Category: Books

    • Saturday, 30th May 2026

      ,

      Greetings from the edge, A day late..? Yes, a dollar short..? Also yes. However; The weather persists, very hot. You know it’s hot when you go to pee and pass steam. I have been plugging away at my first novella, The Echo Man, chiselling away a word at a time. I remember reading that Michelangelo…

    • Step 12: Appeal directly to machine spirits.

      ,

      Greetings from the edge, One of the peculiar side effects of working from the broom cupboard is that during winter, between my body heat and the NASA-like array of monitors and assorted electronic nonsense around me, it becomes wonderfully warm and cosy. In a heat wave, however, those exact same factors transform it into something…

    • Wednesday, 20th May 2026

      , ,

      Greetings from the edge, Quick update from here in the broom cupboard. I got an email the other day asking me to apply for a job opening at a local-ish library. It’s only part-time, so I’ll still have time to write, and with the commute I’ll probably even get more audiobook time out of it.…

    • Ink, Pixels & Narrators

      Greetings from the edge, I’m a bibliophile. A die-hard, hardback, leatherbound devotee of the written word. I like books of all shapes and sizes and read across a wide range of genres, although I am yet to venture into family sagas. One day perhaps. When the Kindle first appeared, I carried that sleek little slab…

    • The 5-Minute Idea Test: Is This Worth Writing?

      ,

      Greetings from the edge, Every writer eventually gets asked the same question. Not the one about when you’re going to pay the bill, sir, but the other one: where do your ideas come from? There’s a well-worn trope about “the muse.” Stephen King famously describes his as a gruff, middle-aged man who smokes, drinks bourbon,…

    • The Word for Empire is Violence

      Greetings from the edge. I finished The Word for World Is Forest, and I have to say, it is the most anti-colonial and specifically anti-Vietnam War book I have ever read. It is one of the most openly political things Ursula K. Le Guin ever wrote. Not quite fat enough to qualify as a novel,…

    • An Antidote to Order Part 2

      Greetings from the edge, Yesterday, I began a gentle critique of 12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson, picking apart a handful of ideas that sound solid on the surface but wobble when you lean on them. Today, we’re heading back into the lobster pot to deal with the remaining six rules, and to see…

    • An Antidote to Order Part 1

      Greetings from the edge, I make no secret of the fact that I’ve been wrestling with my mental health for a while now. For further reading, see… well, anything I’ve written. At my lowest ebb, a few years ago, I picked up 12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson. I can safely say it changed…