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Showing posts from 2015

Never undersell yourself

In 1991 Gerald Ratner wiped £500 million pounds off the value of his business following one speech after suggesting the merchandise his jewellery business sold was total crap. So what does this have to do with you? Over the past year or so I have noticed a lot of up and coming authors being incredibly self-depricating. Phrases along the lines of "I've written some stuff but it's not very good." Why would you say that? It is all very well to be coy about your ability but you are essentially saying "Do not bother reading my work because you will not like it." I get that it is a defence mechanism whereby you get the dig in before someone does it to you (hell, I've done it myself so you can call me a hypocrite). There is a very British tradition which suggests we should not be too brash or bold, that we should not tout our wares in public. And that can be fine to a degree. I personally think you should be promoting the value of your writing but I caveat

It's been a while

Testing, testing, is anyone still out there. Well it's been a while since I last posted to this site. Why? The simple reason was really life. And, having given up The Prediction, I didn't have somewhere I needed to keep swept and polished for all the visitors that I was receiving previously. In the 18+ months since my last post (wow, has it been that long?) I've been busy with writing although there are loads of authors out there who would easily put my output to shame. I've mainly been writing short stories and have been fortunate to have a number published (see the right hand side of this blog for the stories and blogs). I also have been asked to write a novella for a great independent press. Not naming names in case the final output is not up to scratch but I am very excited about the opportunity to say the least. The reason I've decided to dust this blog off a bit because in author bios I point people here but 'here' was looking quite neglected. I h