Halloween is upon us (almost)! What better than a few scary stories to whet the appetite for whatever you might be getting up to in the next couple of days? And what better than supporting a fellow WordPress blogger and budding writer? I’ve been a follower and keen reader of Freaky Folk Tales so when P.J. Hodge announced the release of his first ebook based on his blog, I eagerly offered to review it for him. Continue reading
Monthly Archives: October 2013
Wrong Word Wednesday #21
Every week I will demonstrate an example of poor English where a different word is used from the one intended. Sometimes this creates a grammatically incorrect sentence. Unfortunately, the mistake is usually so pervasive that we all do it and such errors are usually made by those who should know better – journalists working for national or global media outlets such as newspapers and television Continue reading
If the door is open…
So i have been working on my edit of Dieu Et Mon Droit all year and though it isn’t the literary equivalent of “in pieces across the garage floor” it has undergone many modifications. I put it to one side about a month ago. Time to pick it up again methinks to see if I can get it to Angry Robot before the end of the year.
Thanks to Nila E. White for bringing this to my attention.
Does that mean I can come in?
Angry Robot
In the case of Angry Robot - yes!
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Book Review: 11.22.63 by Stephen King
Some say that Stephen King is at his best when he is turning away from the horror genre that has made him famous. Judging by the quality of the likes of Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption it is not difficult to see why. This raised a few eyebrows on release – Stephen King doing time travel? Very little of his work has been out and out sci fi until this one. Continue reading
The Scariest Fiction – Part 2: Books
123rf.com
So here is the second part in my trilogy of scares in fiction. Referring back to the date I had a few weeks back, the woman in question reeled off a list of books that had scared her as an adult. I struggled, personally, to come up with any books that I found genuinely terrifying. This is odd because I nearly always prefer the book to the film version and was able to come. Continue reading
Wrong Word Wednesday #20
Every week I will demonstrate an example of poor English where a different word is used from the one intended. Sometimes this creates a grammatically incorrect sentence. Unfortunately, the mistake is usually so pervasive that we all do it and such errors are usually made by those who should know better – journalists working for national or global media outlets such as newspapers and television
Continue reading
Creating Chemistry Between Characters
I had a very productive weekend fiction-writing wise! I’ve made a good start on my gladiators vs aliens novel and I really like what I’ve written so far. It’s a long time since I’ve felt so buoyed up by creating something new. Usually I allow myself to get bogged down in detail and planning and I forget to just “go with it”. Friday and Saturday I worked on introducing our protagonists – introducing their lives and developing their characters as individuals. Continue reading
NaNoWriMo 2013
Yup, it’s nearly here again guys and as with every year I have no set plan about what I am going to do (though I have a good idea – more in a moment). I have been itching to write some fiction this last week and I can see how much this has stalled in recent months. I’ve been focussed on earning from writing for a living in the here and now (pah, who needs money?) and quite frankly I miss writing fiction. I’m not doing nearly enough of it at the moment. Continue reading
Should you Take That Low Paying Contract?
It’s a poor existence, trying to write for a living. If it isn’t contractors expecting free samples, it is those that won’t pay more than $3 per hour but lament the poor English of previous applicants (I’m surprised it needs to be said that if you want native English speakers you should try offering a wage suitable enough to attracts those Brits, Americans, Canadians and Antipodeans). Yet in the last few months, I have found myself drawn to and accepting one or two contracts of very low pay. Continue reading
Wrong Word Wednesday #19
Every week I will demonstrate an example of poor English where a different word is used from the one intended. Sometimes this creates a grammatically incorrect sentence. Unfortunately, the mistake is usually so pervasive that we all do it and such errors are usually made by those who should know better – journalists working for national or global media outlets such as newspapers and television
Continue reading