Blog posts from all categories back to 2012. For earlier posts, go to the “dusty archive“.
I am not an expert on the UK-EU relationship. I don’t know whether we would be better of in or out in the long run. Most of the “facts” being bandied about are estimates, misrepresentations or vague guesses which makes it hard to know what to believe. There are both | Read more…
I am currently caught in a reading dilemma. The book I’m reading isn’t very good. Or at least isn’t holding my attention. Is it okay to stop reading a book? Logic says “of course!” and yet it feels wrong. When I am enjoying a book I make time to read | Read more…
The classic advice to writers is to write what we know, or the more accurate alternative: “Write what you know, or can research.” There’s an inference in the quote above, that information you research is inherently different from information you know. Which, I suppose, may be true, depending on your definition of knowing. | Read more…
Geordie Sharpe and his SAS team are sent to Africa to train government forces in the war torn nation of Kamanga. After an accident leaves a young boy dead, the local witch doctor makes a chilling pronouncement. Unless they leave now, ten white men or women will die. Geordie dismisses | Read more…
I’ve been having a think about what makes a good piece of flash fiction, and while I don’t think I can say it any better than David Gaffney does in this article – Stories in your pocket: how to write flash fiction (which came out just before the very first National | Read more…
This is a post about the futility of trying to make capital and physical punishment humane. I read an update on the case of Raif Badawi and (notwithstanding the complete injustice of his case as a whole*), I found myself thinking, this is insane. This is like… The Land of the Headless | Read more…
An article today on the BBC news website covered a dramatic meeting between facial transplant patient Richard Norris and Rebekah Aversano, the sister of the man whose face he now wears. Richard Norris was severely injured in a shotgun accident some 15 years ago. In 2012 he received a transplant | Read more…
The Glass Demon by Helen Grant Lin Fox is dragged away from her life in England by her family. Her father is obsessed with finding the mysterious Allerheiligen Glass – medieval stained glass windows thought lost for centuries – and moves them to a remote part of Germany. His initial | Read more…
Twitter went crazy today with artists, writers, musicians and other creatives reacting against the Green Party policy on copyright. **Warning, this blog post may contain political opinion** Copyright is a strange beast. For many people, it’s an inconvenience standing between them and content they would like to access, copy or | Read more…
It’s two thirds of the way through April and Camp NaNoWriMo and I’m slightly behind on my targets. Although I’m not technically behind on average, I have less time to write over the next week and a half, so hitting my 60,000 word goal is going to be a stretch. | Read more…