published by Whortleberry Press, January 2012. trade-paperback. Reviewed by Steve Johnson. This is a nice little book, well presented, attractive cover, competently edited, and with mostly well-chosen stories. A couple were weak, notably The Bouquet, which was more a slice-of-life than a real story (remember beginning, middle, end, actual plot?) slightly clumsy, and rather too …
January 2012 archive
Two Sales
A week that was pleasant enough for this writer. One story rejected – it appeared to be more a case of they didn’t like my style (because they liked the story) but it was clear that if I rewrote the work and returned it they’d have wanted it nearly halved, and written in a leaner, …
Author Copy is two for one
I’m getting two blog posts for the price of one with this entry. My latest author copy arrived in mid-January. A very nicely presented copy of Strange Valentine, the newest anthology from Whortleberry Press, and in which I have a short story. The anthology has a good lineup of work, amongst which I was pleased …
That we can make some awful mistakes at times.
I was talking with a friend a while back and she mentioned how easy it was to mishear something. (That’s true, for years and years I misheard the weather forecast as “Rogue Snowfall Warnings’. It was about twenty years before I realized that what they were telling you about was actually “road snowfall warningâ€.) But …
Sticking Point
The geese’s gosling got into trouble. I’d been out in the morning checking what Fawn Girl was doing in the hen house, (she’s gone broody again on a clutch of eggs – not all hers – as I discovered.) I came back and left the gate open, the geese all squeezed under the gate that’s …
Deadfall by Lyndon Stacy
paperback, published Arrow Books in 2004. Reviewed by Lyn McConchie. Yes, I recently purchased this book full-price, but that was for a reason. Three months earlier I raided one of our charity shops and discovered two Lyndon Stacy softcover (tradepaperback) books for 50c each. At that price how can you lose? I bought both books, …
Thunder
No, not the weather, my Ocicat. And right now he is not pleased with me. Yesterday I fired up the computer to write a quick letter – remembered around 11am that before Christmas I’d been invited to submit a story to a new anthology edited by an old acquaintance, and checked the details. Hmmm, interesting. …
Farming Weather
The major newspaper published about an hour away from Farside keeps suggesting that local farmers could be in for a drought. This goes to show just how many micro-climates we have in New Zealand. A drought… it’s possible. But considering that the last three months here have seen the following precipitation – October 163 mls, …
HAVE YOU OVERLOOKED – JOHN CHRISTOPHER?
John Christopher (real name Christopher Samuel Youd) was born in Lancashire on April 16th 1922. His surname is of Dutch Origin. Writing as John Christopher, the British author is best known for his SF (adult and YA) novels which have won a number of awards. For completists – Youd has written under his own name, …
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Water Woes
22 January 2012
Yes, it’s the geese again. Last week I walked past their water trough and noticed to my surprise that it was only half full. That was peculiar, it’s been doing little but rain several days each week for months, and the down-pipe from the woodshed roof feeds directly into their trough. I investigated, to find …
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