I've just taken a good look at our apple tree and the crop is looking rather thin this year.  Last year we had a bumper crop of apples; this year we'll be lucky to harvest a dozen.  Blame it on the bizarre weather we've been having.  The few summer days we've had have been hot enough to melt the trees.  Otherwise, it's been non-stop monsoon-like rain.  There have been a lot of floods reported across Britain.  Have you ever been in a home damaged by flood water?  I have, and it is not a pleasant experience.  Look around your room now, as you're reading this, and see just how much is under knee-height.  Carpets or other flooring, chairs and soft furnishings, electrical goods and electrical wall sockets, food, kitchen equipment, gas heaters, wallpaper, the plaster on walls, etc.  All this has to be cleared away, ruined.  And pets can easily die in floods, too.  Add to this backed-up sewers, and remember that while you're trying to clean up the mess you're

Australian writer and entertainment agency owner Rebeka Harrington talks about her second vampire novel, Desires Revealed , in this interview with me here . Her novel is set in the 16th Century, and aims to redefine vampire fiction.   

In 2004, Geoff Wakeling quit his job as an administrator to head to Ecuador and conduct conservation work in a newly established nature reserve. He returned home to start a thriving gardening business. In 2008, he increased his gardening business by becoming a garden expert and copywriter, appearing on shows such as This Morning, Sky’s Rooftop Rainforest and Horticultural Channel. He set up the Gay Gardening Blog. His copywriting duties increased over the years, and Geoff now writes on a range of subjects including insurance, social media, men’s health and gardening. He also writes novels... Read his interview with me here on Hubpages.   

Charles Martin's debut novel, Mythical , is now available as an ebook. The first of a trilogy, this book brings us the story of an eighteen year old girl whose discovery of a corpse in the Arizona desert introduces her to the dangerous world of shapeshifters. Charles consented to be interviewed by me, and you can read the results on Hubpages here .   

Here's a bit of interesting news for history buffs.  Apparently, rare and ancient texts owned by the Vatican and the Bodleian Library are going to be put into digital form and made available for public study.  This amounts to something like 1.5 million pages of previously largely unseen documents, which include works on the kabbalah, the Talmud, Hebrew manuscripts and the Gutenburg Bible. I wonder who decides which texts to share and which to keep private, and why?  Conspiracy theorists could have a field day, pondering over alleged plots to retain the world's Really Big Secrets for a small elite. Personally, I've found the best place to hide something is in plain sight.  Thinking back to my time as a library assistant in the Religion and Philosophy Library, at Liverpool's Central Library, I can easily remember the thousands upon thousands of books stored away in the stacks.  Wouldn't it be great if each and every one of those - and all those like them, stashe

Have you ever loved a story so much that you wanted to visit the place where it happened? Have you been so involved in a scene that you felt like you were really there? Well, a new innovation means you almost can be there - almost. When an ebook's tale is set in a particular place - a cafe, a theatre, an historic location, a bowling alley etc., - then readers can click a link to learn more about the factual place. This opens up a new angle in virtual tourism, which could potentially result in readers of a story booking into a hotel or diner where their fictional heroes stayed. So what we have here is another way of writers gaining an income. Just as sports people are sponsored to wear trade logos, then why couldn't writers be sponsored to include linked-to places/businesses in their ebooks? The principles are fairly similar. Blind Fate by Patrick Brian Miller and Dixie Noir by Kirk Curnutt are the first of these innovative ebooks to be published on Kindle (which c

Several people have asked me why I've recently self-published two ebooks, Spanish Jones and Dark Tides .  In the past, I've been dead set against self-publishing.  Vanity publishing (where you pay a company to publish your book) is mostly an expensive dead-end, and self-publishing (where you DIY) requires much product promotion, can also be pricey, and in the past wasn't taken seriously.  The given wisdom was that people only self-publish when no-one will buy their book. Is that still true in 2011?  If readers didn't take self-published ebooks seriously, they wouldn't be buying them.  And they are, in ever increasing numbers, to the point that ebook sales are now apparently overtaking paperback sales. Producing an ebook can cost nothing but time if an author can create their own eye-catching front covers and do their own editing.  In my case, I went to art school where I studied art and design; I've worked as a photographer and an editor; and I also get pra

Pirates, selkies and witches battle to survive in this dramatic short fantasy tale. When Charlie Porter makes a deal with Spanish Jones, he ensnares the Porter family in a vicious centuries-long feud. Can Charlie's descendent stop the violence? Set on the ruggedly beautiful Hilbre Island in the Dee Estuary, history and folklore blend to create a magically atmospheric tale. Spanish Jones - a new ebook short by Adele Cosgrove-Bray, out October 1st, 2011. Available from:  Here     

"The notion of the "swerve" is taken from Lucretius, who lived in the first century B.C. and taught that the world, uncreated but infinite in extent, is composed of nothing but atoms and the void.... "The message of Lucretius' poem was subversive and liberating. Following his master Epicurus, the poet placed the highest value on pleasure (voluptas)...." Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904353504576566621864350318.html?mod=googlenews_wsj (From a review of a new book, The Swerve , by Stephen Greenblatt). And yet people today generally refer to people in the distant past as being ignorant.  Ironic, hmm?   

Aleksander Iljaszewicz shared an interesting article with me today, in which the author pondered on how our idea of working for a living may change in the future.  Douglas Rushkoff wrote:- "The question we have to begin to ask ourselves is not how do we employ all the people who are rendered obsolete by technology, but how can we organize a society around something other than employment? Might the spirit of enterprise we currently associate with "career" be shifted to something entirely more collaborative, purposeful, and even meaningful?" Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/09/07/rushkoff.jobs.obsolete/index.html?hpt=hp_t1 How many of us would turn up for work each day if we didn't get paid, hmm?  Equally, don't most working people resent those who make a career out of living off state benefits which our taxes pay for?  And yet there are those who insist that if all unemployed people found jobs then this would immediately create more unemp

This is an idea for an ebook cover. The design needs to be simple and bold, and also clear when viewed in an online catalogue listing when the images are around the size of postage stamps. Likewise, the wording needs to be concise and to clearly tell people what the contents are. The photo is one of mine, of course, and shows West Kirby beach at sunset. The subject of the photo needs to relate to the contents of the book, and several of the stories include oceanic and local references. Comments are most welcome!   

Sales of hardbacks, which is apparently the most lucrative category of books, are down by 23%, though some authors are doing better than ever due to increased sales in ebooks and clever use of interactive websites. Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2011/08/17/the-worlds-highest-paid-authors/ What does all this mean for the unsigned author?   How will the downturn in sales effect the number of new publishing contracts?   I've been thinking about what it actually means to be published.  It's fair to say that every writer dreams of having their work read by thousands if not millions of people.  I'm no different.  As much as I enjoy the creative process of writing and editing subsequent drafts, I also want my work to be read - and hopefully enjoyed.   And some of my short stories, one extract from Tamsin, some poetry and non-fiction have been published over the years.  But I want more; of course I do. There is the undeniable kudos of having had someone e

"Retailer HMV Group is selling its Waterstone’s bookshop business to A&NN Capital Fund Management for £53 million...  Waterstone’s sales had deteriorated due to weakness in the book market." Source:  http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/28459/hmv-sells-bookshop-chain-waterstones-to-tackle-debt-28459.html Personally, I suspect Waterstone's sales have dropped off because of poor choices in stock.  Browse the shop these-days and I rarely find anything that appeals amidst a growing mountain of junk - cookery books, 'celebrity' biogs and TV-related trivia.   The Mind, Body & Spirit shelves groan with sickly-sweet 'angels' and the kind of introductions to Wicca which begin with "This is a cauldron.  Mine has pink sparkles".  The Science-Fiction, Fantasy and Horror sections are ok if you want to read anything by someone you've already read most of the books by already.  Hmm, or maybe that's because I read a lot... 

"The publishing tide is shifting fast: E-book sales in February topped all other formats, including paperbacks and hardcovers...  E-book sales totaled $90.3 million in February, up 202% compared to the same month a year earlier, according to a study from the Association of American Publishers. That put e-books at No. 1 "among all categories of trade publishing" that month -- the first time e-books have beaten out traditional publishing formats. " Source:  http://money.cnn.com/2011/04/15/technology/ebooks_beat_paperbacks/index.htm?source=cnn_bin&hpt=Sbin

A strong sense of time and place saves Hate: A Romance by Tristan Garcia. Ten years from now this author, who was only born in 1981, may well rank among contemporary greats. Certainly clear intimations of better things to come are woven throughout this novel. The novel is told through Liz, who describes herself as a tough, uncompromising journalist. Her lover, Leibo, is a married man who, like nearly all married men, has no intention of leaving his wife and children - though for years Liz seems oblivious to this, so maybe’s she’s not as hardnosed as she imagines. She introduces Willie and Doumé who first become inseparable lovers then later bitter enemies. These three men flit in and out of her Parisian life at their convenience, with Leibo sometimes in her bed, and Willie and Doumé sleeping on her couch and raiding her kitchen then moving on when something better comes along. Why does Liz tolerate this? Simply, she loves each of them for the dramatic, vivacious characters that the

Closing my copy of Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Angel's Game , I was left wondering exactly what had happened at the end.  While I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel and greatly admired the fluid, descriptive prose, I was left feeling as if I'd overlooked some vital details which would explain the final threads of the plot.  If the main character's alibi couldn't be verified, why did the police officer help him to escape legal custody?  Who was Andreas Corelli; a scoundrel, an angel or a figment of David's (the main character) imagination?  Why was David drawn into the 'game' anyway?  Did Andreas really bestow immortality upon David, or was this some mad illusion caused by the brain tumour which Andreas had supposedly cured?  David, after all, was described latterly as wearing the angel pin on his lapel, just as Andreas had, and letters allegedly from Andreas were shown to have been written in David's hand. This aside, it was a highly pleasurable r

“The first truth about awareness… is that the world out there is not really as we think it is. We think it is a world of objects and it is not… It’s not as solid and real as our perception has led us to believe, but it isn’t a mirage either. The world is not an illusion, as it has been said to be; it’s real on the one hand, and unreal on the other… We perceive. But what we perceive is not a fact…, because we learn what to perceive.” - Don Juan, from The Fire From Within by Carlos Castaneda. “T” ( Thomas Joseph Walton AKA West Cheshire Lad) used to talk about this subject at great length. He would describe the biological function of the human eye, and how it receives light through the iris which then hits the retina, and from there light is translated by the human brain into what we perceive as being exterior to that brain (and ourselves.) “T” would go on to say how quantum physics has long-since demonstrated that our perception of objects around us is flawed, in that every thing

 If you like children's books, then give  Ingo by Helen Dunmore a try. This story about mermaids off the Cornish coast was imaginative and thoughtful, and introduces the reader to two modern-day children who are grieving for their father. The mermaids may be enchanting but can they be trusted? I can’t wait to read the second in the new series. Also good was   North Child   by Edith Pattou , which has elements of Beauty and the Beast and The Snow Queen. The heroine comes from a farming family who’ve run into hard times. She is pushed into a dangerous and scary life with a talking polar bear - but who is the polite stranger who sleeps beside her each night? Several members of Riverside Writers enjoy reading children’s literature. They admit that having kids or grandkids is a great excuse to indulge in the latest stories. I have no such excuse - but who cares! On Monday, May 24th, local author and playwright Marc Gee will be giving a public talk about his writing career and ne

Yaay, we have sunshine! This means that my two little dogs are gazing at me with their best pleading expressions, which roughly translate into English as, “Walkies! Walkieeees!! Waaalkieeeeees!!!!!” Ok, ok; I get the message, pooches. Un momento, si? As may be guessed, the dusty language CD has been dusted down and (Attempt to) Learn A New Language proceeds (as poorly as before, actually) despite me being rather busy posting adverts for Richard’s studio across every reachable corner of our cyber-realm. After Easter, his tattoo studio will be open six days a week - Monday to Saturday, 11am - 5pm approx. This week, he tattooed a lady who was in her seventies. She wanted roses flowing over her breast and shoulder, and she intends to have the design extended so it will continue down her arm. Chris brought in his new acoustic bas guitar and sat down playing that - and if you visit the studio today you’ll hear Chris and Lee jamming on their guitars together. Lee’s performed in folk

Our hallway is blocked by two huge boxes containing the new chicken house. The blurb insists it will take between ten and fifteen minutes to convert these two flat-packs into the house and run but having experienced the joys of self-assembly before, I remain sceptical. The chicken house which Mum gave me is made from re-used wood and isn’t as watertight as it needs to be. It soaks up water from beneath, which is very bad for the birds’ health. Plus we wanted to give them a bigger run anyway. So I scoured the internet and found something much better. All I have to do now is assemble it then we can have our hall back and Hattie and Joyce can move house (again!) I’m just back from a trip into the village. There’s an icy wind coming off the sea today but it’s pleasant once you get walking. I’d tackle the flat-packs now but the light will be fading soon, and so instead I’ll update this blog. So what’s new? Well, I’ve now completed the first draft of Bethany Rose , and am happy with