The one written at 4am about whatever is rattling around my tired mind.

Well, 343am to be precise. I’m wide awake. Again. It’s a relatively normal occurance but I am getting a little bored of approaching the wee hours from this direction. It was a lot more fun when I was a young man coming home, putting a pizza in the oven, and then promptly forgetting about itContinue reading “The one written at 4am about whatever is rattling around my tired mind.”

Ideas count as productivity, right?

The above tweet is not only a shining example of the kind of dazzlingly witty offering I make over on that strange platform but a fair indication of my state of mind. I am trying to write, but my brain is like a sack of cats floating along a river… some ideas are treading water,Continue reading “Ideas count as productivity, right?”

Meet me at the horse’s arse – inspiration

“Where do you get your ideas from?” This is a question that crops up a lot when people find out I write silly little books. And when they actually read those books and realise just how bloody silly they are the question takes on a whole new inflection. No longer simply curious, more… concerned. “So,Continue reading “Meet me at the horse’s arse – inspiration”

Before The Book and the Blade

I wrote six books before I started work on The Book and the Blade. They were not great. One, two and three were terrible in fact. Four showed some small promise but floundered (drowned) in the middle. Five was a present for my kids that I’m still happy with, and six was a silly thingContinue reading “Before The Book and the Blade”

Where have you been?

Years ago I ploughed my way through Frank McCourt’s books because one of my students was reading Angela’s Ashes and raving about it in class, so I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I read the same book, loved it, and decided to read everything else he had written as well. SomewhereContinue reading “Where have you been?”

The Idea

I had the idea for The Book and the Blade nearly 20 years ago and it hurts me to write that! When I was 18 I started University in York and one of the drawcards for the city was the rumoured 365 pubs… one for every day of the year. There’s a famous street calledContinue reading “The Idea”