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Book Review: About Writing and How to Publish by Cathy Glass

By Amazon, Books & Authors, ReviewsNo Comments
about-writing-cathy-glass-cover About Writing and How to Publish by Cathy Glass is a guide to creative writing that both published and non-published writers/authors alike will find useful. It’s split into four sections: About Writing, What to Write, Publishing and Self-Publishing.

The About Writing section covers lots of important aspects of writing including the importance of a writing routine and editing what you write.

The What to Write? section covers different types of writing such as articles, poetry, short stories, diaries, memoirs, biography, non-fiction, novels, plays, children’s books and ghostwriting.

The Publishing section covers Agents and Publishers as well as submission guidelines.

The Self-Publishing section covers independent presses, print on demand (POD), ebooks and marketing.

The great thing about this book is that it’s very precise and to the point. It’s a quick read, which I read in one evening. However it also meant that Glass covers the topics far too briefly for me. Advice around double spacing, using arial font and font size 12 was reiterated often.

Cathy Glass is a bestselling author who writes inspirational memoirs based true life stories. These stories come from her experience as a Foster Carer. You can see some of her books on the Amazon widget below.

About Writing and How to Publish isn’t a comprehensive guide, but it does have some great tips and is available to buy on Amazon.

Review soon,

Antony



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Book Review: Rags & Bones Edited By Melissa Marr and Tim Pratt

By Amazon, Books & Authors, ReviewsNo Comments
rags-and-bones-marr-pratt Rags & Bones is an anthology of classic stories retold with their own twists. It’s successful authors include: Melissa Marr, Tim Pratt, Carrie Ryan, Charles Vess, Garth Nix, Neil Gaiman, Holly Black, Rick Yancey, Margaret Stohl, Kelly Armstrong, Kami Garcia, Saladin Ahmed & Gene Wolfe.

This eclectic mix of stories are short stories at their best. They all have an element of fantasy about them. It was a captivating read, were the vast majority of the stories excelled. There was only one that I felt I had to force myself to read on.

My three favourite stories were:
1. The Cold Corner by Tim Pratt
TJ was a Chef on a TV cooking competition, when everything went wrong. He came fourth place, there was some media fall out and he split up from his boyfriend.

With his life and head in a mess, he jumps at the chance to travel to his home town – Cold Corner for a family reunion. He hasn’t been one in years, normally avoiding them. But once in his home town, he discovers many copies of himself, all living different lives.

What I loved about this story is that TJ is just a normal guy, who happens to like men. His gayness isn’t made into a big revelation or issue. It is written brilliantly and is a great credit to Pratt (the author) who happens to be straight. This is the only story in Rags & Bones were any of the character’s sexuality is identified.

2. The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman
This story was inspired by Sleeping Beauty, so you can guess what it’s about. It is an absolute page turner, which is down to the writing and has some unexpected twists.

3. That the Machine May Progress Eternally by Carrie Ryan
This is the superb opening story in Rags & Bones. It tells the tale of Tavil the above grounder, who finds his way into the machine society below. The Machine runs everything in this underground society: it supplies the air, food, water, mental stimulation (through computerised intellectual discussions), deals with the waste, everything. Over time, Tavil becomes dependant upon The Machine, until it begins to fail. I loved the transformation of Tavil in this story.

All of the authors have great credentials. At the end of each story is an author’s note identifying which classic story inspired theirs, why they love it and what it means to them.

Rags & Bones: New Twists on Timeless Tales is available to buy on Amazon.

Review soon,

Antony



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Book Review: Zombie Apocalypse! Fightback created by Stephen Jones

By Amazon, Books & Authors, ReviewsNo Comments
zombie-apocalypse-fightback-book-cover Zombie Apocalypse! Fightback is the sequel to Zombie Apocalypse! I was disappointed with Zombie Apocalypse!, but I still picked up Zombie Apocalypse! Fightback and was pleasantly surprised.

First let me explain the premise of Zombie Apocalypse! Fightback. Following the breakout of the Human Reanimation Virus (HRV) at All Hallows Church in south London; the book tells the story of Thomas Moreby (patient zero & leader of the zombies) and that of the human struggle for survival across the world.

The book uses a range of mediums to tell the story: emails, eye witness accounts, news paper articles, reports, diaries, photos, stills of video, twitter feeds and there’s even a poem. I love this idea and although Jones et al isn’t the first write in this way, they probably are the first to use the idea in a zombie story.

The plot was acceptably fascinating and well interwoven, especially considering the number of different writers. The pacing was good and kept the story moving along at a suitable pace. But the editing could have been better. It wasn’t that there were typos; but that there was a fair amount of padding that made the story feel like it could have been told in less words. There was a lot of telling and more could have been shown to the reader.

The characters changed too often and lacked depth. The closest the book came to depth was the two brothers at the camp/caravan site, which ended far too prematurely. I would like to have read much more of their story.

The ‘Twitter pages’ were the worst as they went on for far too long (I actually skipped a number of these pages) and felt completely unbelievable. The characters description of events in tweets didn’t feel right. The whole concept that he would be on twitter, when he was being hunted in a dark museum by monsters failed to be remotely believable.

Overall Zombie Apocalypse! Fightback was a gigantic improvement on Zombie Apocalypse!, but still needs more work. Anybody that likes a zombie read will enjoy it, but it will not be a reader’s favourite in the zombie story genre.

Review soon,

Antony



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Import: My Awesome Year in Words

By Creativity, Journalism, ThinkingNo Comments

Hi all,

This year has been an awesome year for my reading & reviewing and for my creative writing. Let me take you through the highlights of this year:

In January Headline Publishers emailed me to say they wanted me to do more book reviews for them. I wrote, edited and submitted Stuck Between A Rock… to The Write Review Short Story Prize. Although it wasn’t shortlisted; the experience and learning gained from completing, editing and submitting the short story was invaluable.

In March I saw a call for submissions for short stories for a gay anthropology. I wrote, edited and submitted A Few Amazing Moments. The editors declined the submission stating that it has promise, but needs more work. Again, more invaluable experience and learning was gained.

In April I started writing for The Gay UK and shared this news with you. I decided to be brave and share my short stories online. I was inspired by this TED Talk: Elizabeth Gilbert – Your elusive creative genius.

In May I enjoyed reading & reviewing In His Secret Life by Mel Bossa. I was inspired by Advice About Writing From Anne Rice: ‘Kick Out The Pages!’ I wrote the politically sensitive NEWS: A Letter to Manchester Pride – Why are you giving less money to Gay Charities? article.

By June I was feeling more confident about my writing, thinking to myself: I’m doing it! I’m actually writing! This was helped by being commissioned for my first paid piece of writing by Hire Bloggers.

In July I reviewed I Want Your Love (DVD) and hosted two giveaways on blog, both of these activities was as a result of my continued writing. I renewed hosting on my personal blog and launched a professional writers website, both paid for by my writing.

By September I had submitted, had accepted and published twenty six articles or book reviews on The Gay UK.

In December, I begun work on my next short story and have enquired about a creative writing course at Runshaw College.

It’s been a truly awesome year of creative writing; with a good mix of successes and failures. In 2014, I hope to do more paid journalism and develop, write and submit more short stories into competitions.

Write soon,

Antony



I aim for posts on this blog to be informative, educational and entertaining. If you have found this post useful or enjoyable, please consider making a contribution by Paypal:


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