Headphones and Notebooks

When I made the decision to attend the inaugural Capital Crime Festival in London this past weekend, I saw it as a good opportunity to meet people and learn a little more about crime writing. Now, having finally caught up on sleep after the travelling and talking I did, I can safely say that it was a great opportunity to have taken. But beyond it just being a good weekend where I made several contacts and got a few signed books, I’ve also found that I learned things I never expected to learn in the panels. So, for all of you who couldn’t make the event, I’ve rounded up my top five things I learned. 1. There are plenty of unexplored areas of London So many writers use England’s capital to set a story in, and the reason is because it is often the perfect place. It can make your book easier to sell, with the setting being familiar, and it is also a great place to set high-status crimes. From the Houses of Parliament to Canary Wharf, there are plenty of wealthy businessmen in

Writing is hard. We all know that. It can often be harder when people mistake it as being easy. How many people have you met who claim that they could ‘write a book’? How many people underestimate how frustrating it can be to sit and stare at a blank word document for hours at a time? When writing gets hard, it can often be easy to just say ‘forget it’, and walk away. Particularly if you’re doing it only as a hobby- you want it to be fun, not difficult or frustrating. During times like those, you might find yourself looking not just for creative inspiration, but also something to boost your spirits. So I’ve gathered my five favourite quotes from books and writers that will help remind you not to give up. “Grown-ups don’t look like grown-ups on the inside either. Outside, they’re big and thoughtless and they always know what they’re doing. Inside, they look just like they always have. Like they did when they were your age. Truth is, there aren’t any grown-ups. Not one, in

Like a lot of people, I’m finding that now I’ve finished my university degree, I’m somewhat all at sea. In fact, I’m so at sea I can hardly see the shore. What do I do now that I’m out in the real world? How do I go about getting a job? Looking for a job in the creative sector is tricky. They can be hard to come by, and it’s even trickier when it becomes clear that to have the career you want, you have to move away from home. And that issue just adds more stress to an already-stressful job search. One of the best quotes I’ve heard that really resonated with me in regards to working in the creative sector came from actress Kristen Bell in The Good Place podcast. As she stated, ‘no one ever got anywhere by being safe’, and she’s right. If nobody ever took a risk, so many things wouldn’t happen. Stories wouldn’t get told, films wouldn’t get made, books wouldn’t get written. The scariest thing is the first step. But once that first step has been taken things generally get a whole

With both Angel issue four and  Buffy issue eight arriving within days of each other, this week I decided to do a double review. Enjoy!  Angel issue 4 Picking up where the last issue left off, Angel issue four dove straight into the action. Unfortunately, that still doesn’t leave me with much to say on the story, hence why it’s being reviewed alongside Buffy issue eight this time. Angel of course was sucked into a hell dimension at the end of the last issue, and beyond a brief chat with the demon who resided there, there didn’t seem to be much happening. Our favourite vamp with a soul did, however, finally get a glimpse of Buffy albeit as an apparition while in Hell. While the Angel comics are intriguing, and they are certainly picking up pace, there still seems to be very little linking it to the television show. On the one hand, I enjoy that they’re taking the idea of a reboot to heart and not just rehashing old stories. But on the other hand, it means that so far

Now that summer is over and the nights will soon be growing darker, many of us will be looking for new shows to watch while curled up under a blanket. That also means that many of us will be looking for new TV shows to enjoy on those dark winter nights. So what television shows are there that are totally binge-worthy this winter? Stranger Things (Netflix) The third season of the Netflix original dropped on the fourth of July, and quickly broke records for the most-watched show on the platform within its first day of release. For those looking for something fun, dark, and retro, Stranger Things is certainly the way to go this winter. Of course, for those of you who might not like horror, now is the time to point out that the show isn’t necessarily that scary. There are a few gory or scary moments, but all in all Stranger Things generally succeeds in combining eighties horror movie references and darkness with an exciting storyline that hopefully won’t have you hiding beh