Boudica Marginalia

  • Editing and losing the sense of drama

    I’ve been working on my novel today (applause, applause) and generated some new material. The scene I was writing is quite dramatic and it reminded me of something that’s been lurking in the back of my head. As I’ve been editing my novel, I’ve been losing the sense of impact. There are some shocking moments…

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  • Privacy

    I now have a facebook profile, not that there’s anything on it. I’m feeling very wary about putting any personal information out there and have set my profile up so no-one can find it. Hee. It has me wondering about privacy. I’ve had a LinkedIn account for ages and I love it for work. It…

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  • It’s been a while

    Haven’t posted here in a while. I’ve been away (lovely weekend in Portsmouth), been sick, and just been busy. Consequently I’m behind in my reviewing, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been doing other writing related activities. I’ve joined Critters Writers’ Workshop and I’ve done one critique and uploaded no stories. I’ve been working on…

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  • Electric Spec’s first page critique game is back!

    The rules of the first page critique game are in detail on the Electric Spec blog, and it basically boils down to ‘send in the first 200 words (ish) of a story that you want some feedback on and they’ll comment publically on their blog’. The comment is always erudite and helpful and I shall…

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  • Posting stories for free

    I was a bit busy over the weekend so I just pasted a story into a post and let that be it. I wanted to offer some explanation and to have it in a separate page of it’s own, but I had a train to catch. At some point I’ll have a play around with…

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  • Hell

    I followed Tanya across the crowded cafe to the table she’d spotted. A plastic pot of chicken salad and a bottle of sparkling water rolled around on my fake wooden tray. It wasn’t so much about being healthy as it was about wanting an empty stomach later. “So, what’s the plan for tonight?” I said…

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  • Crossed Genres, Issue 4

    Issue 4 of Crossed Genres mixes scifi/fantasy with crime. I was looking forward to this as I’ve been known to dabble in the fantasy thriller. The first story is amazing. The Near-Sighted Sentinel by Adam King is the tale of a superhero dealing with ageing and failure. The Sentinel has to face loss of status…

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  • The new issue of Electric Spec is out

    I’ve just seen the announcement on the Electric Spec blog that Volume 4, Issue 2 is out. And so is Issue 8 of Crossed Genres. Hopefully I’ll get around to reading them soon.

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  • Best Served Cold – or with a nice cup of tea and a comfy sofa

    Because once picked up, it’s quite hard to put down again. Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie arrived last night and threw all my (admittedly vague) plans for doing something constructive into disarray. I very much enjoyed The First Law trilogy. It wouldn’t be going too far to say that it restored my faith in…

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  • Hub, Issue 89

    Hub again. I’m a little behind, but only by a week now. Issue 89 provides Storm CHASER by Craig Pirrall. I liked this. Love the idea of a storm in a bottle and I’d have coughed up the forty bucks. The characters are very vivid for such a short piece. Again, I was disappointed that…

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