Mike Dickenson’s ‘IQ84’ is a timely satire on American values and culture. Written in the style of a humorous pulp thriller, it captures the banality, self-obsession, materialism and superficiality that characterise the USA for so many of us who live in the rest of the world. The recent populist backlash against the establishment that has …
Continue reading IQ84, by Mike Dickenson, Reviewed.
Continuing to go well, the follow-up to Blood Red Dust now stands at 74,558 words, which is an increase of 11,460 for the week. New ideas are coming through the creative process and I’m reaching the denouement now; tension ramped and pace increasing. It’s great fun writing like this. Those of you who’ve read Blood …
Continue reading Progress on the WIP: #SciFi in the Making.
This series offers help to writers trying to make their work more accessible, interesting, varied, accurate and effective by exploring similar and dissimilar words. It also provides language learners with insights into some of the peculiarities of the English language. A good thesaurus gives alternatives for the idea of a word, but not all suggestions …
Continue reading Looking for the Best Word? Tip #26
Still going well, the follow-up to Blood Red Dust now stands at 63,098 words, an additional 8289 since last week’ update. Another slight change in direction occurred to me during a walk in the forest and this has ramped up the tension significantly. Those characters know how to have fun with me as writer. It’s …
Continue reading Progress on the WIP: #SciFi in the Making.
An astounding piece of work. Because this book is a modern classic, it has been much reviewed, discussed and dissected, which probably renders my review somewhat redundant. That won’t prevent me writing in praise of the novel, however. The author describes the work as speculative fiction rather than science fiction, and I understand her distinction. …
Continue reading The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood, Reviewed.
Having read, and enjoyed, April Taylor’s other novels, I was eager to see how she would tackle this challenge. It’s no mean feat for an author to contribute a novel to such a well-established, ubiquitous and much-loved series as the Sherlock Holmes collection. April Taylor, however, has managed to combine her own voice with the …
Continue reading Sherlock Holmes and the Oakwood Grange Affair, by April Taylor, Reviewed.
The new book progresses well, now standing at 53,185, which is an additional 12,594 words since the last post here. As often happens when pantster writing, I was suddenly taken on a diversion by a couple of characters the day before yesterday. The developing plot has taken a slightly unexpected turn, but the story is …
Continue reading Progress on the WIP: #SciFi in the Making.
The Strange Life; it says a lot about the book, this title. Intriguing? Yes. Compelling? Yes. You can sense the ‘but’, I suspect. This is a strange book. It follows the life of a young boy of military parents as he grows into adulthood after those parents mysteriously disappear following an accident for which his father …
Continue reading The Strange Life of Brandon Chambers, by Scott Spotson, Reviewed.
I received a free copy of this book for review from one of the team supporting the author, otherwise I would never have come across the book, let alone read it. It’s one of thousands of similar volumes ostensibly designed to offer ‘self-help’ or ‘self-development’ but, in reality more akin to an elaborate catalogue aimed …
Continue reading Choices and Illusions, by Eldon Taylor, Reviewed.
The new book is progressing well. More research done, and another 9,000+ words added to bring it to 27,273 today. I think the book is probably about a third done in first draft at present. Of course, unforeseen changes may occur before the end to make it either longer or shorter, but my current prediction …
Continue reading Progress on the WIP: #SciFi in the Making.
Considering the date, perhaps I should look at usage for triskaidekaphobia? But I suspect everyone now knows it simply means a morbid fear of the number 13. This series offers writers help to make their work more accessible, interesting, varied, accurate and effective by exploring similar and dissimilar words. It also gives language learners some …
Continue reading Looking for the Best Word? Tip #21
You really should have had this update yesterday, as I do them on Wednesdays. But I was actually writing (and, tell the truth, the heavy cold that had me in its clutches throughout Xmas and the New Year celebrations had returned to turn my brain to mush for most of the waking hours). Today, I …
Continue reading Progress on the WIP: #SciFi in the Making.
This fantasy short introduces readers to a new series, The Majat Code, which, on the basis of the writing here, I may very well explore further. For a short piece, this book develops the characters well and presents an imagined world in surprising detail, without boring the reader with unnecessarily lengthy descriptions. The story involves …
Continue reading The Majat Testing, by Anna Kashina Reviewed.
April Taylor has her soprano sleuth, Georgia Pattison embroiled in another murder mystery. A shorter work, this one, it packs in all the emotion, action and mystery of her longer works. Great light detective fiction that concentrates on character as a means of solving the crime. We have a new police detective here to deal …
Continue reading The Midnight Clear, by April Taylor, Reviewed.
This little eBook is worth its modest price for the links alone. It’s a basic journal setting out the process, pitfalls, opportunities and rewards relating to writing for literary journals. With chapters on Why You Should Submit…, How To Know When Your Work is Ready…, Basics of Submitting, and many others, it provides useful information …
Continue reading Submit, Publish, Repeat, by Emily Harstone, Reviewed.
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Antidote to the Novel
Stuart Aken 