Author Archives: James - Page 13
Paul Blake Author Interview
Paul Blake's author photo. (Photo: Paul Blake) Paul Blake is a fellow alumni of the Open University creative writing course (A215), although not my cohort. I first found out about Paul Blake via twitter, we share some common interests. His book A Young Man's Game is an awesome take on modern spy thrillers. So I was very pleased when he jumped at the offer to do an author interview. His latest book, A Few Hours After This, is out today. Go buy a copy! Paul Blake Author Interview How long have you been writing for and what made you start writing? I’ve been writing since 2016. I was doing an Open University Degree in ICT, and doing pretty badly to be honest. I was fine with the theory behind concepts and how they were used in real situations, but when…
Nettlecombe Court – a Real Family Holiday
Nettlecombe Court in Somerset from the drive. (photo: James Kemp) Last summer I went on a Real Family Holiday with both my children. We had so much fun that we booked another. This time we went to the Field Study Centre in Nettlecombe Court, Somerset. We also went in the first week of the Easter holidays, and it was rather chillier than I'd hoped last week. Despite the cold weather we still all had a lot of fun. We also ate rather a lot of cream teas! FSC Nettlecombe Court The centre at Nettlecombe Court is much larger than the one we went to in Start Bay last year. It's a late Elizabethan mansion, completed in 1599. It's the sort of house that the National Trust tend to look after. This one is still owned by the Trevelyan family, and…
Shifting Horizons by S.J. Sherwood [Book Review]
Shifting Horizons by Sherwood My rating: 4 of 5 stars Shifting Horizons is the second in Sherwood's Denounced series. It starts immediately where A Grey Sun finished. I was a little confused with the first few paragraphs until I realised that Ned, the main character, was confused. It was such a well written bit of disorientation that it worked on me as a reader. Shifting Horizons (The Denounced #2) There's depth, conflict and a series of obstacles in Shifting Horizons. The title shows how Ned and Pod 15's view of the world changes. At the end of A Grey Sun they'd broken out of the training dome. They'd been sent there after their faked executions. In Shifting Horizons they find themselves on the edge of the Sahara desert. The story is their struggle to evade the hunters attempting to recapture…
Horse-Riding Research Round-Up
My pseudo-viking YA fantasy novel moved from seaborne to horse-riding. Yngvild met a cavalry troop and learnt how to ride with them. Like Yngvild, I've had to research how to look after horses, and how far you can travel on horseback. I've not done much horse-riding, I've been on horseback fewer than half a dozen times in my life. I've done it just enough to know that you can take a teenager and give them the basics of horse-riding in about half an hour, but I'm far from being a Dothraki! Horse-Riding for Writers An Argentine Lancer, this is pretty close to how I've imagined the cavalry unit that Yngvild met. (picture credit ) There are many good websites for writers interested in realistic portrayals of horse-riding and horse borne expeditions. There are some links at the bottom, but by…
Of Blood Exhausted by Jemahl Evans [Book Review]
Of Blood Exhausted by Jemahl Evans My rating: 6 of 5 stars Of Blood Exhausted is the third in the Blandford Candy series that started with The Last Roundhead. (The second was This Deceitful Light.) If anything Jemahl Evans is improving with practice, there's a real feel for the period in the language used, the descriptions and the characters, several of whom are based on real people. There are footnotes throughout to add context to the historical events, either to corroborate the source or correct errors from Candy's recollection of events. Of Blood Exhausted As with the previous two in the series Of Blood Exhausted cuts between the aged Sir Blandford Candy narrating from 1720 and the imminent South Seas Bubble which his nephew is involved with, and the winter of 1644-5 culminating in the battle of Naseby. Candy is…