Cover reveal: Coming soon…Bitesize!

Well, I did say I was finalising another book cover...and here it is! Say hello to Bitesize! Bitesize is a collection of flash fiction: no stories over 500 words have been allowed in (and neither has Sherlock Holmes!). Something which stuck with me from Chris Beckett's introduction to FlashDogs: Volume 2 was his comparison of a short story …

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The Secret Notebook of Sherlock Holmes, one month on

A whole month has passed since The Secret Notebook of Sherlock Holmes was released into the wild. Sometimes that feels like ages, sometimes the blink of an eye. A short while ago a friend asked me how I felt about the experience of publishing an ebook. As I'm feeling a bit reflective, here's an answer incorporating some of …

Solstice Dark, Solstice Light: two charity anthologies

I'm sure time is speeding up because it can't be 6 months since the summer solstice. Then again, waking up in darkness would suggest that it is... Anyway, it's the winter solstice here, and nearly Christmas, and a time for giving, and for thinking of people less fortunate than ourselves. So I'm waving the FlashDogs banner for …

So long, farewell: Flash! Friday

Today, Friday 18 December, is a sad day, because the Flash! Friday website closes today. This morning I woke up and there was no Flash! Friday email in my inbox encouraging me to write a flash fiction by midnight, inspired by a photo, a novel or a dragon's bidding. Often I didn't write a story, because I …

Bits and pieces: a not-3-month writing review

Well, tsk. Despite being the sort of person who enjoys measuring and tracking things, I haven't done a writing-progress-update sort of post on here for a while. Not since February, I believe. I've hivered and hovered on what to blog about for a few days now, and having rejected various topics as 'not quite the …

Close to the Edit

It must be something in the water. You think about writing a blog post about editing and another two come along while you're thinking about it! So here's a hat tip to fellow FlashDogs Brian S Creek and Foy S Iver for getting there first (perhaps I should get an S too, it might improve my …

What’s big and out of control? My reading pile

Recently I realised that I've been using the phrase 'my reading pile' more and more; generally when adding things to it, or complaining at the size of it (and whose fault is that?). So I've decided to confront my reading pile. The first point about my reading pile is that there isn't just one. It …

Happy National Flash Fiction Day! 5 ways to take part

Saturday 27 June is National Flash Fiction Day, as any fule kno (and it was a struggle to get THAT past autocorrect). So this will be a very short blog post as I do not want to get in the way of all the lovely stories which will be flooding into your lives today via …

Solstice Light, Solstice Dark: Return of the FlashDogs

The FlashDogs are back, and this time it's a double helping with not one but two new short story anthologies out today! All profits from the sale of the anthologies will go to The Book Bus charity, which helps children in developing countries to read and to be inspired by books. As the parent of two …

I Write Like…

Oh, you must know I Write Like. It's that website where you paste in a chunk of what you're writing and it tells you who you write like. I'm not sure when I first discovered it, but it's been around since 2010. According to my not-very-in-depth research (see below) it uses a naive Bayes classifier …