philwhiteland's blog

Every year I try and add a little more to my Alternative Nativity, a slightly different telling of the Christmas story. However, I'm all out of inspiration this year (I think 2016 and the events of the world are rather weighing heavily on me) so I'm just going to have to encourage people to read the story so far, and hopefully find a few chuckles in the stable: The AlterNativity May I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a splendid New Year!

I've just emerged from that period of considerable uncertainty which is the time between publishing a book and getting the first review for it. You see, it's all very well to thrust your work out there to a generally indifferent public and get a few (in this case, very few) sales but it is quite another to find out what people actually thought of your magnum opus. The answer can be quite traumatic. Some time ago, I allowed myself to be flattered...

Every year, at around this time of year, I promise myself that I will finally get around to compiling a collection of my Christmas stories and, every year without fail, procrastination overtakes me and my window of opportunity gets frozen solid by the Jack Frost of bone idleness. The barmy part about all of this is that I often find myself (which can be a shock if you weren't looking for yourself in the first place) writing more things in the...

There is absolutely no reason why anyone in their right mind would want to know more about me, and yet, in defiance of all rational thought, someone has interviewed me! I'm afraid I can't promise any tantalising insights into my sordid existence. In fact, it would seem to be the case that I'm just as boring as I always thought I was. However, if you're remotely interested (and it does, at least, feature a link to ABCtales) then here it is: https...

I used a phrase in a story the other day, which I thought was fairly commonplace, but someone commented that they were now going to add it to their lexicon ( see comment ). It made me realise just how much I rely on the use of idioms in my everyday speech, and in my writing. Frankly, I blame Readers Digest. Whenever I was waiting, either at the Doctor's surgery or the Dentist's (and waiting used to be the main feature of the NHS) as a child I...

In which your forgiveness and understanding is sought

It seems unutterably silly that it has been 10 years since this little book first saw the light of day, originally as a consequence of a Daily Mail 'Print Your Own Book' offer. Since then it has been self-published locally and, with the advent of e-publishing, let loose upon a wider world. It seems even sillier that over 6,000 people have read about my attempts at growing up in Burton upon Trent in the 1950s and 1960s. I suspect that the...