Blogs

Erik Larson (2015) Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania.

Before I read this book, I thought like Erik Larson there was a direct line between the sinking of the Lusitania and the United States joining the war on the side of the Allies, much the same as happened at Pearl Harbour. But the Lusitania was sunk by German U-20 7 th May 1915. But the United States maintained a policy of neutrality despite German U-Boats sinking tens of thousands of tons of shipping and killing American citizens until the...

Happiness is a Warm Keyboard=I Live to and Love to Write

Seasons change and days speed by; I can not believe it’s 2024. I look at the year on the calendar and I’m flabbergasted and, probably like everyone, wonder when the years had flown by? I can easily remember being about fourteen and sitting on the stoop with friends, sitting on one of our house’s stoops was how we ‘hung out together’, and we were calculating our ages in the year 2000. We laughed hysterically thinking how old we’d be (by teenage...

A Subsequent Engagement by Philip Whiteland. Available to Pre-order Now!

If you, like me, are a fan of Phil Whiteland's very funny Bring Out Your Dead stories, you'll also be very pleased to hear that he's publishing another collection. Here's what he says: Welcome, once more, to the rather odd world of Josiah Oakshott and Archibald Thurble, respectively owner and employee of Oakshott and Underwood, ‘understanding and sympathy at your time of need’. If you’re new to these two characters, where have you been? Their...

If not now, when? - some thoughts on my 10th release - MALIGN INTENT

If not now, when? To borrow Shane Horgan’s comment on the Ireland v NZ All-blacks quarter final match in the Rugby World Cup 23 (and with a nod to Primo Levi), If not now, when? Is the constant thought of an indie author. When? MALIGN INTENT is my tenth novel and the follow up to A Kind of Drowning , a second crime thriller featuring Garda Inspector P. J. Crowe. MALIGN INTENT will be released on Amazon KDP on January 27th 2024. It has taken two...

Saltburn (2023) written, directed, and co-produced by Emerald Fennell.

Saltburn wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Upstairs Downstairs, Brideshead Revisited, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Murder on the Dance Floor can go and take a good fuck to themselves as far as I’m concerned. What did you think? Notes. It’s a bit of a mishmash. Plot (2008 Film) for example follows Charles Ryder's relationship with the Flyte family, particularly his close friendship with the charismatic but troubled Sebastian Flyte, and the...

Story and Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point

Posted by onemorething: Thanks to all, as always, for providing such a rich and varied wealth of writing. And whilst choosing Picks of the Week is never easy: This week's Poem of the Week is Rhiannon's wonderful and clever, riddle-like poem, Autobiography. https://www.abctales.com/story/rhiannonw/autobiography-not-mine This week's Story of the Week is Terrence Oblong's Austere Planet which is both brilliant and hilarious. https://www.abctales...

Help!

Does anyone know how you can move a story from one set to another?

John Vaillant (2010) The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival.

I’m going to read John Valliant’s latest book, Fireweather an account of how we’re destroying our planet. Before going forward, I looked backward to Valliant’s account of how an Amur tiger, sometimes known as a Siberian tiger, killed and ate a hunter Dmitri Markov in the Primorye territory in Russia’s Far East, near the Chinese border were temperatures plummeted to 40-below zero Centigrade during the winter of December 1997. Few or any of us...

Story and Poem of the Month

Our Story and Poem for December, very kindly chosen by Drew Gummerson: It’s always an honour to do this, to choose the Story and Poem of the Month. I’ve been looking over the past few days at December’s entries and once again I’m impressed by the quality and range of writing on the site. Story of Month First some notable mentions. It wouldn’t be December if I didn’t flag a Christmas story and Mac_Ashton’s Yuletide Loops is a brilliant one. A...

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