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Fiona Mcvie has just interviewed me for her authorinterviews blog. Apart from the subject of writing, we chat about who and what shaped me as a writer and how and where I find inspiration. Also included is the opening scene of a story I’m currently trying to place. I’ll probably upload the interview to this … Continue reading
You’ve written your masterpiece, your short story, poem, or novel; you’ve sweated blood crafting the work, redrafting and redrafting. It’s time to unleash it on an unsuspecting public. There’s only one thing standing between you and fame: the editor and/or first/slush reader of the publication or publisher. It can be frustrating to have your work … Continue reading
Stories about con artists enjoy a long and varied history in Hollywood, but where the con man is the central character notable standard personality traits are discernable and common to all. I recently saw The Wolf of Wall Street and American Hustle within a couple of days of each other and was struck by the … Continue reading
Well it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything new here, but it’s not as if nothing’s been happening; quite the reverse. In the main, most of my free time has been taken up in a major redrafting of a novel I wrote a couple of years ago. But I did manage to have a … Continue reading
I’m delighted to be sharing the pages of the latest issue of Revival Literary Journal (#25) with John W. Sexton, Crona Gallagher, Maeve O’Sullivan, Mary Bradford, Knute Skinner, Kevin Kiely, Louis Mulcahy, Gerard Beirne, Miceal Kearney, and a host of others. The issue features a short piece of flash fiction I wrote called ‘Dog Shit’. … Continue reading
Many writers will agree that writing synopses is something they have difficulty doing. There is quite a bit of confusion as to what exactly a synopsis is. Why is it required? How do you go about writing one? It’s common knowledge that a synopsis is a summary of the story a writer has written and … Continue reading
In advance of Swan River Press‘ launch of Selected Stories by Mark Valentine, I’ve just interviewed the author. We talk about the persistence of human values and vision in the face of vast upheaval, outré heresies and Gnostic myths, and the Central European tradition in fantastic literature amongst other things. I’ll post the full interview on … Continue reading
Selected Stories, due out soon from Swan River Press, brings together a number of stories by Mark Valentine that share related themes and a very particular style of approach reminiscent of the work of several writers working in the early 20th Century. While most stories don’t specify a year in which they take place, references … Continue reading
This week, I was asked to write a guest blog for What She Might Think, writer Erin Pringle-Toungate‘s excellent website. As you will guess from the title of the piece, it highlights the sad lack of libraries in my youth. Not there weren’t libraries near me; there were several. The blog focuses more specifically on … Continue reading
Oscar and Lucinda was the first of several novels I’ve read by Peter Carey and it’s still my favourite of his books. It tells the story of clergyman Oscar Hopkins and heiress Lucinda Leplastrier, both addicted gamblers of opposing type: one obsessive, one compulsive, both necessarily secretive, both bound by the strictures of mid-19th Century … Continue reading
John Kenny 