Is it a week since my last post? Well, obviously it is. There are reasons for this, none of which, sadly, have anything to do with writing. Anyway, last Sunday, the always excellent Jim Murdoch put up a startlingly thorough review of “Dot Dash” – so thorough in fact that I haven’t quite dared to read it all yet. However, the good news is that he starts his summary with:
This is a fine collection of short stories and well-balanced
so perhaps I should screw up my courage and give the review the close reading that it clearly deserves. There are, as I write, seven comments under the piece as well and I’m probably being extremely ill mannered by not joining in the discussion.
This was followed up by a wonderful review by crime writer (and fellow Salt author) Christina James of “Mrs Darcy versus the Aliens”, timed to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the publication of “Pride and Prejudice”. It’s always nice when a title that’s over a year old gets a bit of renewed attention, especially from someone who so obviously gets it.
What else? Oh yes, my poem “Bloody Italians” (the one that was Highly Commended in the Fire River Poets competition) has now gone up on their website. Click the “Highly Commended” button to read it.
And finally, bookings have opened for this year’s “Get Writing” conference. I’ll be saying a bit more about my workshop in due course, but in the meantime, here’s where you need to go to sign up.
I wouldn’t worry too much about the comments. It’s all gone a bit off-topic I’m afraid.
Ha 🙂 First law of internet comments at work there, then. Many thanks indeed for the review, Jim – very much appreciated.
Oops, managed to post my comment on FB instead of here. Must have been because I ‘liked’ the post first. Sorry.
No worries 🙂 And many thanks again for the fab review!
I’m really pleased that you liked the review, Jonathan. I love Jane Austen’s novels, but am frankly irritated by those people who profess to ‘understand’ everything about her as a person and everything about her books. My irritation came out, for example, here: http://christinajamesblog.com/2012/11/14/laura-thompsons-daily-telegraph-article-on-crime-fiction/
It is a pleasure to read satirical stuff, which is why I read Jane Austen… and you! I hope that my review will cause others to discover the joie-de-vivre which is ‘Mrs Darcy versus the Aliens’.
Congrats on the reviews, although it does make me wonder about the “received” wisdom that you should never read your own reviews. I suppose it depends on how thick your skin is. it’s great that yours is thick enough — although I would find it hard to believe that you would ever get a bad review, your work is so wonderful! But I must admit, I only read reviews of mine that are okay. I’m probably not big enough to put up with a pan.
Thank you 🙂 I know you shouldn’t read your reviews, but it’s hard to fight against the desire to see what other people think, isn’t it? Even if it means coming across something like this one occasionally. (Yep, I DO get bad reviews, and that one did hurt – particularly as they were right about the misspelling on the back cover :))