Mark Lord's Blog, page 26
July 16, 2012
The Homecoming by Mike Resnick, Asimov’s April/May 2011
Quick Short Story Review: The Homecoming by Mike Resnick This story is a nominee for the 2012 Hugo awards, and as such I expected it to be a good read. And Mike Resnick doesn’t disappoint. The Homecoming was a well crafted story about a prodigal son who returns home. This is a twist on the [...]
June 26, 2012
The Purring of Cats by Dave Hoing, Interzone #207 December 2006
Quick Short Story Review: The Purring of Cats by Dave Hoing, Interzone #207 About a counselor who falls in love with his patient. In this case the patient is actually classed as a criminal as she has illegally had sex with an alien. The writing was alright, although for me it didn’t really come alive. I thought [...]
June 22, 2012
Little Boy Found – New Science Fiction Short Story Free for Kindle until Sunday
I have published a new science fiction short story called Little Boy Found as an eBook for the Kindle. It will be free from Friday to Sunday via these links: Little Boy Found on Amazon US Little Boy Found on Amazon UK Here’s some more information about the story: Alone in space, one little boy [...]
June 20, 2012
eBook Blurbs Experimentation
Yesterday I decided that the blurbs for my short stories might be, how shall we say, rather poor! And decidedly boring! Well last night I decided to update a couple of them. See what you think of the changes: Bird Talk: A Tale of Medieval Magic Old Blurb: Bird Talk is a short story about [...]
June 11, 2012
Self-publishing Pros and Cons – Introductory Post
The idea of self-publishing for an aspiring writer is a very seductive one. The appeal is that you can miss out the difficult process of getting an agent and editor interested in your work before unleashing it on the reading public. Instead readers can be marketed to directly by you as an author as soon [...]
June 10, 2012
Spotted Another Historical Inaccuracy in Azincourt by Bernard Cornewell
Got to the end of Azincourt by Bernard Cornwell today. It was a good read, although I found that his efforts to explain certain things about this iconic battle in English history did obscure the storytelling – he seemed to be trying a bit too hard to show how certain things happen – i.e. this [...]
Demon River now free on Amazon for a limited time only
Until the end of Monday my short story Demon River will be free for download to the Kindle. Demon River on Amazon US Demon River on Amazon UK Set in a fantasy world of dark magic, Benetus, the King’s chancellor, fears the return of a rival he had thought banished from court. Benetus turns to [...]
June 6, 2012
Amazon Author Central – possible improvements
I use Amazon and other ebook distribution services to self-publish some of my short stories (I am planning to use a traditional publisher though for novels if what I am writing is good enough), and also for publishing issues of Alt Hist and Fantasy Short Stories. Amazon has a service called Author Central, which allows [...]
June 5, 2012
Bernard Cornwell Guilty of Historical Inaccuracy in Azincourt?
I am currently reading Azincourt by Bernard Cornwell and absolutely loving it. Azincourt is a nice easy and pleasurable page-turner told in the usual style of Bernard Cornwell – the historical content is fairly light and the characters are very immediate, not to complex but with enough empathy to keep the reader interested in the story. [...]
June 4, 2012
Current writing activities
Here’s a quick update on what I’m up to at the moment: A first edit of my novel Hell has its Demons. The first two chapters will be up at Critters towards the end of June for critiquing, and probably also on OWW soon as well. Publishing the fourth issue of Alt Hist Issue 4. [...]
