Dear Writing, Don’t take this wrong, but... well... sometimes I really hate you. For a start, you force me to get me up, every morning—way earlier than anyone in their right mind would want to get up—sniff through the pile of clothes by my bed, get dressed and walk to a nearby café, where I’ll …
The Thrill of Creative Effort
Tourist season in Barcelona brings with it an abundance of slogan-bearing t-shirts at which to stare as you stroll down La Rambla. The majority of these messages are banal at best, but you’ll always see a few that are truly baffling for their complete lack of logic. I’m not just talking about the …
Swing For The Fences
I recently took a writing class with David Corbett, a New York Times notable author who's written numerous novels, short stories and poems, and recently published a book called ‘The Art of Character’. (As an aside, this book is excellent. If you’re a writer, and you’re serious about the craft, you …
A Writer’s Shame
La Central bookshop in the Raval district of Barcelona is fast becoming my hang-out spot of choice. Not only is it air-conditioned and quiet—making it a safe-haven from the brocationers, flashpackers and multigens that descend upon this city in droves during these unbearably sticky summer months—it …
Going Pro
So, I've recently taken the plunge and gone pro with this whole editing malarkey. When I say gone pro, I mean I tell people that’s what I do now. As in: that’s my job. As in: that’s how I earn a living. Pay the rent. Feed my addictions. It makes me feel good, telling people that, because I …