Writing and reviews with an environmental, science fiction, and fantasy touch
Stephen Hawking was a phenomenon. A Brief History of Time sold 10 million copies worldwide. The author said yes, but hardly anyone read it. It took me thirty years to read my copy, so he may well be right! Leonard
Today is the Cover Reveal for the final book in the Princelings of the East series: Princelings Revolution. I’m also kicking off the Launch & Anniversary Giveaway, which will run until midnight on October 23rd, to cover my tenth blogoversary
Of Salt and Shore is a new release from the Dutch author Annet Schaap. I received an advance copy via Netgalley. It was due to be published next week, 15th September, but the launch has been put back to October.
Jaydium makes it two scifi books in a row, at least as far as reviews goes. This was a Storybundle offering from last summer. I don’t think I’ve had a dud one yet from Story bundle, although of course, some
Beta-reader of your choice… who would it be? That’s (roughly) the question for this month’s IWSG post, an event that has crept up on me, despite thinking about it last month. It’s probably down to two things, well, maybe three.
The Long Way Home was the Goodreads Space Opera Group’s Book of the Month for August. I haven’t read many of the Group’s choices; they’d mentioned it before, so it was already on my list. That made it suitable for
A crescent moon provides the prompt for this week’s #writephoto offering. This is a rising moon in the photo below, although this week we have a setting crescent moon sinking below the shadow of the tree opposite my front window!
Vesper Flights is the new book by the author of H is for Hawk, which has been on my list for ages. I’m very grateful to Net-Galley and the publishers, Random House Jonathan Cape, for the opportunity of a pre-release
Long Shadow makes me think of a shadow I always used to imagine was going to look around the corner of the landing and look at me in my bed. But the picture isn’t right for a story about him…
Moonflower Murders is the second Susan Ryeland Murder Mystery from Anthony Horowitz. I’ve tried not to get too involved with Mr Horowitz’s many series, although I will read the MG one sometimes. There are also James Bond novels and other
Backroom blogging is where all the administration of your website goes on. If you decided to get rid of your free WordPress site, you may have gone for the self-hosted version, WordPress.org. Thousands of people do. (Hundreds of)Thousands more commercial
The Mostly Invisible Boy was a Great Middle Grade Reads book of the month – for June! I managed to read it before the end of July, which is a vast improvement on my recent performances. This was the Group’s
Early August! Already a week gone, and I’m feeling so much more settled now. I’m even back into a routine of writing and work. Too much work, though, with all the moving paperwork I’ve been putting off: secondary address changes
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
Anyone is an intriguing look at the progress of a new technological breakthrough several years into the future. I was fascinated by the NetGalley description and am very grateful to be provided with an advance review copy. Anyone by Charles
Humankind came along on Net-galley just as I was feeling particularly down over the state of politics and society. It promised a reassessment of our outlook on why people are what they are. I can best say it gave me
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
Umbrella Mouse to the Rescue came to me from the publisher via Net-galley early in the year, when it was scheduled for publication around June. I saw a new date for July and one for September, so I’m publishing the
It’s Guinea Pig Appreciation Day! It’s about time I celebrated it with you. Me and my Guinea Pigs You may know that I appreciate guinea pigs, large and small, and have three at home at present. I’m currently waiting for
Vista is Sue Vincent’s prompt for our #Writephoto inspiration this week. Here’s the photo she gave us: I confess I’m fairly sure I know where this vista is. There are several posts on Sue’s blog where I know where she
Reclamation was one of a group of books I got in a Storybundle. If you haven’t discovered that yet, it’s a great way of discovering new writers. Check it out! I’m seriously behind with my reading at the moment, and
The SpaceTime Reading Challenge is the main one I need to update, because I run that, and I hope everyone is getting on well with it! I’m falling behind with most of my reading challenges this year. Spacetime Reading Challenge
The Last Pilgrim is a new book about the early colonists of America. Noelle Granger has been sharing her research for this book on her blog for a long time. I’ve been more and more fascinated by it, and looking
Monstrous Devices was a net-galley book from the publisher. I got it very close to the publication date listed, although it seems to have been published earlier, maybe in different formats, or it’s been picked up by a bigger publisher.
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