Category: Books & Fiction
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Exploring Class and Society in Carnival Row and Snowpiercer
NB: I know Snowpiercer season 2 is currently going up on Netflix so I’m going to limit discussion of it to season 1 alone. Carnival Row on Amazon Prime and Snowpiercer on Netflix are two vastly different TV shows. True, they have some big name actors (Jennifer Connolly and Sean Bean in Snowpiercer, and Orlando…
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Frank Herbert’s Dune: “Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind.”
Science fiction is often about technology, yet there are some fictional universes where some technologies we take for granted are taboo. Let’s take computers, for example. Religious dictats are as prevalent in one world as strictures against Muslims and Jews eating bacon are here, today, arguably even more enforced. That is the world of Frank…
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I Made Inauthentic Roman Honey Cake – My Excuse is “Research”
Anyone who knows me will know I am a big dessert person. Since 2015, I have made a Christmas Pudding every year without fail. I also occasionally feel the need to make a Spotted Dick or Jam Roly Poly. After watching the Fantastic Beasts Harry Potter prequel I made my most ambitious yet – Apple…
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Some 21st Century Character Archetypes
This first appeared in 2012. New version edited and updated. I read a lot of books and I watch a lot of films and TV series, typically in the evening to wind down from spending all day on the laptop working. I’ve identified several tropes of the modern age. I don’t know if any appear…
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Frankenstein is 200 Years Old: What is it About?
It’s considered the first ever proper modern science fiction novel. 200 years after it was first published, it still manages to wow audiences. It’s been reinvented more times than Madonna but a resurgence a few years ago means we are once again craving the timeless tale. It all began when Danny Boyle adapted it for…
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Feed a Writer AND an Artist: Buy Books New!
“Do you know how much it costs to pay an artist to design a custom cover for your book?” Was a question I recently asked of somebody in a book group. This was in response to how “cheap” self-published and indy book covers look, and that they “put readers off”. While readers are drawn to…
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The Themes in Stephen’s King’s “IT”
SPOILER ALERT: If you are unfamiliar with the book or have only seen the recently released film with no idea what is going to happen in Chapter 2, I suggest you look away now if you don’t want it spoilt. The latest film version released globally this weekend. I saw it on Friday afternoon. Largely,…
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Using Metafiction in your Writing
Metafiction is a form of metatheatre – it’s probably not a term you’ve come across all that often. However, it’s one of the oldest plot devices (usually used for comic effect) with roots in ancient Greek theatre. We still used it today and there was a great example of metafiction in last week’s episode of…
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Lorna Doone and the Sense of Place: Exmoor Coast
I’ve written about the importance of sense of place in fiction several times already. How you define your urban spaces, rural places and inspirational landscapes can create a vivid image in the mind of the reader. It can really help to absorb the reader into the book. I am presently reading Lorna Doone – a…
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