Alex Laybourne's Blog, page 5
April 27, 2015
X Marks the Sport as We Reach the End of the #AtoZChallenge
As the A to Z challenge draws to a close, we can mark off the one of the final dates on our calendar for the month. Today I want to talk about something personal, something that we all know about but are often less than honest with ourselves about. We have all done it. Some […]
April 26, 2015
W is for Wanting it! #AtoZChallenge
Today’s post has been the trickiest one for me so far. Mainly because the letter W didn’t seem to like me. There were four or five posts I had in mind, and I tried to write three of them before this one finally came along. If you are reading it, I guess I made it […]
April Showers Bring May Flowers – This Post has Nothing to do with Showers or Flowers
I can’t believe how fast April is disappearing. Only a few days left and we are into May. My birthday month and a month of bank holidays in Holland. I am off work tomorrow, April 26th for Kings Day, a celebration of the king’s birthday. Then May 5th is a holiday this year in memory […]
April 25, 2015
V is for Virgin Blood
Today the letter V is up for the A to Z challenge and for today I want to get a little silly with you all… or do I? The first topic that came to mind is virgin blood. As a horror writer, I am fully licensed to have such thoughts, it’s fine. But has anybody […]
April 24, 2015
U is for Undervaluing Our Product #AtoZChallenge
Today is day 21 of the 2015 A to Z challenge and the letter up at the oche today is ‘U’. As writers, it is very easy to sell ourselves short, to undervalue our product. How often do you pick up a book, read it and think. Holy shit! That was so well written. It […]
April 23, 2015
T is for Time on the #AtoZChallenge
For today posts I wanted to touch briefly on the topic of time. If there is one thing we all claim not to have enough of, it is time. I don’t have time to go to the gym, I don’t have time to do this, that, or the other. Yet, if you think about it, […]
April 21, 2015
S is for the Stars. Follow Brother Jack or Fear Him.
I love the stars. The night calls hem forth the way it calls to me. The darkness summons us all, and brings forth our true selves. Chlöe, she loved the stars. She would sit beneath them for hours, watching them, reading them. She would listen to their words as they sang to her. She told […]
R is for Relationships on Day 18 of the #AtoZChallenge
When it comes to this game we call writing, there are not many things more complicated to get right, or more important, than relationships. Think about it, in the real world, so much of what we do involves interaction with others. From grocery shopping, to school friends, to romantic connections and colleagues. We are forever […]
April 19, 2015
Q is for the Quality that Shines Through – #AtoZChallenge
When the self-publishing movement took off, every Tom, Dick or Harry could throw a few words on the page, hit upload and call themselves a published author. This did far more harm than good, and it took a long time for self-published and even small press published writers to get even a modicum of the […]
A Random Post about Nothing Much at All
Last week I came up with the great idea of preparing my blog posts for the AtoZChallenge. I could write one each way on my commute to work. Not only did it mean I was being productive, and organized for once, but it also meant I could put off writing fiction for a little bit […]
