Steven Mace

Kurt Vonnegut Jnr was an interesting writer, mainly of satire but also SF and black comedy. You can read more about him here: Kurt Vonnegut His guide and tips for aspiring writers are also informative and useful. He has seven rules, which he elucidates here in entertaining style, appropriately : Kurt Vonnegut's advice to writers 1. Find a subject you care about 2. Do not ramble, though 3. Keep it simple 4. Have guts to cut 5. Sound like yourself 6. Say what you mean 7. Pity the readers Vonnegut also came up with these further eight suggestions for writing fiction: Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water. Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action. Start as close to the end as possible. Be a...

To follow up my post back in March about my homes elsewhere on the web, here are a couple more links for subscribers and visitors to this blog: Here is my home at Circalit, where you can read some of my short stories for free: Steven Mace - Circalit Here is my home at Shortbread Stories, where I have published stories available to read, review and comment upon: Steven Mace at Shortbread Stories

' golem (גולם; English pronunciation:  / ˈɡ o ʊ l ə m/ GOH -l ə m ) In Jewish folklore, a golem is an animated anthropomorphic being created entirely from inanimate matter. In modern Hebrew the word golem literally means "pupa" but can also mean "fool", "dumb" or even "stupid." It meant amorphous, unformed material in Psalms and medieval writing.' Golem The concept of the Golem in Jewish folklore inspired this short film/animation/stage script I wrote a couple of years back. I thought I'd publish it online and share it with readers. THE GOLEM SCENE   1   Aaron Goldstein’s study, in his luxury city apartment, 7.30pm ( In a darkened study within a city apartment, a bespectacled man sits at a desk, chanting softly and leaning over a large pile of what looks like sand, mud and stones. He is a tall and slim man, wearing a black suit. His hair is full and white, and he wears glasses. He also had a white beard, which is pointed....

It seems a good time to advertise my 'other' homes on the worldwide web, particularly as I don't always get a chance to update my blog as frequently as my other websites. If you're here and reading this, then obviously you already know about this one. Here, then, are the others which it'd be great if you could find time to look at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Steve-Mace/114497238566314 This is my Facebook page, please feel free to check it out and 'like' if you are a Facebook member! I try to update this regularly and post news and offers relating to my books. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Steven-Mace/e/B005JJLWX6 Here is my Amazon Author Page, which offers Kindle versions of my books. These you can then download to your device. (for the United States version, just add .com into the URL instead of co.uk) http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/SteveMace If you're interested in hard copy versions of my books rather than e-book versions, you can order them f...

Many years ago, as a small child, I discovered a wonderful book in our village's local library. The book was 'East of Midnight' by Tanith Lee. It was a book for children/young adults, and was fantasy-adventure-romance fiction. The narrative concerned a sorcerer-king named Zaister, who was the Royal Consort to a sorcerer-queen in a world where women are the dominant gender. Women are the Daughters of Night, men are the sons of the Sun. Women wear all-black and dye their hair black unless naturally dark-haired, while men are only allowed to wear reds, yellows, and orange clothes. The Royal marriages are arranged, but the bloodline passes down through the women. The Queen will marry her first consort at sixteen, when he is also sixteen. After a period of five years, the Consort-King is murdered and   sacrificed to their Gods, and new consort is chosen for the Queen. The Consort-King is always sixteen years old, while the Queen ages by five years with each husband she loses, ...

I've started writing and submitting stories for the website 'Runaway Writings', which reviews and showcases comic book, fantasy, horror and science fiction. They are currently running my story 'Epiphany', which you can find here: http://runawaywritings.wordpress.com/2012/02/10/epiphany-part-1/   Meanwhile, only today I was just reading about this quite bizarre-sounding football story. It was written by Robin Chambers in the 1970s and is about an Iceland national football (soccer) team that win the 1998 World Cup. It's available in his book 'The Ice Warrior and other Stories': http://www.abebooks.co.uk/9780140310139/Ice-Warrior-Stories-Chambers-Robin-0140310134/plp   " The all-conquering, efficient Iceland meet bare-footed and mercurial Zaire in the World Cup final – and the evil Iceland manager plots the downfall of Zaire's star player, Odiwule, who can, apparently, bend the ball 90 degrees. When Zaire are awarded a free-kick, Iceland...

"Just get into the habit of writing. The more you write the better you get."   (Alex Wheatle) "Don't worry about who you're directing to, instead think about what enchants you and seduces you"   (Barbara Trapido) "(Writing) involves such a degree of self-sufficiency and personal determination and such long periods of not having anyone validate you."   (Edmund Conway) "It's like twisting a huge piece of metal into a different shape: you think you just don't have the strength, but then you find you do, especially if you do it bit by bit."   (Esther Freud) "A lot of people who want to be writers don't want to do the writing. A lot of people don't realise how difficult it is to get published and make a living. You always find that you can do better. You have to keep experimenting."   (Elizabeth Laird) "The only thing to do is write. There's no external criterion that determines whether you'...