A day in the life
The Qatar National Library writing group has been busy again! This week, the course leader set us the task of writing a spoof of one of those “Day in the Life” columns which usually end up in Sunday newspapers. You know the sort of thing – celebrities treat us to a description of their breakfast […]
Desert Tracks
New from the Qatar National Library’s creative writing group – the first episode of our podcast, “Desert Tracks”. In particular I recommend the story about the lift singer by Greig Parker – it is about 13 minutes in. https://watch.cloudflarestream.com/4c3898a703799c4487cc68358909a2f6 Greig (find him at greigparker.com) is a talented writer who explores many different genres, and has […]
Cleopatra
What a great subject for research! Having decided that I must include a meeting between the protagonist of the new novel and the infamous Queen of the Nile, I am really enjoying this. Cleopatra is so loaded with our preconceptions that peeling away the layers is proving fascinating – and what we really know about […]
PAD – the poetry challenge
So – my online writers’ group does a challenge every February , and I haven’t managed it once in four years. BUT – I have produced some poems. Today’s prompt was, appropriately enough “Apathetic”, surprisingly easy. Second Lifers, why not sign up to the challenge in Milk Wood? Apathetic Life streams away from me. I […]
Winter poems
It’s been a good year for the roses…
A short story, nothing to do with ancient Rome, but free, so who’s complaining? (Warning: I’ve just had this rejected for being too violent….) Once he was dead, she almost didn’t want to bury him: but she had planned very thoroughly and was pleased with the way it had gone, although, of course, there were […]
The Emperor’s Servant
About a week into September, I remembered that I had booked a line-edit from the marvellous Helen Baggott (http://www.helenbaggott.co.uk/). Cue the end of all the research for the as-yet-formless third novel and a scurry of activity as I realised that I couldn’t send off the already-revised and polished manuscript without ONE LAST READ. Mistake (though […]
The House of Augustus and the two Professors
Augustus’ house on the Palatine Hill, at the heart of Rome, makes a couple of appearances in The Emperor’s Servant so I read T.P.Wiseman’s The House of Augustus the moment I saw that it was published. Now I’m having to go back and rewrite my descriptions of the house, the approach, the Temple of Apollo… […]
David Wishart
Currently doing my research for the next novel by re-reading a series I’ve always loved – David Wishart’s Marcus Corvinus books, beginning with “Ovid”. This series features one of the best wise-cracking heroes, the young aristocrat Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus – yes, four names, he really is that posh! Find the books on Amazon: And […]
Lucius Sestius’ coin
In 43 BC, Lucius Sestius was travelling through Asia with Marcus Junius Brutus the assassin of Julius Caesar. Brutus and his fellow assassin Cassius Longinus were busy raising troops and money for the battle they knew would come: back in Rome, Caesar’s heir Octavian had declared them to be enemies of that state. The young […]
