I’ve been a Star Trek fan since the very beginning. I’ve watched all the series over the decades, and a few weeks ago I took the plunge, re-instated my access to Amazon Prime TV, and started watching Picard. I hate to admit, I was pretty confused at the start, and felt I wasn’t watching Star […]
I had one of those lightbulb moments about another sporting technique that can easily be applied to writing. One of the most difficult things for a performance athlete to learn is total focus. This means learning that while you must address the things that are within your sphere of control, you must equally well learn […]
A little departure this week from the still-to-be-completed posts from Orkney. As lockdown eased and we were allowed to go back to work, I drove down to England to teach for a week. On the return journey I took a short stop at a beautiful site I haven’t visited for some years: The Hermitage at […]
Still catching up on my trip to Orkney, I’m taking us back in history again, this time to the Vikings. I recently read a fantastic historical novel (3 books in 1, really): King Hereafter, by Dorothy Dunnett. Published in 1982, the language is far more dense than modern books, and more Tolkein-esque in style with […]
I decided against reviewing these books separately, as it really only means much if you’ve read the earlier books in the series. I reviewed book #1 STORM BORN, and #2 THORN QUEEN already, and although each book is a separate story, there is one overall arc to all four, #3 IRON CROWNED and #4 SHADOW […]
Are you one of those aspiring writers, who would really love to write a novel, but you aren’t quite certain if you can tackle something that daunting? If that’s you, then check out this neat new helpful book by Charles F. French, hybrid author and English professor. From the author: “Instead of thinking about doing […]
Unless things reverse, which is always possible, it looks like July will see some return to normal life, so I’m preparing to go back to work. Of course, having moved to the Scottish Highlands mere days before lockdown, this will entail a totally new ‘normal’ for me. I will now be travelling hundreds of miles […]
Back to Orkney This is the twelfth post from my Orkney trip, and I’m not finished yet by quite a long way. Considering we were only there for a week, you are maybe starting to understand just how much history there is to investigate in this amazing place – and so far this has all […]
I mentioned BookLinker in my recent post on adding Amazon categories to your books, but finding categories is not the only thing Booklinker does – and it’s FREE to use. After publishing that post, its designer, Richard Hellewell, contacted me to tell me about new tools available on the site, so here’s a bit more […]
I went back to work this week, a bit of a shock after 10 weeks off. This will be my new normal now I live in the Scottish Highlands: a 5 day clinic, almost solid teaching and a LOT of driving, which I undertook in my little horsebox which is equipped with full living facilities, […]
