Writers on writing - Colm Toibin

"The page is not a mirror...your job is to fill it, not to see yourself in it. The first thing you do as a writer is an act of self-annihilation. You no longer exist - it is only the character."

Colm Toibin, speaking about his novel Brooklyn on the BBC's World Book Club podcast in 2011

My first review

A couple of days ago I emailed Scott Pack, author of the excellent Me and My Short Stories blog (which involves him reading and reviewing a short story every day). I asked if he'd take a punt on an unpublished stroy by a new writer and he said yes, but to expect an honest review. Fair enough.

So, today I had my first ever review (of my story Honesty Rules, the first short story I wrote)

Books: This is How - MJ Hyland

MJ Hyland writes as well as anyone I have read. At first glance her prose seems deceptively simple, yet each sentence is crammed with detail and insight and there's not an ounce of fat anywhere in this book. What I loved most about 'This Is How' is the ability MJ Hyland has to look unflinchingly at something disturbing without judgement. At no point are we, as readers, instructed as to how we should view what we're seeing - Hyland has an incredible talent (I was going to say gift but that does a disrespect to the amount of work writing this good requires) for tilting the world slightly so we see things from another angle without telling us what to see or how to react.

This book is extraordinary and deserves to be widely read.