Chocolate, caramel, Cornish cream teas?Carrots and cucumber, lettuce and peas? Such foods divide the saint and the sinnerYou are what you eat, I’ve got potatoes for dinner?
Author Archives: Bruce Aiken
Late Mail
(Late Mail is a 300 word murder mystery) My phone pinged with a message. I expected it to be a friend, checking in after David’s funeral. ‘Hello Lauren. You think you’ve got away with it, don’t you?’ It was David, but it couldn’t be, we’d just cremated him. Someone had hacked his account. ‘Who isContinue reading “Late Mail”
Writing can't only be a mirror
When I was a teenager I had no idea what it felt like to be sixty, or even thirty. Now I’m older I am told sometimes that I can’t possibly connect with the mindset of a younger generation. Frankly I think both opinions are misjudged. We have imaginationAnyone who is astute and observes those aroundContinue reading “Writing can't only be a mirror”
First Love
(First Love is a 500 word flash fiction story) Mary started painting again when she retired to a small village on the coast. She joined a local art group who met in an old chapel. She never saw herself as talented, despite three years at Art College in her youth, but she enjoyed the wayContinue reading “First Love”
Miss Chatham
They walk together in the parkat three fifteen each day.Miss Chatham and Euphorbiaquietly make their way.One loved in life, one never held,both showing time’s decay Some note quietly, as they pass,this singular mismatched pair.The lady clothed in Sunday bestand her friend’s wild wispy hair.Both alone, but twinned for life,Miss Chatham and her teddy bear.
Timing is everything
I spent seven months writing a book about the world 100 years after it has recovered from a pandemic virus, rising sea levels and massive solar storms and what happens? The same month I started sending my manuscript out to agents, we get a pandemic corona virus and a threat that the western Antarctic iceContinue reading “Timing is everything”
Unicorns and Literary Agents
A quick check on Google confirmed my worst fears. There are 432,000,000 returns for +unicorn and only 168 for +literary +agent. Does that means that getting into a conversation with a unicorn is much more likely than getting a literary agent to consider my latest novel?
Do you write within a genre?
I didn’t set out to write in a particular genre. In fact I’m not sure where the plot for my first novel came from, but I am fascinated by the way most of us make decisions in our teens that inform and influence the rest of our life. I have heard, on more than oneContinue reading “Do you write within a genre?”
Choosing character’s names
My character’s names often change as a novel develops. Sometimes the original name just doesn’t seem to suit the way the character or their backstory develops. There’s a theory called nominative determinism which speculates that your given name might define what you do in life. I don’t subscribe to that theory, but names do needContinue reading “Choosing character’s names”
How do you start a novel?
I had heard from many different sources that there is a tendency to put a version of yourself front and centre of your first novel. I wanted to avoid this trap so decided to write from the perspective of a young woman. Writing is a form of escapism and jumping both gender and age wasContinue reading “How do you start a novel?”
