Happy New Year!
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This isn’t really a “Resolutions” post… Okay, it is but I didn’t want to call it a list of Resolutions because I know how few people actually succeed at their intended goals! But the changes in my working life in the last few months means that I have had to give serious thought to how I am going to proceed in 2014 writing-wise. Continue reading
Poor Henry, suffering from all the effects of the breakup of a long term relationship. He has lost a lot of weight, is going through a lot of soul-searching, he misses his ex and desperately wants her to take him back. He sends her text messages with “I miss you” tacked onto the end and then he mentally punishes himself afterwards for doing it. He seems lost, emotionally exhausted and looking for some new distractions in life. He is then, so utterly not the quintessential hero. He’s a protagonist that most of us can relate to even if we don’t actually like him as a character. Continue reading
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An unimportant planet is sending out a signal that nobody can translate and it attracts practically every race we’ve seen in the Whoniverse. On board one of those orbiting ships, he is holding the eye of a Dalek and demanding that the species identify itself. But it is a Dalek ship! He escapes and in the next scene he is chastising a Cyberman head who defends himself with a “you didn’t specify where”. This head he has affectionately called “Handles”.
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First, let me wish you a very Merry Christmas! No doubt you are all making your final preparations for tomorrow. While you do, let me remind you of tomorrow’s biggest television event. No… not Eastenders!
EDIT: This post is getting a lot of hits. If you are looking for a review of the episode, it is here
Pictures of gladiators – just for the hell of it.
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This completes a trilogy of posts about characterisation related to the project I expect to be working on next year – a novel about a group of 1st century Roman gladiators sent on a secret mission for Emperor Vespasian. The other two here and here were about creating chemistry between characters.
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It is 2044 and the great mystery of physics in our time has finally been realised – yes, we have finally managed to travel backwards through time. Through a combination of money from world governments and giant corporations, everybody has come together to find discover what they can about the universe, to see if there is any commercial gain from doing so and to finally discover if you really can kill your own grandfather before you are even born. Continue reading
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
Some of the books on my shelf
Copyright: MG Mason
I’ve written before about what I see as the unethical side of freelance writing (writing essays for students) but there is another set of job posts that I refuse to do. You might find this strange considering that it is something I willingly do for free too: Book Reviews. Continue reading
Despite not having much experience in writing synopses (I have only ever submitted Dieu Et Mon Droit once before and got some useful feedback – though that was about eight years ago) I found it relatively easy breaking the novel down into two pages for the Angry Robot Open Doors (submitted today by the way so wish me luck on them being kind on it!). Ignore the side stories – or at least reduce them to a sentence or two – and focus on the stuff that is important to the wider plot. Continue reading
Below is an excerpt from my Christmas ghost story Angel’s Mass from the volume Herrenvolk and Other Stories. It is 1345 and the story is of young Brother Edmund of Tintern Abbey (south Wales) who is woken in the early hours of Christmas Eve by a ghostly voice calling him to the newly built church. What is the nature of the ghost? And what does it want with Brother Edmund? Find out in Herrenvolk and Other Stories, available exclusively on Amazon Kindle.
Get it now: amazon.co.uk | amazon.com | amazon.ca Continue reading