The Literary Sofa
Isabel Costello
A Novel View of Robert McKee’s STORY – Substance, structure, style and the principles of screenwriting
Robert McKee is a world-renowned lecturer in screenwriting, best known for the four day Story Seminar he developed whilst a professor at the University of Southern California. His former students include 63 Academy Award winners and 164 Emmy winners; the likes of Kirk Douglas, John Cleese and Peter Jackson, director of Lord of the Rings, … Continue reading
The Writing Process – My Interview on Ruth Hunt’s blog
As promised, for those not on Twitter or who missed it there (easily done!) here’s the link to an interview I’ve just done for Ruth Hunt’s series on The Writing Process. Thanks to Ruth for inviting me to take part and for asking such great questions – the other posts in the series are very illuminating. Ruth … Continue reading
Guest Post – Zoe Pilger and Hannah Westland on their Editorial Working Relationship
It’s often said that it’s not enough to write a good book any more and I really believe that an author who’s willing and able to engage with their audience, online and in person, has an advantage. Giving readings from a new novel is a great way to ignite interest and hearing Zoe Pilger read from her … Continue reading
The Likeable Characters Debate – Apple Tree Yard & The Woman Upstairs
As I sat down to write about likeable and unlikeable characters in fiction I wondered why it had taken me so long to get to what is practically my pet subject. Now I know why – it’s incredibly complex, subjective and full of intangibles. All I can hope to do is start a discussion and … Continue reading
Book Review – Barracuda by Christos Tsiolkas
This article contains strong language. I think it would be reasonable to describe The Slap, the controversial global bestseller by Greek-Australian Christos Tsiolkas, as a hard act to follow. Five years on his latest book Barracuda has been greeted with commensurate interest and expectation. Somehow Tsiolkas manages to deliver more of the same – it’s … Continue reading
My First Five Years as a Writer
It’s five years to the day since I started writing fiction (for someone so terrible with numbers, I am surprisingly good with dates). By that I mean actually doing it. Not thinking about it. Not talking about it. I’d been doing that for years. During the period leading up to me signing with my agent … Continue reading
Fiction Hot Picks 2014
No matter what happens, I never stop reading so despite an exceptionally busy few months I am very excited to unveil my Fiction Hot Picks 2014. As always, I considered dozens of titles, reading far more than the final twelve in full, to come up with a selection of well written new novels to appeal to … Continue reading
Guest Author – Janet O’Kane on Self-Publishing her Crime Debut
In a difficult market more and more writers are deciding to self-publish their fiction and one of the challenges they face is attracting a readership when many people have an unfavourable perception of books which don’t carry the endorsement of a publishing house. Whilst some of the common concerns about quality are undoubtedly justified, it seems unfair … Continue reading
The Story behind Stories for Homes – an anthology in aid of Shelter
You could say this post is a promoblog, or a literad. Whatever it is, featuring a title with the express aim of encouraging people to buy it is not something I’ve done before on the Literary Sofa, but I hope you’ll soon see why I’m making an exception. This week saw the publication of the … Continue reading
2013 – My Year in Books
Although it always seems weird that people start talking about their books of the year before December has even begun – the newspapers were already at it last weekend – my excuse is that I’m reading new releases in order to compile my Hot Picks of 2014 for publication next month. Looking back on the year’s … Continue reading
My new novel SCENT – out in paperback on 19 May 2022
The Literary Sofa 