (not even ones from a couple of years ago). Can you just buy a cheap adapter to hook up a Windows machine or a DVI-based Mac?\n\nNo. After hours of searching I found the Apple store sell a £100 -- <em>£100! – </em>converter to do the job, a little box with one more power lead to stow somewhere.\n\nI bought it immediately. We Mac users do that, don’t we? It didn’t work. The boot screen came up for Windows then the screen went blank. I called Apple for a return.\n\n‘Do you want to speak to a tech support guy?’ the lady asked.\n\nI thought for a moment and said, ‘No thanks.’\n\nIt’s a computer monitor. Not a religious artefact. I should be able to plug it into anything I want. Same goes for Apple’s very nice chiclet keyboard. Yes, that works on Windows too, but not the special keys. Why? Because Apple don’t make the drivers generally available. To get them you need to copy them from Boot Camp on your OS X DVD somehow. Without that effort even the volume controls don’t even work.\n\nI make the point again: it’s a bog standard computer peripheral. Why should I have to jump through these hoops? The whole point about Apple used to be about how easy things used to be. Now it’s about control: our way is the only way. If you don’t like it buy something else.\n\nSo I have. When I thought about it I realised there was only one piece of software I’d miss on Windows – Scrivener. Maybe that will prove a killer. Certainly its ‘equivalents’ on Windows, PageFour and Liquid Story Binder, don’t grab me at all. Until there’s a Scrivener for Windows, I’m going to try mapping out the next book in Word 2010 from the start. And instead of MacJournal for my book diary I’m going to use OneNote.\n\nThis may be madness. I’ll know in a few months I guess if I have to go crawling back to the Mac, doffing my cap to Mr Jobs by way of apology. But hell, it’s worth a try. I haven’t used Windows seriously for years and I have to say right now it feels very good indeed.\n\nSo this week I’ll try to offer a few insights for anyone else out there who might be thinking of abandoning the increasingly closed world of the Mac for the open and occasionally anarchic one of Windows, and explaining the working system I’m gradually developing using Office 2010. And if you’re vaguely interested in all this yourself remember – you can <a href=\"http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/en/default.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">download the beta for free here</a>. It works very well indeed, and will continue to do so until it expires in October.\n\nHere’s where my Mac is living right now. I wonder if it’ll stay there. Tomorrow, what’s replaced it.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/rimg0040.jpg\"><img style=\"display:inline;border:0;\" title=\"RIMG0040\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/rimg0040_thumb.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"RIMG0040\" width=\"604\" height=\"454\" /></a>','Bye bye Apple… for now anyway','','publish','open','closed','','bye-bye-apple-for-now-anyway','','','2011-01-27 22:50:13','2011-01-27 22:50:13','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/2010/05/24/bye-bye-apple-for-now-anyway/',0,'post','',0),(4047,1,'2010-05-25 07:58:00','2010-05-25 06:58:00','Some people do lots of things with computers. I don’t. All I require of a computer is that it lets me…\n<ul>\n	<li>Write</li>\n	<li>Plan, make notes and keep research</li>\n	<li>Store research photos securely in a way I can go back to</li>\n	<li>Do web and mail (not that there’s a computer out there that <em>can’t</em> do that)</li>\n	<li>Not let me down by losing stuff</li>\n</ul>\nI’m typing this on Windows because, right now, it seems to me it does a better job of most of those than a Mac. Let me cover the last one of that list first though. Backup and syncing files across machines is a boring but important task if you earn a living from your work the way I do.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nOn the Mac I relied on a battery of tools. I subscribed to MobileMe, which was .Mac when I first joined it. This cost £70 or so a year. It synced my address books and calendars and shared them across my desktop and laptop. It could run websites and store photos too, not that I needed that. It also offered email, which I tried just the once. It was so unreliable and incapable of dealing with spam I’d never trust it for a moment.\n\nAnd MobileMe did backup. Once a night my data got stored on their servers. Did it work? I only ever tried to recover something once and all I got back was an error message. When I tried to solve this problem on the Apple forums – Apple tech support wasn’t much interested – some fanboi came on and said something to the effect, ‘Dude… didn’t you read the terms and conditions? Apple never said the backup was commercial quality, something you could rely on.’\n\nGreat, eh? So I forked out £250 or so for a 1terabyte Time Capsule for local backup. This works with the OS X backup mechanism Time Machine and stores your stuff continuously as you work. It’s all very flashy and pretty when you want to ‘go back in time’ and find something. Time Capsule works over the network and includes a wireless router, which I don’t need, and I suspect most people don’t either, since we have one with our broadband connection. It works mostly but it’s slow and prone to throw up connection errors from time to time. Naturally it doesn’t work terribly well with Windows (this is Apple, isn’t it?)\n\nFinally, I kept a free <a href=\"http://www.dropbox.com\" target=\"_blank\">Dropbox</a> account and left important files in there. Dropbox stores them on its own servers and syncs them to other machines. It works fine but if you want more than 2 gb you have to pay a minimum of $9.99 a month which seemed a bit much on top of £70 a year to Mobileme.\n\nI messed around with several variations of this setup with Windows. But Time Capsule was slow as ever so I did a little research and came up with a Western Digital My Book Essential. This is a one terabyte drive that plugs straight into a USB socket. It comes with its own very simple backup software which basically sets itself up. While a Time Capsule now costs £240 for one terabyte the My Book came in at £69, installed in a flash, and backed up the whole computer very quickly indeed from scratch (Time Capsule commonly takes overnight first time round because of the network connection -- it\'s faster if you plug it in rather than use wireless then go back to wireless, sigh...)\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/mybook1.jpg\"><img style=\"display:inline;margin-left:0;margin-right:0;border:0 none;\" title=\"mybook1\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/mybook1_thumb.jpg\" alt=\"mybook1\" align=\"right\" border=\"0\" height=\"244\" width=\"150\"></a> Time Machine’s interface remains complicated to me. Do you really need a bunch of flying windows filling the whole screen simply to recover a single file? The My Book backup software looks like this. It doesn’t backup the entire computer system (though you could do that manually if you wanted). Just the data and important bits, which is all I need.\n\nOnce you’ve installed it you can forget about it. The thing doesn’t nag you. It just sits there doing its job. If you have it attached to a laptop you can simply unhook the drive, go away for a while, then plug it back in and it backs up anything new.\n\nThis is the easiest backup system I’ve ever seen, much simpler than Time Machine. When you want to retrieve things the window looks like this.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/retrieve.jpg\"><img style=\"display:inline;border:0 none;\" title=\"retrieve\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/retrieve_thumb.jpg\" alt=\"retrieve\" border=\"0\" height=\"435\" width=\"604\"></a>\n\nAnd for good measure it will keep versions of files too, so you can go back in time, a lot more easily than you can with Time Machine it seems to me. I keep fifteen versions. Dead simple.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/history.jpg\"><img style=\"display:inline;border:0 none;\" title=\"history\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/history_thumb.jpg\" alt=\"history\" border=\"0\" height=\"329\" width=\"508\"></a>\n\nI used to think you needed to keep copies of everything backed up online too. But I now feel that’s overkill. My photos are stored with Flickr and Picasa. My music and past data are on the Western Digital. All I really need online are the projects I have that are active, and Dropbox is fine for that. Except that Microsoft have something even better, not that I’d heard of it till I started looking around.\n\nIt’s called <a href=\"http://www.mesh.com\" target=\"_blank\">Mesh</a> and it comes for free if you sign up for Windows Live, a package of services that include Hotmail and web calendars. Mesh is one of three slightly overlapping free data services available through Live.&nbsp; It\'s a bit like Dropbox, but more simple and it includes 5 gb of data for free. Unlike most other such services this doesn’t involve a special folder on your computer. You sign up for Live, install a piece of unobtrusive software, and then get hooked to the Mesh servers.\n\nAfter that pick any file or folder, right click and you get an option, ‘Add file to Mesh’. Say yes and it gets synced. Sign into Live with Mesh on another computer and you see the same files and folders and sync them to that too. From that point on any changes made to file or folder will be synced to the machines using them.\n\nThe web interface is very simple indeed. Here is an illustration of how my desktop, laptop and netbook are linked.\n\n<img style=\"display:inline;border:0 none;\" title=\"mesh\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/mesh.jpg\" alt=\"mesh\" border=\"0\" height=\"436\" width=\"604\">\n\nThere’s a little system tray app that also shows the latest activity, what computers are online, and what folders are being synced. You can use it with Macs too (though I haven’t tried).\n\nThis is exactly the kind of thing I thought Apple would be doing with MobileMe. But really that service hasn’t changed much in the past five years, apart from the name. And it costs, quite a lot. I get the impression it\'s not exactly high priority for Apple. Much like the Mac itself in some ways.\nIn addition to all this I have a static backup of my important past documents sitting on another Live freebie: my Sky drive. a free 25 gig virtual disk, a bit like MobileMe\'s iDrive. With USB external drive for local storage and Mesh for the current project that keeps me covered I think, and lets me share files very easily among machines.\n\nBetter than anything Apple offers. And free too.','Backing up: Windows does it better','','publish','open','closed','','backing-up-windows-does-it-better','','','2011-01-27 22:50:13','2011-01-27 22:50:13','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/2010/05/25/backing-up-windows-does-it-better/',0,'post','',0),(4087,1,'2010-05-28 08:47:16','2010-05-28 07:47:16','As I’ve said repeatedly here, keeping a book diary – for research, a daily journal, character and research details – is fundamental to the way I work. You can read <a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/dock_thumb.jpg2009/08/05/writing-a-book-diary/\" target=\"_blank\">more about it here</a>, and even more if you search for ‘MacJournal’ in the sidebar.\n\nBut I’m now on Windows. Mariner have a companion app WinJournal which looks much the same. But Office comes with its own research app, OneNote. So it makes sense to test that first. Here’s a demo book journal I’ll be showing at my workshop for the <a href=\"http://www.derbyshire.gov.uk/leisure/arts_entertainment/literature_development/literature_festival/\" target=\"_blank\">Derbyshire Literature Festival</a> next Saturday (sorry – the Saturday session in Bolsover is sold out, but there are still tickets for the general talk on Friday in Ilkeston I think).\n\nMy verdict on OneNote: it looks impenetrable to begin with. But beneath the first impressions this is one heck of a piece of software for authors – and comes bundled with Office anyway. This is the Office 2010 beta you see here by the way.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nI first used OneNote years ago when I had one of the first Windows XP Tablet computers made by Acer. It was a wonderful little machine, though people used to laugh at tablets back then, honest.\n\nOneNote is a kind of notebook, a place to store text, pictures, links, whatever, organised into sections, tabs and pages. Perfect for a book diary. On the Tablet you can write on those pages too, and OneNote will even find a handwritten word just as easily as if you typed it.\n\nThe Acer eventually died and I focused on the Mac more and more. OneNote has come on a lot in the meantime. OneNote files are stored wherever you want them on your PC. If you then sync and back them up through <a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/dock_thumb.jpg2010/05/25/backing-up-windows-does-it-better/\" target=\"_blank\">Mesh</a> you can keep the same project in place on several different machines and filed securely on the web. At some point I gather there’ll be a web app too, at which point it’s probably bye bye Evernote for me. But not yet.\n\nTwo bad things about OneNote. It’s difficult to import data from other applications simply. No impossible but difficult. And the app looks a bit odd to begin with because there’s nothing else I know quite like it. But enough moans. Here is a fully-functioning book diary using the Hewson system, one that does everything MacJournal does and a bit more. My preferred option from now on. First the main screen.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/mainscreen.jpg\"><img style=\"display:inline;border:0;\" title=\"Main screen\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/mainscreen_thumb.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Main screen\" width=\"604\" height=\"460\"></a>\n\nHere you see everything that’s going to go into the left brain management of a book called <em>Charlie and the Vampire </em>(an imaginary book, mind. I’m not going to write it). The whole diary is a tab in the section where I keep information related to events I’m doing. If this was a real book it would be in a section or notebook dedicated to actual book projects. On the right everything is held in pages and sub pages. The top page described the project. Beneath we see…\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/outline.png\"><img style=\"display:inline;border:0;\" title=\"outline\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/outline_thumb.png\" border=\"0\" alt=\"outline\" width=\"604\" height=\"465\"></a>\n\nDead simple to write. The usual system – tab to demote, shift-tab to promote. It may just look like text but it isn’t. You can drag those headings around as the little icon on the left suggests.\n\nYou could do the diary the way I do it in MacJournal – as a set of separate pages. But my diary entries are short – ideas, observations and running word counts. It’s easy to write them in a single column, each fronted by a datestamp the app provides.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/diary.png\"><img style=\"display:inline;border:0;\" title=\"diary\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/diary_thumb.png\" border=\"0\" alt=\"diary\" width=\"604\" height=\"319\"></a>\n\nNote those little icons. They’re tags. You just click and insert one. The system comes with a variety of its own – here you see a check box for a to do and a question mark for a question. You tag anything you want as you go through your journal. At any stage you can simply say… show me all the tags and they appear across the sections like this.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/tags.png\"><img style=\"display:inline;border:0;\" title=\"tags\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/tags_thumb.png\" border=\"0\" alt=\"tags\" width=\"604\" height=\"278\"></a>\n\nWould be nice if that tag summary box gave you a preview of the tag context instead of simply taking you directly to each. But this is still beta… maybe things will get better in the final version. Still enough for what I need though frankly.\n\nResearch is handled very simply and effectively. Naturally everything is searchable too.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/research.jpg\"><img style=\"display:inline;border:0;\" title=\"Research\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/research_thumb.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Research\" width=\"604\" height=\"431\"></a>\n\nYou can get things into the system in a variety of ways. Type or cut and paste. Hit Windows-key S and you can take a screenshot of anything in front of you. Here’s something very cool too. When you import a screenshot OneNote somehow ‘reads’ the text, even though it’s a picture. So a word within your screenshot will still appear in a search. This is incredibly clever and useful.\n\nIf you want to keep things as text though either cut and paste or print anything you like straight to a OneNote folder like this.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/printdukeofyork.png\"><img style=\"display:inline;border:0;\" title=\"print duke of york\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/printdukeofyork_thumb.png\" border=\"0\" alt=\"print duke of york\" width=\"604\" height=\"436\"></a>\n\nIt will then appear in its own page wherever you want it. You can’t edit the contents but you can still make notes around it.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/screen.png\"><img style=\"display:inline;border:0;\" title=\"screen\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/screen_thumb.png\" border=\"0\" alt=\"screen\" width=\"604\" height=\"426\"></a>\n\nHandling characters is very straightforward. As with MacJournal I write some brief bio details but principally rely on pasting in actual references to a character in the book. The reader doesn’t see your character notes, only the words on the pages. It’s important to remember that.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/character.jpg\"><img style=\"display:inline;border:0;\" title=\"character\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/character_thumb.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"character\" width=\"604\" height=\"461\"></a>\n\nOneNote has a lot of little tricks up its sleeve, only a few of which I’ve discovered so far. One is that it understands wiki formatting. In the example above Mickey Framlingham just occurred to me as I typed that sentence so he isn’t in the character list. Here’s what happens if I go back and type his name with two square brackets around it – [[Mickey Framlingham]].\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/wiki.jpg\"><img style=\"display:inline;border:0;\" title=\"wiki\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/wiki_thumb.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"wiki\" width=\"604\" height=\"103\"></a>\n\nOneNote recognises that those brackets mean a link. If a page called Mickey Framlingham existed it would link to it automatically. Since it doesn’t it just creates a page with that name. Now that is nice…\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/dock.jpg\"><img style=\"display:inline;margin-left:0;margin-right:0;border:0;\" title=\"dock\" src=\"http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/dock_thumb.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"dock\" width=\"253\" height=\"484\" align=\"right\"></a> Here’s another delight. You can dock your notebook to the side of the screen like this. Once it’s there you can write away in Word or whatever and refer to your notes very easily, writing and changing them as needed.\n\nThis really is the way I intend to work from now on. It’s simple, intuitive and immensely powerful. Thanks to the sync powers of Mesh I can work on the same two documents – a Word book file and a OneNote notebook – on multiple machines and have the results backed up and kept in the right state everywhere without a second thought.\n\nOne thing I should have mentioned about Mesh earlier. As I understand it the thing <em>only </em>syncs when you close a file. This may sound like a backward step. It isn’t. All of the sync problems I’ve encountered with service such as Dropbox and iDisk have stemmed from files that have been left open on one computer then opened for edit on another. You simply can’t do that with Mesh.\n\nIt took me a while to get to grips with OneNote. It was very tempting at times to give up and think…. meh, I’ll just get WinJournal instead. But this system is miles better than my old MacJournal setup. It lets me see and manage the info I want much more easily once I’ve now begun to get the hang of things.\n\nThere is, however, one huge downside. I now find myself lusting after a little Tablet like that old Acer I once had. In six weeks or so I will be sitting in the reading room of the Pierpont Morgan library in New York looking at something that will kick off the new book for 2013. It would be a wonderful note-taking gizmo for that.','OneNote for book research: magical in the end','','publish','open','closed','','onenote-for-book-research-magical-in-the-end','','','2011-01-27 22:50:13','2011-01-27 22:50:13','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/2010/05/28/onenote-for-book-research-magical-in-the-end/',0,'post','',0),(4105,1,'2010-06-05 08:14:15','2010-06-05 07:14:15','<p>So I’m sitting in my hotel here in Nottingham getting ready for breakfast and I look at the ‘In Room Dining Menu’. At the foot it announces, ‘Our Aim!’</p>  <p>Which is?</p>  <blockquote>   <p>To deliver a consistant (sic) and pleasureable (sic) experience for guests who want to enjoy home cooked food within the comfort of their bedroom and have it delivered in good time to the correct temperature and tasting great.</p> </blockquote>  <p>Spelling and English apart, I do have to ask… aren’t there times when this modern penchant for mission statement goes a little too far?</p>','Funny what we do to language','','publish','open','closed','','funny-what-we-do-to-language','','','2011-01-27 22:50:13','2011-01-27 22:50:13','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/2010/06/05/funny-what-we-do-to-language/',0,'post','',0),(4117,1,'2010-06-11 07:58:54','2010-06-11 06:58:54','It’s taken a couple of days for me to calm down sufficiently to write this. But I saw the word ‘etc’ in the <em>Times</em> the other day, honest. It was in the first ‘<a href=\"http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/columnists/article7146271.ece\" target=\"_blank\">column’</a> written by their new World Cup ‘columnist’ the ‘comic’ James Corden, who I think appears on the telly or something and is one of the new generation of ‘celebrities’. Like most columns these days the subject is, of course, not the ostensible one, football, but principally the writer himself, in this case discussing how that TV classic <em>Gavin &amp; Stacey </em>seems destined to dog him for life.<em>&nbsp;</em>\n\nI shrieked, of course. About the use of ‘etc’ more than anything. Shrieked so loudly the dog went into hiding and only came out four hours later after a tempting offer of biscuits.\n\nEtc? In the <em>Times? </em>I tell you if that paywall had been up and I’d forked out cash to see this monstrosity even biscuits wouldn’t have got that dog out.\n\nLet me&nbsp; plead with you: except in extraordinary circumstances never use such a nasty little excuse for a word. Here’s why.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nPerhaps the easiest way to explain is to give you an example of correct usage. It’s in <em>The King and I</em> where Yul Brynner expresses the pomposity and seeming ignorance of the monarch by declaring, ‘Et cetera, et cetera…’ at the end of every sentence he couldn’t be bothered to finish.\n\nThis was the habit of the real king, as recorded in the supposedly biographical&nbsp; <em>Anna and the King of Siam</em>, a book the Thais hate with a vengeance and say is utter fiction. In the musical this arrogant and comical habit is used to point up the king’s character. Whether <em>Anna and the King of Siam</em> carries a shred of truth or not, it’s certainly accurate to associate the term with monarchs.\n\nNicholas II of Russia’s official title was ‘Nicholas II, By the Grace of God, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias, King of Poland, Grand Duke of Finland, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera’. When you had that many dominions, you see, it got tiresome to list them all.\n\nThere’s a clue to the wastrel nature of this word in its loose spelling. It can be written in full as ‘et cetera’ or ‘etcetera’, shortened to ‘etc’ or even – shudder – ‘&amp;c’. Real words generally have only one spelling. It’s Latin in origin, naturally, and simply means ‘and the rest.’\n\nUnless you’re a monarch with so many dominions you can’t be bothered to list them ‘etc’ should always be avoided in journalism, fiction and most non-fiction too. Words are supposed to signify something. This signifies nothing. All it indicates is that the writer is too bone idle to spell out the items that the ‘etc’ stands for.\n\nWhy? If they’re important, take the time to write them. If they’re not, they don’t need mentioning in the first place.\n\nThe use of ‘etc’ is, ninety nine times out of a hundred, an indication of nothing more than laziness on the part of the writer, and laziness in writing deserves to be called out, always. Had someone submitted copy containing the word ‘etc’ when I was a writer on the <em>Times</em> back in the 1980s the newsroom would have immediately resembled one of those <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._M._Bateman\" target=\"_blank\">Bateman cartoons</a>, full of shrieking hacks astonished and hurt any of their peers could wish to commit such an injury to the much-loved person of the Thunderer.\n\nSomeone should have a word with the equally idle sub-editor who allowed this dread monster into a serious national newspaper. Given how much ‘celebrity columnists’ cost these days, and how much the <em>Times </em>is losing, Rupert deserves more for his money than this.','A nasty little word to be avoided','','publish','open','closed','','a-nasty-little-word-to-be-avoided','','','2011-01-27 22:50:13','2011-01-27 22:50:13','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/2010/06/11/a-nasty-little-word-to-be-avoided/',0,'post','',0),(4118,1,'2010-06-14 08:07:00','2010-06-14 07:07:00','I had a little rant here on Friday about the use of the word ‘etc’. I don’t fall into word rage very often but here’s another one that can get me going: using ‘whilst’ instead of ‘while’.\n\nThere’s an interesting discussion about this on <a href=\"http://www.guardian.co.uk/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-5498,00.html\" target=\"_blank\">the Guardian’s website here</a>. I don’t think there’s anything grammatically wrong about making ‘whilst’ and ‘while’ interchangeable, though ‘whilst’ can also be used in circumstances where ‘while’ would be wrong.\n\nNo, it’s much simpler. What a very ugly word this is. <em>Whilst. </em>Say it to yourself out loud. Would you <em>speak</em> it in general conversation? Could you imagine ever uttering something like this?\n<blockquote>Whilst you\'re at the supermarket could you buy some eggs?</blockquote>\nNo, I thought not. People would think you were being pompous or just downright weird. You\'d use \'while\', a perfectly good and simpler term.\n\nHere’s a good rule of thumb: if you\'d think twice about speaking a word there\'s probably a good reason to do the same when writing it.\n\nI love the comment in the Guardian by Dominic Watt of the Department of Linguistics &amp; Phonetics, the University of Leeds who says…\n<blockquote>It is… particularly beloved of students who write bad essays.</blockquote>\nQuite.','Whilst I&#039;m at it... another bad word','','publish','open','closed','','whilst-im-at-it-another-hated-word','','','2011-01-27 22:50:13','2011-01-27 22:50:13','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/2010/06/14/whilst-im-at-it-another-hated-word/',0,'post','',0),(4137,1,'2010-06-15 08:27:00','2010-06-15 07:27:00','Here’s a word I don’t rant about: enormity. What does it mean? If you’ve been to a good school in England you should know. Or at least think you do.\n\nEnormity means a huge and grievous crime, something very evil indeed. As in ‘the enormity of the Holocaust’. Or ‘the enormity of ethnic cleansing’.\n\nAs the Oxford English Dictionary notes the word is ‘not related to enormous and originally meant “a crime or deviation from morality”.’ For that reason if you use ‘enormity’ to mean something very big in an article for a newspaper you will, I guarantee, get some snotty emails calling you an idiot.\n\nAre they right?\n\n<!--more-->\n\nThe meaning of words changes with usage over time. If sufficient people ‘misuse’ a word like ‘enormity’ does their usage of it become acceptable after a while?\n\nThe OED seems to think so. In its definitions it says, ‘<strong>noun</strong> (pl. <strong>enormities</strong>) <strong>1</strong> (<strong>the enormity of</strong>) the extreme seriousness or extent of (something bad). <strong>2</strong> great size or scale: <em>the enormity of Einstein’s intellect.</em> <strong>3</strong> a grave crime or sin.’\n\nSame goes for <a href=\"http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/enormity\" target=\"_blank\">Merriam-Webster</a>…\n\n<strong>1</strong> <strong>:</strong> an outrageous, improper, vicious, or immoral act &lt;the <em>enormities </em>of state power — Susan Sontag&gt; &lt;other <em>enormities</em> too juvenile to mention — Richard Freedman&gt;\n<strong>2</strong> <strong>:</strong> the quality or state of being immoderate, monstrous, or outrageous;<em>especially</em> <strong>:</strong> great wickedness &lt;the enormity of the crimes committed during the Third Reich — G. A. Craig&gt;\n<strong>3</strong> <strong>:</strong> the quality or state of being huge <strong>:</strong> <a href=\"http://www.merriam-webster.com/immensity\">immensity</a> &lt;the inconceivable enormity of the universe&gt;\n<strong>4</strong> <strong>:</strong> a quality of momentous importance or impact &lt;the enormity of the decision&gt;\n\nMerriam-Webster goes on to list a few authors in support…\n<blockquote>When used to denote large size, either literal or figurative, it usually suggests something so large as to seem overwhelming &lt;no intermediate zone of study. Either the <em>enormity</em> of the desert or the sight of a tiny flower — Paul Theroux&gt; &lt;the <em>enormity</em> of the task of teachers in slum schools — J. B. Conant&gt; and may even be used to suggest both great size and deviation from morality &lt;the <em>enormity</em> of existing stockpiles of atomic weapons — <em>New Republic</em>&gt;. It can also emphasize the momentousness of what has happened &lt;the sombre <em>enormity</em> of the Russian Revolution — George Steiner&gt; or of its consequences &lt;perceived as no one in the family could the <em>enormity</em> of the misfortune — E. L. Doctorow&gt;.</blockquote>\nSo it seems clear to me that those snotty letter-writers are wrong. You <em>can </em>use enormity to mean ‘great size’ and still hold your head up high.\n\nBut I won’t. I’d still be able to hear my old English teacher shrieking from beyond the grave. Conditioning you see. But if you want to use it that way please go ahead, and when someone moans -- as they will -- send them to OED and Merriam-Webster with a smile.','Word games: the enormity of it all&#8230;','','publish','open','closed','','word-games-the-enormity-of-it-all','','','2011-01-27 22:50:13','2011-01-27 22:50:13','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/2010/06/15/word-games-the-enormity-of-it-all/',0,'post','',0),(4145,1,'2010-06-16 08:19:39','2010-06-16 07:19:39','Janie asks <a href=\"http://davidhewson.com/2010/06/11/a-nasty-little-word-to-be-avoided/#comment-2006\" target=\"_blank\">in a comment here</a>, ‘Will you please take on the usage of ‘gotten’ as the past participle of the verb ‘to get’? It’s ‘got’. [But I\'m sure I\'ll hear a lot of flak about it.]’\n\nIf you’re on my half of the Atlantic, Janie, you’re right. The past participle of the verb ‘get’ is undoubtedly ‘got’. If you’re on the American side things are different. You can choose to say ‘got’ but it’s grammatically correct to say ‘gotten’ too. That’s the funny thing about new countries. For some reason their language gets frozen to an extent, in a way that doesn’t happen in their mother lands.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nWinston Churchill famously once said that Britain and America were two countries divided by a common language. He was spot on. America has a lot of words that Brits regard as weird amendments to our pure mother tongue. Nothing could be further than the truth. ‘Gotten’ is old, traditional English. Shakespeare used it. Here’s the messenger in <em>Henry IV Part Two…</em>\n<blockquote>Jack Cade hath gotten London bridge</blockquote>\nOver the years the English have mangled and shortened our language and for<em>gotten</em> some of the original. You may regard us as misbe<em>gotten</em> for doing so but that’s what language is like the more you use it. Changeable.\n\nLots of the American English usages Brits find strange are in fact more ‘pure’ and, if you want to look at it that way, ‘correct’ than what we now regard as the Queen’s English. ‘Fall’ for ‘autumn’ goes back to Elizabethan times but is never heard in the UK today. Similarly I suspect Brits haven’t used the word ‘period’ for ‘full stop’ for centuries.\n\nAmericans have kept hold of words the English abandoned long ago, some so far in the past we no longer know what they mean. ‘Broil’ foxes the average Brit – is that boil or something? Yet Shakespeare used the word frequently – this from <em>Richard III: </em>\n<blockquote>And being seated, and domestic broils</blockquote>\n‘Diaper’ was in use in Elizabethan England, clearly sailed with the Mayflower and stayed in America while dying out in its land of origin. Walk into an English plumber and waffle on about ‘faucets’ and ‘spigots’ and no one will have a clue what you’re talking about. Here’s that rogue Pistol in <em>The Merry Wives of Windsor…</em>\n<blockquote>O base Hungarian wight! wilt thou the spigot wield?</blockquote>\nSome American oddities – ‘druthers’ for example – are inventions. Other usages are plain bizarre – never ask for an ‘English muffin’ in England because you’ll be met with blank looks. But the honest truth is that any American assailed by a Brit for mangling the glorious English language can probably turn round and point out, with plenty of justification, that his version is more ‘traditional’ than ours.\n\nNot that tradition matters much. Language is a living thing. It evolves under Darwinian principles mostly, except when a touch of colonial fundamentalism throws a spanner in the works for a while. The Canadian version of French, Mexican Spanish and even the Italian of North American immigrants to America from the late 19th and early 20th all contain words you no longer hear back ‘home’. Each to their own.\n\nSo ‘gotten’ isn’t ‘wrong’. It’s just optional and, to these ears anyway, a touch ugly. I wouldn’t use it even if I could.','Gotten or got?','','publish','open','closed','','gotten-or-got','','','2011-01-27 22:50:13','2011-01-27 22:50:13','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/2010/06/16/gotten-or-got/',0,'post','',0);
