Category: Uncategorized

  • A world without rape

    This week it appears I reached my fill of misogynistic societies. I don’t mean in the real world (although I’ve definitely had enough of misogyny there, too), but in fictional worlds. I’ve read several fae books lately (CN Crawford, I’m looking at you) and whilst the stories have been fabulous and enormously entertaining, I’ve been…

  • Inspiring Places

    Apologies for the radio silence, readers. I went on holiday, and somehow all my plans to get ahead of myself and schedule posts before I went didn’t work out. I suspect they didn’t work out because I was sadly behind on deadlines. I’d intended a week completely free of writing to unwind entirely, but that…

  • Keeping watching for the good stuff

    This week’s learning point, readers, was to stick to my high standards. Just in case you were wondering, I’ve never had a problem with putting books down if I’m not enjoying them. I’m actually amazed that there are people who will persist with a book they actively dislike on the basis that if they start…

  • Girls in books

    This week’s pondering, readers, was prompted by a post on Facebook. It was a video of a mother and daughter looking through the girl’s bookshelf and removing all the gender-imbalanced books to discover what a tiny selection they were left with. They started by removing all the books that had no female characters, then the…

  • Read with mother…

    It’s Mothering Sunday and I wanted to give a shout out to mums everywhere. I have no actual memories of reading with my mother, but I know it happened. How could I possibly love books as much as I do without early exposure to the form? Even my decision to become a writer is tied…

  • How do you find good books?

    For all its much vaunted “algorithms” I hate trying to find something new to read on Amazon. If I’ve got the title, or the name of a favourite author, yep, it’s a doddle to find a good book. But if you don’t know what you want, Amazon offers a rubbish browsing experience (imo). I end…

  • Do you binge?

      Excuse the shameless self-promo today, readers, but I’m wildly excited to report that not only is my series, A Clockwork War, complete, but it’s now also available as a bargain-priced boxed set. Bingeing a series once it’s all available is apparently THE way to consume fiction these days. I feel out of step since…

  • Meeting old friends again

    I’ve been knee-deep in a very sticky first draft for most of this week (second-book syndrome; it has been kicking my backside), so reading time has been limited. Imagine my joy on Thursday evening when I finally got to write the magical words “The End”! After that stress and strain, I was delighted to relax…

  • I admit it, I’m a hypocrite

    This week I finished The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh, my paperback, bedtime read. It is absolutely sumptuous; the writing is some of the most beautiful I’ve ever come across. It’s a retelling of Scheherazade and the Thousand and One Nights, but with the blood-thirsty king replaced with a more sympathetic (and gorgeous)…

  • Do you start if you can’t finish?

    Thank goodness for novellas this week, because if it weren’t for short books I’d have almost nothing to report! I stumbled upon the entirely excellent Dragon’s Thief by Lili Zander and Rory Reynolds (I agree, I do seem to have a thing for dragons right now – is there a problem with that?). It’s a…