I’ve been thinking about the sudden surge to self-publishing and vanity publishing and the interest I’ve recently seen in various blogs and other places.
Being a suspicious soul, I started to think about why this should be. Not all improvements come because the time has come and it’s right for them. Sometimes the situation is carefully [...]

Just so you know, I’m writing this as a reader and a writer. Both halves, stuck together to make a whole. Not that that happens very often. It’s hard to keep the two parts separate when you read so much, hard to not let what you read bleed into what you write. I try to [...]

I’ve been incognito of late.  I haven’t talked to you good folks in a while so I crawled out of my hole to have a whine and whinge, and to see how many of you are in the same situation. It’s the start of a new year – a year I know will have a [...]

We’ve all been there, haven’t we?  We want to read. We need to read.  But nothing catches our attention.  We start one book and put it aside and then start a different book, thinking maybe a genre change might help, and put it aside.  Repeat as necessary until there is a stack of books, each [...]

It’s the time of year and this is short, because I could go on and on, but I don’t need to.
I live in Britain, in a small, unremarkable town. When I go into town to do some shopping I pass a cottage where Oliver Cromwell lodged on his way to one of the Civil War [...]

Several bloggers have answered comments on the AAR forums about blogging recently. In doing so, some have noticed a recent snippiness and touchiness in the reading community, from readers and from writers. I was hanging around at Wendy’s blog recently, something I do a lot, and she’s noticed something similar, too. Mrs. Giggles has spotted [...]

So here’s the deal with all this review blog stuff.  The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has decided that blogs and other similar opinion websites should disclose when a reviewed item has been supplied by the manufacturer/vendor/seller/etc., or when a manufacturer/vendor/etc. has paid for said review.  A “full disclosure” kind of thing. 

It should come as no surprise to any of you that I am a fan of science-fiction.  I love it in all mediums – books, movies, television, manga, graphic novels, and good ol’ comic books.  It’s all good to me. Love Heinlein, Bradbury, LeGuin, Asimov, Herbert, Zelazny, etc.  And lately, I am finding sci-fi romances [...]

Disclaimer – I’m British, so I don’t think the FTC rules apply to me, but just in case – the vast majority of the books I review I’ve bought for myself. Because something attracted me to it, and because I wanted to enjoy the experience. So I have a vested interest in any book I [...]

You might have noticed a slight absence here. Then again, you might not, why should you? But with all this blethering about writers and writing, and the endless push, push, push for a publisher, I thought I’d say something about writing. Specifically why I write, because I can’t speak for anyone else. 

Recently I read on a list that history is all a matter of opinion, not of specific facts, so I thought it was worth revisiting the historical romance, and the knotty topic of accuracy. Does it add to a romance, or take away from it?  [Gwen ed.: read more about the Ducks' views on historical [...]

Besides it being a chance for me to catch up with my online buds, I enjoy the annual RWA conference because it gives me a chance to put my ear to the nearest wall and catch the latest buzz. This year I once again roomed with KristieJ from Ramblings On Romance. Kristie has [...]

I have a heap of books, and I was interested to see who was going to win the RITAs. I’ll leave the Golden Heart out of it, since I’ve had no opportunity to read any of them. 

For those of you who know what I write, it won’t be a surprise to know that I like my books sexy. But it’s not essential.

I know a number of authors have playlists for their books, or ones that they listen to while writing books or certain scenes. This got me to thinking – not so much about what inspires an author, as… what songs I thought would be great for certain heroines. A number of very kind individuals also [...]