Writing and reviews with an environmental, science fiction, and fantasy touch
Conor Kelly’s Guide to Ireland’s Ancient Places has been lurking in my iPad for several years, waiting to get onto my official TBR on Goodreads. This is not the usual way my book lists work. Consequently this is not the
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
The Long Flight Home appealed to me because it featured the British Pigeon Service during World War II. Thank you, Net-galley and the publisher for the opportunity of a pre-release copy. The book was launched on Thursday. The Long Flight
Trick or Treat Reads is the brainchild of Patricia Josephine. Several authors are giving away free ebooks today as your Halloween treat! See the link below for more 🙂 Fantasy/epic/older MG/crossover series In honour of my new book, Chronicles of
Deeplight was offered to me by the publisher (via Netgalley) because I’d previously reviewed The Lie Tree by the same author. So I clicked ‘yes’ because the blurb was so enticing and the author attracts me. It was only afterwards
‘Wolf at the door’ is this month’s prompts in the Fiction in 50 (words) flash fiction challenge. I love doing these shorts, but we seem doomed to continue them on our own. You can join in – check out Rebecca
Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister sounded intriguing. I’d read the Wild Swans by Jung Chang several years ago, and was enthralled by it. Jung Chang has written several biographies and historical books about China. This is the first I’ve
The October update replaces a third quarter update for the SpaceTime Reading Challenge. The SpaceTime Readers I hope all of you who signed up are doing well, and keeping your own updates going. I really hope to get round to
The Distraction question arrived in my email inbox on Friday, just after I’d done a ‘Things to Do’ list for October that was … very long. It seems I have to chase my selling solicitors, since we haven’t yet established
Master and God is not a Falco novel. It’s not a Flavia Alba novel either (although there is a new Flavia Alba out, and I’m getting seriously behind with that series). It is set in Ancient Rome, and it is
Three-quarters through the year, and I’m so busy I forgot to do my reading challenge update. Many thanks to Cheryl Mahoney for reminding me. I know I’m not doing nearly as well as her. Three-quarters assessment in a nutshell Goodreads
Grimm, Grit, and Gasoline was one of Rhonda Parrish’s anthologies that I didn’t try to enter, because I didn’t understand what she was looking for. So I read it to find out. I also managed to snag a pre-publication copy
It’s six weeks to the publication of Chronicles of Marsh, and I’ve just bought a new house. Well, the house is subject to contract, so it’s that anxious time when the solicitors are involved. You have no knowing whether something
Chapter illustrations became a feature of my Princelings series, and in theory I like doing them. In practice, I get anxious about whether I can execute what I have in my head. I thought you might like to know what
Ashes of London went on my To Read list almost as soon as it came out, but it lingered there until I had the opportunity to get a copy through Net-galley last year. Thank you to them and the publishers
Taking Turns is September’s prompt for Fiction in Fifty Words. I enjoy this micro fiction challenge, and you can join in. It’s much easier than haiku! Although I might start doing those again. For full details see Rebecca’s page on
The Czar’s Spy came in a kindle volume called ‘British Mystery Multipacks Vol. 6 – British Spy Mysteries.’ It contains two of my all-time favourite stories, The Riddle of the Sands and the 39 Steps, which is why I got
Today is Global Climate Strike Day. Thousands of people will be demonstrating, all over the UK, that they support the students who have been striking for a year now, to get the Government to listen. Many thousands more will be
Damyanti Biswas writes cracking, atmospheric and immersive short stories. Today she launches her first full-length novel You Beneath Your Skin. I’m planning to review it later in the year – I’m a bit behind with my launch reviews at the
Datura is a weird book. I mean that in a good way – it fits into the subgenre of Fantasy/scifi of ‘weird’. Leena Krohn is an award-winning Finnish author, but much of the time this story could be set in
Jetpack is a plug-in for WordPress.org users. It gives me most of the bells and whistles that WordPress.com users have. The main benefits are the sharing things, although for some reason I seem to have them working at present, statistics,
The Essex Serpent first lodged in my mind when Sarah Perry was a guest at either Norfolk & Norwich Festival or Noirwich. I think it was in NNF on a session on noir, because I’m sure Sarah Waters read her
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
Two anthologies for you today, to help me catch up on my reviews. I like reading anthologies when I’m busy, because of the easy put-down, pick-up nature of the book. The downside is I find it almost impossible to remember
I said I wasn’t doing Flashback Friday any more. Then events of this week made me think of all the things I needed to do, and I remembered this story: Guilt in Greyscale, from 2015. It was an ‘include these