The Latest Articles From The Litopia Ā® Author Platform ā¢
Potentially Dangerous to Health
If you are offered sugar in an exotic location, make sure itās not high-fructose.
Baking day
Baking tomorrowās memories
Bringing back treasured memories of baking days gone by.
Conflict
What's the worst that can happen?
Join me as I explore the different types of narrative conflict.
"This time, it's personal."
Itās not just about plot. Itās about stakes, conflict, and why we care.
Notes from a Writer among Dancers
Chaos, adverbs, metaphors, and a director shouting āFOCUS!ā
Keeping Readers Turning the Page
Three powerful tricks to raise stakes + keep your novel gripping.
Jonathon
Another Life Well Lived
A tribute to friendship, and a life well lived against the odds.
How faster will we go?
Do you take your time when readingāor rush through books like everything else in life?
Trigger warning - suicide
Sometimes writing goes beyond craft ā it becomes a lifeline and a way to process trauma.
On Artistic Courage in the Face of Doubt
Sometimes things collide in the most unexpected ways. On the one hand, I am slowly picking my way through Conversations with Goethe in the Later Yearsā¦
A list of writing reminders-to-self
Craft notes every writer wishes theyād pinned above their desk.
You Have Been Warned
In the event of a hat-pinching miscreant suddenly appearing, itās good to know your companions will always have your backā¦ regardless of how old they are.
Writer Beware
AI is coming for you!
Scammers are getting smarter (and scarier) with AI. Fake book clubs, bogus invoices, even emails that seem to know your plot. Writers, stay sharp.
Bad advice
Who do you think you are?
Advice comes from lots of places, just make sure the one giving it knows what they're talking about...
Farty Towels?
Hospitality: The art of making guests feel at home while secretly wishing they'd leave.
This isnāt fiction ā itās the day-to-day reality of running a place where guests have been coming for over forty years!
From Colonial Coins to Cosmic Serpents
What will future civilisations read in our leftovers?
A Bristol Pilgrimage
It may surprise you to know that whilst Fantasy is 'not my genre,' one of the most enduring influences on my creativity is Diana Wynne Jones, and I've recently been on a quest to find the place where the magic came from.
It wasn't the Banana Arms
Conversations between two old men may cause significant raising of eyebrows. They may be chatting about medication, past glories and bowel movementsā¦ if they can remember where they went last night, of course.
Inspiration, perspiration and (sleep) deprivation
So why the hell did I choose to write a dual timeline, time travelling adventure mystery as my first novel? Well, to be honest, I didnātā¦
Where the Leftovers Go
Why was the new guy caressing a car at 3am?
A few words about awesomeness
At 48, I went back to college. Everyone else was 18. Instead of a generation gap, they called me The Bevster, dragged me to Harry Potter parties, and showed me what generosity looks like. One day, theyāll be running the world. Itās going to be awesome. #Hope #Kindness #NextGeneration
The Welsh One
Baring My Celtic Soul
From Cardiffās seafront to the peaks of Snowdonia, from Shirley Bassey to JPR Williams, this poem is about belonging, identity, and that Celtic spark that shines brighter than midnight stars. Read it, feel it, and tell me... where does your heart call home?
What should we do about them?
Self-publishing? Donāt skip the copy editor. Typos kill credibility faster than bad reviews. A polished book = a pro author.
On Slippery Foods and Stubborn Hospitality
A hidden village. Mysterious green tentacles. Two women wage war over a stranger.
After the epic journey, what's next?
The road goes ever on. How Tolkien changed me, and a phone app helped bring me closer.
And Still We Wait
I recently told you about a trip to A&E. This is how the night unfolded.
The Art of Waiting
Back in March, I regaled you all with tales of the bizarre night time world of the emergency department.Ā Last night, we were back for more.
Let's put them to rest and be more creative
Let's put to rest tired old characterizations in our writing and come up with better plot points.
The Challenge of Naming Invented Creatures
Bearcats, hobbits and robots, oh my! The difficult art of naming fictional species.
Lives Well Lived
They Overcame
We've all got stories, tales, yarns to tell... fiction, faction or non-fiction, but few of us have life stories that last for a hundred years. This piece features snippets from the lives of a centenarian and his almost-centenarian wife.
The truth of writing with children.
Kids light up your world, but sometimes you just want a few minutes in the dark to get stuff done.
Joyous Enemies!
Adventures in Accidental Shakespeare
When the lesson plan goes awry, the teacher learns something too!
A Nostalgia Trip From the Back of the Stack
'Thereās More to Love Than Boy Meets Girl', as The Communards sang.Ā I learned this and more from the music of my adolescence.
Stakes
What is your character risking?
What keeps a reader turning the pages? From exploring the different types of stakes to top tips for heightening them, I delve into the world of risk, tension, choices and consequences.
Until I find You
The Quest for the Perfect Novel Title
On realising that the working title of my novel was Marmite - loved by some; reviled by many others - I set out on a quest to find a better one.
She Loved Me Not
The glint in her eye was too risky
A hapless young man's quest for love in limerick format (what else?) is thwarted again and again. Caution! No smut on display.
The Importance of Travel Writing
Got wanderlust? Social media sells the destination. Travel writing tells the story
How Royal Match gave me life lessons
TBH, phone games are not where I expected to get life-lessons, but I downloaded Royal Match and here we are. Turns out I'm not the kind of person I thought I was at all.
Why I Always Say Yes to Strange Fruit
The Shadow Durian ā an innocent-looking durian with a secret agenda
The allure of arrogance
Confidence, self-belief, self-assurance. We like these words, yes. But imma go full-throttle and reclaim Arrogance as being the Diva word for them all. Think Tigger with brains. There you go.
peeps a-scoffin' al fresco pies
Itās sobering to think that while summer is celebrated in some parts of the world with music festivals, sporting tournaments, flower shows, fringe festivals, craft fairs, parties in the park, etc, people in other parts of the world are struggling to put nutritious food in their childrenās bellies. And in yet other parts of the world, they are too busy firing missiles at each other. My poem, therefore, is sadly only about modern summer living in some parts of the world.
Falcon Theory
A Medieval Romance, a German Nobel Laureate, and Your Novella
What a medieval Italian falcon can teach you about writing compelling novellas, with a little help from 19th-century German literature.
Adventures in Short Fiction
While my first novel is tentatively making its way towards agents who already have too much to read, Iāve been wondering which other slush-piles might need feeding, and Iāve discovered the wonderful world of literary magazines.
What can a lowly independent writer do?
What can a writer do to promote their work?
Automated Pollination and Unexpected Ecosystem Interactions
When science fiction meets satire: A hypothetical field study on pollination drones and an unexpected complication.
How many can you identify?
Time to put your knowledge to the test! How many of these fifteen novels can you recognise just from their opening lines?
Aim for two point seven five
An old man's visit to the barber
The Querying, the Phone Call and the Edits
What's it like to get an offer of representation from a literary agent? What can the author-agent relationship look like?
Danger! Danger!
Where the Little Things Rule
What do locals dread most in Borneo's rainforest? Cobras? Nope. Sun bears? Nah. Clouded leopards? Not quite. Reticulated pythons? Think smaller...
A visit to the Isle of Wight
COVID restrictions eased, so we made a dash for freedom.