Joe Cosentino’s “The Player’s Encore” out as an audiobook now!
It's been far, far too long since the lovely Joe was last here on the blog, so I'm delighted to welcome him back today with news of a new audiobook release. The Player's Encore, the second of the Piano Player mysteries, is out now,…
Andy Siege’s “Don’t Let Me Drown” is out now!
Andy Siege has a new queer magical realism romance out (bi male, intersex female): Don't Let Me Drown. Traumatised by his experiences as a war photographer, Aaron is drowning in guilt and tranquilisers. On a new assignment to document the civil…
Vincent Traughber Meis’s “Iguana” released – with giveaway!
Vincent Traughber Meis has a new MM romance out: Iguana. And there's a giveaway! Dawson Wozniak moved to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico looking for a change after ending a long-term relationship. Returning to the site where his parents…
This week on the reading blog, there's two charming contemporary London-set #mmromance short story collections from @kparkerwriter.bsky.social and @annabutler.bsky.social. Not to be missed!
elliethomasromance.wordpress.com/2025/05/01/r...
I have two fantastic #mmromance paranormal series starters this week, with some cracking military sci-fi from @annabutler.bsky.social and orcs galore from Jordan Castillo Price!
elliethomasromance.wordpress.com/2025/05/08/r...
I completely missed this amazing auction or I'd have put something in. Check out the incredible goodies on offer, supporting trans rights!
www.32auctions.com/genrefortrans
M.K. Dean’s “A Nose For Death” Out Now!!
One of the great delights in being a writer is the community of friends and sisters you create around you. One of the dearest, and one of my crit group (aka one of the wonderful people who help me beat my books into some sort of shape) is M. K. Dean. M.K.…
Sorry to take a while to respond. I've been offline a lot this month.
Spellcheck with mine seems fine, thankfully.
Watch for your subscription with 365. Microsoft is pushing a higher cost version that includes Copilot. Again, you have to search around to get back to the one you signed up for.
I had the same problem. It's icon appeared on the ribbon in a group mendaciously entitled "Assistance" - easy enough to delete. But finding and deleting the bit that had every new doc opening with "Ctrl I or icon to allow CoPilot to help you write" took a bit longer. Bloody Microsoft.
I've had a difficult year healthwise, & that affected my writing, but today I finally sat down before the PC, called up Scrivener, remembered where I'd got to in the current WIP & behold! over 1000 words written. I was beginning to think I'd forgotten how to do it!
You know what else is bugging me today? I can't buy David Eddings' Belgariad and Mallorean series on Kindle. Unless in German, and one or two titles in Spanish. What's up with that?!
We’ll have to have words with Asimov, Tolkien, GRR Martin, le Guin, Robert Jordan, Barbara Hambly, Lois McMaster Bujold, Patricia A. McKillip, and James Corey, and … and so many, many others in the spec-fic genre and tell them they’ve been doing it wrong.
Every book in the series *should be* complete within itself, should it? No exceptions. Writing bigger stories across more than one volume is a cheap marketing ploy, then? Oh dear.
Maybe it’s the sore arm and tiredness from Monday’s Covid jab, but don’t have much patience right now with authors pontificating about what constitutes a series. Particularly when they’re making pronouncements that they’re delivering with all the infallibility of the Pope speaking ex-cathedra.
Still bitterly cold here. Monday night's snow, half-melted, has been frozen solid for the last 3 days, still coating the garden & the fields. The main roads are clear, but our lane's all ice & solid snow. I'm still unsteady on crutches, so I've been excused dog walking ever since. So sad. ;)
Staying indoors with an icepack sounds v. wise!
I get that. We each read a book in a slightly different way to every other reader of it, depending on so many things (education, experiences, culture, upbringing etc), so yes: every reading *is* a translation and we all have our individual translators. That allows for a lot of exploring sub-text!
Exactly. Horrible little darlings.
WHAT that means. Dammit.
Lol! Don't forget the sunscreen and your camel.
I'd say she was adorable, but she's a terrier. You know that that means.
back of the house looking towards the inner courtyard. Our (rather magnificent) yews on the left
Looking south down the garden in the snow
The back of the house in the snow
and the final pics
Front of the house behind its snowy trees, from the lane
Front door, shaded by snowy trees
Green Lane looking awfully pretty in the snow
The field and Knickerbush Hill opposite the house
More pics
Absolutely no question! I adore it and look for it every year on the TV schedules.
How wonderful that you have that personal link with him! Adds an extra layer of 'rightness', I expect.
Outer courtyard and stables
Outer courtyard in the snow
Inner courtyard in the snow
Garden in the snow
It snowed all night, leaving us with a couple of inches of snow this morning (for the UK, with its generally temperate climate, that is a reasonable amount). Sadly, it started melting almost immediately, but D got out early with the camera and snapped a few of the house and garden.
I'm a Brit, so prefer it, actually, especially since my steampunk trilogy is set in London/Egypt. The audiobooks for that trilogy were done by a US narrator, however - Gary Furlong - but he is very good at accents and I have no complaints about how he read the books.
No films that I know of, sadly. It would be awesome if there were some.
I don't know that particular narrator. TBH, I'm not that fond of audiobooks. They would be a godsend if I were still working and commuting, though.
In my other writerly incarnation, I write Regencies. My best resource for seeing how a word or phrase was actually used at the time I'm interested in is Google books. You can put in the time frame you want (1790-1820 in my case) and references pop up. Incredibly useful.
Image of small terrier, golden-haired Yorkie-Bichon cross
It seems it's obligatory to post pics of the animals who own you and allow you to share their lives. So here is Mavis.