Tony McFadden's Blog, page 4
January 15, 2023
A different way to structure stories
About seven or eight years ago, somebody (and I can’t recall who) put forward a “mini-movie” approach to structuring your story. Just jumping in here to say story structure does not remove creativity. It’s a set of guidelines, much as building design rules are (roof is on the top, windows on the outside walls, basement … Continue reading A different way to structure stories →
January 1, 2023
Bowling Life Lessons
I wrote this after the last Nationals comp Amy and I went to. This site was subsequently hacked and destroyed (thanks to WordPress vulnerabilities I’ve since learned about). The post was well received, so I’ve dug through the Way Back machine and recovered it: We recently had an exciting week of bowling in Canberra (this … Continue reading Bowling Life Lessons →
December 26, 2022
October 5, 2022
Ten Million
November will be the tenth anniversary of the release of “Unprotected Sax“, one of the ‘Miami Mob’ books. Playing sax in his friend’s jazz band was supposed to be relaxing. Then his friend disappeared. Johnny Delacourte (aka Johnny D The Sax Machine) left the Army Rangers and the battlefields of Afghanistan six months ago. Then …
May 27, 2022
Writing a book. In a day.
It takes me roughly a year to churn out one of my intricately plotted and carefully crafted pile of (roughly 80,000) words. [author aside: If you all actually bought my books, I’d be able to quit the job that pays the mortgage and feeds the bellys and I’d have more time to write. I’d be …
May 15, 2022
Rainbow Crossing’s Book Trail
About a month ago Brian Laul called me up and wanted to know if I was interested in being part of his inaugural “Book Trail”. “I’m an author, Brian. I don’t want to hike anywhere.” Turns out, the Book Trail, organised by A-B Street Library, Rainbow Crossing and half a dozen coffee shops around Campbelltown, …
April 18, 2022
Broken. Coming June.
There’s a new Nick Harding case. Actually, two of them for the price of one. A very rich old dude is about to kick off and is desperate to make amends with his estranged son. Nick is contacted by the old guy’s lawyer with a task: Find the son, convince him to get in contact …
December 10, 2021
Merry *expletive deleted* Christmas
It’s that wonderful time of year when people get shivved in your local electronics store while in pursuit of the last PS5, drive-bys resolve parking disputes and the staff at the lay-by department have shotguns strapped under the counter, one hand never more than a hair’s-breadth away from the trigger. It’s getting tense. I try …
November 27, 2021
Retro Intro – Eamonn Shute
Digging through some old posts on older versions of this site (on different platforms) I came across this, reprinted in its entirety, unedited (other than formatting). Originally published on July 30th, 2009 Ladies and genuflects, I would like to introduce you to Mr. Eamonn Shute. An entirely fictional creation, living in Miami for the past eighteen months, …
October 7, 2021
Scrivener Template
Super-duper quick post. I do have a scrivener template I use. Two of them, actually. But the many sites out there linking to it are linking to an old defunct post. I’ll add it back to my site shortly and let the linking sites know the new address.
