Review of K.A. Bedford’s Paradox Resolution
Paradox Resolution is K.A Bedford’s eagerly awaited sequel to his 2008 Aurealis winning novel Time Machines Repaired While U Wait. The novel continues the adventures of time machine repairer Spider Webb in a near future where time machines are the new luxury car. Spider is an ex-policeman, a man who quit the force after blowing […]
An Image Problem.
Last week I wrote a blog post which concluded that many self-publishers would probably burn out from the estimated twelve hour days needed to write and successfully promote their books. To illustrate the blog post I used a picture of a crazed Jack Nicholson from The Shining. For those who have not seen it, in […]
Chronic Self-Publishing Syndrome.
My post this week relies on a year-old article in the Guardian about self-publishing authors. The article refers to a survey that was conducted by the Taleist website. One thousand self-published authors responded to an invitation to fill in the survey. So it is not a random survey of self-publishers, and therefore, its validity is […]
Aliens have not visited Earth.
To my knowledge, I have not been abducted by aliens, although if I had, that might explain a few things. For example, maybe one of their alien probes caused my Ulcerative Colitis. I have seen many UFO’s, but I quickly realised those unidentified flying objects were hot air balloons or shooting stars, and not alien […]
A Review of Hugh Howey’s Wool.
The Wool Omnibus is one of the best and most original science fiction books I have read. It is full of tension and intrigue from page one, and that tension is maintained through to the very last page. Anyone who enjoys stories set in strange post-apocalyptic worlds that have themes more complex than just […]
Kickstarting your Writing.
I am a member of a few science fiction communities on Google+, where an increasing number of authors want me to give money to their Kickstarter projects. I had ignored these requests, considered them to be a new form of begging. I had also thought why would a writer need the money? With the new […]
Top 100 ebook and ibook prices.
Now I know you have been impatiently waiting for me to do another survey of prices of the top 100 bestselling ebooks. So here it is. If you’re a wannabe author, like me, you have probably been doing a Kirk/Picard, as you contemplate the price of ebooks. If the price of ebooks dropped the impulsive […]
Review of The Dog Stars by Peter Heller.
When I first pulled Peter Heller’s The Dog Stars from the shelves of a bookstore I remember muttering a sarcastic “yeah right,” after I read a comment on its cover claiming it was “A novel about the end of the world which makes you glad to be alive.” That’s not the role of apocalyptic […]
Bits From My Past Week Or So.
On a Facebook Crohns and Colitis page, I learnt of a research report where nearly 50% of pot smoking Crohns suffers went into remission. Caught bits of a radio national program where and author discussed her book about the history of obscenities. She said words like shit were not considered swearing centuries ago because […]
Okay or not OK?
I was happily reading the Age the other day, thinking everything was okay with life when I spotted an article titled “You don’t need to spell it out, OK is okay in anyone’s language”. WTF? Had someone gone and changed the language rules without telling me? The article itself is more about the origins of […]