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Set up your own micronation for fun and profit!
We live, as the Chinese allegedly say, in “interesting times” or as internet memes would have it, in that bit of history labelled in school textbooks as ‘Factors Leading Up To…’ and followed by a section which involves maps with lots of red arrows. In such times, it’s only natural for people to want to…
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Talking about Genres – Who cares about genres?
Writers, publishers and readers talk about genre a lot. It’s how bookshops decide where a book belongs. It’s used to draw up charts, award prizes and produce those “If you liked this book, you might also like…” messages on-line retailers send us. Pigeon Park Press asked a number of published authors whether we need genre…
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Talking about Genres – The problems with genre writing…
Writers, publishers and readers talk about genre a lot. It’s how bookshops decide where a book belongs. It’s used to draw up charts, award prizes and produce those “If you liked this book, you might also like…” messages on-line retailers send us. Pigeon Park Press asked a number of published authors whether we need genre…
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Talking about Genres – Welcome to my Genre
Writers, publishers and readers talk about genre a lot. It’s how bookshops decide where a book belongs. It’s used to draw up charts, award prizes and produce those “If you liked this book, you might also like…” messages on-line retailers send us. But how do we define genres? Pigeon Park Press asked a number of…
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2017-2018 – What did we do? Where are we going?
What did we do in 2017… We started 2017 hotly promoting our latest Clovenhoof novella, Clovenhoof and the Trump of Doom. This was a story, written in the days after Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election. We had great fun writing it and fans have taken really well to it, although some readers…
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5 things I took away from Fantasycon 2017
Just back from Fantasycon 2017 in Peterborough. But what have I taken away with me, apart from too many books and a mild hangover? I took away five things. #1 – You always learn something new at Fantasycon On the Saturday night, I was moderating the Mythology and Folklore panel (Brilliant panel! Packed room!) when…
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Egg-tapping, girl-whipping and the power of Ozric Tentacles – Easter and Fairy Tales
Easter is an intriguing time of year. It is the most important Christian festival, celebrating the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The English name for the festival is possibly take from the name of the pagan goddess, Ostara, who may or may not have been a goddess of the dawn. For most of the…
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Mother’s Day and the fairy tales linked to it
Mother’s Day, celebrated on different days around the world, is nonetheless a concept common to nearly all world cultures. But what of mothers in fairy tales? What do fairy tales have to teach us about mothers and motherhood? Let’s take a look. Mothers don’t have a great life expectancy in fairy tales. In Snow White,…
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Fairy tales associated with St Patrick’s Day
It’s St Patrick’s Day, a day which is celebrated by billions around the world by pretending they have Irish heritage and drinking more Guinness in one day than they do in all the other days of the year combined. We’d like to take this opportunity to look at some fairy tales that have links to…
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A Writer’s Career
This Saturday, Iain will be appearing on a panel at Fantasycon By The Sea in which he will be discussing the experience of having a writing career. Here, he is interviewed alongside two of his fellow panelists (Sue Moorcroft and David Tallerman) about the idea of a writing career and what it means to them. Do…