Category Archives: Blog

The Terror and Unforgotten. Two of my current faves. For me, it’s been a hard few months for reading. I normally manage to get through at least one novel a month but lately, I’ve been feeling a bit bleh about fiction. I know. It’s awful isn’t it? I need to give myself a good talkingContinue reading “What are you watching right now?”

Reading An Ordinary Revolution and first ever book signing. Back in the day when such things were possible. October 2019 in case you didn’t guess.

When someone vanishes from an eighteenth-floor apartment that’s locked from the inside, your options are limited. DI Ash Carter’s colleagues have all but given up looking for his missing girlfriend, Salina. All he can do is try to hold things together and not let the grief consume him. But when an old case mistakenly landsContinue reading “City of Echoes”

It’s miserable wet and windy here today. Not the most inspiring of days to ramp up the motivational gears in readiness for NaNoWriMo or, as I like to call it, Operation Writing Overdrive. If you’ve read my previous blog, you’ll know that I was in something of a dilemma as to what to do withContinue reading “NaNoWriMo 2020 here I come…”

Or… When you replot your first draft and realise you’ve actually written two novels. Just getting myself prepped up for NaNoWriMo 2020. In last year’s NaNoWriMo, I wrote just over 50,000 words of my second novel and went on to finish the first draft early this year. Then, I put it away and busied myselfContinue reading “The one versus two novel dilemma”

For someone who claims to read very little fantasy, this summer was quite a fantasy fest for me. To be fair, I do like a bit of Discworld. It was introduced to me by my son who became a fan while still in primary school. This was a loan from him. This particular Discworld storyContinue reading “Summer Reading – Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett.”

From Miller’s fantasy to the surreal world of Murakami. I’m not quite sure what genre you’d slot this novel into. It crosses over several. But if you like books with layers of intricacy that take a while to make sense of, then this is one for you. I was half-way through the story before IContinue reading “Summer Reading – Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami”

With the usual summer debauchery being either too difficult or too scary this year, I wonder how many of us have turned to more solitary pursuits to pass the time. Specifically, I wonder how many of us have read more than we usually do.  I know people who have turned to books, for the firstContinue reading “Summer Reading – Circe by Madelaine Miller.”

At long last my partner and I managed to get away for a couple of weeks in our motorhome.  We bought it last February, although it’s far from new. Last year, we really made the most of it with three different holidays around the UK. By far the most special was a five-week tour ofContinue reading “Hurrah for holidays”