Writing and reviews with an environmental, science fiction, and fantasy touch
Hello IWSG-ers. Welcome to August. I know, how did we get here so fast? This month’s IWSG newsletter poses a very long question. The end of it was: Have you ever written a piece that became a form, or even
Darkness is today’s #writephoto prompt from Sue Vincent. The picture is below. I took my inspiration from the word rather than the picture of dark roiling clouds over a rolling meadow. As soon as I saw the prompt I thought
July 2020. The IWSG team suggest today that we tell you our predictions for writing and books in ten years time. Yesterday, I read a thing on what it’s like to have to go on a ventilator if you get
April this year is dedicated to my Camp NaNoWriMo project for 2020. I’m revising Princelings book 10 ready for the beta readers. Have you read several Princelings of the East books? Would you like to give me feedback promptly on
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
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
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
The December question from the Insecure Writer’s Support Group relates to hopes and the reality. It suggests that insecure writers still in the ‘aspiring’ phase write about where they see themselves in a few years time. For those who have
Audiobooks. They used to be something you listened to on long journeys if you didn’t want to or couldn’t read. Or maybe while you did boring tasks around the house. According to the stats I’m seeing, they are coming into
Things creep up on me when I’m busy. When the season changes, the urgency shifts. One minute it’s summer, and I have ages to prepare to launch my book in November, the next minute it’s September, it’s autumn, and there’s
‘Red Wheelbarrow’ is the WEP/IWSG prompt for August. As you know I’ve been turning out some ‘interesting’ stories in response to these prompts. I’ve enjoyed them. I’ve also enjoyed and welcomed the comments on my stories. Caged Bird | Flash
Welcome to July. No. I was all set to write my July IWSG post but I couldn’t access my website. Then things got worse. If you’re interested you can read more here. Welcome to August. A thousand things I thought
Total immersion in my fictional world. That’s the thing that makes writing so exhausting—for me, at any rate. I thought I might write about this for this month’s Insecure Writers Support Group post, because I felt I really learnt something
Save Week is the next stage of WRiTE CLUB 2019. For the last three weeks we’ve been choosing between pairs of finalists. Now, before we get into the next round of battles, there’s Save Week, where we vote to save
Finishing the series: I’m sure I’ve written about this before, but given it’s the 1st May, and it’s Insecure Writers Support Group, and I’ve just got back from Camp NaNoWriMo, I thought I’d take it as my subject. I didn’t
Whenever is this month’s prompt for Fiction in Fifty words. You can join in. Just go to Rebecca Douglass’s page for the prompts of the month (the whole year is displayed for you, just in case you want to get
Greetings, Insecure Writers – WRiTECLUB19 is just around the corner. In fact the official announcement was made on Monday, so anything I’m saying is announced at DL Hammons’ website far more authoritatively. What is WriteClub19? I thought most of my
Rebekah Loper wrote a book as a result of her A-Z Challenge one year. Her theme – worldbuilding. Since I did the same some years later, I was delighted to see what she’d made of the subject. Answer – a
The most miniscule details can make or break a book. Well, if you’re as picky as me, anyway. Since it’s Insecure Writers Support Group day, you can tell me whether I’m right, or too finicky, or should just lighten up
Welcome to 2019, and it’s #IWSG day. The Insecure Writers Support Group does what it says, supports writers of all levels of experience even though sometimes that tough going doesn’t seem as tough for you as other people. It’s still
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
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
Jane Friedman used to write a great blog about her progress on her MFA. Now she writes a fantastic blog on writing, and other aspects of being a professional author. Here’s a great interview with Russell Rowland, who’s published five
The 27th Letter is the ampersand. That’s according to a very interesting e-newsletter from Blurb, my paperback print/distributor. I was so taken with it, I’m recreating it here, using their graphics and words. The 27th Letter Ever wonder why we
Norwich’s crime festival, christened Noirwich in its first year, has reached the grand old age of five. This year’s writing festival is as varied and exciting as ever, although I’m only going to the events on Sunday. Crime festival highlights