I’ve just discovered something that pleases me enormously. Apparently Wayne Anthony Allwine, the voice of Mickey Mouse for 32 years, was actually married to Russi Taylor, voice of Minnie. They married in 1991 and lived happily ever after – or more accurately, until Allwine died in 2009. Disney is all about illusion and fantasy, so […]
Continue readingI heard the other week that one of my favourite teachers had died – he seemed ancient to me when I was at school in the 80s so he must have been a good age when he died, but it still shocked me. He was a small man, with incredible energy, bustling around the cloisters […]
Continue readingWhen Bryony Thomas tries out a marketing technique for her book, smart business book writers take notice. Right now, Bryony is running a promotion that makes absolutely no sense at all to anyone stuck in a traditional view of books as a means of generating passive revenue. As she explains in The Extraordinary Business Book […]
Continue readingI do very much love running the 10-day Business Book Proposal Challenge. So it’s happening again. 10 days to nail your business book concept and a chance to win a publishing deal, starting 18 September. Are you in? https://alisonjones.leadpages.co/proposal-challenge/
Continue readingThis is gorgeous: the Guardian is running a series of recipes drawn from literature by Kate Young. Friday’s was Wonton Soup from Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, previous recipes have included the Easter fruitcake from one of my favourite books of all time, 84, Charing Cross Road, and Whipple-Scrumptious Fudgemallow Delight from Charlie and the […]
Continue readingSunday night is movie night, and last night it was The Force Awakens. Child 2 is 9, and therefore mildly obsessed by Star Wars, and Harrison Ford is in it of course, and I’m mildly obsessed with him, so it was all good. We were watching the scene towards the end where the x-wing fighter […]
Continue reading#sorrynotsorry for shameless brag: here’s what one of my bootcampers (from Class of April 2017) posted in the group this week. ‘This course is absolutely the single most clarity-inducing thing I’ve ever done for my business! For the first time, I feel I can create clear plans for marketing, building my brand and growing the […]
Continue readingAccording to Henry James, anyway: ‘Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.’ And on a day like today you can see where he’s coming from. My Facebook feed is full of people (mostly commuters) complaining about the heat. I have been quietly drinking it […]
Continue readingChild 1 has been desperate to travel home alone from school on the train for months now, and I’ve resisted, driving into Basingstoke to pick her up after every after school club activity. Today, finally, I relented. But rather than let her fly solo immediately I took the train to meet her, and then shadowed […]
Continue readingThe end of another amazing, exhausting, exhilarating 10-day Business Book Proposal Challenge, and one proposal submitted already, which is incredible (the deadline for the prize of a publishign deal isn’t until midnight on Monday). As usual, I invited particpants to tell me how they found the challenge – I can go on all day about […]
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