Keith Dixon

Hi all wiki adventurers (do we sail on the Kontwiki?)

As this site is to be used to introduce ourselves to each other, here's a couple of links for me:

My Lulu storefront:

http://www.lulu.com/keithdixon

And a blog that I add to reasonably regularly:

http://keithdixon.wordpress.com/

See you around the wiki-sphere!

Keith

---

My Wordpress Blog

About time too …

1240677024|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

… I know a lot of you are thinking. My faithful 4 readers. I wish I could say I’ve been busy, but that’s not strictly true either. Latest news on the latest book: There is no news. I’ve sent it to 9 agents. I’ve had three replies so far. One to say that the agent [...]

Lost in Translation?

1221049860|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Hoo-whee … I’ve got a job translating a book from French into English. It’s an interesting book about a white-hunter in Tanzania, written, I believe, by a white-hunter in Tanzania … so the technical details are correct. You wanna know anything about the kind of rifles they use? I can tell you. It’s a fascinating [...]

Is Ian Rankin all that?

1219441607|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

This will probably come across as a sour grapes rant, and to hell with it, I don’t care. I’ve just watched a documentary in a series on ITV3 about British crime writers. This one was about Ian Rankin, the Scottish author of books about Inspector Rebus. Now I’ve just read a Rebus novel while on holiday, [...]

Everyone needs tools

1188475462|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I work occasionally on Lulu’s LiveHelp desk, and one of the questions that people are asking more and more is, ‘What software do you recommend for writing?’ Of course this is a tough one because a number of factors come into play: What hardware set-up do you have? How much can you afford to spend? Are [...]

Take it like a man

1185912813|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

OK, I’m getting the feedback. I sent out copies of my latest book – The Secret Place – to a number of readers in order to get feedback. That feedback is beginning to come in, together with thoughts and comments from people who weren’t on the list but who have read it anyway. It’s grit your teeth [...]

How many writers does it take to change a light bulb?

1183631372|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

… Two. One to change it, and the other to offer a well-reasoned critique as to how it could have been done better. Writers are a strange bunch. On the one hand we’re often self-critical, worrisome, uncertain and as apt to cross out a line as to write one. On the other, we can be very [...]

Joe R Lansdale’s East Texas adventures

1182103931|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Do you ever have sudden enthusiasms for writers? You come across a book – perhaps remaindered, or in a second-hand shop, and therefore cheap – and you buy it because you like the look of it. It hangs around for a while on the bed-side table, untouched … and then you run out of other stuff [...]

The development of a scene

1180892979|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I thought it might be interesting to look at how a scene develops in the writing process. I guess many non-writers think that a writer sits down each morning and writes out the scene that’s next in the book. Then finishes and goes to lunch. For most of us, that’s not the case. Sometimes we have [...]

It’s the little things, stupid …

1179681727|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Worse than journeying into the land of Mordor is the voyage through the Swamp of Rewrite Hell. Example 1: You’re on page two of rewriting and you suddenly realise that a minor character’s motivation – that you hadn’t given any thought to a year ago – suddenly becomes very important. Why would he be doing what [...]

The sense of an ending

1177892200|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I’m reaching the end of my second Sam Dyke book, and it’s strange and exciting in the same breath. Strange because it’s been 2 years in the writing. Exciting … because it’s been 2 years in the writing. My books come to me in flashes – a beginning, an end, maybe a scene from somewhere in [...]