Barry's Books
The Darkest Corners
The concluding part of this darkly funny, horror series Darren Shan called... read more
The 13th Horseman
Drake is surprised to find three Horsemen of the Apocalypse playing snakes and... read more
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
More Apps & Software For Writers
Yesterday I blogged about some software I find useful, and promised to come back with some more today. For perhaps the first time in history I’m actually following up with one of my blog promises, so here are two more of recommendations for apps/software writers may find handy. 3. Scrivener I came a bit late to the party on Scrivener, after hearing me old mucker Tommy Donbavand banging on about it time and time again. It’s a word processing programme, …
Useful Apps & Software for Writers
I mentioned on Twitter recently that I’m a big fan of the note-taking software, Evernote, and said I use it extensively when planning my books. I soon got a reply from top author fella, Chris Priestley, who had never looked into Evernote before. We chatted for a bit and then off he went to download it to try it out for himself. It got me thinking that maybe I use some other software that other writers aren’t aware or, or …
Posted in On the web, Personal, Random Writings, Writing Tips
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First Draft Jitters
Well I’ve done it. This week I finished the first draft of the second book in my brand new and still top secret series. What I can tell you is that it’s completely different to anything I’ve done before. This is 1) a happy thing, because I love exploring new genres; and 2) utterly terrifying. Writing A New Thing is terrifying for a lot of authors because it means venturing into previously uncharted territory, and possibly out of your comfort …
Story, Summed Up
I’ve just started reading one of my Christmas pressies - The DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics, written by comic-book legend, Dennis O’Neill. I just wanted to share the opening paragraphs with you, as I think they perfectly sum up what every writer should be trying to do. If you’re aiming for a career as an author – take note. Here’s what I’d like you to do for me: Make me laugh. Make me cry. Tell me my place in the …
3 Words to Make You a Better Writer
You ready to learn the secrets of great writing? Over the next few weeks I’m going to post little writing tips like the one below. They’re going to be short, often single sentences, but hopefully will get you thinking about how you can improve as a writer. The first tip is only three words long, but it’s perhaps the most important bit of writing advice you’ll ever be given. And that’s it. That’s all you’re getting. Happy to discuss further …
Story Ideas: This Way
As any writer who does events in schools will tell you, one of the most common questions we get asked is “Where do your ideas come from?”. There are as many answers to that question as there are writers in the world, but I thought I’d share the story of where my most recent idea came from. I can’t tell you the idea itself yet, because I plan writing this one some day. What I can tell you is that …
Posted in On the web, Writing Tips
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Evolution of The Beast
Tomorrow (5th of January) is the official publication day for the penultimate Invisible Fiends book The Beast. I’ve decided against doing blog tours of any of that stuff for this book and will instead be posting a lot of content here on the blog that you’ll hopefully find interesting. I’m going to start by talking about the evolution of the character of the Beast, and in doing so talk about the evolution of the Invisible Fiends series as a whole. …
Posted in Books, Personal, Writing Tips
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Set your writing goals now!
In a recent survey on Twitter a lot of my followers said they’d like me to post more writing advice here on the blog. The following blog post, then, is aimed primarily at those readers who are interested in becoming authors themselves, but a lot of it can be applied to anyone so don’t go clicking away just because you don’t feel there’s a blockbuster inside you waiting to burst out. In case you missed the news, we’ve just started …
Getting published – my story
Last week, I was asked on Twitter how I first got published. I promised I’d write a post about it the very next day and I did, but… um… a big dog ate it and ran away. So, for @LaraNoJutsu and anyone else who might be interested, here (more or less) is how I got into writing for a living… It all started back in 1987, when I was in my fifth year of primary school. We were doing a …
Posted in Personal, Writing Tips
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Collected writing tips
Since starting this blog back in February 2008 I’ve tried to at least occasionally write something that readers might find vaguely useful. I haven’t often succeeded, but I’ve tried, at least. Surely that counts for something? Anyway, now that I’m doing more and more author events, I find myself being asked to share writing advice and tips, which I’m always happy to do. Because time is usually quite limited, though, I rarely have time to talk for very long on …
Posted in Random Writings, Writing Tips
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