The only thing I love more than writing is wandering around bookshops, and the only thing I love more than wandering around bookshops is reading books. So it was only a matter of time before I launched a newsletter covering all those pursuits.
I originally envisaged Terry Freedman's Books Bulletin as simply a means of keeping anyone who was interested up-to-date with my book writing activities. However, I realised that it would also be a useful vehicle for sharing news of any interesting-sounding books I come across, and any interesting bookshops I wander around in.
It's going to be a monthly publication, at least initially. The first issue, which you can access by clicking on the picture at the top of this page, contains the following articles:
- Welcome to this Bulletin
- Review: Waterhouse on Newspaper Style
- Books I've come across
- Bookshops I like: Hatchards
- Progress report (about the book I'm working on)
The next issue will, I hope, include details of how to grab hold of a sample chapter of my (by then) completed book, and how to get the chance to have a free review copy.
If you'd like to subscribe to the Bulletin, please check the Privacy policy for information about how we treat your data. If you don't feel like reading that, the long and short of it is that we keep your data secure, we don't sell it or give it away, and we don't keep it longer than necessary. We don't go in for spam either. The signing up process involves confirming that you really do wish to receive the Bulletin, ie it's what is known as a 'double opt-in' process. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Here's the sign-up form for this newsletter: subscribe.
There is still a great interest in writing blogs. One of the reasons I know this is that my course on blogging currently has twelve sign-ups. That may not sound a lot, but many courses at the City Lit have far fewer.
So are elevator speeches completely useless? On the contrary, I think you need to develop several of them.
In my recent blogging course, I abandoned my carefully-prepared lesson, or part pf it, threw caution to the winds, and suggested to the class that we experiment with using AI for writing blog posts. Here’s a partial blog post it came up with, which you will agree is utter rubbish…
I think evaluations are very odd devices to be honest. Someone once “marked me down” on her evaluation of a one day course I was running on the grounds that the traffic was terrible.
This is an updated version of an article I published on this website in 2015. In my experience, it absolutely applies to artists, teachers and other creatives as well as writers or consultants.
A few months ago I wrote about Barnabees Books, in Westleton, Suffolk. It’s a lovely warm place, not only heat-wise but atmospherically, not least because of its delightful owner, Ty.
A long-held belief of mine is that no writing is wasted. I hear of people who have spent time writing something, decided it's rubbish, and then deleted it. But the process of evaluation that someone goes through to arrive at the conclusion that the thing they've just slaved over is rubbish is valuable in itself.
I will be running another online course in blogging in the evenings of the 17th and 24th November 2023.
I recently reviewed How Words Get Good for Teach Secondary magazine. It’s a great read, and delves into all the processes that go into producing a book.