boreders

Category: Books

  • Reading Is Fun

    Reading about Sir Francis Walsingham and the shadowy war of espionage and counter-intelligence in the Court of Queen Elizabeth has been entertaining me on multiple levels. I’m covering several bases here – which is nice. Firstly, it’s my period of choice. I never consciously made a decision to solely focus on one period, but somehow…

  • Eleven Doctors, Eleven Stories

    Reading Eleven Doctors, Eleven Stories has been an interesting experience. Over the course of last year, these short stories got released as e-books, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Doctor Who series. Here, they’re collected in a chunky volume, wrapped in a silvery cover. Physically, it represents an imposing read. I have read…

  • A New Leaf Turned

    I impressed myself this year. I read 28 books. Yes, some were a little short, but some were quite long. I also abortively started some, like Will Self’s short stories, and only got halfway… that more than a 100 pages uncatalogued against my target. Time spent, time lost. With two days of 2011 to go…

  • Transition: A Brief Review

    Transition by Iain M. Banks My rating: 4 of 5 stars The Concern engage in philanthropic activities spanning the whole of the multiverse, or so they would claim to their own people, using the powers of those capable of Transitioning between the many worlds to bring order out of chaos. Like some sort of dimensional…

  • Planning and Passing

    I have been tackling my editing duties with a determination of purpose rarely seen round my way. As I planned to have writing done by the end of December, I now have editing targeted for the close of play this weekend. Assuming all goes well with the publishers, we might have a green light for…

  • Booked Up

    Christmas provides a wealth of reading material this year, as ever. I actually like a good book, so it helps. I got a book of 20th century poetry, an almanac of historic customs, a book on Chris Morris, and one on horrible jobs through history. All excellent stuff, now piled by my bed, with a…

  • Beggars – Day Fifteen

    If I consider my working velocity as 1,400 words a day, it might work. In 10 days time, I’ll have 17,800 words done – and I’m thinking that’ll hit the mark as a ‘shitty’ first draft. I had high hopes two weeks ago. Two weeks later, my velocity has slipped from a less than ideal…

  • Beggars – Day Eight

    I gritted my teeth for much of the weekend, as despite the best of plans I failed to write a single letter for my game supplement. Of course, I didn’t waste the time either. I did a lot of family-related stuff, like helping with the Christmas Tree (hefting the box from the attic and unpacking/hanging…

  • Beggars – Day One

    I aimed to write a lot about beggars this weekend for Maelstrom. I managed a little, but not a lot. I started with slightly over a thousands words already written – and got up early on Saturday to get house stuff and chores out of the way. I did the same on Sunday, squeezing in…