December 2012 archive

Taking a Blog Break

Currently I’m flat out. The raspberries have gone slightly mad so I’m out there picking first thing in the morning and again in late afternoon most days. Short story plots have been breeding like rabbits, and I’ve written three new stories in the past week with another three to go which I hope to clear …

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A Surplus of Tea Caddies

It forcibly occurred to me the other week just how often surplus items are another person’s treasure. Back in 1978 I purchased my first home. It was a two-bedroomed cottage a block from the local beach and as partt of the purchase deal it was partly furnished. I moved in and discovered that three of …

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HAVE YOU OVERLOOKED – THE DREAM PARK trio?

Dream Park- 1981 The Barsoom Project- 1989 and Dream Park:The Voodoo Game 1991. By Larry Niven and Steven Barnes. Back in 1981 a brilliant book appeared. Dream Park was set decades into the future (the 2050s) when technology had enabled the creation of real-life role-playing games. It was a wish-fulfillment epic, because back then we …

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ANY FOOL CAN BE A PIG FARMER by James Robertson.

 Hardcover published 1975. Farming Press Ltd. (UK) A friend very kindly bought this book as a gift for me since she had an amazon account and I didn’t. I wanted it because a) it was the first in the series, and b) I already owned two of the author’s later books and they made me …

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The Rural Delivery

My rural delivery people, Cath and Denis, are wonderful. They deliver mail, groceries, hen food, odd items from Mitre 10, and never fail to deliver me a Christmas card personally from them to me. But the best thing is that they aren’t bothered by my gaggle. I have five geese, that is, three girls, plus …

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World Ends On December The 21st – not here it doesn’t.

There’s been a fair amount of natter recently about the world ending on December 21 according to The Mayan Prophecy. Reading some of the stuff about it I gather that it’s unlikely; that this wasn’t actually a prophecy, that it’s more likely they just did the long cycle and left it at that because to …

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Revising

Back in late October I sold a standalone Young Adult book entitled Flying Free. The publisher seems to have decided to bring it out very promptly because initial revision arrived only a couple of weeks back. I’ve done that, returned it and am now waiting for possible further edits. But if both sides continue at …

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Making faces

I came back from a Christmas luncheon yesterday to find Ellie-Mae the sheep standing by the fence staring at the entire gaggle – who were staring back, shrieking abuse, and looking as if they were about to attack. I halted to watch, and after a couple more screams at Ellie they wandered off. I haven’t …

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The Joke That Wasn’t.

There seems to be a perception that practical jokes and prank phone calls are funny. This is two-sided. To the perpetrator they are hilarious, they may be regarded as funny for bystanders, but for those who are the butt of such events, no matter how much they they may appear to be entertained by their …

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THE CASSANDRA PROJECT by Jack McDevitt and Mike Resnick

hardcover, Ace, November 2012, I love Jack McDevitt’s books, so I grabbed the chance of reading this one although I wasn’t initially certain I’d like it. It is a departure from his ‘SF, well into the future” novels, and seemed to be along the lines of a conspiracy theory-type plot. However the mail arrived in …

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