M.H. Thaung's Blog: Musings, page 4

Very short stories #46

A couple of weeks ago, something peculiar happened: my mobile phone rang . Barely anyone has my number, and I hardly ever make calls. Yes, I’m really that sociable! As one does, I picked it up and said, “Hello?” and some automated voice told me to “Press 1 for”—and then I hung up again. I don’t know who was calling (other than some organisation I didn’t want to waste my time with), but the incident got me thinking about how I answer calls.

Up until my early twenties, I’d answer the phone and sa...

Book update

Just a short post today since I’m still recovering from last week’s conference. As usual, it was excellent (and at a fantastic venue in Edinburgh!), but it always takes me a few days to settle back in to a regular routine.

Book-wise, the latest news is that my A Quiet Rebellion trilogy is now available in ebook stores outside the Amazon system. These include Barnes & Noble, Kobo and Smashwords, and there should be more coming through over the next week or two (including Apple and Scribd).

Here a...

Very short stories #45

I’ve just had a week’s holiday (stayed at home and read—luxury!), and hopefully am now fully recharged for what promises to be a busy few months at work. This year, I’ve already booked for five conferences, and I’m speaking at four of them. Not at the fifth, at least, unless something truly disastrous happens to the scheduled speakers It’s also been a good year for research papers, with 3 published already. Fingers crossed there are more to come!

So the novel writing will take a back seat for a...

The Sapphire Solution is Out!

Finally, I’m pleased to announce that I’ve published The Sapphire Solution, a follow-up to The Diamond Device. For the moment, it’s only in the Kindle store (on Kindle Unlimited).

What’s The Sapphire Solution about? It’s a fantasy of manners, so expect intrigue, interpersonal clashes and a good dollop of drawing-room farce. Here’s the full blurb:

Apprentice chemist Iggy’s uncle won’t sign her off as competent, even though he trusts her with Project Sapphire: researching a formula to erase foren...

Not long now

I’m busily editing away…

Sneak peek

It’s my birthday today. Not a significant one (by which I mean, not one with a zero in it, or an entitlement to a pension or free bus pass or discount at the store on Tuesdays or…) I did, however, receive a wonderful present by way of The Diamond Device advancing to the semifinals in the Self-Published Science Fiction Contest. The 10 judging teams will be posting their semifinalist selections over the next couple of days. If you want to keep an eye on all the contenders, have a look here. It’s a...

Feeling seasonal

We started the merry season last night with a trip to a show. Charles Court Opera‘s pantomime was called “Rumpelstiltskin”, although it used that story as a starting point for a much wider fairytale mashup.

Lots of good clean(ish) fun (it was a child-friendly performance, mind!), some dreadful puns and excellent singing from the four cast members made for a great night out. The pantomime runs until 23 January, and it’s at the Park Theatre in Finsbury Park, London. You can grab yourself tickets ...

Very short stories #44

I hope you’re all winding down for the festive season (or maybe gearing up towards it), whatever that means for you. Me, I like relaxing somewhere cosy, drinks and snacks to hand, a pile of books beside me. Come to think of it, that’s exactly what I do with my free time, all year round

How about you? Got plans for family and/or friends? And if so, are you meeting with them, or taking a break from them?

A couple of book deals

The Diamond Device is now on a 0.99 promotion until the end of the yea...

Very short stories #43

Wow, where has the year gone? As we approach the end of November, I’m attempting to “win” NaNoWriMo. That’s a writing challenge where we attempt to complete a novel (rather, 50k words of a draft) in a month. I’m actually over 40k words in and so should be able to reach the word count over the next few days. However, despite plotting it out beforehand, the story doesn’t make sense now I’ve written a chunk of it down. I can either rework it, or I can cannibalise parts for something else. On the pl...

Very short stories #42

“42” may not be the answer to everything, but I’m pretty pleased at this milestone for these tiny story posts. Looking back, I see I set up this blog 5 years ago, though it was over a year later I started playing #vss365 on Twitter. At the start, I used pictures from sites like Pixabay. It’s been more work to put together the newer images myself, but far more satisfying.

Talking of which, with Halloween coming up, it’s time for these guys to have an outing on Daz.

They’re pretty old, but still ...