-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
"Some memories shape what is to come. others undo who we've been"
To this day, I’m still baffled when someone mutters that “listening to an audiobook” is not reading. Do a little search on Google or your favourite social platform and the debate will come up. I started listening to audiobooks a few years ago, maybe it was during the pandemic, I can’t really remember, as a…
Last year, I was selected to enrol in the Writing Fantasy course at Curtis Brown Creative after submitting the opening of a new novel filled with fantasy and Mesoamerican magical realism. For the purpose of this post, we’ll call it SLM. My course tutor was Lucy Holland, pen name of Lucy Hounsom, author of Sistersong…
Writing is an accumulation of effort, not a deadline reached. Just when you think you’re hitting a milestone, you encounter a new one. The job is never done. It’s constantly evolving. So the question is: when is a writer happy? A writer is happy along the way. And suffering along the way. It lives in…
It’s been a while since I posted here, and this time I have strong excuses. I have been busy at work, training for a marathon, breaking my shoulder (that’s a tale for another time) and writing not one, but two books. Yes. Two books at the same time. I did not do it on purpose,…
A few weeks ago, I added another number to my age — which means I’ve grown, at least arithmetically. But does that mean I’ve grown wiser, too? Hard to say on either count. Each passing year brings physical and mental changes — new aches, new thoughts, new memories — but not necessarily self-change. What I…
There’s something strikingly reassuring about stepping into a bookshop. I suppose it’s the comfort of knowing you will be surrounded by one of your favourite things in the world – if there ever is a dog bar and bookshop – that’ll be my all-time treasured place. It might also be the feeling that, knowing there’s…
People ask me this question often. I suppose it makes sense — we’ve lived in many places over the years, so curiosity follows. Usually, the question comes as a gentler way of asking, “Where are you from?” or the more direct, “Where were you born?” But is “Where is home?” really a synonym for either…
If you walk through any park in Spain — I usually find myself in El Retiro with my dogs — you’ll always spot someone on a bench or sitting on the grass, completely absorbed in a book. Take the underground, and you’ll see several commuters spending time in pages, whether seated or standing. Reading is…
It’s often said that in order to be a writer, one must make himself a reader. In essence, I think that’s a true statement – but in reality I feel I am a reader and a writer, sometimes they come as a bundle, but more often than not, I am one or the other. In…
There’s something about a writing deadline that gives you sudden, sharp focus. I think it’s the knowledge that you have a limited number of days, hours, and minutes to make the words as perfect as they can be. These deadlines come in all shapes and sizes. It might be your editor waiting for the text;…
David Cuen 