I was planning to attend the 72nd World Science Fiction Convention Loncon3 which runs from the 14th to 18th of August, but events have conspired, and I am unable to attend.
If anyone needs a ticket, please get in touch. Normal price for the week is £125, but I am happy to sell for the early-bird rate I paid of £95. A massive saving of £30.
email me, or message me on Facebook?
Thursday, 29 May 2014
Between Stops - an anthology of short stories
At last! Something to post about that's newsworthy.
A group of us in East Devon have been scribbling away, and eventually came up with a collection of short stories. The five talented authors involved are Serena Cairns, Simon Cornish, Alastair Keen, Viv Laine and... Eleanor Piper - i.e. ME!
But we needed a cover. Luckily Simon is a dab hand with creating covers, so that solved one problem.
Simon also enjoys editing - and proofing was a joint female task. (Usually over coffee and yummy snacks; very enjoyable, despite the occasional "D'oh!" accompanied-by-facepalm and having to reach for a red pen.)
The end result is pretty darned good, even if I do say so myself! ;)
"Between Stops
A collection of short stories for life's travellers. Why not join us on your journey and enter the world Between Stops?"
Available on Amazon.co.uk
(A Kindle version should be available in due course)
You can also take a look at some pictures and quotes from a few of the stories on Pinterest. These will be added to over time. Between Stops
There is also a Facebook page for Between Stops
A group of us in East Devon have been scribbling away, and eventually came up with a collection of short stories. The five talented authors involved are Serena Cairns, Simon Cornish, Alastair Keen, Viv Laine and... Eleanor Piper - i.e. ME!
But we needed a cover. Luckily Simon is a dab hand with creating covers, so that solved one problem.
Simon also enjoys editing - and proofing was a joint female task. (Usually over coffee and yummy snacks; very enjoyable, despite the occasional "D'oh!" accompanied-by-facepalm and having to reach for a red pen.)
The end result is pretty darned good, even if I do say so myself! ;)
"Between Stops
A collection of short stories for life's travellers. Why not join us on your journey and enter the world Between Stops?"
Available on Amazon.co.uk
(A Kindle version should be available in due course)
You can also take a look at some pictures and quotes from a few of the stories on Pinterest. These will be added to over time. Between Stops
There is also a Facebook page for Between Stops
Friday, 3 January 2014
Happy New Year... Already? Where does the time go?
I seem to have accidentally slipped into a sidestream of the timeline, and have spent my whole time editing, writing ... and also either procrastinating or doing research - whichever term you feel happier with.
I've joined a writers' group a while back, which for once is compatible and actually works for me - which is nice. They want the same sort of things I do, and we all bring our own unique take and strengths to the table. :) Lovely stuff.
As a result we are bringing out a book of short stories, which I will tell you more about nearer the time. We are now ready to finalise the number of tales and the story order. It's very exciting.
In addition to working on this, I've been reading up on grammar and punctuation (which I was never 100% utterly amazing at, just fairly good and very patient at combing through things, plus the rules keep effing changing!), and I've been helping to edit both other people's work (the mad fools) and my own. I've even managed a bit of writing. Woo hoo!
A newly proofed version of The Grim will be out later this year - hopefully with fewer gaffs and punctuation errors.
The MS has tried to rear its ugly head a few times, but so far I've managed to bash it back down and get it mostly under control - although the exhaustion is something I'm having to learn to work around.
And I've been adoped by a stray cat. She's a black and white lovely, very demanding, but a purrfect companion in many respects. She replaces my Monster, who was killed in a hit & run nearly two years ago. He and the other ghost cats come and visit regularly, and Pushca (not Russian, its short for Pushy Cat) doesn't seem to mind. Although she does stare at Dereck when he visits.
So what else has been going on?
I loved The Hobbit, and The Desolation of Smaug. Also the new series of Sherlock looks like it's going to be fun. The 50 year anniversary of Doctor Who was great. A little disappointed by the change over episode - in the past they have always been hair-raising stuff. This time it seemed to be more of a by-the-numbers, not-really-trying to worry about the cliff-hanger factor, adrenaline-free afair ... or maybe I'm just getting really jaded in my old age. Having said that some of the episodes have been brilliant.
I enjoyed Vicious. And there have been quite a few comedy and police/crime things on that have been great... titles escape me for the moment. I shall blame my MS and the tiredness factor, which is currently kicking in, for the memory lapse. There have been a lot of good films. Again, the titles elude me at present.
And many other things I've enjoyed too, but I have to go and lie down in a darkened corner for a bit and recoup my energy and get my brain working again. Sorry. Please bear with me.
Have a great 2014, I know I will.
I've joined a writers' group a while back, which for once is compatible and actually works for me - which is nice. They want the same sort of things I do, and we all bring our own unique take and strengths to the table. :) Lovely stuff.
As a result we are bringing out a book of short stories, which I will tell you more about nearer the time. We are now ready to finalise the number of tales and the story order. It's very exciting.
In addition to working on this, I've been reading up on grammar and punctuation (which I was never 100% utterly amazing at, just fairly good and very patient at combing through things, plus the rules keep effing changing!), and I've been helping to edit both other people's work (the mad fools) and my own. I've even managed a bit of writing. Woo hoo!
A newly proofed version of The Grim will be out later this year - hopefully with fewer gaffs and punctuation errors.
The MS has tried to rear its ugly head a few times, but so far I've managed to bash it back down and get it mostly under control - although the exhaustion is something I'm having to learn to work around.
And I've been adoped by a stray cat. She's a black and white lovely, very demanding, but a purrfect companion in many respects. She replaces my Monster, who was killed in a hit & run nearly two years ago. He and the other ghost cats come and visit regularly, and Pushca (not Russian, its short for Pushy Cat) doesn't seem to mind. Although she does stare at Dereck when he visits.
So what else has been going on?
I loved The Hobbit, and The Desolation of Smaug. Also the new series of Sherlock looks like it's going to be fun. The 50 year anniversary of Doctor Who was great. A little disappointed by the change over episode - in the past they have always been hair-raising stuff. This time it seemed to be more of a by-the-numbers, not-really-trying to worry about the cliff-hanger factor, adrenaline-free afair ... or maybe I'm just getting really jaded in my old age. Having said that some of the episodes have been brilliant.
I enjoyed Vicious. And there have been quite a few comedy and police/crime things on that have been great... titles escape me for the moment. I shall blame my MS and the tiredness factor, which is currently kicking in, for the memory lapse. There have been a lot of good films. Again, the titles elude me at present.
And many other things I've enjoyed too, but I have to go and lie down in a darkened corner for a bit and recoup my energy and get my brain working again. Sorry. Please bear with me.
Have a great 2014, I know I will.
Friday, 29 March 2013
How long?!
It's been a while since I posted last. Didn't realise it had been quite that long. I've been busy, busy! ... mostly dealing with bullsh*t, stress, and trying to keep my head above water - oh, yes. Nearly forgot, I've also been writing! Hoorah!
For any writers who happen to have to take MS drugs, one of the side effects I've noticed (aside from my body refusing to let me take any of them) is that they kill the creative part of the brain - including dreaming! So that's not acceptable. Maybe you'll be different? I hope so.
Well, finally ditched the latest drug... And several months later dreaming and creativity are back! Yay! (I'm now thinking the drug approach for MS is probably not for me ... until they come up with something a heck of a lot better.) Oddly enough, the editing part of the brain seems to survive unscathed. So Swank, Jelinek, Graham, Wahls, etc and the diet approach appears to be my main / only option for controlling MS. *sigh* Ah, well. Such is life.
So, writing... yay! I've been having fun on several different projects. And I'm investigating the possibilty of another novel. So, lots to do!
It may be a while before I get around to posting again, so I apologise in advance. In the meantime, Ripper Street. I enjoyed that.
And I spent some money on Person Of Interest - it's much better without the advert breaks, when you can watch the episodes back-to-back. ... And the villain of the series? Hooray! I'll shut up, that episode hasn't aired yet. Looking forward to the next series.
I've also been getting my Vampire research flowing, with Forever Knight and Bloodties. Both Canadian, both well worth watching if you've not already seen them. Forever Knight takes most of the first series to find its stride, but after that... *smile*
Anyhoo, ... I'd better get back to writing.
(If you're that way inclined:) Have fun with the death cult resurrection celebration! - Any excuse for chocolate, eh?
For any writers who happen to have to take MS drugs, one of the side effects I've noticed (aside from my body refusing to let me take any of them) is that they kill the creative part of the brain - including dreaming! So that's not acceptable. Maybe you'll be different? I hope so.
Well, finally ditched the latest drug... And several months later dreaming and creativity are back! Yay! (I'm now thinking the drug approach for MS is probably not for me ... until they come up with something a heck of a lot better.) Oddly enough, the editing part of the brain seems to survive unscathed. So Swank, Jelinek, Graham, Wahls, etc and the diet approach appears to be my main / only option for controlling MS. *sigh* Ah, well. Such is life.
So, writing... yay! I've been having fun on several different projects. And I'm investigating the possibilty of another novel. So, lots to do!
It may be a while before I get around to posting again, so I apologise in advance. In the meantime, Ripper Street. I enjoyed that.
And I spent some money on Person Of Interest - it's much better without the advert breaks, when you can watch the episodes back-to-back. ... And the villain of the series? Hooray! I'll shut up, that episode hasn't aired yet. Looking forward to the next series.
I've also been getting my Vampire research flowing, with Forever Knight and Bloodties. Both Canadian, both well worth watching if you've not already seen them. Forever Knight takes most of the first series to find its stride, but after that... *smile*
Anyhoo, ... I'd better get back to writing.
(If you're that way inclined:) Have fun with the death cult resurrection celebration! - Any excuse for chocolate, eh?
Monday, 29 October 2012
Saturday, 9 June 2012
Writing style...?
A chap I know, friend-of-a-friend, kindly agreed to read The Grim give me some feedback and possibly a review. Which is very nice of him. I greatly appreciate it.
But as we talked he mentioned that my writing style is very different from the writing style I use in this blog.
Hmm. Is it?
Actually that's not the question I asked myself. I was confused...
The question I asked myself was, 'Why would he think that they would be the same?'
The style I use when writing this blog is different to the style I use when writing a film script, and different again from the various ones I use when writing fiction, and different again from the style used when making notes, writing a letter to a friend, writing a letter to a corporation, etc, etc. ... There are going to be aspects in common, but doesn't everyone adopt a different writing style for the specific task they are engaged in?
The syle I use when blogging is, I hope, engaging - and I speak as though chatting to a friend on the internet. (?) Informal. Just a chin-wag, a bit of a natter. ... The mad ramblings of an insane mind!!!
You know the drill, surely?
Anyhow, I'm supposed to be writing, and instead, here I am procrastinating. *sigh*
I'd better get back to it.
But as we talked he mentioned that my writing style is very different from the writing style I use in this blog.
Hmm. Is it?
Actually that's not the question I asked myself. I was confused...
The question I asked myself was, 'Why would he think that they would be the same?'
The style I use when writing this blog is different to the style I use when writing a film script, and different again from the various ones I use when writing fiction, and different again from the style used when making notes, writing a letter to a friend, writing a letter to a corporation, etc, etc. ... There are going to be aspects in common, but doesn't everyone adopt a different writing style for the specific task they are engaged in?
The syle I use when blogging is, I hope, engaging - and I speak as though chatting to a friend on the internet. (?) Informal. Just a chin-wag, a bit of a natter. ... The mad ramblings of an insane mind!!!
You know the drill, surely?
Anyhow, I'm supposed to be writing, and instead, here I am procrastinating. *sigh*
I'd better get back to it.
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