In English, it’s often said ‘nearly never won a race’. And in Co. Clare, where I’m from, we say ‘nearly never bulled a cow’. Bovine or not, it’s the same thing, really. At the end of the day, having entered the Irish Writers’ Centre Novel Fair 2014, the results of which have just been announced, I…
Month: January 2014
It’s The Chick-Lit Book Title Generator!
Stuck for a name for that chick-lit book you’re writing? Or simply want to know what your weepy romance novel would be called, if you ever got around to writing one? Well fear not! The Chick-Lit Book Title Generator is here! I know you’re dying to know, so here’s mine: Where Rainbows Might Speak by Tara Sparling (that’s…
5 Kick-Ass Writing Blogs
Originally posted on World of Writing:
There are zillions and zillions of blogs out there about writing. It can be hard to sort the wheat from the chaff. But over the past few months, I’ve isolated a few that are entertaining and informative, and that meet needs you never knew you had, which is exactly…
Writing Dream Teams? Or Just Plain Ridiculous?
I tend to spend most of January in a fantasy world, for obvious reasons. One: In that temporal space, I am Queen and Chief of the Secret Police; and Two: I haven’t experienced real-life daylight for over a month. For the purposes of blogging, this has resulted in predictions for famous writers, and predictions for myself. But…
Are You Stock-Piling Books You Never Read?
My Shelf of Shame We’ve all heard of Shelfies at this point. A better sort of Instagram pic for book lovers. But I have a distasteful Shelfie to share. It’s my Shelf of Shame. It’s because of the stack of books on this shelf in my hallway which I liked enough to buy, but not enough to start reading. How…
5 Book Trends for 2014
In this post (and, following some suspicious yoghurt, this one) I pretended to have a look at what was going to happen in 2014, but now I’d like to do it for real. What fads and fashions will we see in genre fiction in 2014? Will fantasy lose its dystopian and grimy-fingered grip on the bestseller market? And that age-old question –…
2014: Unexpected Writing Sensation (The Year That Was, Part 2)
Following on from my review of 2014 bestselling books in a handy month-by-month guide (written now, in order to save time at the end of the year), I now shake up the crystal ball a bit to tell you about my own year: one of unparalleled success, misfortune, and speaking about myself in the third person. Here follows the…
2014: The Year That Was (Part 1)
Taking inspiration from J.K. Rowling, who wrote the last chapter of the Harry Potter series long before half the books were even published, I’ve decided to write my 2014 reviews now. It will save time at the end of the year, when I’ll be very busy with TV appearances, liposuction and smiting my enemies. Only…
Tara Sparling writes 