Writing and reviews with an environmental, science fiction, and fantasy touch
Queen and Commander was part of a first-in-series set from storybundle.com. It filled the bill for a Q in my Alphabet Soup reading challenge, as well as adding to my Mount TBR. But I nearly dropped it when I had
Rough Steps is my take on this week’s writephoto–of a stairway, which as you can see is pretty rough-hewn. My thanks go to KL Caley of New2Writing.com for continuing to keep us up to the mark with not only a
Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse has been sitting on my shelf for some time, waiting for it to be picked for the Great Middle Grade Reads monthly read. It came second some time ago, which is when
Would I ever quit writing? That’s effectively the question today. What would make me quit writing? I’ve had the odd month or two recently when I’ve not written anything much… not in the way of fictions or non-fiction. I’ve generally
This Insect Survey was something I stumbled upon thanks to the BTO’s enewsletter. Apart from the fact I’m always up for ten minutes just standing and watching some flowers, it’s good to be useful in gathering real scientific data that
The Cosmic Tourist came out in 2012, and I picked it up more or less straight away. It was probably Sir Patrick Moore’s last book, although he did have another Astronomy Year out posthumously. This is more of a coffee
July brings Book Bargains from me, courtesy of the Smashwords Summer/Winter Sale. Why both seasons? Well, if you’re in Australia it’s winter. Where I am it’s (allegedly) summer. So the annual month long sale is now on. Jemima’s Ridiculous Bargains-
Yes, another 30DaysWild is over, but as you’ll see from Tuesday’s post (if it ever goes up) I have another fun thing to keep me thinking of wild things for the rest of the summer. Second Half Update For the
Another Reading Challenge Update. They seem to come around so fast these days! I’m struggling with a not-quite-working website host at present. They have got the server back online, but not working fully, and at present I can’t post new
Man of the Woods sprang out at me as I saw the #writephoto prompt for this week. The picture of the Tree Man (below) is by fellow scribe Willowdot, and it’s wonderful! KL Caley runs the #writephoto from New2Writing.com, posting
Finding the Mother Tree was offered by the publisher via Netgalley. I’m very grateful to them for a chance to review the book. It was published on 4th May, but I only got it a couple of days before. I’m
Part 2 of my Great Plastics Project is to analyse the contents of my month’s accumulation of plastic and work out where it can go. If I can’t recycle it, I want to work out how to avoid bringing it
Fisherman – a good prompt for #30DaysWild, too. I used to live by a river with loads of linked reservoirs around as part of the flood defences; it was a fisher’s paradise. Several of my friends fished, and my immediate
The Saturn System was a free book from NASA at the completion of the Cassini-Huyghens space expedition. I downloaded it like a shot. I chose to look at it now as I needed to do some research on planetary ring
Mid-month Catch-up? Yes, we’re already over halfway through June, and the longest day (northern hemisphere) is fast approaching. Several other deadlines are already here, so I don’t know what I’ve been doing since the end of May… oh yes, #30DaysWild!
The Wave by Hokusai. An iconic piece of art that has been much used (and abused) over the years due to the ownership of the print blocks being in the publisher’s name, not the artist or his descendants. My art
Tunnel is this week’s #writephoto prompt. I’m still doing #30DaysWild, so my thoughts turned to nature writing again. It’s lovely to see the number of participants in #writephoto growing again, and that’s all thanks to KL Caley hosting it at
The Royal Secret was offered by the publishers via Netgalley; I’m very grateful to them for it. Listed as another in the Marwood & Lovett series, I didn’t realise how many there were out already. I thoroughly enjoyed Ashes of
My Plastics Project started as a result of reading Finding Sustainability, which was published last week. In it, the author led us on his journey to at least starting to produce less plastic waste, and to encourage his customers to
Beach is this week’s #writephoto prompt, with a great picture from KL Caley. Check other stories, articles and poems at New 2Writing.com. It’s also my thought for #30DaysWild today. One of the Random Acts of Wildness I did a couple
Trouble with Tattle-Tails is a delightful book. I couldn’t resist it when the publishers and Netgalley offered it. I read it on my iPad, for the full effect of the colour illustrations. It also gave me a T for my
Gilbert White, the 18th century naturalist, lived in Selborne, about 20 miles away from me in Hampshire. His house and garden was my first 30DaysWild excursion this year. I set off in the fourth day of wall-to-wall sunshine (as forecast),
Drafting, and specifically going back to your first draft and redrafting. That’s today’s subject, and I confess I never think of any of them as a ‘draft’! I’m writing and editing, although I might call it a draft until it
Another June! They seem to come round so quickly. I’ve been taking part in the UK Wildlife Trusts’ awareness raiser #30DaysWild for some time now. This is what’s planned for 2021. Another June of Wild Writing The plan is to
Steps of Venice is my story today. I was thinking of maybe 200, maybe 500 words, but Venice took over and I’ve edited it down to just over 1000! And as you saw on Thursday, the photo from this week’s