Writing and reviews with an environmental, science fiction, and fantasy touch
Big Ben is actually the bell inside the clocktower at the Palace of Westminster, but everyone refers to the tower as Big Ben. It is instantly recognisable, worldwide–like the Eiffel Tower, or Sydney Opera House. It’s the writephoto prompt from
Bugs by J R Tiedemann, and Ada Lovelace by Corinne Purtill, part of the Rebel Girls series, have very little in common. I’ve grouped them because they are both short investigations of a scientific nature, and almost biographies. Thank you
Book covers: what do you see in them? A passing comment in a review of someone else’s book made me wonder (since I rather liked the ‘look’). And, happily, book covers are the theme of this month’s Insecure Writers Support
The Last Remains comes out today in the UK according to the newsletters I get, although listed as 2nd Feb on Goodreads. If you pre-ordered it from one of the independent booksellers listed by Quercus, you may have got it
Battleship. I guess this came into London recently as KL Caley’s post on New2Writing.com suggests a news item. I missed it. But I had a vivid thought of another time and place. So I wrote it pretty much straight away,
Love will Tear Us Apart is the third in the weird ‘Stranger Times’ series. I mean that kindly – I think ‘weird’ is the best genre to classify it in. I was bowled over by Stranger Times itself, book one,
Vineyard – a picture that came into my inbox hot on the heels of KL Caley’s #writephoto notification. And I was so taken with it that I emailed the senders asking for permission to use it. So I have. Sorry,
HMS Lanternfish is the second in C S Boyack’s marvellous pirating adventure, I read this last year, which helped complete my Mount TBR Challenge. Then, as I was desperate to read on, I completed the series with Wreck of the
The Hillier Gardens are not to be confused with Hilliers Garden Centres, although I expect the one is an offshoot, turned commercial, of the other. The Hillier Gardens were founded in 1953 near Romsey, Hampshire, by Sir Harold Hillier. when
Approach to the tower. It doesn’t seem long since we had another tower along an approach for #writephoto, but I’m sure KL Caley at New2writing.com knows what she’s doing! This one came to me over breakfast on Saturday. It’s nearly
Front Desk was one of the last Books of the Month for 2022 I read for the MG group on Goodreads… I’ve stayed on as a Moderator for now, because I’m working on some more children’s stories. I’ve handed over
Alley to the Past came out of today’s #writephoto offering from KL Caley at New2Writing.com. I felt like I’d walked down this alley before. After a couple of days, I worked out where it was in my memory, and set
This is my book of the year read in 2022, not necessarily newly published. As it happens, one of my absolute faves has won awards, including a Goodreads award, and been picked by several people already. That may be a
Oh look, I’m cohosting today! Welcome to 2023, and I hope it brings good things for you. I particularly like this month’s Question, which gives plenty of scope for thinking about the year ahead. Debs Carey, Kim Lajevardi, Sarah Foster, Natalie Aguirre, T. Powell
Horizon: the start of another year of writephoto flash fiction inspired by KL Caley at New2Writing.com. This one came to me as I was cuddling Pippin, prior to phoning my brother on Saturday morning. I think I was still under