Writing and reviews with an environmental, science fiction, and fantasy touch
What Stars Are Made Of came from Penguin Random House Childrens UK, via Netgalley. I absolutely loved the blurb and was delighted to be granted a review copy. It’ll be published on Thursday next week. This is the NetGalley blurb:
Spring update time for my SpaceTime Reading Challenge. We’ve been going for three months, so you should be one quarter of the way towards your challenge target. Yes. One quarter. When I realised this first update was due, I had
First lines rewritten according to the current guidelines for social contact. It’s a thing found on Lithub, well, I found the link someone else posted on Facebook, and who knows where that came from. That’s how our modern world works,
CassaStar had been on my reading list for over four years. It has probably been on my Kindle for just as long. I’m trying to work back on some of these almost certainly free copies that I acquired in the
Lambent is the title Sue Vincent gave her #writephoto prompt this week. It refers to the quality of light in the stunning photo she’s chosen. This is my week for moving house, provided the floor people have got the tiling
Marram came to me from the publisher via net-galley. I’m not sure whether the cover or the blurb attracted me first, or just the mention of a journey through the Hebrides. I’m just grateful for the opportunity to read it
Erebus; a ship that had a notable adventure in Antarctica. I saw an advert for Michael Palin’s new book, added it to my TBR, and saw it in my library’s ‘new books’ section. Reader, I borrowed it. Erebus: the story of
Write under pressure? Yes, it’s IWSG day again, and I’m wilting under the pressures of life. How anyone with a job and young family does it I have no idea! I’m writing this in advance as momentous things might happen
Saffron is by Sally Francis, who also runs Norfolk Saffron, a business involved in growing and selling, you guessed it – saffron! I bought this book when I went to her open day a couple of years ago. Saffron by
Still is this week’s #writephoto prompt from Sue Vincent. I’m really pleased I remembered my aim to do these once a month. I’m also aiming to do my story in 200 words. Here’s the photo: Very pretty! I wanted to
The Future We Choose is about the choices we make now. What sort of world would they lead to? If we knew that, we could choose a future that will be worth living. It’s as simple as that. Of course
Cafe Terrace – what a gorgeous badge. As soon as I saw it I had the setting for my story – it took a while longer to develop the plot! This is my entry for this month’s WEP+IWSG flash fiction.
You Beneath Your Skin is the first trad.published novel by Damyanti Biswas. Anyone who has been blogging for any length of time has probably come across Damyanti, one of the most generous and ‘pay-it-forward’ people around. I had the pleasure
Help! I’ve been Abducted by Aliens Day is a shameless piece of promotion by Patricia Josephine to celebrate the anniversary of her book Abducted Life. Well, why not? I enjoyed it! To celebrate, Patricia has asked a load of us
The Conspiracy of Magic is the second Harriet Whitehorn book I’ve read. I think the publisher offered me the book via Net-galley, but too close to the publication date for me to fit it in. It’s a shame, as I
A ‘message to my younger self’ was a comment I made in response to Damyanti Biswas on my review of Record of a Spaceborn Few. I thought the idea complemented January’s IWSG question, which was about the tipping point that
The Year Without Summer caught my eye when NetGalley listed it. The eruption of Mount Tambora caused an ash cloud to reach into the upper atmosphere, and travel round the globe. I’d read about it, and others, in my geology
Book blurbs in haiku form is maybe not the most obvious way of summarising one’s output. The idea came from Librarything. I joined Librarything several years ago, and used to post my reviews there, until I came up against a
The Ninth District by Douglas Dorow has been sitting in my Kindle since 2012. Shame on me! It’s not the only one. And, as happened with others, like Daemon by Doug Dandridge, it’s a gem. These books date from my early
Keep is the first of Sue Vincent’s #writephoto challenges that I’ve accepted. I said near the end of last year I was going to find another blog hop to keep my short fiction going. I’m going to aim to keep
A Long Petal of the Sea is my first Net-galley book of 2020. It is published on 21st January, i.e. Tuesday. A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende In the late 1930s, civil war gripped Spain. When General
My Best of 2019 included all the books I read last year – this giveaway hop has prizes of books only released last year! Thanks as always to Mary at Bookhounds for organising this hop. When you’ve entered mine, hop
Several books got away without a proper review last year – and not just ones crammed in at the end to try to scale my Mount TBR. I try to keep up my reviews here and on Goodreads as I
SpaceTime Reading Challenge 2019—thank you for taking part. How did you get on? It would be delightful if you’d come back and tell all—and reveal your favourite Spacetime reads for last year. Mine was a hard choice between The Unwinding
Yes, welcome to 2020, all insecure writers. Thank you to Alex J Cavanaugh and the IWSG team for letting us miss New Year’s Day as our posting date this month! The awesome co-hosts for the January 8 posting of the