Category Archives: Authors

Writers’ quote of the day: Stuart Kaminsky on writing historical novels

Posted on 29/05/2012 by

‘What do people do when they write historical novels?  Research.  Basic to all such books is the belief that human nature remains constant, that people change because of their circumstances and location, in addition to their time in history.  The … Continue reading →

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Ralph McInerny on learning writing technique

Posted on 20/05/2012 by

‘Under the tutelage of my first editor . . . I learned to turn hitherto shapeless narratives into stories.  Later I saw that I was learning the hard way what I had read about in Aristotle’s Poetics.  And I was constrained … Continue reading →

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Writers’ quote of the day: Ralph McInerny on the difference between a serious writer and a dilettante

Posted on 19/05/2012 by

‘The difference between a serious writer and a dilettante lies in their contrasting attitudes toward technique.  The dilettante writes to amuse himself, an easy task, but the serious writer seeks to interest a reader.  Over my typewriter I pinned the … Continue reading →

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Writers’ quote of the day: Fred Vargas on her ‘police procedural’ crime novels

Posted on 12/05/2012 by

‘[My first novel] Les Jeux de l’amour et de la mort [Games of Love and Death] was a very bad book.  My ambition was to find some music in the language, but I made the mistake of thinking the plot had … Continue reading →

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Writers’ quote of the day: Deon Meyer’s advice to would-be novelists

Posted on 10/05/2012 by

‘The best advice is: sit down and write.  It might sound simple, but I find that a lot of would-be writers talk about it much more than actually doing it.  Writing, like all skills, is only developed when you apply yourself.’ … Continue reading →

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Quote of the day: G. K. Chesterton on the tyranny of militantly secularist governments

Posted on 05/05/2012 by

‘Once abolish the God, and the government becomes the God.  That fact is written all across human history; but it is written most plainly across that recent history of Russia; which was created by Lenin.  There the Government is the … Continue reading →

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Writers’ quote of the day: Reginald Hill on research

Posted on 04/05/2012 by

‘Johnson says wisely that just as important as knowledge of a subject is knowing where to find out about it.  I own many reference tomes, I make jottings in notebooks, and I tear articles out of journals, but on the … Continue reading →

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Quote of the day: C. S. Lewis on encountering God

Posted on 01/05/2012 by

‘You have had a shock like that before, in connection with smaller matters – when the line pulls at your hand, when something breathes beside you in the darkness.  So here; the shock comes at the precise moment when the thrill … Continue reading →

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American mystery writer Mildred Davis: A bibliography

Posted on 28/04/2012 by

A uselful annotated bibliography of Mildred Davis’ mystery output can be found here.

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Writers’ quote of the day: Reginald Hill on plot

Posted on 20/04/2012 by

‘Plot is the basis of narrative interest, the force that drives a reader along paths which ahead seem totally mysterious, but behind appear as clear as day.  It is easy to mystify.  The good mystery writer’s real skill lies in … Continue reading →

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Quote of the day: Iris Murdoch on why William Shakespeare will always be more important than Richard Dawkins

Posted on 29/03/2012 by

‘We are men and we are moral agents before we are scientists, and the place of science in human life must be discussed in words.  This is why it is and always will be more important to know about Shakespeare … Continue reading →

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Quote of the day: G. K. Chesterton on the Christian ideal

Posted on 15/03/2012 by
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Quote of the day: Fulton Sheen on avoiding the Cross

Posted on 14/03/2012 by
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If you like good detective fiction, read Fred Vargas

Posted on 24/02/2012 by

I’ve been enjoying the novels of French mystery writer Fred Vargas, in particular these three: They are excellent and I particularly like Wash This Blood Clean From My Hand, which is partly set in Quebec. If you like crime fiction … Continue reading →

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Writers’ quote of the day: Kingsley Amis on one of the chief pleasures of writing!

Posted on 20/02/2012 by

‘If you can’t annoy somebody, there’s little point in writing.’ ~ Kingsley Amis

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John Christopher (Christopher Samuel Youd), science-fiction writer: born 16 April 1922, died 3 February 2012

Posted on 08/02/2012 by

I was saddened to hear of the death of John Christopher, an important British science fiction author.  Details and tributes here: John Christopher obituary Samuel Youd – aka John Christopher – dies aged 89 John Christopher’s imaginative universe Although most of … Continue reading →

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Writers’ quote of the day: Linwood Barclay on how to become a writer

Posted on 23/01/2012 by

‘Everyone’s path is different, but there two things you have to be doing.  You have to be writing.  And you have to be reading.  You learn so much from reading a variety of different writers.  I believe that if you’re … Continue reading →

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Quote of the day: William H. Gass on the pleasure of reading old books

Posted on 21/01/2012 by

‘Books didn’t figure in my family very much . . . However, my grandmother’s attic was full of old, old books . . . In the summers we would go to North Dakota to visit her, and I would get … Continue reading →

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Writers’ quote of the day: Ken Follett on outlining and rewriting

Posted on 14/01/2012 by

‘Everything is planned.  I spent a long time outlining.  It’s the only way I know to get all the ducks in a row . . . The research is the easiest.  The outline is the most fun because you can … Continue reading →

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Quote of the day: Reginald Hill on writing bestselling crime fiction

Posted on 13/01/2012 by

‘When I get up in the morning, I ask my wife whether I should write a Booker prize-winning novel, or another bestselling crime book.  We always come down on the side of the crime book.’ ~ Reginald Hill

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Marilynne Robinson on ‘The Book of Books: What Literature Owes the Bible’

Posted on 11/01/2012 by

The Book of Books: What Literature Owes the Bible by Marilynne Robinson In its emphatic insistence that the burden of meaning is shared in every life, the Bible may only give expression to a truth most of us know intuitively.  But … Continue reading →

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The writer’s New Year resolution, this year and every year

Posted on 02/01/2012 by

‘Read a lot, write a lot is the great commandment.’ ~ Stephen King

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N. T. Wright disagrees with Pope Benedict (and the secular minimalist Maurice Casey); interesting thoughts ensue

Posted on 29/12/2011 by

What Benedict Doesn’t Get About Jesus by N. T. Wright

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Alexander Lucie-Smith asks: Is the Catholic writer Hilaire Belloc best forgotten?

Posted on 05/12/2011 by

Is Belloc best forgotten?  The Catholic writer is nowadays neglected, but much of his writing is florid, dull and unreadable, says Alexander Lucie-Smith. Belloc . . . wrote far too many books, most of which were hurried productions, indeed not … Continue reading →

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Writers’ quote of the day: how thriller-writer Daniel Silva writes his books (and what he wears while writing)

Posted on 01/12/2011 by

‘I am something of a creature of habit.  I work seven days a week, from early in the morning until six thirty in the evening, when I stop to watch the evening news.  My work clothing never varies: gray sweatpants … Continue reading →

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