Authors Electric

The order in which you present information in a book is very important. If you delay including something we need to know we’re going to spend too much time trying to work out what’s going on, which is when we lose touch with the story as we’re no longer concentrating. Most of us have read books where we’ve suddenly been surprised by something – the gender of the narrator, their appearance, their age perhaps. This can mean completely re-evaluating what we’ve read before, and we may end up no longer trusting the author to tell us what’s necessary which may be when we stop reading.  When we know the gender of the author we tend to assume their narrator is the same gender   too, unless we’re given a pointer. I have written as a man several times, and it’s often important to establish this fact right at the start, otherwise the plot won’t make sense. This is the beginning of my short story Cassie , which was one of the winners of the Canongate prize when I needed to flag up the gen...

I tend to go to a lot of toy fairs, memorabilia events, dolls house shows and toy museums. It's not that I'm a collector it's just that I write on these subjects for various toy magazines and it never fails to amaze me when I see the dedication of these collectors. Some will have collected all their lives; others have come back to the joy of owning toy cars, trucks and trains in latter years, some become collectors when they reach retirement. Having talked to so many collectors over the years, I always admire their passion for their subject and they really know their stuff. They will know the history of each model's manufacture, they will know all about the different variations, and what makes one model rare or noteworthy and another that looks the same just run of the mill. While the only thing I collect is dust and rejection slips I love the nostalgia element regarding these old toys. Often you will spot items that you played with as a child an...