Category Archives: Uncategorized

Notes from the Midst of a Novel.

Busy, busy, busy. I sort of crashed into the Christmas holidays on a wave of adrenaline and exhaustion. To all intents and purposes working three jobs, the end of the year hit me like a temporal cricket bat to the chronological face. A short trip and a lot of partying left me more relaxed andContinue reading “Notes from the Midst of a Novel.”

Silma Hill Cover

Here it is, the cover for Silma Hill. Writers get almost zero input into cover design, which as I’m not particularly visually competent and had no real idea of what the cover might look like, is probably for the best. Adrian Searle and the Freight designers have excelled themselves again. This is not only gorgeous, andContinue reading “Silma Hill Cover”

Silma Hill, Coming Soon …

So, I promised announcements. Well, here we go. First up, my second novel will be released on June 29th. That’s right, somehow I talked myself into a book a year. Madness really but hey, I’ve got nothing better to do with my time. My new novel is called Silma Hill and is a Scottish Gothic historicalContinue reading “Silma Hill, Coming Soon …”

Indelible Ink Review

Well 2015 has started with a bang. I’ve got a few wonderful pieces of news to drop on you, dear reader, but I have to wait for final confirmation on the biggest two. In the meantime allow me to share with you a review of First Time Solo by Scots Whay Hae‘s Alistair Braidwood on Dear Scotland.Continue reading “Indelible Ink Review”

Essential Reading

             The Japan Times runs a weekly column called ‘Essential Reading for Japanophiles’, a collection of reviews of classic works of fiction and non-fiction that deal with Japan. It’s a great resource for people looking to get into Japanese literature, get recommendations on history books and see who has beenContinue reading “Essential Reading”

Articles and Shorts: Update.

It’s been a while since my last post because I’ve been as busy as a millipede’s chiropodist. I’ve been hard at work on novel three, edits have just come in for novel two, writing regularly for the Japan Times and I still have the day job. I’ll be off on holiday in three weeks, headingContinue reading “Articles and Shorts: Update.”

Creativity

Creativity is a bizarre thing and after years of writing I still have little understanding of it. I guess I don’t really need to understand it to be able to use it, the way I can drive my car without really knowing how the internal combustion engine works, but I sometimes wish it could beContinue reading “Creativity”

Fuminori Nakamura

Japanese novelist Fuminori Nakamura has won most of the major prizes in Japan and is slowly becoming better known in the English-speaking world. I was recently lucky enough to interview him for The Japan Times about his writing and his new novel in translation, ‘Last Winter, We Parted’. As he is on a book tourContinue reading “Fuminori Nakamura”