Barry's Books
Doc Mortis
The fourth thrilling book in this darkly funny horror series Darren Shan called... read more
Raggy Maggie
The second book in the award-winning Invisible Fiends series. Billy is the... read more
Monthly Archives: November 2008
Expanding Horizons
Today, I had an idea. Not an idea that’s going to change the world or anything, but an idea I think is good all the same. Here it comes now. I’m going to buy a book. Bear with it, it gets more interesting. I’m going to buy a book from a charity shop. Huh? Huh? What, you want more? Okay, here’s the clincher: I’m going to buy a book from a charity shop in a genre I wouldn’t normally read. …
Posted in Personal
2 Comments
It’s Sunday
I don’t work Sundays. Not for any religious reasons or owt, just because I’ve promised myself one day off a week. So not blog posting today. Except this one.
Posted in Personal
Leave a comment
Writing Lesson #2
Way back on April 1st, I posted my first Writing Lesson. In it, I encouraged you to do a bungee jump. Okay, so it wasn’t the most conventional of writing lessons, but it had a point. If you haven’t read it and you’re an aspiring writer, I encourage you to go check it out. We’ll all wait here until you get back. If you have already read it, then you’ve probably been eagerly awaiting lesson 2 for some months. Well, …
Posted in Writing Tips
1 Comment
Ben 10 spotted in the wild
I popped into my local bookshop today and took the photo below. Everyone present looked at me like I was a maniac. You’d think they’d never seen an unshaven man take a photograph of a child’s book before.
That difficult second book
Unfortunately I still can’t reveal any of the details of the book deal I landed recently, so this post is probably going to be a little vague in places. What I can say, though, is that I’m currently in the process of writing book two in the series. This is the first time I’ve ever tried writing a direct sequel (or next installment, in this case) to anything I’ve written, and it’s proving more difficult than I thought. You’d think …
Soup vs Drugs
I’m writing a short story for possible inclusion in a new anthology at the moment. It’s a gritty, realistic piece, about two boys in inner city Glasgow, and touches on various ‘grown-up’ subjects. One of these is drugs. Now, never having been involved in drugs myself, I’m having to do a lot of reading up. I’m learning a lot of things I didn’t know. Through it all, one thought keeps striking me. Maybe it’s my age or something, but I …
Posted in Random Writings
1 Comment
US Election Day
Today is a historic day. (Notice I didn’t write an historic day like some people do? That’s because the letter H is many things, but one of the things it is very much not is a vowel. Some people would do well to remember that fact). Anyway, today is a historic day. Today, the United States will vote in their 44th President, and there’s a very good chance he’s going to be black. For many reasons, I hope Obama wins. …
Posted in On the web, Personal
Leave a comment
A Post a Day
The blog seems to have been a bit lacking in posts lately, so I’m setting myself a challenge. For the month of November I will be writing at least one new post every day. I’ll say that again in bold for the visually impaired: A new post every day! Now I’m making no guarantees on the quality or length of the posts. They might be two lines, they might be a thousand. They might be witty and interesting, they might …
Posted in Personal
Leave a comment
Cow and horse revellers in fight
When I read stories like these I wonder why I ever moved out of the area. BBC NEWS | Scotland | Highlands and Islands | Cow and horse revellers in fight
Posted in On the web
Leave a comment
He’s no ordinary kid …
Right, it’s time for the big reveal. The book is for sale on Amazon now – and selling well, by the looks of things – so I think it’s probably safe enough to let the cat out of the bag. One of my big secret projects for Egmont recently was the novelisation of massively successful Cartoon Network show, Ben 10. If you haven’t heard of the series, then presumably you A) don’t know any children, and/or B) live on Mars. …
Posted in Books
2 Comments
