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I read George W MacPherson's Sgaith Amazon Queen of Skye straight through in about four hours. It seemed to me an early draft. There were a number of grammatical errors. Characters seemed one dimensional. Descriptive prose that did take hold was often spoiled by an over-reliance on cliche. Here are a few examples from the start of the book. Without further ado, she stepped forward naked as she was born The cold and the dark seeped into her very...

Detective novels are straightforward as a pigeon following a trail of breadcrumbs to find out the hand holding a hammer. I hadn't read any of Malcolm Mackay's books before this one, but the greatest compliment you can pay an author is reading another of his books. I'll start -anew-with his earlier debut novel. Here we have the beginnings of the breadcrumbs. ...some eyeless halfwit had gone straight into the side of her car...Freya began to swear...

The weather channel has been a big part of my day for over a week now, Dorian is just now approaching my area and thankfully it is farther off shore than they had first said. I am inland so we should be fine but this time of worrying… for so many days…stocking up in fear of having no power… and the worry if there would be any open stores after it ends. This was considerably more upsetting than in hurricane threats of years past . If something...

There’s an afterglow to this sweet Old Firm derby. Neil Lennon had a few hard choices to make. In goal he could have played Fraser Foster, Craig Gordon or my mate’s mum. He said she could have played in goals and he was right enough. Lennon went with Fraser Foster. Celtic’s dodgy defence was on display. Rangers were at home. The bookies made them favourites. Celtic were 2/1. All the Daily Record pundits gave Rangers the edge by a goal or more...

It's been wonderful to see so many new writers on ABC Tales, and so many regulars posting really fantastic stuff. It makes choosing these Picks all the harder, but it's a hugely enjoyable task. Story of the Week is Beekery's 'An Open Letter To Perpetual Sadness'. It's about living with cancer, and it's funny, angry, wise and very, very readable. Do please have a look if you haven't already: https://www.abctales.com/story/beekery/open-letter-...

For our purposes there is actually nothing so special about the Moon and the Earth. They are only names and for convenience, the situation holds just the same for any two orbiting bodies: Moon-Earth; moon-planet; planet-Sun; binary stars or a pair of black holes etc. The model should work better with large masses, close proximity and fast rotation but not to extremes because you will have relativistic influence, and the bodies should be...

I consume these books like sweets. A guilty secret. Guilt is always bad for you. You know how it goes. Anita Moorjani died then she has a choice whether she wanted to come back to this world, or stay where she was, heaven. Heaven is not a place with celestial gates and angels strumming harps, rather it is a state of bliss. Since there is no such thing as time, it could be said to be eternal. We know she came back, because here she is telling the...