(first given as a speech to the IBBY Conference, London 14th November 2015) Today I’m going to do something rather un-British. I’m going to talk about money. Not the sort most writers earn – that would clearly be a pretty short speech – but the swing from editorial to marketing power that I’ve witnessed in […]
Tips for Writers
Tips for Writers by Nicky Singer When people ask me for writing tips, I always remember the remark of the agent who turned down my first novel. ‘Is there any hope?’ I asked. ‘Well,’ he replied, ‘at least you’ve finished a book. Most people want to have written a book, but far fewer actually want […]
Does This Bomb Cross Your Boundary?
My novel – The Innocent’s Story – is a dangerous book. (This article written on first publication of Innocent’s Story 2005) I didn’t know that when I wrote it. I thought it was a serious and moral attempt to contextualise terrorism for children. If the idea of talking to children about suicide bombing makes you […]
The Good, The Bad & the Opera
Is every soul born good? This is the question which opens my novel Knight Crew. I’d written a 150 pages of the book – my re-telling of the King Arthur legend set in contemporary gangland – when I was invited to a Music-in-Prisons event at Prison A. (This article first appeared as a guest blog […]