I am at the moment reading the story of how Dr Johnson developed his original English dictionary (through Dr Johnson’s Dictionary: The Extraordinary Story of the Book That Defined the World, by Henry Hitchings), and it should really be required reading for all writers because it contains some amazing insights and examples for methods of working that apply just as much today as they did in the 18th century.

First   (more...)

I started out this blog (in fact, it’s one and only post) talking about how I was going to talk about what it was like to be a writer and the many things that you ultimately end up having to do and deal with as you cope with becoming and working as a writer.

It seems only appropriate that I should make my next post on the pitfalls that lead you to never following through on your original thoughts.

That first post was back in December 2005 - eight months   (more...)

I resisted the lure of blogs for many years, not really seeing the need or requirement to maintain a constant commentary on my life or the sites I visited. Mostly that could have been because the sites I visited tended to be the same. However, when I was LAMP Technologies Editor at LinuxWorld we were given blogs and I used it as an easy and convenient way to publish material without going through the lengthy process for getting stuff onto the website or into the magazine.

As   (more...)