Category: Books & Fiction
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Why Regional Food Culture Matters in Your Fiction
Food, glorious, food. Who doesn’t like it? We need to eat to survive but there is so much more to food than mere sustenance. I started writing about food on this blog when researching for my Romans vs Aliens novel (preliminary title: Children of Phobetor). The article on Roman street food remains rather popular. I…
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Science Fiction’s Sub-Genres in a Nutshell (Part 1)
To the uninitiated, science fiction is about space battles and exploring planets full of strange and wonderful creatures. Yet science fiction has never “just” been about spaceships and alien planets. That is just one subgenre of our weird and wonderful genre. There are many more and you might be surprised at some books and films…
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Book Review: Bioshock Rapture by John Shirley
Having recently replayed all of the Bioshock games (including the DLCs I never played before), Amazon recommended me this – an official novelisation of the early years of the city where the first two games (and both DLCs) are based. I’ve generally been mistrusting of this type of book, feeling they often lack the depth…
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Book Review: The Ruins By Scott Smith
I saw this film maybe six or seven years ago and was aware it was based on a book. The film was just ok, but I enjoyed it enough to read the book. There are several key differences between this and the film, one of which I prefer in the film. For the most part…
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Stephen King’s IT’s Most Controversial Scene
SPOILERS: IF YOU HAVE NOT READ IT AND DO NOT WISH IT SPOILT, PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS POST! There is one scene from Stephen King’s most famous book IT (I reviewed yesterday) that appears to be the major talking point of the book even now decades later. The scene has divided audiences between those who…
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Book Review: IT By Stephen King
I first read this book when I was about 13 but didn’t really get it at the time. Now I am in my 40s, I can look back with hindsight and admit that I didn’t get it. But that’s ok. Not everybody gets Stephen King all of the time, not even his long term fans.…
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A Sense of Place in Your Writing: My Cornish Travels
I’ve just got back from a mini break “staycation” with my girlfriend. It was a much needed break for both of us. I’ve had a lot of work on the last few months as mentioned in previous posts and we’ve barely had time to breath until relatively recently. The one thing we were determined to…
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Character Feature: Edward Kenway
Seeing a debate about the Kenway family on an Assassin’s Creed video recently, has made me sit down and really think about why I think the protagonist of Black Flag is the best one since Ezio and, perhaps, comes dangerously close to toppling the Italian as the series defining character.
MG Mason Creative 