It has been a while since I had a rant and I think this is a good one. Back in May, an alert and conscientious radiographer (or whatever they’re called – the ones that do the X-rays) pointed out to a doctor in the Emergency Department at Calvary Hospital here in Canberra, that there was […]
October 11, 2011
I have been in something of a maudlin mood of late, concerning the forthcoming surgery. What if it doesn’t go right? The surgeon could sneeze just at the wrong moment when he has a length of my grey matter pulled out of my head. And so on. In reality the procedure has a much higher […]
September 20, 2011
While I refuel on some coffee, I decided to do a little reflecting. The Internet is a wonderful thing. No, I am not referring to the fact that I must be seriously challenged in the genital area, judging by the number of emails I receive offering to increase the size of my offering in that […]
September 19, 2011
At workshop with Fiona McIntosh a few weekends ago, Fiona stressed the importance of having a strong female character in the story somewhere, at least if you want something with commercial potential. As I continue to steadily plod along with Blood Redemption, my urban fantasy, I realised that the female character with the strongest character […]
September 19, 2011
Some time back I had the opportunity to interview US author, Diana Gabuldon. While discussing her approach to writing, Diana revealed that she develops a novel as groups of individual kernels of writing, eventually pulled together into the finished product. Late last year I had the opportunity for a fifteen minutes one-on-one with author David […]
September 11, 2011
This review first published at www.awritergoesonajourney.com. The Edinburgh DeadBrian RuckleyOrbit2011 The blurb In the starkly-lit operating theaters of the city, grisly experiments are being carried out on corpses in the name of medical science. But elsewhere, there are those experimenting with more sinister forces. Amongst the crowded, sprawling tenements of the labyrinthine Old Town, a […]
September 11, 2011
That orgiastic delight of speculative fiction writing and fandom, Conflux, is being held in Canberra at the end of this month – see www.conflux.org.au for more details. Especially have a look at the workshop program – some great stuff there and you don’t have to sign up for Conflux for all of them. Definitely worth […]
July 26, 2011
I was recently reading something by a noted author but it just did not seem to be grabbing me at all. This puzzled me as at first glance, it seemed well written. After some re-reading, it finally dawned on me what the problem was. Some time back I was able to interview the author, Diana […]
February 5, 2011
From www.happiness-project.com, these are supposedly Tolstoy’s 10 Rules of Life, written when he was 18. Let’s see how I stack up against them. Get up early (five o’clock) There’s a five o’clock in the morning now? Go to bed early (nine to ten o’clock) And miss out on all the thrills of the late-night ‘infomercials’? […]
January 7, 2011
There is an episode of Seinfeld, the show about nothing, where Jerry has a funny idea occur to him during the night, writes it down, then spends the rest of the episode trying to work out what he actually wrote. I am sure every writer has experienced the frustration of having that great idea pop […]
November 17, 2011
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