Author: Colin Marks
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Course Decisions
At school, timetable clashes forced me to choose between art and biology. I told my wife this to justify my ignorance, but she was intolerant, shouting obscenities and slapping me at every opportunity. We had organised a water birth, so a rainy afternoon, gridlocked on the North Circular wasn’t a substitute. Nevertheless, helped by Google and memories…
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Father
My father went to buy a paper when I was six and never returned. Occasionally I wonder how he is, what he’s doing. My memories are of a giant, cradling me during a bedtime story, kissing my forehead, whispering secretively into my ear that I’m his favourite. I can’t picture how he’d look now. One day,…
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Review: Plot & Structure: Techniques and exercises for crafting a plot that grips readers from start to finish
Plot & Structure: Techniques and exercises for crafting a plot that grips readers from start to finish by James Scott Bell My rating: 5 of 5 stars I did love this book. I read it from cover to cover within a week of buying it, and am fairly certain I’ll be returning to it again…
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Review: Hostile Witness
Hostile Witness by Rebecca Forster My rating: 4 of 5 stars I tried really hard not to like this book. I happened to stumble over it whilst searching for something else, noticed it was free and without expecting too much, decided to give it a pop. The first few chapters introduced cliches typical of the…
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Review: Summer
Summer by Edith Wharton My rating: 4 of 5 stars I enjoyed this book. Whilst it was wordy in places, the prose was well written and the book moved along at a good pace. One thing to say, though written in 1917, this is a very modern book, both in language and theme, and any…
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Review: The Jewel of Seven Stars
The Jewel of Seven Stars by Bram Stoker My rating: 3 of 5 stars This was a book of two halves… I loved the start, got really into it, then it almost seemed like Bram Stoker got bored of it himself near the middle. The plot whittled away the further into the book you go,…
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Review: Hollowland
Hollowland by Amanda Hocking My rating: 4 of 5 stars A solid, teen novel. Silly and predictable, but a stonking good read… View all my reviews
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Review: Serial
Serial by Jack Kilborn My rating: 3 of 5 stars I liked this. The two initial parts created some interesting characters, but then sadly it ended just as it was getting rolling. This would make a good novel length story… View all my reviews
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About Blogging
Why blog? When I started writing, I decided I wanted to do it to the best of my ability. I bought the books and scoured the Internet, and over time, in my opinion, my writing improved. Obviously that’s a personal point of view, but for the sake of the hours I put into it, my…
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Competitions aren’t just about winning…
In the beginning It was a competition that encouraged me to to write. I’d always planned to ‘knock out a novel’ at some point in my life but there was always something with a higher priority and lower importance that seemed to get in the way (drinking, watching TV, etc.). As the saying goes, deadlines…