Science Fiction/Fantasy/YA 257 pages This novel tackles some pretty fundamental themes. Told through the experiences and voices of two young people, Will, an innocent boy from a rural settlement, and Leah, a rather more worldly and sophisticated girl from a city, the story is woven through their separate adventures in their different worlds until the …
Continue reading Children of the Furnace, by Brin Murray: #BookReview
Regular readers will know I've been having serious problems with my Mac recently. I hoped it had been fixed (at great expense!). But another update was needed this morning and it has failed and set the machine on a downward spiral to utter uselessness, again! There is clearly something wrong with the update system, either …
Continue reading Yet Another iMac Fail!
What a week! First, an apology for the delay in posting. If you have the time and energy to read this post in full, you’ll understand why it’s late. Last week’s episode of this series suggested I was on track for the edit. Raring to go, in fact. I hadn’t bargained on the continuing power …
Continue reading Progress on the WIP: #SciFi in the Making.
310 pages. Science Fiction and Fantasy. What an engaging tale this is. It says a lot for the quality of the writing and the compelling nature of the story that I continued to read this despite some pretty difficult issues in my online/working life at the time! I’m a reader who loves books where characters …
Continue reading Catling’s Bane, by D. Wallace Peach: #BookReview.
A new and very positive review for War Over Mars has now appeared on both Goodreads and Amazon. You can read it here. https://read.amazon.co.uk/kp/card?asin=B0749NW6W8&preview=inline&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_AtWHAbQ4J5NG6&tag=stuartaken-21
Do you sometimes struggle to find the ‘right’ word for your writing? I do. Perhaps, in improving myself, I can help other writers. Today’s words: Luxuriant/Luxurious, Down in the dumps, Iktsuarpok. Words often misused: English, because of its inheritance of words stolen from many languages, often uses words that superficially appear to mean more or …
Continue reading The #Write #Word? Post 7
Subtitled ‘A Promotional Reference Guide for Authors and Small Publishers’, this extensive reference guide is full of information and helpful advice. It’s essentially a listing of websites, blogs, service providers and organisations involved in the promotion of books. As the subtitle makes clear, it’s of special relevance to the self-published author and the small independent …
Continue reading The Book Reviewer Yellow Pages, by Christine Pinheiro: #BookReview.
The rewrite is now under way and progressing pretty well considering… ‘Considering what?’ I hear you cry. In answer, I’ll simply direct you to a previous post here. Added to what’s in that post, my Mac continues to play silly buggers for reasons I’m at a loss to determine. I’ve looked at the ‘help’ and …
Continue reading Progress on the WIP: #SciFi in the Making.
This wonderfully written novel explores the relationship between two very different women. One is a divorced mother struggling to cope with the loss of a child, and the other a very young single woman coping with a major change in her chaotic life. The main characters are drawn with a vivid clarity that ensures the …
Continue reading I Used to Be, by Mary Brown: #BookReview.
On Tuesday I wrote a short tale of woe about my Mac that deprived me of the means to work over the weekend, and also lost me some photographs. I could pretend someone, somewhere, has it in for me, but I recognise the random nature of such events and feel no personal threat from the …
Continue reading Inanimate Objects, Again!
Do you sometimes struggle to find the ‘right’ word for your writing? I know I do. Perhaps, in improving myself, I can help other writers. Today’s words: Final Ultimatum, Alternatives, Zeugma, Redundancies: words serving no purpose. In speech, they’re spacers, giving the speaker time to think. But in writing they slow the reader’s progress. Final …
Continue reading The Write Word? Post 6
The first draft has been read, notes made, hair pulled out, swear words shouted, mutterings and curses mumbled. And, occasionally, whoops of joy that I’ve actually created a story have been heard. Now the work begins, however. Some chapters are out of synch. My ruminations on this element had me wondering whether to move the …
Continue reading Progress on the WIP: #SciFi in the Making.
Gremlins? The wicked hand of fate? Bad luck? Or simply a random event that’s not personal at all? On Friday, I rose at my customary hour (between 07:00 and 08:30 now I’ve retired from the ranks of the wage slaves). My Mac had a little notification, top right, advising that some updates hadn’t been installed. …
Continue reading When Inanimate Objects Conspire Against You!
Do you sometimes struggle to find the ‘right’ word for your writing? I know I do. Perhaps, in improving myself, I can help other writers. Today’s words: Discombobulate, Clear as mud, Cruelly, Tricolon. Synonyms are alternative words that might say exactly what you’re trying to convey. Discombobulate: (early 19th C American in origin) to confuse. …
Continue reading The Write Word? Post 5
This is the monthly reminder that the writing contest table has been updated. It lives under the ‘Resources’ tab. I update the table frequently, in fact whenever I come across new contest details. I also subscribe to sources for information to pass on to you here. Submit your entries in plenty of time. There …
Continue reading Creative #Writing #Contests Table Updated
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