Continuing on in an apparent series of Lists of 5 Random Things In My Head in a shoddy Blogging 101 exercise I didn’t know I was doing, and certainly wasn’t doing on purpose, here is a list of 5 people who exist in real life, who perhaps would be better off existing only in fiction (either for their benefit, or…
5 Terrifyingly Awful Books I Might Have Written In My 20s
There are very few writers who make it in their 20s. The few who do are endangered creatures; to be lauded, protected, and possibly locked up in a laboratory for serious scientific inquiry. Many people believe that nobody should be writing about life until they’ve at least lived some. And indeed, many writers in their…
5 Vaguely Booky Things I Learned On My Holidays
Now that it’s September, and the schools are back, I want to tell you what I learned on my holidays this year. Not least that having a holiday from the Internet was harder than I thought it would be. I had some fish in the sun, then some steak in the rain, and then some music in a…
Tark And Mara Visit The Irish Riviera
* Tara is off on her jollidays for a couple of weeks. Fictional Guest Bloggers, Tark and Mara, have climbed down from their pedestal to leave you with this post. “Ugh.” “Another one?” “And again! Tark!” “Just lift your feet, darling, and watch where you’re going.” Mara made a noise deep in her throat. She had just about…
Authors! Your Cover Font Is Killing Your Book
Whilst most of us will judge a book by its cover, I very often judge a book cover by its font. This might sound odd to some people: perhaps it is – you can let me know if that’s the case. But more often than not, it’s the typography on a book’s cover which tells me whether…
I Have No Pride Or Shame. VOTE FOR ME
This is desperate. I’m about to ask you for votes. So let me apologise in advance for everything I’m about to say. This blog has been nominated in the “Best Blog Post” category of the Irish Blog Awards, for a post in which I described my limitless talent for self-sabotage when talking about my own work,…
Writer’s Arse, And Other Ailments
The gurus over at Writing.ie have published another article I wrote today. A sort of confessional piece. I talk about the terrible afflictions which writers suffer, and how I suffer in particular (from being terribly afflicted). Some non-writers will be sceptical about this. That’s fine. They can go around sympathising with whichever they believe to be loftier, global concerns.…
What Puts Readers Off Self-Published Books?
Oh, we’ve come a long way from What Makes People Buy Self-Published Books last week, ladies and gentlesirs! Brace yourselves now, as we enter the dark side of book marketing: the things which make you REFUSE to buy self-published books. And we’ve all experienced this to some degree. Self-publishing often gets a very bad rap. If…
What Makes People Buy Self-Published Books?
In this post, I discussed the findings of a scientifically incontrovertible study (of myself) on the factors which influenced me when buying a self-published book. The findings surprised me (which surprised me, because I was surveying myself). I found that I knew what made me buy a self-published book when it was in front of…
Tark and Mara Search For Meaning
In a universe close away from here, Mara was feeling philosophical. “I’ve been thinking,” she said, knowing without a five-o’clock-shadow of a doubt that Tark would want to hear what was going on inside what was, by far, the heaviest part of Mara’s size zero frame. “Have you, my platinum preying mantis?” said Tark. He…
Tara Sparling writes 