2019 – The Year Of Finishing Books

Big news! The Duke Is Dead, the first book in a projected series of four (with added novellas, etc) which I have been co-writing with Irene Headley, is coming out in August 2019! The Duke Is Dead is a fantasy adventure loosely inspired by the events of the Wars of the Roses, featuring romance, court […]

Mostly for gamers

I assume quite a few of my readers are familiar with the Dungeons and Dragons alignment system. If not, it basically pigeonholes characters on two moral axes: good versus evil and law versus chaos. There are some odd wrinkles – there’s an ongoing argument, for example, about whether Chaotic Neutral can be a character with […]

December 1st Is Heavy Ice Day

Today my fourth book is officially launched. The paperbacks have arrived at Amazon, the last couple of last-minute spelling and grammar flubs have been corrected (though I bet there are at least a couple more hiding in there, and I apologise for that) and it’s ready to face the world. Many, many thanks are due […]

In which it’s not so much of a launch, more a confused hovercraft

Okay! So, I have been planning to launch Heavy Ice on the 1st of December. However, I haven’t been able to find a button on either Lulu or Amazon that says ‘make this book available on this date’, and it takes longer for the paperbacks to get listed on Amazon than it does for the […]

BOOK IS BELONG TO KITTY

My proof copy of Heavy Ice came. It has a new owner. No, really. Maybe I should get her a copy of The Good, The Bad and The Furry: The Brand-New Adventures of the World’s Most Melancholy Cat and Other Whiskery Friends instead?

Things I Already Know People Won’t Like About Heavy Ice

My characters aren’t speaking English and yet they sometimes make puns or mishearings that rely on English to work. I realise that a lot of people find this annoying, and all I can do is follow in the hallowed footsteps of Tolkien and say think of it as a free translation from the original. Requite […]

Point of View

So, today I’m thinking about point of view. I’ve noticed that my natural inclination when beginning books is to start off writing in omniscient POV and then drop into third person when the person whose viewpoint the first scene is in shows up. I did it with Heavy Ice, and I’ve found myself doing it […]

First Contact

So, Heavy Ice is lying fallow until I’ve got enough perspective to see the shape of it and turn it into a second draft, and I’m busy with research for the new thing. Well, I say ‘research’ – for every hour of’Exactly what shape was this particular building, and where can I find an etching […]

Fifty Shades Of Grey

I’m reading Fifty Shades Of Grey. It’s very weird. It’s basically all about how being into BDSM is just like being a vampire. It’s not a metaphor I’m immediately hostile to, because in my experience if your partner is into any kind of hobby or scene and in particular if that scene could possibly be […]

Side project

I blame the very exciting Waltz on the Wye for the way my writing process seems to have been hijacked by a steampunk side project. Heavy Ice has not been abandoned, it’s just that at present the side project is giving me plot, and usually I have to slog away at plot so I’m taking […]