Have you ever wondered what is involved in a book restoration? I grew up with this cookery book. It holds the recipes of my childhood. I’m not so keen on liver, but you can see from the stains that we ate…
Blog Archives
Blog Tours: an explanation
Last week I was at a meeting at Writing West Midlands. I was asked to explain blog tours because some of the people present weren’t familiar with them. I’m quite sure I didn’t do the subject full justice, so I thought…
Posted in 2018 Tagged with: Anne cater, blog tours, bloggers, Rachel Gilbey, Tracy Fenton, writing west midlands
Baby’s Fantasycon 2018
Baby got back from Fantasycon in Chester, very happy to have mingled with old friends and new. Here is Baby’s account, as written up by Heide. Friday Baby and I arrived in Chester just after 3pm on Friday afternoon. Friday…
Posted in 2018, Events, Genre Tagged with: Adam Millard, Anna Smith Spark, Chester, Duncan P Bradshaw, Fantasycon, G V Anderson, Good Omens, googly eyes, Heide Goody, Iain Grant, Jen Williams, Jim McLeod, Joanne Harris, John Niven, Justin Lee Anderson, Marion Pitman, Naomi Foyle, Peter Haynes, Peter Rabbit, Rachel McLean, Richard Webb, Rio Youers, Ritchie Valentine Smith, Rosanne Rabinowitz, Steve McHugh, Steve Poore, Tasha Suri, Terry Grimwood
Writing conventions to get excited about
What’s the collective noun for a whole load of writers? It’s a convention – yay! The fun times during the year when lots of genre writers get together to exchange best practice and sing bad karaoke. It has dawned on…
Posted in 2018, Events Tagged with: 20Booksto50K, Collectormania, conferences, conventions, Fantasycon, Sledge-Lit, Stokercon, Theakstons Crime Festival, Worldcon
Creepy Dolls (and how this one demanded to have stories written about it)
The Uncanny Valley You may have come across the concept of the “uncanny valley”. This is the strangeness that humans perceive when something is very close to resembling a human, but isn’t quite right. The reason for it being described…
The power of local services: 4 things that can work locally
We recently blogged about micronations. If you’re not quite ready to set up an entire new country, you might want to dip your toe in the water by declaring independence for your local area in a more targeted way, perhaps…
Posted in 2018 Tagged with: Hull phone boxes, local currency, Robin Hood Energy, sharing economy, Totnes
Has humorous fiction lost its fizz?
Where are all the funny books? It’s apparently a question being asked by the judges of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize (the only prize in the UK for comedy novels) as they have decided not to award the prize for 2018…
10 ways to fight Blue Monday
Blue Monday – a fake media construct? Blue Monday used to refer to washing, but in recent years it’s the day that the newspapers tell us that we are all supposed to be at our most miserable. The combination of weather, dark…
Festive Excess. Can you recognise it?
This is a handy guide to festive excess. If you find yourself doing the things described here over the Christmas season, you are almost certainly overdoing it. Be warned. Len Deighton’s Action Cookbook This book is for you if you want to…
Guest Post – Hilary Mortz looks at Christmas Films
Today’s post is written by Hilary Mortz, who wrote one of the stories in Festive Treats (the free Christmas anthology, have you got your copy yet?) Christmas Films I got my ultimate guilty pleasure FESTIVE TREAT today – a glossy…
