Not his best known book but this is an addictive mixture of biography, sociological study and adventure story, flipping from the experiences of biologist Richard Schultz in the 1940s to those of his student Wade Davis, 30 years later, exploring the Amazon basin. It explores …
Read MoreCockups in my proof
So, rookie mistake one, I’d left the guidelines on the cover template resulting in a dotted line around the different sections. Doofus. Easily fixed, though nothing is ever straightforward. To match the colours on the image I’d needed to flood fill with the colour code …
Read MoreHow Much Proof is Enough?
Well, it’s an exciting day for me. My first paperback proofs arrived just after I’d finished my scrambled eggs on toast (I wasn’t constantly checking the tracking information all morning, honestly). It’s always scary to reach the next new stage of the publication journey, and …
Read MoreThe Once and Future King – T.H. White
You may know this title best from Disney’s ‘Sword in the Stone’, or the classic musical ‘Camelot’, both of which are based on these books, but this five (four originally) part novel was a huge leap forward in retelling the King Arthur story in the …
Read MoreExtra to Yesterday’s post
You know what it’s like, you get something in your brain and it won’t go away. After I posted yesterday, I started thinking about common treads between the first two novels. Thankfully the plots are totally different but I realised there is a similar deconstruction …
Read MoreI’m a nice person, honest!
Just perusing a couple of lovely reviews that got posted on Amazon for Man in the Bath, and realised a pretty naive scheduling mistake I’ve made. The first comments (and no, as far as I’m aware I don’t know the reviewers) notes how the main …
Read MorePeaking Too Soon?
One of my major flaws is that I’m over eager, and that when I get a good idea I just want to get on and do it. In some ways this is a good thing, and keeps me motivated and moving, in others it can …
Read MorePoll Now Open
So for any of you wanting to guide my fate, make me suffer, or inspired to follow the process of writing from beginning to bitter end, the poll is now open at https://kitderrick.com/short-fictions/ (bottom of the page) to see which novel you’d like me to …
Read More‘Read Aloud’ function in Word
This revelation and discovery I can’t claim for myself, it was suggested to me by a reviewer but has made a massive difference to my writing, and is possible the biggest (free) help I’ve found. It may sound blindingly obvious, but it’s an option I’d …
Read MoreWriting
So, after the overwhelming (ahem) response to my offer of a series of blogposts on the writing process, I came to two conclusions. First, on reflection, there’s hundreds of those buggers out there, and while my insights and truthful and thrilling journey might be unique, …
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