Blog neglect...

I’ve been slack on the blog front of late, for which I humbly apologise to those few of you poor souls that actually pop in to see what I’m up to.  But I have my reasons. 

The new novel The Outcast Gully Morgan ground to a halt at around 20k because I went back to Through the Eyes of Douglas to do a rewrite.  This rewrite ate up most of a month and inevitably took me away from the blog, not to mention a couple of reviews I had planned.  Incidentally, I won’t be doing any more reviews for the foreseeable future as they take up too much valuable time that would be better spent writing.  I am after all a writer and not a reviewer.  I’ll still flag up the odd novel I think deserves attention, like the two I read last week whilst on holiday: 

Then by Julie Myerson is psychologically complex delight and a read you’ll have to pay attention to as Myerson doesn’t write for dummies, but trust me when I say you’ll be rewarded for the effort.  Emotional and devastating and beautifully written. 

And here’s a novel I’ll be plugging the shit out of to every reader I know; it’s Patrick deWitt’s 2011 Man Booker Prize shortlisted gem The Sisters Brothers, a picaresque western set against the Californian gold rush and narrated by Eli Sisters, one half of the notorious guns-for-hire duo with his brother Charlie.  This book does what few literary novels do: it entertains.  Yes it’s deep and moving and painful, and will leave you thinking on it well after the book is closed and done, but it’s also a night out at the circus, with one colourful and splendid act following another.  It’s a fucking triumph, and you need to read it. 

So that’s what I’ve been doing, and I shall return soon.  I promise.