Author Archives: James - Page 61
Britain’s Worst Rail Disaster – Quintinshill
Quintinshill Conspiracy The Quintinshill Conspiracy: The Shocking True Story Behind Britain's Worst Rail Disaster by Adrian Searle and Jack Richards My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is a forensic examination of Britain's worst train crash, which happened 100 years ago today. The authors got some material released early from the National Archives and also went through all the contemporary newspaper reports to painstakingly re-evaluate what happened. Their conclusion was that justice wasnt really done, and the normal inquiry process was cut short, probably because of the war. This meant that those truly responsible didn't face the consequences, nor were improvements in safety implemented as a result. The situation at Quintinshill was complex, the additional burden of wartime traffic, while still being expected to prioritise civilian express trains made life difficult for the railway signallers. The crash happened because of a…
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Book Review – Warriors of Eternity by T.E. Hodden
Warriors of Eternity by Hodden My rating: 4 of 5 stars I really enjoyed this story, and hope that there is more still to come. The author created a very interesting and rich world, with little bits of fantasy type things in it, although it becomes clear that these are to do with a combination of advanced bio-engineering and technology. The plot revolves around an almost royal family, the key protagonist is a teenage girl in the third generation who wants to explore but is hemmed in. In the background consequences from an earlier war are playing out, which come to a head in the last third of the story. It turns into a nail biting finish, leaving me wondering how it was going to resolve given the essentially invulnerable nature of two of the opposing players. I definitely would…
Cinnabar Moth
As mentioned earlier, there's rather too much going on right now to read books and review them, so here's a picture I took in my garden yesterday of a Cinnabar Moth (I initially mis-identified it as some sort of butterfly). One thing that is worth mentioning is that there are two sets of wings, and the lower set is completely red. You can just see them in the middle of the picture. When the moth flies it looks way more red than black, in fact I was surprised when it landed that the wings weren't completely red. Cinnabar Moth in North East Surrey May 2015 (photo: James Kemp) English: Caterpillar of Cinnabar Moth Cinnabar Moth on a Ragwort. 480921 (Photo credit: Wikipedia) This is the first time that I've seen one of these, although I've seen the caterpillars a number of…
Author Interview – Emily Eck
Today's interview is with Emily Eck, she's a wandering anthropologist who writes gritty romance about real women and their men. Her favourite word begins with F, because it is just so Emily Eck How long have you been writing for and what made you start writing? I've been writing fiction for two years. I have kept a journal since I was a kid. I've found it helps me to sort out the things in my head. I wrote scholarly articles in the field of Anthropology, but it was only recently that I did a 180 and started writing contemporary romance novels. Do you write for a living, or do you also do other work? I lived in Mexico and was able to write for a living. When living in the United States, it sadly becomes just a hobby. Were you…
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Thoughts on Commercial Success
Not a how to but just some reflections based on the things that I have read recently that seem to be successful. I doubt this will help anyone sell more books, or even me sell any. 'In' groups A number of the apparently successful stories have groups of characters that follow a defining characteristic. For example Harry Potter has the four houses, Divergent has factions, Game of Thrones has noble houses, Hunger Games has it too. Readers can see themself in one or more of these in groups and can feel that they could live in the fictional world. This helps to get emotional attachment and makes it more likely that they will get shared socially. YA target Almost everything I've mentioned above is targeted at young people, some more explicitly than others. The Twilight series is another example of…