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- XX or XY? Do readers care about gender of author? June 17, 2013
- Guest Author – Susan Elliot Wright on Writing a Dual Narrative June 10, 2013
- Let’s all talk about GONE GIRL June 4, 2013
- This Itch of Writing
- Guardian Book Blog
- The best books on Egypt: start your reading here | Pushpinder Khaneka June 19, 2013 Pushpinder Khaneka
- A note on Neil Gaiman's politics June 18, 2013 Paul Owen
- Neil Gaiman in conversation June 17, 2013 Paul Owen
- The Forest for the Trees — Betsy Lerner
- I Love You Just the Way You Are June 16, 2013
- I’m Trying To Beat Life Cause I Can’t Cheat Death June 3, 2013
- Could It Be That It Was All So Simple Then May 30, 2013
- Kathy Greethurst’s Blog
- Untitled January 10, 2013 Kathy Greethurst
- Bloody Flies by Andrew J Keir - Review by Helena Frith Powell June 7, 2012 Kathy Greethurst
- A wonderful afternoon in Avebury February 22, 2012 Kathy Greethurst
- How Publishing Really Works
- Does The Self-Publishing Review Fall For Robert Duperre? March 29, 2012
- The Self-Publishing Review Goes In Search Of The Menopause Ranch March 22, 2012
- Travelling To The Self-Published Review March 15, 2012
- Female PTSD — A Blog By A Brave Female Victim of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
- Help I Need A Publisher
- I'm still here... December 31, 2012
- All my advice about publishing and writing September 4, 2012
- Two last questions for DEAR CRABBIT September 3, 2012
- The Elephant in the Writing Room
- Sunshine and Showers June 15, 2013
- Not a lot of writing but a whole load of reading... June 5, 2013
- Jon and the Pacemakers May 31, 2013
- Bren Gosling’s Blog (ex-City Novel coursemate)
- Short listed for the Harry Bowling Prize ! January 30, 2012 Bren Gosling
- About - Sweeping up the Village- by Bren Gosling January 16, 2012 Bren Gosling
- A taster... December 22, 2011 Bren Gosling
- Charlotte Haigh MacNeil’s Blog (ex-City Novel Coursemate and Journalist)
- The real reason insomniacs can’t sleep June 7, 2013
- The myth of delayed motherhood May 18, 2013
- The extreme female brain February 21, 2013
- Michael Braga Writes (ex-City Novel coursemate)
- THE SIGNS -A short story by Michael Braga Oct 2010 October 10, 2010
- Friday thoughts on a Monday afternoon September 6, 2010
- The pursuit of sadness August 25, 2010
- Sometimes I Lie A Little
- Some Things That
- Moira Garland’s Blog
- Partisan writing April 11, 2013
- Brain error? April 7, 2013
- Longing April 4, 2013
- Talli Roland
- Pavilion in the Park June 17, 2013
- Sex. On Tuesdays. Or Not. June 10, 2013
- Notting Hill Press Launches! June 3, 2013
- Charlie Mackle
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Author Archives: Michael Clarke
Falling, Yes I Am Falling
The photo above is not, as my friends at Love Art London tweeted, me doing a ‘flying squirrel impression’ but me being a serious, living artwork in Amy Sharrocks’ studio in Chelsea — and she’s a real artist! To my … Continue reading
Posted in Research
Tagged Amy Sharrocks, art, bonkers, Chelsea, falling, Go Ape!, London, Love Art London, Museum of Water, performance art
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Eurovision, Bowie and Homogeneity
It’s been so long since the last post I’ve taken inspiration from the chiller at the end of the aisle in my local Tesco and have produced three posts for the price of one. Last Saturday night, primed after a … Continue reading
Posted in General Life, Influences, Research, Writing Process
Tagged agents, art, BBC, BBC Nationwide, Bernard Falk, Capital, Cliff Richard, Creative Writing Classes, david bowie, Eurovision Song Contest, feedback, high concept, homogeneity, Isabel Costello, John Lanchester, Olivia Newton John, Pete Domican, Research, Rules of Creative Writing, song lyrics, swivel-eyed loons, The Literary Sofa, Twitter, V&A museum. verbasizer, Words and Pictures, workshops, X-Factor
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Alexis Cole — Transcendence
One of the questions that recurs in my novel is the importance of location — especially for artists.In my novel Kim is a German artist who has arrived to London from Berlin in the expectation that it’s the place to … Continue reading
Posted in Research
Tagged agents, Alexis Cole, art, art galleries, artists, bookshops, Brick Lane, Damien Hirst, Kim, London, Mat Collishaw, Publishing, Research, setting, Shoreditch, theme, Transcendence
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Subscribe to MacNovel
Look to the sidebar on the right and see an exciting development — something that this blog’s been missing that I’ve now hopefully remedied. It’s a ‘follow this blog’ mailing list. To be alerted whenever a new post is added … Continue reading
Agent Hunter
Sounds like some kind of Skyfall clone doesn’t it, but Agent Hunter is a new source of information that might be almost as valuable to aspiring authors as state secrets to 007. It’s a new website that has collated a huge … Continue reading
Posted in Publishing
Tagged Agent Hunter, agents, Harry Bingham, Publishing, Twitter, websites, Writers' Workshop.
1 Comment
Looking At The View
I was walking to the station a few days ago — the long way round because the footpath over the fields is too muddy (see the melting snow in the photo) and noticed a wonderful sunrise emerging over the tops … Continue reading
Posted in Research
Tagged art, artists, Caspar David Friedrich, Chequers, Chilterns, Hanover, JMW Turner, John Constable, John Nash, Kim, Kurt Schwitters, landscape painting, landscapes, National Gallery, Research, Royal Academy, setting, Tate Britain
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The Night Rainbow
Last night I went to my first book launch — Claire King, author of The Night Rainbow (published today by Bloomsbury) was kind enough to invite me to Daunt Books on Marylebone High Street for the event. Unlike many of the people … Continue reading
Posted in Publishing
Tagged book launches, claire king, Debi Alper, Isabel Costello, Pete Domican, the Night Rainbow, Twitter
3 Comments
Point of View
The point from which this view can be seen is unique — with that tremendous triangular shadow — and it’s only been open a week. I must have been very lucky to have caught a moment where the sun … Continue reading
Posted in Influences
Tagged Cheesegrater, London, marketing, setting, Shoreditch, The City, The Shard, Village Underground, Walkie Talkie
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Parallel Lines
Last week I ventured into deepest Stoke Newington for another fascinating Love Art London event. I wasn’t sure what to expect in advance of visit to Rana Begum‘s studio. The Love Art London website promised that ‘tightly controlled compositions, hard-edge … Continue reading
Posted in Research
Tagged art, artists, London, Love Art London, Rana Begum, Stoke Newington
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In-Out, In-Out, Shake It All About?
The Hokey Cokey seems to possess the same level of serious reasoning as did last week’s unconvincing and desperately tactical David Cameron speech on an ‘in-out’ referendum on British membership of the EU. His gambling with the country’s political relationship with … Continue reading
Posted in Frustrations
Tagged artists, Conservative Party, David Cameron, David Lidington, Degenerate Art, entartete Künst, EU, Europe, European culture, Eurosceptics, Germany, Hackney, James, Kim, London, Research, setting, Shoreditch, theme, UKIP, Winston Churchill, Working in Europe, World War I, World War II
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Transmitted
I wrote in a post over three and a half months ago about the MMU MA Creative Writing ‘Transmission Project’. That’s the second largest piece of assessed work on the course, which was due to be submitted in September. As … Continue reading
London: Thank You For 2012
I couldn’t end 2012 without something for my Shardenfreude followers. I’ve had a fair number of hits on the blog over the past couple of years looking for photos of its construction and now it’s finished and shining like a, … Continue reading
There’s Nothing Quite Like A Flaming Pudding
My novel has a lot of food in it — and probably one of the most consistent pieces of feedback that I’ve received from the many and varied people who’ve been kind enough to read parts of the manuscript (or … Continue reading
Posted in Influences, Research
Tagged Christmas, Christmas dinner, cookbooks, cooking, Delia Smith, Denis Healey, feedback, food, Nothing But Onions, port jelly, Research, restaurants, theme, turkey, UFOs, Waitrose
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The Blog That Wouldn’t Crunch
This blog has been a bit quiet recently — and for a change it’s not down to my indolence or procrastination. Over Christmas I had a serious technical problem. When I tried to upload photos, processing (oddly called ‘crunching’) never … Continue reading
Posted in Frustrations
Tagged blog, blogging, day job, James, photography, secret nerd, technology, websites, wordpress
3 Comments
Shoreditch Blonde
There’s a report on the BBC website today about the increasing fashionability and popularity of craft brewing in London. Its main focus is the Beavertown Brewery in Hackney where the brewer is Robert Plant’s son. A few years ago … Continue reading
Beaten To It?
…but hopefully not with a paddle. I spotted this in W.H.Smith at Northampton services on the M1 last weekend. I’d realised my novel’s title is a bit of a hostage to fortune. I like it because it works in conjunction … Continue reading
Know What You Write
I’ve recently been writing a new scene for the novel involving street art. As readers of the blog will know, I’ve spent plenty of time recently learning about street art and observing it around Shoreditch (on Thursday this week I was … Continue reading
Posted in Influences, Research
Tagged Adam Neate, art, art galleries, artists, Berlin, Elms Lesters Painting Rooms, graffiti, Kim, Love Art London, method acting, psychology, setting, sex, Shoreditch, Street art, Tate Gallery
2 Comments
A Flying View of London
This weekend I visited the latest fascinating addition to London’s skyline, a construction that would probably have attracted a lot more attention had it not opened immediately before the Olympics — an event it was partly conceived to serve. Its … Continue reading
Posted in Influences, Research
Tagged cable car, Canary Wharf, East London, Emirates Air Line, Greenwich, London, O2 Arena, Olympic Legacy, Olympics, pubs, setting, Shoreditch, Tap East, Thames, The City, The Shard
7 Comments
The Accidental Street Art Photographer
This weekend is one of the biggest in the London art world with the huge Frieze exhibitions in Regent’s Park and many associated events. In 2010 Village Underground started to host the Moniker art fair, which is a showcase for … Continue reading
Posted in Research
Tagged amanda marie, artists, creative writing, Facebook, Kim, moniker art fair, Shoreditch, stencilling, Street art, Village Underground
1 Comment
