Australian, UK and US bestselling books 2014
The 2014 top ten bestseller lists for books in Australia, the UK, and the US point to a book-buying world dominated by movies, games, children and teenagers. Top ten bestsellers in Australia. The 52-Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton (232,900) The Long Haul (Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book Nine) by Jeff Kinney […]
January: My Writing Efforts.
In an attempt to motivate myself, I have decided to write a monthly blog post about my writing efforts for the previous month. Novel Writing. I am currently writing a young adult novel, Branded. I wrote the first chapter as part of a writing for young adults subject in a Master of Creative Writing I […]
Analysis of 2014 Goodreads Science Fiction Choice Awards.
For the second year in a row, I have done a simple analysis of the Goodreads’s Choice Awards for science fiction novels. Members of the Goodreads website vote on the awards. Fifteen books were nominated based on their review ratings on Amazon, and five more were nominated by readers. The concept part of my analysis is […]
My Writing in 2014.
I wrote a bit this year, but nowhere near enough. My Fiction Writing. I began the year by finally finishing the first draft of my 215,000 word epic, Jack Logan: Astronaut. I then spent a lot of time redrafting an 8,000 word short story and 23,000 word novella. It wasn’t until November that I got […]
What I read last year.
Last year would have to be my worst book-reading year for a long time. I reckon I would have to go back to well before I arrived in Wang, about 15 years ago, to a year when I read less. I only read five books last year. Pretty pathetic, really, even if I was tired […]
2014’s Science Fiction Movies.
Many science fiction movies were released this year. Here’s what I thought of some of them. The Very Good. 1) Interstellar. A voyage of discovery. Written and directed by a master of science fiction, Christopher Nolan (Inception, Rise of the Planet of the Apes) and starring Mathew McConaughey. The movie is about humanity’s search for a new […]
Price Survey of Top 100 Selling ebooks: December 2014
Even though I no longer buy books or ebooks from Amazon, I am still interested in their prices and potential impact on the publishing industry. So, I have decided to continue my periodic survey of the prices of the top 100 bestselling ebooks on Amazon. I checked the bestseller list at around 2 p.m. today, […]
2014’s Small Screen Science Fiction: the Good, the Bad and the Inconsistent.
I watched a lot of science fiction on television this year. Much of what I watched were short series, which I appreciate because there is less padding. Some of the science fiction was very good, some inconsistent, and some pretty ordinary. Let’s start with the good. The Good. SBS2 screened some good science fiction this […]
Review of Anne Leckie’s Ancillary Justice.
After reading about all the awards Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice had accumulated, I just had to read it. It won the 2014 Nebula, Hugo and Arthur C. Clarke awards for best science fiction novel. I was also intrigued by it being told from the viewpoint of an artificial intelligence android. The novel’s main character is […]
National Novel Writing Month – I finished.
My latest novel manuscript is off to a flying start thanks to National Novel Writing Month. I am 50,963 words in, about halfway through. I really enjoy the story I am writing, although my characters are not. The five of them are in a precarious situation with absolutely no idea what is happening. They have […]