Like most of the seven-billion-plus people on the planet, I firmly believe that my opinions are important, unique and amazing. And as a self-aggrandising writer, I think that it’s necessary for others to be exposed to my excellent taste. To… Continue Reading
The dreaded planning fallacy has cast a pall over my writing. I wrote in this blog last year about how my focus has shifted to working on an epic fantasy series, called the Wandering Knife. I had a grand plan… Continue Reading
Over the last year or so I’ve been blogging less regularly. When I created this website I envisioned it as being a place to record my thoughts about fantasy and science fiction, hence the tagline ‘Speculations about speculative fiction’. I… Continue Reading
A long time ago my good mate Jamie gave me his copy of Moby Dick. The inside cover is inscribed by Jamie with the jocular but somewhat incongruent phrase ‘MELVILLE’S IN DA HOUSE!’ I appreciated the gesture at the time,… Continue Reading
With the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney, we can expect a never-ending procession of Star Wars spin-off films being released over the next… infinite amount of years. Some people have a problem with this, claiming that you can have too much… Continue Reading
As the theme of this website is ‘speculations about speculative fiction’, I think it’s time I took a turn at the age-old sport of genre defining. In this post I’m going to delve into a sub-set of speculative fiction: science… Continue Reading
The cover of my debut novel 1001 Monsters You Must Slay Before You Die is complete! Thanks to Alissa Dinallo who created the cover. 1001 Monsters You Must Slay Before You Die will be available from September 1st 2017. Subscribers can look forward… Continue Reading
How big a Tolkien fan are you? Sure, you’ve read The Lord Of The Rings. But have you taken in appendices A through F? Have you pored over the genealogies, including all eight generations of Samwise Gamgee’s family tree? Have you… Continue Reading
Question: When is a novel set in a grim post-cataclysmic wasteland with characters battling for survival not a science fiction novel? Answer: When it’s written by a literary author. My brother gave me a copy of The Road for my… Continue Reading
Block. A fleeting moment of blankness as you try to summon that first line, or an abject feeling that lasts for days or weeks. Whatever it is, writer’s block is a pain. To proceed with a piece of writing you need to… Continue Reading