Is Being Ignored Worse Than Rejection?

Lately, four of the self-published authors I follow (on their blogs and Twitter) have said that they are giving up. Some are giving up writing altogether, some are giving up their attempts to be successful. Four is quite a rash and I wonder if it is a sign of things to come. The three [...]

The Kindle App on My Smartphone

A profound change has come upon me. No, it’s not the male menopause, although I’m long overdue for a red sports car and a dab of Rogaine. No, this change is based on the realisation that from this week onward, whatever I’m doing, wherever I am, I will never be without a book to [...]

Why You Can’t Even Give Your Books Away

 I came across a tweet today. It was from a complete stranger, about a book I’d never heard of. This is the full text:

“Whassamatter with you guys? 127 minutes to go and the offer for a FREE Kindle copy of [Book Title] closes! Tick tock…”

Reading between the characters (tweets are so short [...]

Writing Novels Is Hard, But I Enjoy The Struggle

I’m 24,000 words into my new novel and I can’t help thinking about the process I’m going through as I hammer this story out, word by word.

Novels take a long time to write. Well, they take me a long time. Some people bang out several in a year. I’m happy if I can [...]

Review: The Believing Brain by Michael Shermer

(This review first appeared in the New York Review of Books.)

Belief comes first, rationalizations follow behind. That is the basic theme of this new book on belief by professional sceptic, Michael Shermer. Belief comes first because we’re wired that way, Dr. Shermer says. We see patterns in everything (sometimes even when they aren’t [...]

Review: Cycles of Time by Roger Penrose

Cycles of Time by Roger Penrose

 

(This review first appeared in the New York Journal of Books.)

Roger Penrose is one of the world’s leading mathematicians and a man who has also made significant contributions to theoretical physics. His work with Stephen Hawking on black holes is almost as famous [...]

Take The Twitter Ratios Test – and see what kind of tweep you really are

Our Twitter profiles provide a number of curious facts about us. In particular they give the following four figures:

Tweets: the number of tweets we have made since we started tweeting. I quite often look at that number when I’m considering whether to follow someone. If it is very high, I give [...]

What is Advice to Writers Really Worth?

Emma Newman, rising star of the YA science fiction world, has just posted a thoughtful piece on her blog about why she doesn’t like giving writing advice. As with many of Emma’s musings, it got me thinking.

My view on free advice in general is that tends to be worth exactly what you paid [...]

In Situ: Coming Soon

In preparation for their forthcoming sci-fi anthology, In Situ, Dagan Books has begun posting interviews with the contributing authors. And today, it’s my turn.

The idea behind In Situ is a good one. It is an anthology of science fiction tales about alien excavations, weird archaeology, and the unearthing of mysteries. As an avid [...]

Review: Final Jeopardy by Stephen Baker

What next for Big Blue?

(This review first appeared in the New York Journal of Books)

Over the past few days, a computer called Watson, built and programmed by IBM researchers, has played the game of Jeopardy! against two of the contest’s best players. And it won.

To many who watched the match [...]