One Hundred Thousand Words A milestone has been reached in this blog series. After publishing I always cut and paste a copy of my latest post into a word document as another backup. That word document containing all the posts from Inside the Fiction Factory to date, now amounts to a little over a hundred … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 170
In Between The Gaps I was lucky enough to receive an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this new novel by T.L. Dyer. These ARC’s feature towards the end of the writing process, shortly before the novel is due for publication. They act as a final sanity-check for the author before the public at large can … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 157
Writing Update July 2024 I blogged last time I was writing two thousand words a day in order to complete draft one and was two weeks in. I kept up this routine and finished the first draft of the next novel in the Kill series. I also mentioned it was called The Kill Flag and … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 96
Writing Update June 2024 After a number of stops and starts with various projects including a follow-up novella to EVA, a second book featuring my yet to be published detective series set in a dystopian Edinburgh and then a new novel dealing with Artificial Intelligence, I found myself with the publisher of my cybercrime novel … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 95
January Update 2024 It’s been a busy start to the year. I’ve been out to Culross again, a place I’ve blogged about previously. I decided to take a different route, due to the appalling state of the road I would usually take in. The number of potholes on Scottish roads is truly astounding, so I … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 82
Robert Burns The 25th of January is Burns day, when all around the world, people celebrate the life and work of Robert Burns. As a Scot, my introduction to poetry was through Burns, because as a lad that was the way it was. My father read Burns and school introduced me to the poems. Members … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 78
2023 One novella published, two novels drafted, two keynote conference presentations delivered, donated blood three times, performed four live shows with the Cabaret of Dangerous Ideas, made my fourth appearance at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, visited six countries, and have taken a Spanish lesson every single day. It’s been a busy year. The Kill Switch, … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 73
Short stories I’ve written a few short stories and self-published them on Amazon. I’ve many more in draft, still waiting to be finished up. My focus has been on novels and with my goal of writing at least one novel a year, the short stories tend to take a backseat. On two occasions, a short … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 10
William Gibson next to Dan Brown I’ve presented around a hundred lectures on cyber security throughout the last year, while attending a variety of security conferences, roundtables and fireside chats. I like to use my bookcases as my background when doing remote sessions and these have proved popular with delegates. I always take audience questions … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 9
The NASA approach to writing I love a good pun and make no apology for it. One of my favourites is, I’m going to use the NASA approach to writing this novel and plan it. I have written in freefall (another space reference) and each morning just carried on writing without a plan, in the … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 7
The Fiction Factory 