Early Coloured Panel
Night Witch Issue #2
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| Some people like to run with the wolves.... |
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| While others prefer a nice lie in. |
Friday, 26 February 2016
Friday, 19 February 2016
Monday, 15 February 2016
Useful Sites For Writers - MAPCO
MAPCO
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| When you need to know which road your highwayman is working. |
This site has a large collection of old maps online. Unlike other map images these are scaled large enough to be useful for a jobbing author if they want to know whether their character turns left or right to get where they want to go.
It's mostly London with some British regional maps and some of Australia (lots of Sydney) and I have a horrible feeling the site might be dead or in hiatus - so use it while you can and see if you can donate something if it proves useful.
So if you're writing steampunk from your college dorm in UC Berkeley or curious about how old the street you live on might be - this site is for you.
Friday, 12 February 2016
Friday, 5 February 2016
Friday Comic Tease
Early Coloured and Lettered Panels
Night Witch Issue #1
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| Mы очень рады что вы смогли присоединится к нам |
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| Another glorious day - for SCIENCE! |
Monday, 1 February 2016
Some Useful Sites For Writers - Ngram
Google Ngram Viewer
Unbelievably useful tool for checking whether certain words are anachronistic when writing historical sequences. Seriously between this site and Wikipedia no script writer has any excuse for peppering their dialogue with words and concepts that belong to the modern age. I'm looking at you Sleepy Hollow!
Essentially it's a tool for discovering word frequency amongst a corpus of 5 million books, searches can be differentiated by language and time period. If you need to know whether your 18th Century British emigre uses the word phrase 'learning curve' in casual conversation than this is the tool for you.
Google have wasted no money on making this site user friendly but once you've mastered the joys of late 80s Boolean search commands you'll never look back.
An important caveat is that words can change their meaning over time - thus in the early 18th Century the word 'projector' referred to people that promoted financial or industrial schemes. It's technological meaning doesn't arrive until later.
Friday, 29 January 2016
Friday, 22 January 2016
Wednesday, 20 January 2016
Books! Gentleman Jole And The Red Queen
By Lois McMaster Bujold
I love the books of Lois McMaster Bujold, especially Vorkosigan saga, which I usually end up buying as a hardback, an eBook and an audible.
I already have the eARC downloaded, which I paid for I might add, so I doubt this one will be any different.
This one is out officially in February 2016 - now if you don't mind I've got a bit of reading to do.
Monday, 18 January 2016
Friday, 15 January 2016
Wednesday, 13 January 2016
Books! In The Cold Dark Ground
Books! Is a new posting series in which I periodically draw attention to a book that's about to be released(1) that I'm really excited about. These are books I'm planning to spend my own cash on but I haven't read so they're not reviews.
In The Cold Dark Ground
By Stuart MacBride
Stuart MacBride stands above all other tartan noir writers for me because while his thrillers are as gripping, gruesome and terrifying as his compatriots they're also laugh out loud funny. Frequently all of the above at the same time.
According to amazon it's out on January 14th - I've got my pre-order in.
(1) Or books that I missed the release of and are only just catching up on.
Friday, 8 January 2016
Monday, 4 January 2016
Radio Three
Teenaged Life on Radio Three
Teenaged life is not something I routinely associated with BBC Radio Three (the BBCs classical and jazz channel) and so it is fitting they have called in to ancient brothers to discuss the subject. True this may have something to do with my brothers new book about our family's early years.
Called Party Animals: My Family and Other Communists available from all good bookshops and on Amazon etc. I enjoyed it particularly because it filled in a lot of gaps in my family knowledge.
Here is an uncharacteristically pompous review by Alexei Sayle who I remember watching (before he was famous) at Party socials doing a hilarious routine about growing up communist.
Anyway David shall be plugging his book I shall be plugging David and the other guests will probably be wondering why we were invited.When: Tuesday 5th January at 22:00
Where: BBC Radio Three
Plus, Matthew Sweet
considers the social history of those difficult years talking to the
neuroscientist Iroise Dumontheil of UCL and musician Viv Albertine and
comparing different decades of teenage life. And Simon Stephens talks
about the revival of his play Herons which explores the impact of gang
bullying on a 14 year old boy.
Will be available on the iPlayer just as soon as they trim out all my swearing.
Monday, 21 December 2015
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