Sweet Fanny Adams
You may imagine that "Sweet FA" stands for "Sweet F All", but, in fact, it's derived from a notorious murder that took place in 1867 - and it happened in the little market town I call home. Fanny Adams was an 8 year old who lived in Alton, Hampshire, with her parents...
Makepeace and Grimes
A new direction You know, every now and again, an idea occurs that is too good to be left until later. I’d just finished the fourth book in the Robot Empire series (Sledgehammer) and was organising a group promotion for some author friends who write historical...
Sorcery, Discworld Book 5 Review
This is the story of Coin, the eighth son of an eighth son of an eighth son - and it's therefore superficially similar to Equal Rites. One problem with the story is that the main character is pretty unlikeable, but the other main problem is Rincewind, who has, by this...
Mort by Terry Pratchett – Review
Mort is the fourth book in the Discworld series, and the great man was really hitting his stride. Mort(imer) is a young, gangly, lad with few job prospects - so few that, at the apprentice's market, he ends up the only unhired job applicant. Fortunately (or not),...
Instafreebie Giveaway #1 – Analysis
I was introduced to Instafreebie as part of Mark Dawson's Self Publishing 101 course which included mention of it and a voucher for an extra month's premium subscription. Instafreebie is a site to which authors upload .mobi, .epub and (optionally) .pdf versions of...
Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett – Review
Equal Rites is the third book set on the Discworld and the first not to focus on Rincewind - although it does feature wizards. As the eighth son of an eighth son, Eskarina Smith was destined to be a powerful wizard. The only problem is, she's a girl - a fact that...
The Light Fantastic Review
It's astonishing to think that The Light Fantastic is, to a large degree, simply the second half of the story started in The Colour of Magic. Astonishing because the leap in quality is palpable - this feels like a true Discworld novel in a way that The Colour of Magic...
The Colour of Magic Review
I've resolved to read all of the Discworld books, one a month, from the beginning, and I started with The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett's first foray into the magical world borne on the shoulders of four elephants that ride around the universe on the back of...
Mr Blue Sky
What a gorgeous July morning in the south of the UK. Looking up, I'm struck by both the wonder of the universe and man's impact on our corner of it. The blue colour is caused by the fact that blue light (which has a shorter wavelength than red) is scattered...
How to get writing done
Buy any book on writing (including Stephen King's excellent "On Writing") and you'll hear the same thing trotted out time and again - make writing every day a habit.Now, I agree wholeheartedly with this, however, there are two ways to make this more...