Writing

MY SMASHWORDS INTERVIEW

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Smashwords Interview with Tom O’Brien

What inspires you to get out of bed each day?
Today just might be the day the postman doesn’t ring twice! In other words, no rejections today. (THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE was Jame’s Cain’s best seller and its title was inspired by the fact that his postman always rang twice if he was delivering a rejected manuscript!)
When you’re not writing, how do you spend your time?
Reading mostly. To be a good writer you have to be an even better reader. Other writers fascinate me; how they put a book or play together;what it is about their work that makes it great; what I can learn from them. I am often in awe of how good some writers are.
How do you discover the ebooks you read?
I am an avid reader of reviews, be they in newspapers or online. They don’t necessarily have to be good reviews, just interesting. With certain writers I don’t even bother with the reviews; when a new book comes out I just know I will like it.
Do you remember the first story you ever wrote?
Yes, I do. It was a story about a security guard planning a robbery at a holiday camp ( I worked as a security guard at Pontin’s holiday Camp in Bracklesham Bay in Sussex at the time) and it was terrible. Complete rubbish! Needless to say it never saw the light of day.
 

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HOW TO WRITE ABOUT SEX

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Here are 25 steps on the subject of writing about sex that are probably better than any I could dream up. I know, I am just a lazy bugger and couldn’t be arsed to use my imagination. Either that or I’m still in the missionary position!

http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2013/04/30/25-humpalicious-steps-for-writing-your-first-sex-scene-by-delilah-s-dawson-author-of-wicked-as-she-wants/

“Writing is like sex. First you do it for love, then you do it for your friends, and then you do it for money.” Virginia Woolf

Sex is interesting but not totally important. I mean, it’s not even as important (physically) as excretion. a man can go 70 years without a piece of ass but he can die in a week without a bowel movement. Charles Bukowski, Notes of a Dirty Old Man

Sex and a cocktail: they both lasted about as long, had the same effect, and amounted to about the same thing. D H Lawrence, Lady Chatterlesy’s Lover

 

 

HOLE IN THE GROUND

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Don’t dig there, dig it elsewhere

You’re digging it round when it ought’a be square

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listen to the inimitable Bernard Cribbins sing it on here;  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGk4AKOwJbc

 

I was reminded of this song earlier today when I saw 5 workmen around a hole in the pavement. One man was actually digging the hole, the other 4 were standing about in various relaxed poses watching him do the work.  Maybe they were acting as a kind of barrier from the wind or something because nothing else made sense to me. I mean, you don’t need much instructions to dig a hole do you? You just get your shovel and dig. Or could they possibly be part of a relay team?; one man at  the time, dig furiously for 10 minutes,  then you hop out and the next in line hops in. Yeah, that could be it.

I don’t know what any of the above has to do with writing, but I do know that we writers often dig ourselves bloody great holes – and invariably have no idea how to get out of them again!

 

to purchase or read extracts from any of my books click on my Amazon page; http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tom-OBrien/e/B0034OIGOQ/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1388083522&sr=1-2-ent

THE WRITING IS NOT ON THE WALL

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Not always. Sometimes it is in the most unusual places. On the Hollywood hills for example Aerial Hollywood Sign.jpg

And I like this one on paper 
 
and this one  on a fence   

 
to read extracts from any of my books click on my Amazon page; http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tom-OBrien/e/B0034OIGOQ/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1388083522&sr=1-2-ent

THE WRITING IS ON THE WALL

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And sometimes it is better than the writing on the page! Here are some examples:

Think like a genius, work like giant, live like a saint.

The chamber of secrets has been opened- enemies of the heir, beware.

One day this wall will be replaced by trees. Stephanie.

Remember, no matter how cute he is, somewehere, some girl is tired of taking his shit.

Never trust a skinny cook

And my favourite – Stop me before I paint again!

 

Visit my Amazon book page http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tom-OBrien/e/B0034OIGOQ/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1388083522&sr=1-2-ent