I agree with several above: soundtracks are nice for background reading. Other than that, I tend to listen to classical music whilst working,...
There are, theoretically speaking, only seven basic plots. Or at least, that's what's been argued. Still, the most important thing is not usually...
A good day's work, on fiction or otherwise, is anything between 700-1000 words. I did once thunder out a c.5000 word short story in two days, but...
My works usually go through several titles before I decide on a final one. Quite often, I pick a favourite phrase from the work and have that as...
Actually, I suspect those Old Norse poets would be pleased that their material was being adapted and used over 800 years later; they had no...
Though, of course, Tolkien stole the name (along with all the dwarf names in The Hobbit) from the Old Norse poem Völuspá, so in a sense he wasn't...
I had a particularly hideous experience with this last year. I was sitting at my computer and working on my thesis, typing up my new...
Wagner once succinctly described a certain movement of a certain Beethoven symphony as 'the apotheosis of the dance'. If you know your Beethoven,...
From a university perspective, it's certainly true that a substantial majority of students who take English Literature are female - for whatever...
Angela Carter managed it very well: her reworkings of fairy stories are amongst the best short fiction of the last century. If you haven't read...
Pretty much. I love the older and more eccentric English names: you can pronounce them however you like.
I've taken all the names in my novel from medieval scandinavian literature - and usually that's because the character I'm referencing has had an...
I don't know, if you could get away with pronouncing it SID-Botham, as some people do, then it suddenly becomes more agreeable!
1. Well, I don't think the name can escape it's biblical/mystical heritage - it's not unlike calling your character Judas. It's simply not common...
Separate names with a comma.
