Writing and reviews with an environmental, science fiction, and fantasy touch
Another roundup! Some quickies to round off four more books I read and hadn’t reviewed… two library spur-of-the-moment choices and two that have been sitting in my kindle for a while – four years each. I don’t like doing them
The decision on which book to pick for my Book of the Year was hard. I tried to get you involved with a vote, but that didn’t help much, since only four votes were cast. But it did help me
A Little History of British Gardening was a Christmas present last year, no, the year before now. I started reading in October. I finally finished it on Boxing Day. It is much longer than expected, with much smaller typeface than
Curved Space to Corsair is all safely installed in the online stores, so whatever your preference in ereader, you can go ahead and pre-order with confidence! Please help with the launch Even if you don’t want to read it yet
The A to Z Challenge peeps are launching a Reviews and Book Tour Blog hop to take place in February, with sign-ups opening today until the 18th January. I’ve now updated this post, so see details below or hop over
Tourist Trap is a science fiction adventure by Sue Ann Bowling, who was one of my blogging friends in Alaska. I’ve been meaning to read it for a few years now, after reading Homecoming just after Sue Ann died, and
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
Achievements of 2018 and Targets for 2019. It’s obligatory, really. And it’s going to be bullet-point mainly, with links to other places for more detail. All I can add is that I’ve been working really hard over Christmas to get
Outside is a book I received from the publisher via Net-galley. This review reflects my own opinions. Outside will be published on Thursday, 3rd January. I expect it’s going to be a big hit. Outside by Sarah Ann Juckes Here’s
Christmas in Spacedock was actually my 2016 treat for readers of the Viridian series website, which you can follow here. If you enjoyed Dolores’ adventure in Change of Heart recently (was it really August?!), you might like to discover that
A Maigret Christmas came from the publisher via Net-Galley. I was excited to see, when I registered it on Goodreads, that it said ‘A Maigret Christmas and other stories‘. Indeed I saw the paperback of this title in Waterstones bookstores this
The Worst Gift is this month’s prompt for the Fiction in Fifty Words meme #Fi50. Please thank Rebecca Douglass for hosting it all year and reminding us to link to her own post each month. More people are welcome to
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