You Can Leave The Bodies, It Isn’t a Page-Turner
I have read just over a fifth of Hilary Mantel’s Booker Prize winner, Bring Up The Bodies, and I’m giving up. Life’s too short. Yes the language is beautiful, but it’s not a page-turner. If I want beautiful language I can read poetry. There has to be something in a...
What Makes a Book Great, and Wins Booker Prizes
I am reading Bring Up The Bodies, by Hilary Mantel. She has won two Booker Prizes.She won her first with Wolf Hall. Bring Up The Bodies provided the second. I read Wolf Hall around ten years ago, sadly I can’t truthfully say that I enjoyed it. Mantel uses the device...
Perseverance: The Long Journey To Success and Book Signing
I thank my friend and former colleague, Barry Biggs, for sending me an article about a disappointing book signing. Chelsea Banning attended a book signing for her debut novel, Of Crowns and Legends. Unfortunately, or perhaps very fortunately, only two people turned...
The Suggested Assassin Audiobook Published
ACX published The Suggested Assassin audiobook today. So all four of the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures so far are now available as audiobooks. I thank Simon De Deney for doing such a great job of narration and production. I’m looking forward to working with him on...
Writing, Climate, Snow, and Cars
I don’t have much writing news for you today. Called to Account is now available as an audiobook, while The Suggested Assassin is still pending ACX review. The biography of Cardinal Richelieu hasn’t been delivered yet. I want to digest that, and consider him alongside...
Wordle, Quordle, Writing, Procrastination, and Tolkien
Claire and I both try to get our brains working, over the first coffee of the day, with puzzles. Wordle precedes Quordle, before I move on to Sudoku. As a result, sometimes I feel guilty, it seems like procrastination. That’s because I should be researching my next...
Louis XIII, Christmas Writing, and a Sonnet
I’ll get to Christmas writing, but first I finished reading the biography of Louis XIII today. It didn’t disappoint. If the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures return to Paris in the next book, I have a much better understanding of the teenage king. I’m writing this post...
Kanye West & Anti-Semitism
I like the poetry in some rap lyrics, but I’m not really interested in rap music, or rappers. My latest book, Called to Account, has the theme of anti-Semitism. Therefore I was interested in a news article on the BBC about Kanye West, or Ye as he now identifies. He’s...
Christmas Fayre Book Signing 2022
On Saturday I had my first book signing event. I took a small table at my village’s Christmas Fayre. It was really busy and I sold 32 of the 40 books that I took along. It certainly exceeded my expectations. The practice in talking to people: explaining what the books...
You Can Leave The Bodies, It Isn’t a Page-Turner
I have read just over a fifth of Hilary Mantel’s Booker Prize winner, Bring Up The Bodies, and I’m giving up. Life’s too short. Yes the language is beautiful, but it’s not a page-turner. If I want beautiful language I can read poetry. There has to be something in a...
What Makes a Book Great, and Wins Booker Prizes
I am reading Bring Up The Bodies, by Hilary Mantel. She has won two Booker Prizes.She won her first with Wolf Hall. Bring Up The Bodies provided the second. I read Wolf Hall around ten years ago, sadly I can’t truthfully say that I enjoyed it. Mantel uses the device...
Perseverance: The Long Journey To Success and Book Signing
I thank my friend and former colleague, Barry Biggs, for sending me an article about a disappointing book signing. Chelsea Banning attended a book signing for her debut novel, Of Crowns and Legends. Unfortunately, or perhaps very fortunately, only two people turned...
The Suggested Assassin Audiobook Published
ACX published The Suggested Assassin audiobook today. So all four of the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures so far are now available as audiobooks. I thank Simon De Deney for doing such a great job of narration and production. I’m looking forward to working with him on...
Writing, Climate, Snow, and Cars
I don’t have much writing news for you today. Called to Account is now available as an audiobook, while The Suggested Assassin is still pending ACX review. The biography of Cardinal Richelieu hasn’t been delivered yet. I want to digest that, and consider him alongside...
Wordle, Quordle, Writing, Procrastination, and Tolkien
Claire and I both try to get our brains working, over the first coffee of the day, with puzzles. Wordle precedes Quordle, before I move on to Sudoku. As a result, sometimes I feel guilty, it seems like procrastination. That’s because I should be researching my next...
Louis XIII, Christmas Writing, and a Sonnet
I’ll get to Christmas writing, but first I finished reading the biography of Louis XIII today. It didn’t disappoint. If the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures return to Paris in the next book, I have a much better understanding of the teenage king. I’m writing this post...
Kanye West & Anti-Semitism
I like the poetry in some rap lyrics, but I’m not really interested in rap music, or rappers. My latest book, Called to Account, has the theme of anti-Semitism. Therefore I was interested in a news article on the BBC about Kanye West, or Ye as he now identifies. He’s...
Christmas Fayre Book Signing 2022
On Saturday I had my first book signing event. I took a small table at my village’s Christmas Fayre. It was really busy and I sold 32 of the 40 books that I took along. It certainly exceeded my expectations. The practice in talking to people: explaining what the books...