Author Archives: James - Page 10
Emilie Knight – Author Interview
Knight with the hardback of Dagger and Scythe (photo: Emilie Knight) This week's post is an Author Interview with Emilie Knight, her new book Dagger and Scythe is officially released tomorrow! It's the second title in the Ichorian Epics series, the first being Era of Undying. Here are Emilie Knight's answers to my questions. Emilie Knight - Author Interview How long have you been writing for and what made you start writing? I’ve been writing seriously for a few years. I’ve been writing since high school, but in 2017 I really sat down to focus on it as a career with novels, rather than short experiments for myself. Do you write for a living, or do you also do other work? I work in a call center in a car dealership. It’s a fine job, customers can be rude quite…
At The Trough by Adam Knight [Book Review]
At the Trough by Adam Knight My rating: 4 of 5 stars I was offered an ARC of At The Trough. It took a bit of getting into, partly because At The Trough swaps between several point of view characters, one per chapter. So it took 2-3 chapters for each character to properly hook me into the story. Once I'd got there it kept me up until 2am on a work night! At the Trough At The Trough is a very dystopian near future, a warning of what could happen if the super-rich managed to take control of education. The scenario is close enough to reality that you can see a plausible join into the present. It's a plausible, if very dark, future. This is part of what made it compelling to me. At the Trough is like Fahrenheit 451…
Farewell Facebook
Just a short note for the record that I've now deleted my Facebook account. I've not logged in regularly for a couple of years. My blog has been auto-linked to it, and many of the blog posts shared via Facebook when I've published them. Facebook's Usefulness I've missed some bits of Facebook. It's a great communications medium with my family, especially as I don't live near any of them. I've also missed some of the social groups, although my wife still uses Facebook, so I get some of the highlights second hand. Facebook's Failure That said the reason I stopped logging in regularly was because there was a lot more noise than signal. It was also clear that I didn't share values or understanding of the political situation with many of those that appeared on my timeline. Mostly they were…
Dad’s Guide to Styling A Daughter’s Hair
I'm pretty rubbish at styling my daughter's hair, but since I mostly do the morning school runs I need to be able to. If Lucy is lucky she gets a pony tail or bunches. So my wife decided to book me on a quick hair styling course with Lucy was run by the very nice Beth Finch, at Warlingham Park School. Beth, and the other mums with daughters, were very friendly and encouraging. I certainly learnt a fair amount about how to do my daughter's are some of the things that I learnt, partly so that I will remember, and partly I case they help anyone else style their daughter's hair. Tips for Styling Your Daughter's Hair Here are some general tips that I picked up that will help me style my daughter's hair. Put a teaspoon of conditioner in…
Horrible Histories the Movie – Rotten Romans [Review]
The pre-preview Q&A before Horrible Histories the Movie (photo: James Kemp) I went to see Horrible Histories the Movie with my children Lucy and Alexander on Sunday morning at the BFI riverside. They had a preview screening of Horrible Histories the Movie as a combo of their monthly kids shows and also as part of the London Comedy Film Festival (LoCo). Ahead of the screening we had a short Q&A with Caroline Norris (producer & writer), Sarah Hadland and Sebastian Croft (Atti). Horrible Histories the Movie The subtitle to Horrible Histories the Movie is Rotten Romans because the core story is the interaction between Orla (a young celt, played by Amelia Jones) and Atti (a young Roman, played by Sebastian Croft). This story is set in the backdrop of Boudica's revolt against the Romans, see the synopsis below for non-spoilered…