2014 Wrap-up: Better Late than Never!

So 2014 was eventful, and 2015 promises to be even more so… Writing Stuff Two of my short stories were published this year. January – ‘The Ballad of Mr. Bones’ is a story that I loved writing. It’s about a post-apocalyptic obsession with shoes (and other obsessions) and was published in a special issue of Not […]

Short Story Sunday: ‘The Last Question’ by Issac Asimov

So after many years sitting on my ‘to read’ list I finally picked up some Issac Asimov in the form of his short story ‘The Last Question.’ Warning: here be spoilers So this was my first direct exposure to Issac Asimov. I watched some films like i robot and I’ve read loads of stuff that […]

Literary Orphans

My short story ‘Symposium‘ has just been published in the wonderful journal, Literary Orphans. It’s an Irish themed issue and I’m lucky to be published alongside some incredible talents. Please go check out some of the stories if you have time. I wrote ‘Symposium’ back in 2009 or 2010 (I can’t really remember). But it’s […]

On finally finishing Harry Potter

So I finally finished reading the Harry Potter series. I started reading when it first came out, gave up around book five and went back to it last month because I had a long plane journey ahead of me, they seemed like an easy read for that environment and I’ve felt like there was a […]

Short Story Sunday: ‘Zombie’ by Chuck Palahniuk

So I thought I’d bring short story Sunday back from the dead (hence the zombie theme). I really enjoyed analysing short fiction in a way that I don’t have the time or space to do with longer fiction here and I’m struggling with two short pieces I’m writing at the moment so this might help […]

World Book Day

So it was World book day yesterday. I got a bit confused because of the time difference here and almost missed it entirely which is why this post is late. (For those of you who don’t know, I live in China now) So here is a list of books on/about China that I have downloaded […]

Update

So I’m almost finished The Waiting Place. I’m going to be working on a collection of short stories to get it out of my system before editing it. I have been teaching TEFL and enjoying it since April so I’m taking the opportunity before I get too tied down here to travel. Next month I […]

Halloween Reads

A brief summary of some of my literary halloween exploits Dracula  A classic and for a very good reason. I don’t usually like classics but this is a very thrilling suspenseful read. I bought a simple English version of it to read with my English as a Foreign Language students and they seem to love […]

RIP Seamus Heaney

I would like to add my condolences to the vast list of condolences pouring in for Seamus Heaney’s family and friends. ‘Midterm Break’ was the first poem I ever studied, understood and enjoyed. North was the first collection of poetry I ever read on my own, not because a teacher had told me, and though […]

Clichés

I’ve noticed a few journals have a list of stories they’d rather not see. These lists can be entertaining but also educational when you realise that your fantastic idea for a story has been done so often that magazines have actually gone to the trouble of including them as ‘things not to do’ in their […]