That was the week that was
I'm still utterly failing to finish my 1812 Burke book as life seems to be filling up with all sorts of other things. Last Friday I visited Sutton House in Hackney, a National Trust property described as the oldest private house in London. Built in the 16th century by...
Halloween shocker!
I keep promising to cut back on the amount of time I spend on blogging and other social media and now, with over 56,000 words of my first rough draft of what I'm still calling Burke and the War of 1812, I just want to get that finished, so no proper blog post this...
Treat! (No trick)
During covid (remember that?) one of my lockdown projects was to make an audiobook of my Urban Fantasy novella, Dark Magic. I was encouraged by a friend who is a professional voice actor but it was a very amateur effort, recorded under a desk with a duvet providing...
Not waving but drowning
I'm so jealous of people who can just sit down and write. Back in the day, when I wrote books and reports for business, I could churn out words faster than most, but not a lot of imagination was required. Writing fiction, I find much harder work. These blog posts fall...
Tales of Empire
Tales of Empire is free on Kindle until Saturday 5 October. If you're reading this after that, you will have to fork out a whole 99p. Here’s why you should grab a copy. Tales of Empire is a book of four short stories showcasing the work of four very different but...
Sir Home Popham, a Napoleonic man for all seasons
Quicksilver Captain: The improbable life of Sir Home Popham is about one of the more under-appreciated characters of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Popham (1762–1820) was a Royal Navy captain for most of the period, the era of Jack Aubrey and Horatio Hornblower. In contrast to his fictional counterparts, however, Popham’s real-life exploits were almost too strange – too improbable –for a novel.
Something Wicked
I saw a picture somewhere on social media posted by an author who is writing their first vampire book. I can’t find it now, but it showed a couple (presumably vampires) in a dance hold. It will be fun if someone else produces a vampire tale featuring dancers with,...
It was in Borneo around 1980 that I came across James Brooke, the first White Rajah…
Anti-Social Media?
Everyone seems to be talking about social media these days, largely because of the controversies about Twitter. Social media are important to writers like me because they provide an important way to tell people about our books. This blog is a form of social media and...
Exploring an 18th century grotto
Some of us who show people round Marble Hill House took a busman's holiday this week and went to visit Pope's Grotto. Marble Hill House Alexander Pope is important to the story of Marble Hill because he was a great friend of the first owner of the house, Henrietta...