Author of the Princelings of the East fantasy and Viridian System scifi series
The Bloggers Bash for 2018 was on Saturday. I travelled down to London from Norfolk, negotiated the usual engineering works on a trainline somewhere, and arrived in time for my promised hug from Hugh. I got my nametag and a
Elly Griffiths published her tenth Ruth Galloway book in February. Despite having pre-ordered the paperback version from Amazon (due out in July), I got an ARC from NetGalley, and then wondered whether I was doing the right thing, since I
Real Estate. That’s Chuck’s theme of the week. It seems a common problem at present; several of my blogging friends are moving, or thinking of doing so. I’m too busy at present to have written a flash fiction for today,
The Perihelix (second edition) has been live on Amazon.com and Smashwords for a month now. It filtered through the systems to other Amazon stores and to iTunes, B&N and Kobo (and others) over the following days. In the two years
All is not lost when it comes to my To Be Read list on Goodreads. I told you in March I’d added another StoryBundle this year, with books I really really want to read. Since then I’ve had even more
Daemon has been hanging around near the top of my TBR for years. Poor Doug Dandridge has had to wait over 5 years for me to review his book, and I bet I got it in an offer of some
Chuck’s back, and he asked for Space Opera today. I’ve cheated slightly, as I considered doing some more backstory for the Perihelix women, and didn’t think I had the time. Doing a whole space opera in 1000 words is tough,
The customary Reflections on the A to Z challenge I find interesting. Sometimes I get round other people’s, people I had intended to see more of during the month, and then work back through their post. Sometimes their Reflections post
The Company of Eight was a book I requested on Net-Galley, so I thank them and the publishers for allowing me a review copy. As usual, my review is my honest opinion of the book. The Company of Eight Harriet
I’ve had hours of fun with the April Fi50. Yes, It’s May, not April. It’s May the fourth. I usually give you the Star Wars greeting, but today it’s just Fi50. Fiction in Fifty Words is, as you well know,
I said I was going to put voice clips from Geoffrey’s taped memoirs here. Well, it’s taken me nearly a year to get this far. That’s mostly because I couldn’t find the files that I’d recorded from the tape recorder on
Spring! It’s finally here, maybe. And the Insecure Writers Support Group hint of the month is (roughly): Do you find it easier writing in spring when everything is growing and things are looking fresher? What I usually do in spring
May I suggest that we all take a deep breath and go for a walk in spring sunshine after the April A to Z Challenge? We had a great time, but boy, is it tiring. I further suggest that you
Zoology: the scientific study of animals esp. with reference to their structure, physiology, classification and distribution. [Concise Oxford Dictionary] We end this year’s A to Z Challenge with a quick look at the way animals have inspired my writing, not
The Yellow Admiral is the eighteenth book of the Aubrey-Maturin series. These are the books on which the film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World was based. The sequel was never made because, despite worldwide popularity, box-office
Exoplanets are planets outside our solar system. I had already prepared an X for this year’s A to Z. Then I watched this month’s Sky At Night programme on the search for life on Mars. That made me realise that
White horses definitely inspire me, but I haven’t used them in my writing yet. Well, I’ve used the figurative white horses that got round film censorship in the 1940s. You don’t know what I mean? That was when any more
Venice. It’s inspired many people, in many walks of life and the arts. Vienna, too. Both have a dangerous history behind them, full of intrigue, if not downright cruelty. Many cities can say the same. But since today is letter
Ulva is a small island off the north-west coast of the Isle of Mull, which itself is off the north-west coast of Scotland. And I suppose Scotland is part of the island group of the northwest coast of Europe…. I’m
Apologies for not replying to your lovely comments last week. Those who follow my guinea pigs know that I lost Midge last week. I’ve discovered I no longer have the ability to nurse a piggy through the night and catch
Snapshots is my book review for this Saturday in the A to Z Challenge. I’ve already read a lot of titles beginning with s this year; I’m glad I continued and read this one. It helps me towards my reading
Roddenberry; Gene Roddenberry. Where would we be without him? Do you think that today’s culture would be better or worse if we had not had Star Trek? Can you imagine a world without Star Trek? Would we have had Star
The Quest. It’s such a common element of fantasy writing, if not most writing. Whether it’s for an object or an ideal, most of us end up writing some variation on the quest. Types of quest I remember reading some
People I knew in the Past is a pretty weak subject for P in my A to Z of inspirations, but then, the past does make you who you are, and sometimes the people who are gone and forgotten come
Other writers and bloggers inspire me, so I thought I should give them due deference in my A to Z Challenge this year. Inspiration comes in different ways: sometimes it’s the topic a blogger picks, sometimes (often) it’s the struggles