Writing and reviews with an environmental, science fiction, and fantasy touch
Ichor Well is book 3, and the Calderan Problem book 4, of the highly enjoyable steampunkish Free-Wrench series by Joseph R Lallo. So enjoyable, I started reading some of his other series. Ichor Well (Free-Wrench #3) Ever since Nita Graus
Archipelago was one of the few books in Netgalley’s scifi/fantasy list that appealed. I thank them and the publisher for a chance to review a free copy. It was published in January. Archipelago by H R Hawkins For half a
Monk and Robot is currently a duology of novella length books from Becky Chambers. The words Becky Chambers signal excellence in world-building, understand the human and non-human-psyche, and a lot more. I was going to put this series in my
The Outskirter‘s Secret is the second book in the Steerswoman series, which took me completely by surprise when I read the first…two years ago? The Steerswoman had been lurking in my kindle for many years, and it looked promising but,
Settings that feel like Characters are what the literary agents are looking for. So says J Lenni Dorner in his introduction to this short book, aimed at authors. The good news is: readers feel your settings more acutely if they
Today is August Bank Holiday Monday in England and Wales. Not the UK, as Scotland has its August Bank Holiday at the start of the month. I’m old enough to remember that England used to do that too, and I
Total immersion in my fictional world. That’s the thing that makes writing so exhausting—for me, at any rate. I thought I might write about this for this month’s Insecure Writers Support Group post, because I felt I really learnt something
Turgonia was the place I chose to feature for the letter T of my world-building themed A to Z in 2016. This year I’m doing flashbacks from the seven challenges I’ve undertaken. The A to Z Challenge is celebrating its
Rebekah Loper wrote a book as a result of her A-Z Challenge one year. Her theme – worldbuilding. Since I did the same some years later, I was delighted to see what she’d made of the subject. Answer – a
Ringworld was a chosen book for July for the Space Opera Goodreads group. I feel I should be reading and reviewing more science fiction, but I have to be careful it doesn’t mess with my own writing ideas. This copy
Apologies for not replying to your lovely comments last week. Those who follow my guinea pigs know that I lost Midge last week. I’ve discovered I no longer have the ability to nurse a piggy through the night and catch
Austral caught my eye when it came up as a Net-galley ARC. I was delighted to receive a free review copy from the publisher. Antarctica, climate change, geo-engineering, and a thriller – plenty in there to float my boat. I
Wow! It’s over for another year – but then again, it’s not really over, since there are all those new friends I made when visiting – and all those I missed out. Although I feel I did better than some
Welcome to the last (or is it last but one?) post of the 2016 A to Z Challenge. What a journey! My world-building theme started at Alpha Kenworthy and ends at Zndaria, by way of Lothlorien and Turgonia, to name
Friday is flash fiction day, and I’ve restricted myself to just over 800 words to bring you a piece of Viridian System series backstory, which readers of The Perihelix have been asking for. Well, they wanted to know more about