Fay_Weldon_thumbnail

Fay Weldon: All or nothing

“To relax when I’m writing I check hurricane and volcano websites, consult Metcheck to see if it’s going to stop raining; play computer games – I enjoy empire-building.”

 

No_Mans_Land_thumbnailPete Ayrton: The world’s affliction

“Most British, French and Germans who wrote about World War One felt loyalty to a well-defined nation which they took to be morally superior… Those from other countries had a much more fragile commitment.”

 

lobster_thumbnail_2Graeme Simsion: The author project

Writing is often portrayed as a solo, isolated activity, but I think classes, writers’ groups, mentors, writing partners have a crucial role to play for most of us in providing feedback and encouragement.”

 

Random House rawPaula Lichtarowicz’s tips for writers

Read whenever you can, as widely as you can. Let great writing sneak under your skin. Stop and marvel, keep your senses open to daring construction and magical sleights of hand.”

 

Royal.inddDavid Gilbert: Between Nabokov and Fleming

I have a small office on the ground floor of my apartment building. It was once part of a dentist’s and if I’m really quiet I can hear the sound of drilling followed by gauzed screams.”

 

Bat_Wings_thumbnailJavier Calvo: Bat wings

“What Morgana most remembered about that creature that ran toward them were its eyes. Eyes that were very red and filled with the most frightened expectation she had seen in her life.”

 

Demy no bleed.inddChristopher Nicholson: An affectionate regard

The house seemed unusually quiet, as if reflecting on what had passed. Hardy stood by the grandfather clock, listening to its slow, measured ticks… conscious that he might have started a fire that would be hard to control.”

 

Innocence_thumbnailPrize draw

WIN a complete set of G.K. Chesterton’s Father Brown stories – and read an extract from the story in which Father Brown makes his first, deliciously understated appearance.

 

Plus

A senses-tingling sample from Rebecca Mascull’s debut novel, an urban confection by new voice John Owen Theobald, Lucie Whitehouse’s writers’ tips, Amanda Hodgkinson’s favourite novels about rivers, shattering moments from World War One from Andrew Davidson and Mary Borden, Pamela Erens‘ writing routines and influences, Mara Faye Lethem on translating Javier Calvo’s dark fiction, and a peek inside Colas Gutman and Delphine Perret‘s delightful illustrated tale of a city kid at sea in the countryside.