When I first started my writing journey two years ago (or ten years ago, depending on how you count it), I thought it was a simple case of coming up with a vague plot and writing down the vivid scenes that popped into my head. Of course, after I actually made a start I realised there was a lot more to it than that, especially when it came to worldbuilding. So here’s five things I’ve learned along the way:

So I… Guess I like spiders now? #TeamPortia. Children of Time is the Arthur C Clarke award-winning science fiction novel from Adrian Tchaikovsky. I first heard about Adrian on Twitter and I knew instantly that I had to put his SF work on my TBR. As I’ve mentioned a few times before on this blog, I wasn’t particularly well read in SF when I started writing and I’ve spent the better part of the past year rectifying that, going from some of the classics of the genre to the modern day.

Angela works as a secretary at a solicitor’s firm in London, but her true passion is for poetry. She studied English Literature at university where she was also a member of her campus table-top RPG society…

After having been asked by absolutely no-one, I thought I’d share a list of all the books I’ve got on my TBR. And because I have taken it upon myself to post up a review for every book I read, you can consider this a kind of sneak-peek at the reviews you can look forward to in the future on this blog, plus get an idea of the kind of books that have captured my interest…

Thank you to everyone who took part in my recent giveaway which will see five Advance Reader Copies of my novel, From the Grave of the Gods, in the hands of the winners, who were chosen randomly from those who entered, and have now been notified…

I think The Farthest Shore is my Earthsea book so far. It certainly secures Le Guin’s place in my heart as my favourite author of all time, and I am so glad that I discovered her writing, even if belatedly. The Farthest Shore rounds out the YA trilogy of Earthsea, bringing the story of Ged to a soft close…

Attention friends! I’m really excited about the upcoming release of From the Grave of the Gods on 1st November, and for those of you who have read its companion novella, The Re-Emergence, I’m sure you know how I feel. So as a sort-of countdown to release, I’ve decided to kick things off with an awesome giveaway!

Right, first things first, I know this author personally - she’s a family member. So, feel free to take what I say with a pinch of salt or disregard entirely if you feel it’s inappropriate of me to review it. At the same time, I really want to support what this author is doing and get some more eyes on her work - plus my brain won’t allow me to not review every book I read anymore. I will be giving an honest review, however, and after having read Blanche Amour, I’m pretty confident that I would come to the same conclusions about it even if I didn’t know Charlotte, simply based on the type of reader I am. So let’s get into it.

I’ll be honest: before joining the Twitter writing community, I had not heard of Gareth L. Powell. But as soon as I announced myself as a writer on the platform and started using the hashtags, Gareth was there, following me because he’s awesome and follows all writers. Though my attention was drawn by his humourously titled Ack-Ack Macaque series…

The time has finally come… From the Grave of the Gods, the first full-length novel in The Augment Saga and follow-up to companion novella, The Re-Emergence, is finally being released to the world on 1st November 2021! What’s more, you can use the links to pre-order the novel right now.

A beautifully-written fantasy adventure with steampunk elements from SJ Hull. I have to admit I was very excited when I learned that SJ Hull had released his debut novel. We went to university together, and though that was over ten years ago now, even back then I knew he was very interested in the fantasy genre, and it didn’t surprise me in the slightest that he’d written his own…

As a sci-fi fan, you’d probably expect that I had already read Frank Herbert’s Dune a long time ago. Sadly that’s not the case. It’s yet another of those books I strangely missed. Knowing this, and knowing that Denis Villeneuve’s movie adaptation was on the horizon, it was one of the first books I had in my sights when I decided to get back into reading…

The day has finally come, and I couldn’t be more excited. And so here it is, my first ever book launch! I am pleased to announce that my debut space-opera novella, The Re-Emergence, is now available for purchase from Amazon in ebook and paperback formats.

With only a week to go until the release of my debut science-fiction novella, The Re-Emergence, I thought the time was right for a Meet the Characters post all about the characters in the book.

Coming not directly after A Wizard of Earthsea, but after Le Guin found success in the science-fiction genre with The Left Hand of Darkness, this second book in the Earthsea Cycle was apparently an unintended sequel.

Last Friday, my fully edited manuscript for From the Grave of the Gods was returned to me covered in red. What’s more, it had been split into four documents and my editor - the wonderful Charlie Wilson of Landmark Editorial - also provided me with a style sheet for reference.

Major Zhu is a minor character in From the Grave of the Gods, and pilot of the Magnum Opus.

Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards for science-fiction, and the book which established Le Guin as a major player in the genre, The Left Hand of Darkness is a truly fascinating read. The book has strong feminist themes and explores the concept of androgyny against the backdrop of an alien first-contact scenario…

This being the very first time I’ve read Asimov’s work for myself, I had absolutely no idea what to expect going in. Isaac Asimov is one of the heavyweights of science-fiction; a pioneer for many of the ideas and concepts that we take for granted in the genre today…

The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills… One of my beta readers for From the Grave of the Gods asked me one day whether I had read the Wheel of Time series. Of course, at that point I had barely heard of it, but he recommended it highly. I also started hearing great things about it from Booktubers such as Daniel Greene. I was intrigued, so I thought I would see what all the fuss was about...