Wow, five years have just flown by haven’t they? Way back in 2010 I thought it would be fun to start waffling about books on the Internet. It all began when Mrs Cheesecake demanded suggested that I get myself a hobby. Frankly, she felt I was making the place look untidy and she told me I had to do something about it. Half a decade later, and I’m still here and I’m still waffling. To celebrate this auspicious occasion, I thought I would do something a bit different and have a crack at interviewing myself. Who is Pablo Cheesecake? Just some guy who likes books a whole lot. I’m originally from Scotland, but my heart brought me south to Nottingham and that is where I now lay my hat. I’m six foot two, blue eyed, brown haired and currently incredibly hirsute. According to Mrs Cheesecake I look like the bastard child of Sasquatch and a Bee Gee. By day, I am a mild-mannered computer geek, but by night I am a something quite different… a mild mannered book reviewer! (Ok, perhaps not that different after all). If you look hard you can find me lurking on various social media channels,…

Q1. What is your favorite word? Magenta. Closely followed by republic. So you can totally expect me to write a book called “The Magenta Republic” one day. Q2. What is your least favorite word? Onus. Closely followed by kudos. Urgh. They make my skin crawl. Q3. How has social media helped your career? It’s been pretty much essential – I met my first publisher (Angry Robot) on Twitter. I met my agent via a friend, Chuck Wendig, who I met on Twitter. I’ve always said that it’s actually just the same as meeting an editor or agent at a convention bar, only you don’t have to leave the house. And naturally it’s a great way to connect with readers, fans, and other writers and creators. Thanks to social media, you can chat to people you’d never, ever be able to interact with in the old days. Q4. What would you say are the downsides to social media in your career? It’s a huge time sink, which needs discipline to control. The problem with writing is that I work at home, on my own, so social media (Twitter in particular) is where I hang out with my friends, and because they’re…

Q1. What is your favorite word?  Iktsuarpok is an Inuit word for the feeling of anticipation you get when expecting a visitor, which causes you to keep going outside to see if you can see them approaching. I like it because it reminds me of the feeling you get as an author, when you’ve sent off a manuscript and you’re waiting for a reply from an agent or editor – you just keep hitting refresh on your inbox in the hop of seeing that email arrive. Q2. What is your least favorite word? My least favourite word at the moment is ‘pacific’ – not because I have anything against the word itself, or the ocean of that name; it just irritates me when people use ‘pacific’ when they mean ‘specific’. Q3. How has social media helped your career? Writing can be a solitary profession, and Twitter has become my equivalent of the office water cooler – a place where I can take a quick break from work to chat with colleagues and friends. It has enabled me to engage with the SF&F community and now, when I go to conventions, I get to meet and hang out with people I…

Q1. What is your favorite word? “Awesome”- I know I overuse it way too much, especially given I’m, y’know, English, but I don’t even care. Q2. What is your least favorite word? I know everyone probably says “Moist”, but it is a truly horrible word. Q3. How has social media helped your career? It’s a good way of having lots of interesting things directed your way regularly. Sometimes it’s even good for directing people to my things, which they might also find interesting. Largely though, it’s just a handy distraction from the fact my work days I spent almost entirely sitting in a room on my own. Q4. What would you say are the downsides to social media in your career? That I’m writing this rather than the article of fun garden activities for kids that I’m supposed to be doing. Q5. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? A mad scientist in the Doctor Emmett Brown school. I found this today, so may I’m one step closer. Q6. What profession would you not like to do? I’m the child of two teachers and the nephew and cousin of some others. It’s left me with a…

Q1. What is your favorite word? Kalashnikov. (Wonderfully onomatopoeic. One can hear the klunk-klunk/snick-snack of a magazine slapped into the receiver, and the slide chambering a round.) Military jargon has an almost erotic black poetry. Q2. What is your least favorite word? Deadline Q3. How has social media helped your career? Publishers urge authors to join Facebook and Twitter so they can build a loyal tribe. Neil Gaiman is cited as the model for author/reader engagement. But, truth is, market surveys suggest the public are not impressed by new-media gimmicks. They discover books and authors the same way they always did: personal recommendation. Q4. What would you say are the downsides to social media in your career? Futzing around on Twitter instead of writing books. Q5. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? I’d like to run a karate dojo. Low-key, not very commercial. Just a simple fight-space. It would be lovely to send people on their way partially transformed. More confident, more composed, feeling the equal of the world. Q6. What profession would you not like to do? I worked in an insurance office for a while. It was awful. I used to look at…

Q1. What is your favorite word? I struggle to have emotional attachments to specific words; it’s tricky to have an opinion on a word without accounting for all the meaning and context around it. That being said, I do have a soft spot for ‘tumultuous’. It’s one of those words which rolls around your mouth as you say it, like a wave crashing down and fading away. Q2. What is your least favorite word? Probably ‘overtime’. It’s an ugly word for a generally avoidable concept. Q3. How has social media helped your career? Twitter’s been an invaluable tool for me to stay in touch with the writing community. I can usually make it to one or two conventions a year, but in between I can chat with all the writers I’ve met, and keep up to date with the growing pains of the genre. It’s also been an excellent resource for researching agents and keeping track of markets/anthologies with open submission periods. Q4. What would you say are the downsides to social media in your career?  There’s definitely a risk of information overload associated with social media. After the day job, my writing and other projects, there’s only a limited…

Q1. What is your favorite word? I’ve always been a fan of the word ‘Doom’. I like the sinister, melodramatic ‘ooooo’. I also quite like ‘gloom’ and ‘loom’, but not so much ‘broom’. Q2. What is your least favorite word? Octogenarian’. I recently stumbled across it in a friend’s writing and, without knowing what it meant, assumed it was something medical. Perhaps a veterinarian, specialising in octopuses and spiders? The actual meaning is much less interesting. Q3. How has social media helped your career? By allowing me to make contact with and follow discussions from other writers (at various stages of their careers), as well as publishers, agents, editors and other fans of the genre. It’s been great to stay in touch with people I’ve met at conventions, and get to know people I might meet in the future. Q4. What would you say are the downsides to social media in your career?  Procrastination, at your finger tips! Q5. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? I’ve always fancied designing and building theatre sets. I abandoned art after A level though, and went down the English route instead. Q6. What profession would you not like to…

Q1. What is your favorite word? Hope. In my personal life, real-life work and writing, there is one word that always crops up. My former work with the NHS typified this. I would see people going in for procedures and operations, knowing the odds were stacked against them, but there was always that look in their eyes that said ‘I’m going to beat this.’ It was the same with their families and friends waiting outside. They knew the reality, but there was always a chance. I see it in my own family too. They have faced adversity, ‘nothing ever straightforward’ as the motto now seems to be, but still they struggle on, always with the hope that tomorrow will be better. Q2. What is your least favorite word? Maybe. Life has taught me that ‘maybe’ almost always means no or probably not, resulting in being let down eventually, hopes and dreams destroyed. If ‘hope’ is a chance, ‘maybe’ is an ending, despite its meaning. Q3. How has social media helped your career? Social media has helped me discover and reach contacts and help that I would never have known about if not. Every publisher I have worked with was found by my stumbling…

Q1. What is your favorite word? Yes. I thought about this all the way to school, and while standing the pouring rain doing road patrol duty … and I’m pretty sure my favorite word is yes. Today. Well, maybe this morning? Hmmm, tricky. Really, tough question. I was tempted to say ‘awesome’ or ‘absolutely’ but today feels like a yes day. 🙂 Q2. What is your least favorite word? Moist – I really don’t like it. Can’t give you a real reason, just hate the way it sounds. Q3. How has social media helped your career? It’s enabled me to connect directly with people. I love it. It’s so much fun hearing reader reactions to my work directly and being able to have conversations about aspects of my books. Social media is awesome if (like me) you enjoy the interaction with people (not just readers). I’ve met a lot of wonderful people through twitter – some of whom came to my last book launch, which was fun. It opened up the world in a way that wasn’t possible before – potentially that increases exposure and therefore sales in the long run. It’s also given me another avenue to tap into…

Q1. What is your favorite word? Tea, as a question. My favourite Swedish word is juridiken, because I like to imagine lawyers in Stockholm yelling it as they throw fireballs at one another. Q2. What is your least favorite word? Quickly. For some reason everyone in my first drafts do things quickly. Global cull required. Also (and I’m cheating here) I hate it when I’m reading something and characters keep stepping forward. I understand the urge to do it – it physically inserts a character into the scene – but I can’t help imagining a cluster of people, still arguing, all chest to chest. Q3. How has social media helped your career? To some degree it is my career, thus far. When I started back in late 2008 I had no idea what I was doing in terms of reading, finding betas, critique, who to submit to, etc. Social media is to me a rolling conversation about the business. Who’s reading what, who’s looking for subs, competitions, beta requests. I heard someone complain once at the bar in a convention that there is a secret “in crowd” where you get all the answers to success in genre publishing. When I…

Q1. What is your favorite word? Disgruntled Q2. What is your least favorite word? Feisty Q3. How has social media helped your career? Social media is good for finding and talking to like-minded people, so helps with feeling inspired and motivated. One of the most important things it provides for me is a staff room or water cooler, as I work from home and so don’t get those normal office interactions. Information and advice is passed around quickly and easily, and it’s good for finding other people who might be interested in and connect with what you do. Q4. What would you say are the downsides to social media in your career?  Distractions and procrastination! Also, so much advice and so many conflicting opinions flying around can get overwhelming if you let it. At times you need to step back and have a little quiet time away from the internet and just get on with things YOUR way. Q5. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? Hmm, perhaps Curator of History/Archaeology in a museum, working with ancient artefacts and art. Q6. What profession would you not like to do? Surgeon. I’m far too squeamish. Q7. What…