Exit, Pursued by a Bee is my first science fiction novel and was published by Double Dragon Publishing way back in 2008 and came second in a Readers’ Poll competition for best SF novel of 2008 with over 1,000 votes. The publisher is closing down so titles return to the authors. The idea for many of the original ideas in the book came while I was walking up Glastonbury Hill. Most science fiction books have to make their space vehicles leave a planet at escape velocity (ironically, the name of the magazine I co-edited at the time), use radio for communications, and in those days the pilots were men. So, in Exit the alien (although they were on and inside Earth long before homo sapiens existed)...

Social distancing (Pandemic shopping) for books at Victoria’s best book store. Munro’s Books now occupies a landmark location in the heart of Victoria’s Old Town, but its origins are much more modest. In 1963, Jim Munro and his first wife, Alice — yes, that Alice Munro — set up shop in a long, narrow space on Yates Street, near Victoria’s movie theatres. Bookstores were few and far between in Victoria; Jim’s main competition in those days came from the book sections at the local department stores. But the location was convenient for younger, movie-going customers, and the staff’s interest in new trends in writing and other art forms built a loyal clientele. The store relocated to larger prem...

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Quite rightly, there’s a focus on Black Lives Matter after the appalling killing of George Floyd in America and the slave origins of many black people in the Americas. On July 2nd 2020, the BBC aired a documentary about the UK Slavery Abolition Act 1833 , which revealed that over 40,000 people that owned slaves mainly in the West Indies, claimed compensation for their “loss of property”. [see Britain’s Slave Owner Compensation Loan, reparations and tax havenry June 9th 2020] Interesting that of the 40,000+ slave owners who claimed compensation most were men, some were women, and a few were ex-slaves-turned-slave owners. One reverend only had one slave but the one who owned the most was Prime...

Proud to be Canadian!  Original link

I was drawn to this book by the cover as the lottery cards I’ve seen in Mexico are so intriguing. In Loteria , Zambrano  has woven the story of one family’s dysfunction through the Loteria cards. Told through the eyes of the 11 year-old daughter, the story of their ruin is all the move harrowing. Sad as it is, the reader is compelled, by the format and the writing, to finish the novel. Blurb In Lotería, the spellbinding literary debut by Mario Alberto Zambrano, a young girl tells the story of her family’s tragic demise using a deck of cards of the eponymous Latin American game of chance. With her older sister Estrella in the ICU and her father in jail, eleven-year-old Luz Castillo has been t...

Two stories in one. The first: Emma Koehler, the Emma of Hotel Emma in San Antonio, was the wife of a German born brewer. He had two mistresses, both named Emma. When one of the mistresses murdered him, Emma, the wife, took over the brewery just as prohibition began. She was able to keep all her employees working and Pearl was one of the brewing companies not to go out of business. She also steered the company through the depression. The stuff of fiction, right? Nope. It’s all true. And a fascinating story it is. The second: Emma hires a young girl, Mabel Hartley, to write her story. Mabel, a fictional addition, flees Baltimore for San Antonio when she is offered the job. Unfortunately her s...

Warning: These can be addictive.Original link

Genre stereotyping is something I strenuously try to avoid. Are the worlds in my science fiction stories exploring right-wing or left-wing governments? No. Most if not all countries and the world are governed by authoritarian regimes by definition, but my stories avoid them. When I think about it, I write a lot of post-apocalyptic tales, or small crews landing on faraway planets where governments either don’t exist or are so different the poor Earth people have no idea but to survive. This article by Jordan Alexander Hill neatly summarises the development of science fiction’s approaches to libertarianism and authority in general and only by reading it have I realised properly that I might be...

Warning: These can be addictive.Original link

I have refrained from talking politics or the current world situation on my blog, but feel compelled to share this with Mr. Sawyer’s permission. https://www.sfwriter.com/ I am privileged to count Rob a friend. I first met him a number of years ago when I attended one of his writing courses at the Banff Centre (School of the Arts in Banff, Alberta, Canada). Rob is a renowned science fiction author who has won numerous awards . But, if you’ve read his novel QUANTUM NIGHT  (published before Trump was elected), you will know just how politically astute he is. Recently Rob posted this on Facebook.  An old friend asked, “Robert, are you now becoming political?” My Response. Of course I’m political...

Warning: These can be addictive.Original link

I don’t remember how I found this book, but I’m so glad I did. Having spent time in Mali and traveled to Tombouctou, I was enthralled by Sanmao’s life and adventures in Spanish Sahara. Read more about Sanmao here. Blurb: .Sanmao: author, adventurer, pioneer. Born in China in 1943, she moved from Chongqing to Taiwan, Spain to Germany, the Canary Islands to Central America, and, for several years in the 1970s, to the Sahara. Stories of the Sahara invites us into Sanmao’s extraordinary life in the desert: her experiences of love and loss, freedom and peril, all told with a voice as spirited as it is timeless. At a period when China was beginning to look beyond its borders, Sanmao fired the imag...

I’ve read Caleb Pirtle’s  books and blogs set in Texas—enough to know that the climate is harsh and drilling for oil even harsher, In VALENTINE, by Elizabeth Wetmore, harsh morphs into downright grim. The relentless heat seeps out of every page urging you, the reader, to turn on the air conditioner. The violence and the apparent lack of caring, like a punch to the gut, leave you breathless. Yet, you keep turning the pages. You have to know. The widow, the young Mexican girl, the pregnant mother and her daughter, the young girl trying to take care of herself and her father—each presenting the oil patch from their point of view with their fear and strength and the often deeply buried tendernes...

I am so, so sorry.Original link

To view this content, you must be a member of J. I. Rogers's Patreon at $1 or more - Click "Read more" to unlock this content at the sourceOriginal link

To view this content, you must be a member of J. I. Rogers's Patreon at $1 or more - Click "Read more" to unlock this content at the sourceOriginal link

Here is the promised creation video. As I settle into being half-moved and having to #stayhome, I’m assembling a working schedule to get caught up on everything. I’d like to offer a HUGE thank you to Nick Mower for all his hard work on this vid, and on animating my logo. “The Korpes File Series” […]Original link

Absolutely marvelous! Noah is about to celebrate his eightieth birthday in Nice — the city where he was born, the city he hasn’t seen since he was four years old – when his eleven year old great nephew is foisted on him by a desperate and persistent social worker. Noah, determined to get to Nice and unravel the mystery of his mother’s photos, refuses to give up his trip and takes the boy along. The ensuing adventures of this unlikely pair take the reader on a wild ride through Nice and back to WWII as they search for the answers Noah needs. A story of adventure, bonding, and finding home. BLURB Noah Selvaggio is a retired chemistry professor and widower living on the Upper West Side, but bor...

The Maltese islands on which Xaghra’s Revenge is based is faring well in these times. My friends there tell me tourism between Gozo and Malta has reopened so that will help to stimulate their economy a little. Of course in the main they need overseas tourists but I know several folk living on the main island of Malta who have holiday lets on Gozo, who until this week have not been able to travel there. I miss the gorgeous scenery and history there so much. So lucky that I was able to visit Malta and Gozo before the lockdown. Today, May 20th 2020 Malta had only 569 confirmed cases, sadly 6 deaths with 460 recovered. Ironically, in 1551, the island of Gozo had lockdown procedures as did many i...