Linda Acaster's Blog, page 26

October is #BookADayUK - Enjoy!

Now the nights are drawing in, thoughts turn to cosy cushions and log fires, hot chocolate drinks and... a good book. BooksAreMyBag.com are hosting #BookADayUK on Twitter. Catch them on https://twitter.com/booksaremybag for some indulgent reads. On Saturday 11th there may well be an event at a bookshop near you, so keep an eye on your local press.

And if you want to participate, check out their

End of... End of... Back to the Desk

Gosh, it's the end of September. How did that happen?



Renovating, that's what happened. There's an old adge that says buy a new lamp and you'll end up buying a new table to sit it on and a new rug to stand the table on and... 



My own started with rubbing at a mark on the wallpaper. The trouble is, these things take faaaaar longer than anticipated. Not only that, I gamely thought I'd be

FantastiCon was Fantastic - 2

FantastiCon was, ostensibly, a
book launch by Fantastic Books Publishing (top that, London literati).








The books, four novels and an
anthology of short fiction, are based in the universe of the SF Elite series of combat and trading
computer games. Back in the 1980s the late Robert Holdstock wrote a novella The Dark Wheel to accompany the initial
launch, and gaming and fiction have gone

FantastiCon was Fantastic - 1

In Hull on Saturday, Fantastic Books Publishing put on the book launch to end all book launches
– an SF&F Convention










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Supermoon Monday

I managed to see the supermoon tonight, a day late thanks to the remnants
of ex Hurricane Bertha tearing across the UK
over the weekend. Not that I would have realised, by eye, that the moon was a waning
gibbous 97.9%. It looked bright; it looked beautiful; it looked big. I’m aware
that it is a mere 356,994 kms distant, instead of the more normal 400,000+kms causing it to seem up to 14% bigger

FantastiCon in #Hull - 14 Days and Counting

Funny how life can change. One moment I'm attending Hull's FantastiCon as an inquisitive visitor, the next I'm invited to participate on a panel!



On 16th August the Mercure Hull Royal Hotel will be the venue for an SF/F and gaming extravaganza hosted by Fantastic Book Publishing. It's part of its launch for its Elite tie-in novels that seems to have taken on a life of its own and now includes

York’s Street Entertainers – Present & Past

In York recently, I paused to consider the many
street entertainers in the pedestrianised city centre. 



The singers and
musicians were very ‘now’, even if the electric jazz close to the striped
awnings of market stalls in Parliament Street
was wonderfully mellow to the ear. Beneath the shading trees in Saint Sampson’s
Square we stopped for refreshment and to listen to alternating guitarists

Chatting about... Post Traumatic Stress

Some time ago I was asked to contribute to Ella M Kaye's site It's All oKaye with particular reference to 'lights in the dark' as applied to a fictional character's emotional arc. It's now live, so do hop across to discover how I envisaged, and subsequently handled, Nick Blaketon's mental trauma in The Bull At The Gate.

After all, if your dead lover temporarily erupted in a gush of water in your

The Bull At The Gate - paperback launch

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Writer's Reveal

I’m
pleased to be part of a blog-hop centring on four questions that reveal part of
my writing life. Thanks to Toni V Sweeney for
the plaudits and hand-on.  


What are you working on?

I’m launching
the paperback of The Bull At The Gate,
Book 2 in the Torc of Moonlight
trilogy of supernatural thrillers, so at the moment it is more admin and
promotion than creative writing. At the same time I’m