Blood Point will be published in Midsummer 2025, a fitting date for a story set at the ancient Irish festival of Litha. I’d really hoped to release the second Nightmare Vacations novel in time for Midsummer 2024. That was a wildly over-ambitious underestimate of the time it would take to reach the end of the […]
If you want to publish or submit AI-generated writing, you need to know this: you don’t own that work. No one knows who owns that work. You had an idea and created the prompt that lead to the work, but in the world of intellectual property, ideas are worth nothing. Expression is everything. That’s why […]
If you’re going to use AI for writing or research, you need to know two things. The first is that AI doesn’t know anything. There are other important things to know about AI. It’s trained on content taken without permission of the creators. It contributes to rising greenhouse emissions and power consumption from technology companies. […]
Would you like to test drive the final drafts of Blood Point, my next Nightmare Vacations horror story? If so, register below to become a Beta Reader. Beta Readers are one of the last stops on the road from a story idea to a published novel. They’re a final chance to revise a book and […]
Among literature’s many grand claims is that great works embody universal truth about the human condition. It’s frequently used to emphasise the importance of literary fiction and establish the importance of canonical works and authors. The former canonical heretic and latter-day literary saint, James Joyce, himself declared Ulysses to be a novel of universal truth: […]
I write across two genres — science fiction and horror — and I harbour no ambitions towards literary fiction. Mainstream authors’ organisations are often focused on the literary and mundane genres, so I don’t feel entirely welcome. Fortunately there are SF and fantasy genre writers’ organisations where I’m an easier fit. Genre fiction writers’ organisations […]
Joining an authors’ trade organisation has been on my to-do list since I decided to take this gig seriously. I’ve put it off because there are as surprising number of British and Irish authors’ organisations. Now that I’ve done the research, I thought I’d put it out there for other writers to use. Why do […]
The Book Corner season 5: Book vs film. Episode 6: The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. Alice Sebold’s 2002 debut novel delivered a bold and uplifting take on a brutal child murder story. In 2009, The Lovely Bones became a film by Peter Jackson, but neither the critics nor the box office warmed to his […]
In January 2023 I set a goal of posting every week, which isn’t easy when you’re diverted as readily as I am. I managed about three posts a month and I’ll take that for a win. Nerd that I am, I thought I’d start the new year with my top five posts of 2023. Most […]
Most book reviewers do it to share their opinions. As a writer, I want to discover what I think about the craft so that I can improve. That’s where the Book Corner comes in. Book reviewers usually cover new releases and classics (because the algorithms love a classic). My selections are governed by the whims […]