Authors Electric

If you've been following my monthly ramblings on here (I've been around since the start of Authors Electric, so I'm part of the furniture - probably that creaky old wardrobe in the corner of the attic with the door that doesn't shut properly ...), you'll know that I write the occasional mostly-tongue-in-cheek advice column. It may be written with an irreverent approach, but much of the advice therein is worth looking at, if only to discard or laugh at! So now I want to talk about how advice can do more than get you off to a bad start - it can land you with huge bills and/or get you into serious trouble with the authorities! The trouble is, advice is one of those things that is often asked for but never actually wanted once you've got it. And everybody has an opinion. On everything . I should know - I'm one of those annoying people who happily delivers unasked-for opinions in clothes shop changing-rooms. But telling somebody they look lovely in a dress i...

The most fantastic stories aren't always found in books or on film. Sometimes the most incredible fantasies are written in the words of a song and performed in the most awesome and dramatic way. One of my favourite CD's to listen to as I'm driving, is Catch the Rainbow – the anthology by the brilliant (in my opinion) rock band , Rainbow. And the song that sends shivers down my spine, is the all time classic, Stargazer. It's written by Ritchie Blackmore and Ronnie James Dio, both of whom seem to have an affinity with the Medieval period with its swords and sorcery. And this song – described by some far more knowledgeable than me on musical matters as neo-classical, tells the strange tale of a Wizard who entrapped his workforce for years, forcing them to build a tower to the stars.  It was the wizard's desire to reach the stars, but when he finally climbed the tower, he fell to his death. His slaves were in shock to see the wizard was ...

'What's yours is mine, bwahahaha!' I’ve been embroiled in a plagiarism scandal for weeks now and it’s still going on. Someone I’ve known for years, been to their launches, bought their books, has plagiarised friends and colleagues as well as famous writers, and it’s been going on for years under our very noses. At first mainly poetry, now as more and more of it emerges, it includes prose as well and cheating on a PhD thesis, and getting huge amounts of funding from various public bodies on the basis of track record as a writer. I got embroiled when two friends, co-publishees (and as they discovered after a book launch, plag’d poets) and our mutual publisher failed to get any satisfaction over several weeks of private back and forth. I started looking at other poems in the new book and discovered to my dismay that many of them were others’ poems with tweaks and synonyms inserted. We then brought in the ‘poetry sleuth’ Dr Ira Lightman, who’s also a friend, and who has ...

Copyright Law is a writer's nightmare.  It simply hasn't kept pace with the rapid growth of technology or the multiplications of the World Wide Web. Almost every country has its own laws, but there are no territories on the internet.  The law of Copyright is struggling to keep up. As a biographer, writing books full of quotations, permissions are my biggest headache.  Publishers and the executors of literary estates charge a fortune for extracts. As an Indie author you will have to pay these fees yourself, but even traditionally published authors have to pay at least half of the total for quotes and all of the fees for photographs.  For my Katherine Mansfield biography , almost the whole of my advance was spent on permissions.  I had to pay another fee when I re-published it as an e-book. The Copyright Octopus Recently there have been big changes to Copyright Law in the UK and Europe - changes that will affect all writers - and we need to be aware...

 Just listened to a programme about Bob Dylan and realised yet again that if I could choose another life on earth, I would want to be a musican/composer/performer/songwriter or some combination of all of these.  Now please, if you know me, don't laugh. Or try not to, anyway. I'm  not sure whether these unconsummated longings were at the back of my mind when I wrote Alexa's Song. I suppose they must have been, because Alexa, the heroine of the book, is all of these things. Not that they seem to bring her much happiness, confused creature that she is - her composing career stymied by a bad experience at music college years ago and her personal life rather a mess, too. Having abandoned her lover Jake to marry his brother Steve, Alexa now seems not to want either of them and she's off to America to follow a dream of starring in a TV show where the contestants compete to write songs. And while there, she meets an ageing rock star and they have a fling. Just to complica...