Review of George Turner’s A Pursuit of Miracles
A Pursuit of Miracles is a fabulously entertaining and thought provoking collection of science fiction short stories. It maintains the exceptionally high standards of George Turner’s many novels. Turner is arguably Australia’s best ever science fiction writer and this collection shows why. There are only eight stories in the collections 207 pages, so they are […]
What is a Disability. Critiquing a Book. Science Fiction on Television.
New Article on DiVine When researching an article on the definition of what a disability is I came across the surprisingly large statistic that one in five Victorians have a disability. That’s a million Victorians with disabilities. I did find it hard to believe, but the more research I did the more disabilities I uncovered. […]
Fifty Shade of Bad Writing. George Turner’s Books to be Reissued.
Fifty Shades of Bad Writing. Seems everywhere I look someone has written an article about the mega-selling, publishing-game-changing, super- duper, must-read-before-you die (or at least dis) Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James. As a result, I am sure publishers are looking forward to reading thousands of manuscripts full of badly written bondage scenes. Publisher’s […]
Review: Me and Her, by Karen Tyrrell
Australian Karen Tyrrell has bipolar disorder, an illness that affects many millions of people. Her memoir, Me and Her: A Memoir of Madness, is about her life quest to understand and control her bipolar disorder, and to find out why she developed the illness. The memoir opens with Karen happily being the best primary school […]
Review of the Bottomless River, by Anthony J Langford.
The Bottomless River begins in a small town in rural Victoria in Australia. Three mates, Tom, Jen and the male point of view character, regularly get together at a river bank for harmless fun and banter. But their innocent world changes one night when they get drunk. The main character cannot forgive himself for […]
Review of the Dervish House by Ian McDonald
The Dervish House by Ian McDonald My rating: 4 of 5 stars The Dervish House’s big plus is its setting, a near future Instanbul, during a heatwave. Its author, Ian McDonald, took me somewhere different from most science fiction novels, he took me away from the west. McDonald writes such a convincing description of Istanbul […]
Review of The Last Albatross by Ian Irvine
The Last Albatross by Ian Irvine My rating: 2 of 5 stars The Last Albatross is set in a near future Australia where the technology, environment and economy is failing. It is a story of extreme environmentalists versus, in the beginning at least, an apathetic materialistic woman and her partner. The heroine of the story […]
NaNoWriMo – the finish
Hi all, I started the final nine days of National Novel Writing Month needing only to write 10508 words to reach my 50,000 target. That should have been easy as I was averaging over 1800 words a day. Did I make it? Day twenty-two: I had the house to myself for the next four days. […]
NaNoWriMo Week 3
Hi all, It’s the end of week three of National Novel Writing Month and I am feeling tired and of need of a break from writing. In the last two days in particular I have felt like just lying on the bed and dozing. Anyway, I forced myself to write past distractions until the writing […]
NaNoWriMo Week 2
Hi all, It’s been a busy week of writing and frustrations about writing and technology. I have wondered if technology would intervene in my attempt to get to 50,000 words for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Although I have had no computer mal-functions so far, trying to solve problems with my email (Bravenet) have taken […]