Archives for reviews - Page 25
Author Interview – Gahan Hanmer
Gahan Hanmer This week's interview is with Gahan Hanmer, the author of The Kingdom on the Edge of Reality. Gahan comes from a family of actors and has himself acted and directed, as well as working as a carpenter. How long have you been writing for and what made you start writing? I still have some very short detective stories that I wrote as a young child, the sort of thing a mother would save. They say I could read when I was three years old. I wrote some poetry as I was growing up. I wrote a novella in college featuring animal characters in an artist colony. It was quite talented but very immature and I discarded it at some point. After I outgrew my career in the theater and started living a more normal life, keeping a home…
Book Review – The Kingdom on the Edge of Reality by Gahan Hanmer
The Kingdom on the Edge of Reality by Gahan Hanmer My rating: 4 of 5 stars I was offered a free copy by the publisher. What made me say yes to this offer was that the story was about an attempt to set up a fake mediaeval kingdom in the modern world. As a (lapsed) 17th century re-enactor it ticked my 'experimental archaeology' box and I thought it would be worth reading. Member of The Montgomery Levy displaying archery in mediaeval times (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Having read The Kingdom on the Edge of Reality it was much more than I had expected and I really enjoyed it on a number of levels. Firstly there is a very interesting piece of straight literary fiction here. It isn't a work of fantasy and there is strictly no magic. Given a billionaire determined enough this…
Author Interview – K Lynn
This week's interview is with K Lynn, an author of LGBT character based fiction, her upcoming novel, His Womanly Ways, will be released by Torquere Press on May 27th. Her novella, Coffee Date, will be released by Less Than Three Press on July 1st and is available for pre-order. How long have you been writing for and what made you start writing? I've been writing since I was a child. I was an avid reader and I was always making up my own stories to go along with those I read. Plus, there was always “play pretend” when my friends or cousins got together. Making up stories was always a part of my life. Do you write for a living, or do you also do other work? I wish I could say that writing income could support me, but that's not in…
Author Interview – Andrew Buckley
This week's author being interviewed is Andrew Buckley, the man behind the audacious Read Around the World challenge that I took part in last year. Andrew has written several novels, the links are below. Here are his answers to my questions. How long have you been writing for and what made you start writing? My stock answer to this, which is true, is that I wrote a story about a big blue dinosaur when I was 4 in elementary school in the UK and got a gold star. If I look at it seriously, and I so rarely do, my love and talent for writing emerged from age 8-12. My teachers found that my quality of writing was well above my actual age and I spent most of my years in secondary school and college in the UK trying to…
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Book Review – The Middle Kingdom Ride by Ryan Pyle & Chris Pyle
The Middle Kingdom Ride: Two Brothers, Two Motorcycles, One Epic Journey Around China by Ryan Pyle My rating: 4 of 5 stars I enjoyed the book, and am looking forward to watching the accompanying DVD as well. It is an interesting book, both because of the travelogue and the epic nature of the journey and because it has two authors. Both brothers have written their own point of view, based on their contemporary video diaries recorded at the end of each of the 60 days that they spent on the road (and in some cases off it) on the way round China. The book is very much a narrative of the journey and the effect it has on the brothers. There are lots of unusual aspects pointed out, like the fact that no-one seems to have a proper motorbike in…