False Starts and a Solution?

How many times should you start a writing project? Odd question? Well, I normally have my books ready in my mind, that is, I know where I want to end up even if I don’t know the route, long before I place a single word on paper (for which, read ‘screen’, since I compose at …

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Happy New Year!

2015: The Blog in Review

It's that time of the year when we like to review our activities and see what we've done over the last 365 days. Was it effective? Did it help people? Has that time been spent usefully? Well, the WordPress.com stats helper monkeys have prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog and I'm sharing it …

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The Ubiquitous Mailing List

Authors are told their most precious marketing asset is their mailing list. This advice has become so common it’s now accepted as gospel. I have my doubts. Over the past few weeks, admittedly a little late in my writing career, I’ve been attempting to set up this promotional tool. I’d love to report it as …

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A Weekend at #FantastiCon 2015.

And what a weekend it was! I first mentioned it in an earlier post, find it here. This was the second fantasy/science fiction convention I've attended. Both events were organised by my amazing publisher, Dan Grubb of Fantastic Books Publishing. The first was in Hull, last year. This year's event took place in the Country …

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Returning to the World of Technology

On 25th June I wrote a longish post on the way technology seems to have taken the role of master instead of the servant it was intended to be. You can find that post by clicking here. This is the follow-up post I promised then. How did I manage without an online presence, without the …

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Technophobe, Technophile, or Technosceptic?

How do you see today's technology? As a barrier to your progress, a brilliant tool to be manipulated at will, or simply another fashion to be treated with scorn? Take email with its multiple platforms and utter ubiquity. Can't escape it, can you? And now it's embedded into the world of mobile phones, it's probable …

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Like Being on TV; only Different.

Yesterday, 10th June, I spent an hour in live conversation online with Sally Ember. Sally is a writer and writing tutor who has ventured into the world of Google+ Hangouts in a way beneficial to readers and writers. She invites writers to share their thoughts with readers in her weekly show, Changes. I choose to …

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Live Online, Talking Books, Fiction, and Much More

Tomorrow, Wednesday 10th June, I’ll be live online in conversation with author Sally Ember, Ed.D on her talk show at *Changes*. It’s not so much an interview as a chat between authors and bloggers, covering topics of mutual interest. We’re both interested in writing in different genres, especially science fiction and speculative fiction, as well …

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Running and Writing for ME/CFS no. 32

Running: Injured! Not too serious. I spent much of Friday removing a fire surround, hearth and an old gas fire from our sitting room. The fire had been disconnected from the gas mains as the heating engineer had found it unsafe. The surround and hearth were both a piece of cake. But the gas fire: …

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For All Kindle Lovers.

It takes a little while sometimes. Fantastic Books Publishing put my science fiction novella, The Methuselah Strain, into their store at the beginning of this week and placed it into the hands of Amazon at the same time. I removed my old self-published version, since the new edition is improved and enhanced. After a period …

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The Promised Link is Here!

Last night I promised you a new version of The Methuselah Strain. Here’s the buying link for the publisher’s store. And below is the entry from Fantastic Books Publishing relating to The Methuselah Strain: As the Prime Renegade plans the disabling of automatic systems that support the dwindling human population, she seeks a man to love …

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The Rumours were True!

I told you yesterday about rumours that my publisher, Fantastic Books Publishing, was planning to issue the new, revised edition of my dystopian science fiction novella, The Methuselah Strain. Well, turns out those reports were true. Dan Grubb, the owner of the publishers, has just emailed me to let me know that the book will …

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IndieReCon – It’s Coming! It’s Coming

There’s a free, online self-publishing conference taking place next week. It’s the third year of IndieReCon, and they have an action-packed schedule filled with all sorts of great stuff – a mixture of posts, vlogs, webinars, as well as the opportunity to drill deeper into the various topics with a series of online and Twitter …

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Disorganisation, Distractions, Discipline and Desire.

Some work best in disorder, with apparent chaos ruling. Some need order, pattern and habit to produce their best. I belong to the ‘clear desk’ brigade. Not from any notion that chaos is generally undesirable or disruptive, but because my memory isn’t good enough to cope with the randomness of a disorganised way of living. …

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