Apologies for the long delay in posting. But silence doesn’t always mean inaction. Over the last few months I’ve been working on the sequel to ‘Lightmaker’. This is now well underway, the first draft is complete and I’m now adding polish. I won’t be dishing out an expected arrival date, but I’m pleased with progress…
More Orwell, less glue
I’m blessed with a fabulous writing group which covers both fiction and non-fiction. People bring work for critique, and group members provide friendly and constructive feedback. It’s great fun. Or it would be, if one member of the group didn’t harp on about automatic editing tools. Ok, it’s me doing the harping on. A friend…
Nature is where you start
I’ve received the autumnal flu jab every year for the last twenty years. I still only have one head. No one has given the entire world a Christmas present before, but our scientists are clubbing together to get everyone a nice anti-Covid vaccine. But some aren’t celebrating. They’re busy bleating about imagined vaccine dangers, and…
Koraalen: Planetary Symbiosis. A calm ocean of a story
Our world faces Trump, global warming, the pandemic, and a host of other disruptive game-changers. Heather Murata’s novella ‘Koraalen: Planetary Symbiosis’ makes a change from these troubles. Murata presents readers with an exquisite planetary analogue of Hawaii. Verdant islands rest in a sea teeming with vibrantly described life. The plot concerns sapient coral, and its…
Take off your pants in just 22 steps!
Don’t worry, the pants are those you wear if you write by the seat of your pants. If you prod your keyboard and hope your characters will develop in fascinating ways and have heaps of scintillating yet coherent adventures, you’re a pantser. I was a pantser. Lightmaker took five years to write. I had hair…
Launch of Lightmaker
“Confidence is going after Moby Dick in a rowboat and taking the tartar sauce with you.” ― Zig Ziglar After five years, two ‘book doctor’ appraisals, three rounds of copy editing, and a final polish from the proof-reader my novel ‘Lightmaker’ is now available. The grisly details are here. Will you chose the e-book or the paperback?…
Librarians at the Gate
Manuscript incoming… I’m now certain my novel ‘Lightmaker’ will come out before the game ‘Star Citizen’, even though I’ve only been writing for five years. Lightmaker’s script has returned from its final copy-edit, and is currently with the proof-reader. Mid-April 2020 looks promising for an Amazon release; there may be a book launch party in Oxford. My…
One journey ends, and another begins.
The final light approaches; after over five years of unceasing toil my novel is almost ready. I bought a feedback package from the Jericho Writer’s organisation, and although the editor suggested a few tweaks he enjoyed my work. I’m happy with the story and characters, and will hire a line editor to add a final polish to…
Glare of the screen or smell of the paper?
It’s Autumn in Oxford, leaves tumble from trees, the night air chills, and University staff prepare their annual ritual of running around while shrieking ‘The new students all look twelve years old.’ I can’t let this month go without a newsletter so I wanted to mention my time at WorldCon in Dublin where I spoke…
Resistance isn’t futile: it’s a darned good read.
‘If they wanted to stay at the top of the pile they had to preserve the pile!’ I’ve just finished Jay Aspen’s novel ‘Resistance’. What if growing your own food brought harsh punishment; what if a bloated bureaucracy used hunger to keep hold of power? A lesser author might have handed us a society to…