John Baker’s Blog

The Guardian reports on the honourable dealings of the much loved supermarket chain:
Writers criticise Tesco for ‘chilling’ Thai libel actions
· Leading authors sign letter to retailer’s chief executive
· Supermarket chain urged to uphold human rights
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Jacob Russell looks at beginnings:
I wanted to begin with opening paragraphs rather than sentences, precisely to get past the “hook” –the [...]

Hu Ling at Words Without Borders: Some say a good story should be like an iceberg.
. . . perhaps a translator is a bit like a Chinese restaurant owner, who finds himself serving mostly a non-Chinese clientele: should I assume my diners have unadventurous palates and always serve them the familiar “chow mein” and “kung-pao [...]

At The Robblog, Robb has a question: How do you know when to listen to feedback and change your story?
Does a story’s power and resonance come from the author, as if in a vacuum? Or does it come from the relationship between the story and the reader? And if a writer works in an area [...]

I guess she was half black, but what do I know. She was head and shoulders taller than me. Straight hair, waxy chocolate complexion, in need of something to give her system a kick.
The Habit gets some tourists but most of the regulars are locals who like the coffee or the chat, and they do [...]