A series of posts for all word lovers. Offering help for writers and language learners, these posts look at many different aspects of the world of words in the hope of stimulating your curiosity and enhancing your creativity. This week’s words: Ambitious/Apathetic; Consonance; Advance planning; Down to earth. Ambitious - Roget lists these …
Continue reading Looking for the Best Word? Tip #56
A small number of new characters have been created to go with the new locations and period. Most of the others appear in the first two volumes, as the new book continues the story, moving only a few years forward initially. Location requires more research, and some informed speculation, but that’s going well at present. …
Continue reading Progress on the WIP: #SciFi in the Making.
As work on this is mostly confined to the void that occupies most of my skull, I don’t have a lot to report today. Preparation, they say, is all. My method of moving toward the writing of a piece is to gather together my characters, something I’ve mostly achieved, though some are proving elusive for …
Continue reading Progress on the WIP: #SciFi in the Making.
I exercise a degree of caution when reviewing poetry, since I’m by no means a competent practitioner. Therefore my judgment is necessarily both subjective and lacking in personal experience. This is a pleasant read with a great deal of variety in the poems offered. There's rhyme and blank verse here. For me, the blank verse …
Continue reading Travelling Light, by Vickie Johnstone: #BookReview.
Genre can be the bane of the author’s life: most publishers insist on slotting fiction into predefined pigeonholes. But some books defy this process, either merging genres or crossing boundaries. Emanation is such a book. It is, essentially a science fiction book, but reads, certainly in the beginning, like a fantasy novel. It’s …
Continue reading Emanation: Shadeward Saga #1, by Drew Wagar: #BookReview.
A series of posts for all word lovers, offering help for writers and language learners. This week’s words: Important; Congeries; Hopeful optimism; Heard it through the grapevine. Important - Roget lists these headers: crucial, fundamental, necessary, and important. Under the sub-heading ‘important’ are a further 84 alternatives, including weighty, big, earth-shaking, critical, radical, …
Continue reading Looking for the Best Word? Tip #54
War Over Dust launched at Fantasticon 2017 in Hull, England, over the weekend of 2nd and 3rd September. Fortunately, I was there to sign the paperback copies and answer readers’ questions about the book and progress on the follow-up. More on that in a later post. Fantasticon, an annual event that’s …
Continue reading Progress on the WIP: #SciFi in the Making.
Help for writers and language learners. This series of posts is a resource for all word lovers. This week’s words: Gabble, Left, Chiasmus, Genuinely, and, Gilding the lily. Gabble - Roget lists these headers: ululate, empty talk, speak, stammer, and be loquacious. Under the sub-heading ‘loquacious’ are a further 68 alternatives, including talkative, …
Continue reading Looking for the Best Word? Tip #53
For my photographs on Picfair, please click here. Here’s your monthly reminder that the writing contest table has been updated. I update frequently; in fact, whenever I come across new contest details. I also subscribe to a few sources for information to pass on to you here. Make sure you submit your entries …
Continue reading Creative #Writing #Contests Table Updated
[A review is a personal opinion. No reviewer can represent the view of anyone else. The best we can provide is an honest reaction to any given book.] This book is listed as ‘lesbian romance’. So, what attracted an agnostic, heterosexual man to delve into its pages? The description intrigued me to begin with. …
Continue reading The Purple Bowtie, by Lisabeth Reynolds: #BookReview.
Offering help for writers and language learners, this series of posts is a resource for all word lovers. This week’s words: Fabricate, Fairly, Desbundar, Facts of life. Fabricate - Roget lists these headers: compose, produce, imagine, fake. Under the sub-heading ‘fake’ are a further 24 alternatives, including forge, plagiarize, trump up, rig, spin, …
Continue reading Looking for the Best Word? Tip #52
So, some small progress made: I’ve added a few notes from further research and ideas that occurred during the week, usually when in bed! At this early stage, while I wait for the story to mature, I restrict my activity to research and those daydreaming sessions that allow the imagination free reign. I won’t start …
Continue reading Progress on the WIP: #SciFi in the Making.
Offering help for writers and language learners, this series of posts is a resource for all word lovers. This week’s words: Euphemism, Asyndeton, 9 p.m. at night, can of worms. Euphemism - Roget lists these headers: underestimation, trope, falsehood, ornament, good taste, affectation, flattery, and prudery. Under the sub-heading ‘prudery’ are a further …
Continue reading Looking for the Best Word? Tip #51
An offer and a request in one: Many of you have followed the progress of War Over Dust over the months it’s been under construction. I’m now looking for readers who’d be willing to post a review of War Over Dust in exchange for a free copy in ebook format (I can provide .mobi, .pdf, …
Continue reading Progress on the WIP: #SciFi in the Making.
This short piece of dark fantasy puts a different spin on a popular theme, and carries it through with some dark humour. It’s a compact story, told simply but with great effect. We know as much as we need to about the characters and watch as the tension slowly builds to the denouement, which contains …
Continue reading A Night Shift, by Joshua Scribner: #BookReview.
Short stories, novel extracts and musings from an emerging author
SHORTS, NOVELS, AND OTHER THINGS
Books, writing, reading, words and images. I love them; do you?
An Independent Nondiscriminatory Platform With No Religious, Political, Financial, or Social Affiliations - FOUNDED 2014
Life Lessons, Books, and Pretty Things!
Writing Magic, Myth and Mystery
A photographer's view of the world - words and images to inspire your travels and your dreams
Book Reviews ∙ Bookish Tags ∙ Book Discussions
Retired and travelling - it doesn't get better than this!
writing circles & poetry to keep your light on
Personal Writings on life, love and beauty
Peace. Tranquility. Insanity.
A writer inspired by nature and human nature
We Survived and Arrived - Now as Warriors We Thrive
Sometimes, life is like that.
Book lover and reviewer.
Musings and Ramblings of a Disorganised Blogger
Speculative Fiction Author, & Reviews.
British Crime Writer April Taylor
Fiction, Poetry, Photography
Where The Eagles Fly . . . . Art Science Poetry Music & Ideas
Registered Charity 308286. Your local venues, Lydbrook Memorial Hall and Recreation Ground, are here to benefit our community.
Books and Shrimp!
Ù…Øمد القربي
Discover the "Inside Story" with Sassy Brit & Her Gang!
A daily selection of the best content published on WordPress, collected for you by humans who love to read.
Antidote to the Novel
Stuart Aken 