Kate Wilhelm has been a writer since 1956, and after having had more than 30 novels published, (see her Amazon Author Page ) she has now embraced self-publishing and digital self-publishing in response to a long series of unsatisfactory publishing contracts.  With the help of relatives, she has now set up Infinity Box Press to re-release her back catalogue. It surely says a lot about the current situation in traditional publishing when a writer of this lady's experience and stature rejects a familiar route in preference for indie self-publishing.  Good for her!  I wish her well. Well, the July ebook bargains promo on Smashwords is over now.  Throughout the month of July I offered two ebooks free, and it was interesting to see that Spanish Jones was chosen by far more people than The Karens .  Maybe people don't expect me to have penned a sci-fi story?  The whole genre pigeon-holing issue leaves me a bit puzzled.  Ok, so I mostly write urban fantasy or dark urban fantasy -

Joyce Grenfell AKA Chuckzilla 4th August 2012 approx. 6 years old Joyce Grenfell and Hattie Jacques in younger days   

Azalea in flower in Stapledon Woods on Caldy Hill I've got into the habit of incorrectly referring to the woodland covering Caldy Hill as Caldy Woods, when it's actually called Stapledon Woods - named after the sci-fi writer William Olaf Stapledon.  I've only just learned this!  I knew he'd been born in Wallasey and lived in Wirral somewhere, but to find that the very woods where my fictional "last prince of the Caldy fae" AKA the Peacock King lives.  (How can he be a prince and a king at the same time?  It's a long story...) I find this bit of synchronicity really exciting.   It was Olaf's books which first introduced me to sci-fi when I was in my very early teens.  I read Odd John, and went on from there.  And here we are, with me placing some of my stories in the very woods named after him! See my photos of Stapledon Woods here .    

Jeannie Faulkner Barber writes crime and suspense novels, including Taste of Fire and  Scent of double Deception.   She is the co-author of a new fantasy novel, Destiny Never Sleeps , which is due out in 2012. Learn more about Jeannie's work in this interview with me here.   

A yellow swallow-tailed moth rests on a leaf in our bathroom. The same plant - a variety of Rhipsalidopsis - in flower. One of the things I love about living here on the Wirral is the variety of wildlife.  As I type this, there's a gorgeous yellow swallow-tailed moth sitting on one of the plants upstairs, as seen in the photo above.  The photo doesn't quite catch the moth's colour which is a distinct pale lemon-yellow, whereas the photo has bleached out much of the colour, making it look more of a chalky white.  Its wing span measures 2".  The garden outside attracts a large variety of moths - which is as well, as the bats have to eat something!  It might look romantic to us, as we enjoy an evening cuppa while sitting on the patio (when it's not raining!!), but there are life-and-death battles unfolding overhead.  The moths are trying to eat pollen to live, and the bats are trying to eat moths so they can live.  Such is nature, red in fang and proboscis. Tomorr

 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

Austin S. Camacho is the author of five novels in the Hannibal Jones Mystery Series and two in the Stark and O’Brien adventure series. His short stories have been featured in four anthologies from Wolfmont Press and two others, and he is featured in the Edgar nominated African American Mystery Writers: A Historical and Thematic Study by Frankie Y. Bailey. After thirteen years as a soldier, Austin continued writing military news for the Defense Department, then he continued as on air anchor for the American Forces Information Service. Today he does public affairs work for the DoD agency. Discover more about Austin Camacho here .   

Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali was born in Con­necti­cut, America, where she attended the Uni­ver­sity of Con­necti­cut.  Khaalidah works as an oncol­ogy nurse, and is also the author of An Unproductive Woman. This novel which tells the story of a husband who, in the hope of producing a son, takes a second then a third wife, as is permitted according to the Moslem religion.  Learn more about the author in this interview .   

I had to share news of this discovery - a scientist has found hidden portals which open and close seemingly at random several times each day, which link the earth and the sun.  Read about it here .   

Emily and her current favourite toy.  Note its missing nose. Emily really hates being the only dog in the house.  We had hoped she would have become used to it by now, following Ygraine's death, but that hasn't happened despite extra cuddles and heaps of new toys.  She was starting to worry us.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with her physical health but she is depressed.  All her life, she's been around other dogs.    So Richard suggested we look around for a rescue dog.  A brief internet search produced a whole army of Staffordshire Terriers, Bulldogs, Mastiffs and similar dogs needing homes, but neither of us like them.  We wanted a small, lively, good-natured dog who would get along well with Emily, plus our cat Jazzy and the chickens.     So Richard and I, and Emily, travelled to the animals sanctuary.  I had spoken to a young woman there via telephone earlier, and she met us in person as soon as we arrived.  She asked if we had young children (no) or planned any (

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 .   

Get ready for some great ebook bargains! All through July, the first novel in my Artisan-Sorcerer series, Tamsin will be at 50% its usual cost. Many other ebook titles will be at 25% their usual cost, while Spanish Jones and The Karens will be entirely FREE! All you have to do is visit Smashwords  then make your choice. A wide variety of ereader formats are available, and if you don't have an ereader you can download a free one from Adobe or Amazon, or download an HTML file which you can read on your usual computer. And when you've done that and read your heart out, how about writing a few reviews on Smashwords, or on your blog or forum - or will you take part in this forthcoming competition? Competition Time! Are you artistic? Create a web banner or some fanart based on the Artisan-Sorcerer series! Entry fee = NONE! Prizes = FREE EBOOK copy of the forthcoming 3rd novel in the Artisan-Sorcerer series,  BETHANY ROSE, for every contributor!  Dea

Here is a preview of the cover for Bethany Rose .  It continues with the visual theme for the other two novels in the Artisan-Sorcerer series, this time using a flower from the Rosa mundi which grows in my garden. The flower was chosen for its symbolism, as with the images on the other book covers. 

The Faerie Pond on Caldy Hill In a recent blog post, Jennifer Rainey  included some photos of the Hocking Hills region in southeast Ohio, where she sets some of her fiction.  As most readers of my blog will already know, my fiction tends to be set locally to me, and one of the locations I use is Caldy Hill.  Why?  Well, it's a beautiful place, it's only a short walk from my home, it's peaceful and ancient, and the air is full of birdsong and the fragrances of heather and broom carried on salty breezes coming off the Dee estuary.  Jays, crows, wood pigeons, turtle doves, goldfinches, bullfinches and owls nest there.  There are rabbits, bats, foxes, lizards, adders and badgers.  There are benches perfect for meditating while gazing along the River Dee, over to Flintshire or out to sea. In my fiction, Caldy Hill is home to the notorious Caldy fae.  If you're expecting sugary-cute, tutu-wearing, small faeries probably clutching a sparkly wand, and who might offer you thr

Take a look at this well-made video which presents a large selection of ancient Mayan artifacts carved with images which, to 21st century interpretation, look like aliens. I don't place much credence on the 'aliens from outer space' theory, as the sheer practicalities of any species travelling for untold light years just to arrive here, create geometric designs in a few crop fields, or dismember a few cows or probe a few drunks' backsides is just too silly. If a species possessed the technology to travel rapidly from other planets, don't you think they'd have the sense to pick up a copy of Gray's Anatomy ? (It's even almost named for them...!) Inter-dimensional travel makes far more rational sense. If you assume you are aware of everything around you, watch this very short video  from an earlier blog post of mine.  So, (assuming you did watch the video!) if you miss that much going on in the dimension which we're all familiar with, then how

"Data gathered by the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society in 2007 revealed a median income for authors of just £4,000." There is an interesting and revealing survey here which looks at authors' experiences of publishers.  The above quote augments my recent blog post about most writers needing an alternative source of income other than writing. Organising finances can be tricky when income is erratic.  Amanda Clayman is a psychotherapist specialising in financial well-being, and here she talks about some of the traps that writers and artists often fall into. John Scalzi claims he has made an average of $100,000 from writing for the last decade (in an article written in 2008).  Read his financial advice for writers here .  The article has a strong American bias but the ideas are valid for writers of any country.  He, too, says that most writers need another source of income such as a second job or a partner who doesn't mind partially supporting the writer

Mad dog & English hen stay out of the mid-day sun. Standing around like a headless chicken. Summer has arrived.  How long it lasts, this being Britain, is another matter but for now the sun is blazing and the sky is pretending to be Mediterranean.  A mere two weeks ago I was glad of my winter coat as hail stones and biting winds howled down the mouth of the River Dee.  Today all the house windows and the French doors are thrown open and, as can be seen from the two photos above, the menagerie has been hiding from the heat of the day.  And these are just the pets I could find.  The other hens had vanished beneath shady shrubs, and our cat Jasper is nowhere to be seen.  Fear not, she'll return at 5.55pm sharp in time for food at 6pm.  She always does. Jasper is once again without a collar.  We no sooner buy her a new one and she contrives to lose it.  I told Richard that we might as well just tie a £5 note to a tree and save ourselves the bother of buying a new collar, placin