Revisiting Umberto Eco’s ‘The Future of the Book’
Sixteen years after it was presented at a symposium, Umberto Eco’s paper ‘The Future of the Book’ would seem to be ridiculously out of date and yet, surprisingly, it challenged assumptions and brought up questions that are just as relevant – sometimes more – today as they were then. The text of this paper is […]
Author – Who Decides What a Text Means?
In preparation for putting together my PhD proposal, I’ve had to do a survey of the theories surrounding reading. At the core of it lies the question of who has the right to interpret and determine what any given piece of text means. You’d think this would be obvious, but of course it’s not and […]
Listening for Mistakes
I tweeted about this today, and several people thanked me and told me they’d never thought about doing this before, so – as it helps me so much – I thought I’d write a short post about it. After I write a story or, if it’s long, about halfway through, I use the text to […]
Persona: Dreamgirls, Mister Rights & the Disappointment of the Real
Anyone who hasn’t read Big Ed’s post, “On hunger for connection and the ‘outing’ of Alexa” should go and read it, because it’s a very honest piece on the desire for connection and why, in virtual spaces, we are so often disappointed. In his post, he says: “men (or at least many men) crave authentic […]
3-Minute Thesis Competition
For those of you interested in following along with my PhD adventure, I decided to participate in a seminar that poses a 3-Minute PhD Thesis challenge. Basically, it’s a sort of ‘sell your idea’ in 3 minutes thing. This is what I have come up with. Tweeted Wednesday, October 27, 2010 in 140 char chunks: […]
Mining Emotions
I’ve been watching the coverage of the Chilean miners being rescued and it’s made me ponder something. I don’t think I’m the only person who has felt torn while watching this. I’m very glad to know they are being rescued. I’m glad that in 2010, 33 men’s lives matter enough to bring together the funding, […]
So You Want to Write Erotica
I’ve received a lot of emails asking me about becoming an erotica writer and so I decided to post a specific email and show my response, mostly so I can just refer people to this page instead of repeating myself. The email below is paraphrased Hello, I’m an aspiring erotica writer. I’d like to know […]
Cafes & Graveyards
Recently, I’ve been spending a lot of time watching the living and the dead. London is an excellent place to observe either, or both. Like all very old cities, it’s more graveyard than metropolitan centre, since more people have died and been buried here than are currently living in the place. In graveyards and on […]
How We Read
It’s my intention to try and document the journey of my way towards a PhD as transparently as possible. So amidst the pieces of fiction I post, you’re going to see the occasional essay dealing with subjects related to my focus. If you’re only here for the erotica, you might want to skip these. If […]
Corrected Link on Sex Scene: An Anthology e-book
Apologies – the old link on the previous post was changed. Here is the new and working link