Never give up.
You won't ever finish crafting your cursed crown of ancient bones until you get out there, wander through twilight forests, and follow ghosts to their mossy forgotten tombs.
I am now on "WritingMonth" as robparsons. Who can I buddy with?
In 2018 I also signed up to a cafe writing course, which I did with my daughter. We both thoroughly enjoyed it, and I think I annoyed our teacher* by nearly always subverting the assignment. I think that as well helped me to recognise that whatever I write is always going to be subversive, one way or another.
*We are on good terms now.
#WritersCoffeeClub 26 how I developed my voice
I have to give credit to the Literal Challenge and their annual Prose challenge. (Doesn't exist now.) I signed up to write 30 short pieces in 30 days. And again for the next three years and gradually discovered through them my voice and my genre - fantasy (though I still do other genres). Up to that point I'd always seen myself as a) realist and b) crime or thriller, but I finally recognised that fantasy just kicks me off into another level.
"As the occupying Power exercising effective control, #Israel is bound by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in the occupied #Palestinian territory. Article 19 protects the freedom to seek, receive and impart information through any media" -- @FranceskAlbs
Finally somebody in a position of influence telling the truth "Blaming a moribund economy on too many rules is a hackneyed neoliberal trope – UK plc needs smarter regulation, not less regulation" https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/oct/25/cutting-red-tape-is-nothing-but-a-red-herring-and-arguably-counterproductive #UKPolitics
#ScribesAndMakers 25/10: What's something you accomplished this past week?
Survival, to be honest. My penultimate week of radiotherapy, which is all going well, cancer is well under control; they're zapping the final bits of it, but the side effects are cumulative and I have progressed from feeling Slightly Crap to Crap and next week, the last, they tell me, I will feel Really Crap.
But I have been able to fill out quite a bit of my book bible, so that's something.
#WritersCoffeeClub 25 Oct. Tell us about inspiration from an unlikely source.
My supermarket delivery driver. And the idea's too good to divulge yet. 😆
Article on Netflix's current convulsions boils down to "when was the last time you watched a truly great new show on #netflix Well, not for a long time, but I can fill all my watching time and more with lots of truly great old shows. But - capitalism 101: we are culturally bullied into requiring everything new, otherwise people stop buying stuff.
I've just finished John Wiswell's The Dragon Has Some Complaints. It is brilliant. #books #AmReading
#WritersCoffeeClub Oct 23: How do you make sure you deliver on your writerly promises?
I don't make promises.
<Rob slinks away into a quiet corner>
Among things I did not expect to happen today was a radiographer saying to me, "You need to fart".
Came home at rush hour today for the first time in over a decade, passing a three mile long queue that went from one roundabout to another on the bypass. And it struck me very forcefully what a bonkers way it is to organise the world that we make billions of people work in a different place to where they live.
“One of the great tragedies of man’s long trek along the highway of history has been the limiting of neighbourly concern to tribe, race, class or nation.” Martin Luther King 1963
Are they sure this is a sarcophagus? It looks to me like a loaf of wholemeal. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/oct/21/mystery-roman-sarcophagus-westminster-abbey-solved-at-last-expert-says
I've been writing this WIP for 8 years, and always had a blank spot about place names. Sat down today to think properly. Came up with the perfect name for the academy trust that runs the local school. Looked it up online and it already exists. Dodged a lawsuit there. Back to square one. #writing #books
#WritersCoffeeClub 17 Oct
defining traits in your genre?
Having dabbled with crime, spy, historical, philosophical, etc, I only very recently settled on fantasy as the genre that best fits the way I write and the things I think.
The defining trait for me is that I get to play, in ways I don't seem to be able to in other genres.
But, having said that, I'm sketching in my mind a trilogy following a couple of young women through 1930s Britain and the war years. In genre terms I'm a butterfly.
#PennedPossibilities 1157. Tell us a random, interesting fact about your WIP.
It's taken me eight years and counting.
Wise words from Steve...
#WritersCoffeeClub Oct. 15: What's the last thing you read to really impress you, prose-wise?
Tess Sharpe The Girls I've Been is primarily driven by pace and a cracking plot, but it has great characters, a great voice, and some wonderful writing eg
"We curve around her like parentheses. Iris is some precious phrase between us that needs the shelter of our crooked knees and tucked hands under chins."