Writing and reviews with an environmental, science fiction, and fantasy touch
Midwinter Eve is always my favourite hop of the year. There’s something about the badge that draws me back! Thank you, BookHounds for making it all possible. Midwinter is probably my favourite time, provided I’m not chasing my tailing trying
Ribbons and Candles – this month’s theme for the WEP/IWSG flash fiction. Every other month we get a prompt from Denise at Write…Edit…Publish, and then at the beginning of the publishing month we link up at her blog. This month
Book of the Year 2018 – it’s my book of the year, and I don’t expect many of them will feature on other people’s seasonal lists. These are the books I rated most highly out of those I read in
Hello, is this planet Earth? is Tim Peake’s curated collection of photographs from his six months on the International Space Station (ISS) in 2015-16. You probably followed it with me, or with more official sources, especially if you’re British! I
SpaceTime Launch! Searching for a Science Fiction Reading Challenge? I have been for years. I find some with lists of classic or ‘new classic’ books to read, but I’ve either done those or rejected them for good reasons! The answer?
Five things in my writing space… that’s the topic this month for the Insecure Writers’ Support Group post. At the same time, we were reminded to stick to writing matters rather than wholly unrelated things. That’s fair enough. It’s just
Several Middle Grade books were languishing without reviews when I last checked. To my surprise, one of those I read in the spring, and gave five stars to it. I wonder how that happened. The first two of these were
Corsair Clearance? I’m not sure you can really do a #FlashbackFriday post with something you can’t find in the past on your blog. But this is a special occasion: I’ve deleted this entire section from Curved Space to Corsair (Viridian
2019 reading challenges beckon. It’s only a month away. Blog posts for December are mostly written, and the rest are planned. 2018 reading challenges approach their last gasp. If I don’t read the books on my ‘currently reading’ by the
A Closed and Common Orbit is the second in the Wayfarers series. I read the first, The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet a couple of years back, and have been meaning to read this ever since it was
‘My Family is So Weird’ is the prompt for today’s Fiction in Fifty Words Fi50. I found this more difficult that a single or double-word prompt, maybe because it was a complete sentence. Nevertheless there were plenty of ways to
Alexandria (#19) and Nemesis (#20) wrap up the fabulous crime series set in Rome (and other Roman territories) starring Marcus Didius Falco. Falco is an agreeable cove, with a murky past and one of the best female protagonists around as
Privacy is an issue we all need to take heed of online. All those scammers waiting, lurking, to steal our identities and act fraudulently, incurring the wrath of who knows whom on us. As you know, I tend to take
Fluency has been in my Kindle for at least two years. It’s one of those I got on a freebie, and kept meaning to read and review. Well, it’s finally off my TBR (and ticked off my reading challenge list).
Older indie authors – who are they? I’m not necessarily thinking of ‘over 60s’, although some of them very well may be, but self-published authors who have been around for eight or more years. That includes me, of course. And
Ivon releases this week, and I would like to thank the RedDoor Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC. The blurb intrigued me! Ivon by Michael Aylwin The year is 2144, and the world is powered by sport – politically and practically.
Aphasia is a condition a friend of mine, Julie, suffered after she suffered a brain haemorrhage or stroke ten years ago. Her experience of relearning to speak led me to include aphasia as a condition that affected Princeling George after
Trick-Or-Treat Blog hop is back again, thanks to Patricia Lynne. It’s Halloween – and it’s time for you to take a trip round those people who are giving you treats this month: FREE BOOKS! Dylan and Dougall’s Adventures I’m giving
The Stranger Diaries is not a Ruth Galloway novel. It’s not even a Stephens & Mephisto novel. It’s a new stand alone from Elly Griffiths, out on 1st November, and I’m very grateful to Net-galley and Quercus books for the
Tricks and treats for Flashback Friday! When Rebecca Douglass reminded me, with her excellent flashback today, I realised that I have been rather irregular over the past few months. As usual, for Halloween I wanted to post what I call
Horror, not surprisingly, is the prompt for this month’s Fiction in Fifty words. Fi50 was invented by Bruce Gargoyle, but is now administered by Rebecca Douglass at the Ninja Librarian. Just click over there to sign up for the meme
I’m sharing Sally Cronin’s guide to getting yourself as tidy as can be while Google+ gets rid of itself. You’ll remember that Google+ had a security breach leading to thousands of accounts being compromised. Apparently many bloggers have seen a
Castle Hangnail is the GMGR Book of the Month selection for October, Halloween month. I’m very grateful to the Amazon resellers for getting a copy to me in time. It arrived around 12, I started it at 3.30, and finished
Deja Vu or Voodoo? is the prompt for this month’s WEP/IWSG flash fiction competition. It does seem to be a competition, not just an exercise in sharing our writing. Well, WEP does stand for Write…Edit…Publish, so I suppose it makes
Witch Week caught my eye as I was browsing the mobile library shelves. The GMGR and other book of the month choices eluded me, so I hunted for something else that fell into the categories MG and suitable for Halloween