Nexus, by Joshua Grant: #BookReview.

389 pages YA/Science Fiction If you enjoy science fiction packed with action, humour and credible characters, but overlain with emotional content to make you care what happens to those characters, this is for you. So many scifi thrillers concentrate on plot, action, with little attention given to the players. This book contains all the elements …

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Finding the #Write #Words? No. 21: New Nuttall Dictionary of English Synonyms and Antonyms

Continuing the description of books on words and language listed in the introductory post, which you’ll find here. Book 21: The New Nuttall Dictionary of English Synonyms and Antonyms: Hardback, 442 pages. First published in 1943 by Frederick Warne and Co. Mine is the 1986 edition, revised by Editor Rosalind Fergusson and published by Viking. …

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Creative #Writing #Contests Table Updated

On the 1st of the month I remind followers of this blog the creative writing contest table has been updated. (I update it several times during each month, but I post this reminder comes just once!) You can access the table through the ‘Resources’ page, here. Many contests are free to enter and offer great …

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Finding the #Write #Words? No. 20: New Hart’s Rules

Continuing the description of books on words and language listed in the introductory post, which you’ll find here. Book 20: New Hart’s Rules: Hardback, 464 pages. Subtitled, The Oxford Style Guide, it was first published in 2005 by Oxford University Press. Mine is the 2014 edition and I paid £14.99 for it. The book is …

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Finding the #Write #Words? No. 19: Longman Companion to English Literature

Continuing the description of books on words and language listed in the introductory post, which you’ll find here. Book 19: Longman Companion to English Literature: Paperback, 889 pages. Carrying occasional line drawings and black and white photographs, it was first published in 1972 by Longman Group Ltd. Mine is the 1980 edition and I don’t …

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Periphery, by Michael Winter: #BookReview.

383 pages First Contact Science Fiction/Horror Tense. Taut. Engaging. Absorbing. It happens to all of us, and those with imagination are especially vulnerable: the situation and/or location carry some element of unfamiliarity. There, in the shadows under the tree, near the open gate, behind the stone wall, we see, or think we see, from the …

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Finding the #Write #Words? No. 18: i before e (except after c)

Continuing the description of books on words listed in the introductory post, which you’ll find here. Book 18: i before e (except after c): Hardback, 175 pages. Subtitled ‘old-school ways to remember stuff’, and carrying occasional line drawing illustrations, it was first published in 2007 by Michael O’Mara Books Ltd. I paid £9.99 for it …

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Finding the #Write #Words? No. 17: Hartrampf’s Vocabulary Builder

Continuing the description of books on words listed in the introductory post, which you’ll find here. Book 17: Hartrampf’s Vocabulary Builder: Hardback, 516 pages, including a substantial index. It was first published in the USA in 1929. Psychology Publishing Co. Ltd published a UK version in 1932, and my version is the revised and enlarged …

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Creative #Writing #Contests Table Updated

Night on Lake Maggiore. The 1st of the month is when I let you know the creative writing contest table has been updated. (I actually update it several times during each month, but the reminder comes just this once!) You access the table through the ‘Resources’ page, here. Many contests are free to enter and …

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Finding the #Write #Words? No. 16: Hart’s Rules for Compositors and Readers

Continuing the description of books on words listed in the introductory post, which you’ll find here. Book 16 Hart’s Rules for Compositors and Readers: Hardback, 182 pages, plus 7 blanks for notes. It was published by Oxford University Press in 1967; my version is the thirty-ninth edition, reprinted 1984, and I bought it new for …

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I'll Have…

I’ll Have… Artichoke asparagus and aubergine addled by aspicBeetroot boiled beef bones and beans bathed in bloodCabbage cauliflower chips and creamed cress chopped and coddledDoughnuts dates duck and devilled ham drenched in dillEgg enchiladas Edam cheese and eggplant eased under EmmentalFish faggots felafel full-flavoured and fragrant filled with figsGruyere Goat ghee groundnuts guacamole grilled for …

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Finding the #Write #Words? No. 15: Fowler’s Modern English Usage

Continuing the description of books on words listed in the introductory post, which you’ll find here. Book 15. Fowler’s Modern English Usage, subtitled, A Dictionary of Modern English Usage: Hardback, 725 pages, plus 20 blanks for notes. It was published by Oxford University Press in 1926; my version is the second edition, reprinted with corrections …

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Falling Into Crime, by Penny Grubb: #BookReview.

798 pages Thrillers/Private Investigator Mysteries/Murder Fiction This collection of crime novels puts together the first three books in the Annie Raymond series: Like False Money, The Doll Makers, and The Jawbone Gang. For those unfamiliar with the writing of Penny Grubb, I will simply say, ‘You’re missing out on some very good crime writing.’ Having …

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Finding the #Write #Words? No. 14: English Prepositional Idioms

Continuing the description of books on words in post 1 list, which you’ll find here. Book 14 English Prepositional Idioms: Paperback, 562 pages. It was published by MacMillan Press Ltd in 1967 (yes, really!); my version is the reprint edition from 1978 and I bought it from a second-hand bookseller for £2.50, probably around 1984. …

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What If?, by Randall Munroe: #BookReview.

304 pages Comic Strips/Physical Chemistry/Web Graphics and Animation Subtitled ‘Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions’, this book is as entertaining as it is informative. The author is at pains to inform readers that, although he has a degree in physics, he works as the owner/creator of a webcomic, XKCD, he also warns that he …

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