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It’s beginning to look a lot like…
… Bad Christmas Movies My family love bad Christmas movies. I don’t mean bad Christmas movies like Love Actually where they have the time and…
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The Arctic-Alpine Pea Mussel
I heard the Arctic-Alpine pea mussel mentioned on Radio 4 earlier this week when they were discussing the three thousand species in Wales that now…
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Three stories from my fascinating life
This week my wife and I finally watched the last episode of the TV series Edge of Darkness. We watched the first five episodes back…
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How we used to write: part two
The image attached to this post is of the notebook I used to plan Twisted Metal. You can see the map of Shull I made…
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What do they teach these kids?
There used to be a question asked of trainee teachers: why do we teach Shakespeare and not Pinball? It’s the sort of question that got…
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Why Loving Unfashionable Art Can Lead to Success
I rather like Andrew Lloyd Webber’s work. On the rare occasions I mention this most people feel the need to tell me they don’t like…
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And through the wire…
A few years ago I bought myself an expensive phone, a change from the cheap ones I’d always used until then. I would have been…
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Should you start your novel with a fight?
Should you start your novel with a fight? It’s a good idea in one sense. I read a lot of opening chapters by beginner writers…
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How we used to write: Part one
Who remembers this? (The featured image for this post is an old Interzone rejection letter.) I’ve been clearing out my study following my retirement from…
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Jack Wedderburn and the Manatees
It’s been over ten years since I wrote Dream London. Someone asked me about this scene last weekend, the one where Jack Wedderburn gets raped…
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Reflections on 37 Years of Teaching and Retirement
This summer I’m retiring as a teacher after 37 years. As my wife points out, I’m only retiring from teaching, I will still be employed…
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What is Copilot trying to Hide?
The Atlantic has a tool that allows authors to check if their books appear on LibGen; the pirated-books database that Meta used to train AI.…











