Christmas Existential Angst (AKA the nativity reborn)
So I’m in the throes of my final edit (scary days ahead), I just thought I’d drop in and share two of my favourite stories that explore what the holiday season is all about: The birth of Santa! I kid, I kid, but these are somewhat non-traditional stories about old St. nick, enjoy Nicholas Was… by Neil […]
NaNo Reflections
So that was… Interesting, to say the least. Turns out November is a pretty crap month for getting things done in; there’s fighting the obligatory winter cold, End of term meet ups/parties/shindigs, so much college work, the fact that my class has only just decided we want to publish an anthology of which I masochistically chose the […]
24 hours stalking Terry Pratchett
I should probably give some background before I’m arrested. I love Terry Pratchett, absolutely adore everything he’s ever written. When I was about 10 my uncle from Delaware recommended the dragon lance books to me. You couldn’t get them very easily here so they used to send them over to me. Then Mom got me […]
10,000 words: take 2
So you may remember the insanity that was last Saturday night. I am doing something similar this weekend, perhaps more relaxed times, a different word count. I haven’t decided the rules yet but it definitely won’t be as late as last week, it’s my parents wedding anniversary tomorrow and myself and my sister are cooking, […]
Irish Writers’ Centre Novel Fair
This is going to be a very brief post because I’m in the throes of NaNoWriMo and college papers but the Irish writers’ centre (near the garden of remembrance in Dublin) is running a novel fair in March specifically designed for first time novelists to network with publishers and agents. This is from their website: The inaugural Irish […]
Night of 10,000 words
So there’s a challenge on the nanowrimo forums to write 10,000 words between 8pm tonight and 8am tomorrow. (Unfortunately I can’t find the link so there is a chance the crazy part of my brain made this up…) I’ve tweaked the rules a little, going from 6pm until 6am so I can function on a […]
National Novel Writing Month
So it’s been awhile since I finished my novel and it’s sat there ever since, an unedited mass of smelly words that are daring me to edit it while I, with similar tenacity, have ignored it. I don’t want to launch into a new work because then I’ll never actually finish anything so instead, as […]
A Cautionary note on “Historical” Fiction
There is one important word in the phrase ‘Historical Fiction.’ Clue: That word is NOT ‘Historical.’ If you want to learn history pick up a text-book, or a first hand account, or watch a documentary. Historical Fiction is fiction, first and foremost. I won’t deny that some historical fiction novels are extremely accurate while others […]
Prostitution in Game of Thrones
There has been much criticism of Game of Thrones, especially of the TV series. It’s been accused of being sexist, racist, sexist, too violent, sexist and sexist again. Now most of this critisim has been levelled at the HBO adaptation so I’ve studiously ignored it but I was at a friend’s house the other day and […]
Kindle
Well the stars have aligned, Mars has come into cojunction with Venus and I am suddenly and unexpectedly in possession of some money. I won a quiz about Bioshock Infinite on the Escapist Magazine, the prize was $100 dollar gift voucher for Amazon.com. My internet service provider, for reasons that I’m not going to question, […]