It was a month of ups. It was a month of downs. It was a time for looking forward and a time for looking back. I was delighted that my youngest daughter has taken up her place in the UK, where her two sisters already study and work. But it leaves the house rather empty …
The 8 Rules of Writing Short Fiction
Some interesting thoughts from Kurt Vonnegut...
Dysprosium : SciFi Convention
Dysprosium was the 66th annual UK SciFi Convention, held at Easter 2015. (Yes, I'm still playing "catch-up".) Overview Weird and wacky, thoughtful and intelligent, and a Real Ale bar permanently packed-out with hobbits. Well, not real hobbits, but hairy folk wearing homespun and sandals. (For my non-UK readers, Real Ales are traditional beers produced by smaller breweries with …
Summer Thoughts
The longest day of 2015 is already history to my dear readers in the Northern Hemisphere (21st June 2015 at 16:38 GMT, in case you missed it). Summer is starting to ebb away as the days grow shorter. Start buying your winter clothes. (Except in the Southern Hemisphere, where the days are growing longer - …
Press Release: The Future Is Short Vol 2
A new anthology that contains two of my own stories... THE FUTURE IS SHORT: SCIENCE FICTION IN A FLASH, Volume 2 Now Published ISBN: 9 781514 151518 (trade paperback) Published June 3, 2015 E-book published June 11, 2015 Thirty-six authors took a leap of faith in January 2015 to contribute their stories to The Future …
Popularity
Great news! According to the reputable Alexa ranking system today, my blog was the 814th most accessed site from Luxembourg. So out of the teemingly uncountable* domains on the planet, a few sites like Amazon and YouTube are more popular. (Okay, those two and 811 mega-corporations and a few porn sites.) So, villmols merci, Letzebuerg. My …
To Be Correct…
I need some help - with political correctness. As a Starter, Here's a Joke A newly-qualified doctor from a highly privileged background sets up a practice in a poor area. An elderly, working-class female patient arrives and explains she has "problems with my...". Embarrassment overcomes her and she leans forward. "Down there," she whispers. He begins …
Catching Up
I've not posted for a while. Today I'm catching-up with a miscellany of stuff, good and bad. I spent a week in the UK visiting my mother and returned depressed at the toll late-stage Alzheimer's is having on that wonderful woman. Then I heard that my 11 year old nephew had succumbed to cancer. It …
Writing Fakes
In London, the Dulwich Picture Gallery (est. 1817) is running a competition. It claims to be displaying 269 genuine paintings by such Masters as Rembrandt, Rubens, Poussin... It is also displaying one known fake painting, commissioned by the Gallery itself. The game is to spot which is the fake. One has to assume that the …
Writing In Freefall?
The Legend NASA invested millions of dollars developing a ball-point pen that would work in micro-gravity. The ink flows only if there is sufficient gravity pulling it towards the tip. To test this, try writing on your ceiling and see how many pages of "War and Peace" you manage. The Russians solved this …
Andy McKell, Speculative Fiction Author 
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