Clik here to view.
Luther Arkwright- my first journey into Steampunk?
When I was a wee lad 'punk' was a term designed to generate raised eyebrows in my grandma as she cooly flicked past images of Mohawks and bogey chains in the Daily Mail. Then I learnt it could be used...
View ArticleClik here to view.
I shall call him...Mini-me...
I took the lad (Charlie, my 9 year old) to Leeds yesterday. The main purpose of the visit was to go to a book signing by Will MacMillan Jones, who's an author I've met through (initially) Authonomy....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Trailer park trash
Now I've never been a massive fan of Youtube. There's something about it that I find a little strange. I'm the first to enjoy nostalgic clips or bits from films that I find funny, and only a dullard...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The new bogeyman
When I was a kid I think I had a traditional set of fears. Way, way back it was monsters, although ironically I love them now and spend all my spare time writing about them (agreeably people hacking...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Liebster (part one)
So there's this thing called a Liebster blog. Essentially someone who likes your blog, who has been nominated themselves, nominates you and posts a link to your insane musings on their own blog. The...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Liebster (part 2)
It was the Lieb- thing that got me pondering. The name rattled around in my brain box for a while, like a .22 calibre slug in an episode of CSI, then sprang out not once … but twice.Two Liebers… but...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Roaring Mouse
We are all readers before we are writers. Was that in an Abba song? No, maybe that was something about dancing before I could walk... but I digress. First and foremost to be decent writers (something I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Your adventure ends here...
Chain of thought is a funny thing. I was driving to work t'other day, toxifying the beautiful countryside with my gas guzzling SUV (fantasising I was a member of CTU from 24) when an old Pulp song came...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Moon's Malady
I've just finished reading Stephen Donaldson's First Chronicle of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever. It's taken me about 29 years to finish it, which is approximately a tenth of a page a day. OK, I'm...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Muddy Funsters*
There have been several key changes during my descent into mid-lifeness and fatherhood. The first is that I boo all the time. Seriously, the littlest thing sets me off. I hear the strains of classical...
View ArticleClik here to view.
On stretchy trousers, shark-repellent spray and ZOD
There’s a scene in the new Avengers movie where Captain America is sat feeling like a man out of time, not getting the cultural references around him. Then someone says a line about flying monkeys (as...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Come and meet the SkullDust Circle
I've been a little negligent with my blog this month, for which I apologise. Firstly work has been crazy busy/poorly, which is kind of fair enough (as I get paid for that stuff). Second there's a lot...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Byrne, baby, Byrne
Of the dozens of influences that have snuck into my writing (and by that I mean not just the published fantasy stuff, but the unpublished sci-fi and contemporary fiction pieces) comics have to be a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hello Kidney!
I was asked the other day why I didn't blog about serious stuff, you know, the sort of thing that I do at work. The answer's kind of obvious- that's work, that's what I do during the day, this is fun,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
'Yes it is, not that it be...'
I’ve just finished reading the astonishingly good ‘ThreeHearts and Three Lions’ by Poul Anderson. It’s a book that was writtencontemporaneously to Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, but unlike the rather...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Take Cover!
I can remember when I was a teen and getting big into music how excited I'd be about new releases. My mate Woodsy would fire me up and we'd nip out of school at lunchtime, bike down to town, and count...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Something Different
My youngest turned two the other day and amongst his haul of presents (most of which revolve around tractor-themes) was a Mr Potatohead. This elicited screams of delight from the older two, who then...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Stainless Steel Style
My first exposure to Harry Harrison's writing was actually via an adaptation of his work for the UK sci-fi comic 2000AD. The Stainless Steel Rat appeared in issues in the late seventies early eighties,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Gathering of Dust
I think I mentioned a while ago that I had written a short story for an anthology with the guys from Skull Dust Circle. Well, it's been published today, and it looks to be all shades of awesome! Gary...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Young and Restless
On Facebook I’m in a zillion and one groups, mainly because people practice stealth grouping wherein I seem to be added to groups without my noticing. I had a cull of late, where I went and removed...
View Article