M.H. Thaung's Blog: Musings, page 7

The Diamond Device – 0.99 sale

Just a quick post to say that for the next week, The Diamond Device has a price drop to £0.99(UK)/$0.99(US) in the Kindle store. Now’s your chance to pick it up as a bargain! It’s a light-hearted steampunk caper where an ill-matched pair get embroiled in burglary, kidnapping and an international bomb plot.

Here Rich, our daring hero, needs to attract the attention of the authorities. But he can’t afford to be apprehended until he’s achieved his objective…

While a dozen police flooded into the a...

Very short stories #29

I’m just at the end of a week’s holiday. Despite warm and sunny weather earlier in the month, much of this week has had torrential downpour. Typical Still, it motivated me to work some more on a possible sequel to The Diamond Device, with new characters (and old ones) getting into various scrapes. I think my slow progress is partly because I didn’t originally plan for a sequel. In some sense, I feel like I’m developing a new story from scratch, but I’m constrained by what has gone before. In co...

Very short stories #28

It’s been a pretty busy few weeks since my last post. Work is picking up with more non-urgent operations being scheduled. I’ve also attended three medical conferences plus a week of university alumni events. They were all online, and I miss the chance to connect in person, although I wouldn’t have signed up for the week-long alumni programme if I’d had to be away for all that time.

Outside of work, I’ve been exploring a few book ideas, but they’re still pretty embryonal. Perhaps there will be a ...

Very short stories #27

This weekend was when the clocks went forwards in the UK, marking the start of British Summer Time. It seems only a couple of weeks ago I was having to mind ice on the pavements while walking to work. But we’ve had snowdrops and crocuses and now daffodils, so I guess spring really is here

With more frequent commuting to work, I’m reading more books. Perhaps I’m also getting better at picking books I stick with through to the end. Here are my reviews since last time.

Death in Delft: (Master Merc...

The One and Only

If you follow my posts, you’ll know I’ve been spending quite a chunk of time playing around in Daz Studio. They’re running a contest for International Women’s Day. For me, the contest was just the motivation I needed to focus on a very special character.

I am delighted to introduce to you the irascible Professor Ina Bergrim-Hoyt, whose invention kicks off events in The Diamond Device. (Not that Rich or Alf suspect that, of course). She’s not the easiest character to get along with, but there’s n...

Confrontation

I’m still trying to get my head round the fact I have a week’s holiday coming up I have close to zero commitments (apart from a lecture…), so in theory it should be plenty of writing time. Fingers crossed for a productive week!

Though admittedly, I haven’t done any creative writing today. Instead, I played around with some graphics stuff and came up with a tense moment featuring Jonathan and Silvers.

Jonathan and Silvers

Right now, A Quiet Rebellion: Guilt is available for free in the ...

Very short stories #26

Wow, we’re already at the end of February? I hope that’s a good sign, that the year isn’t going to drag on. My work’s certainly got busier—it’s a combination of routine surgery starting up again, and academic writing that had previously gone on the back burner. I’m also commuting more frequently, which means that I have more time to read on the train . Here are the reviews I’ve posted since last time.

Highland Court Chronicles (Almendra’s Quest #1) by Farida Mestek
Talented Found (Talented #1) ...

January update

In a few of my previous posts, I’ve mentioned some writing characteristics that put me off books. They don’t necessarily make me put the book down, but once they impinge on my reading enjoyment, they become distracting if they pop up again. Most recently, I’ve become more aware of redundancies and repetitions. As with all writing, it’s a balance. On the one hand, you want your readers to get the point rather than scratching their heads over your opacity. But on the other, spending too much time/...

Very short stories #25

I hope the first fortnight of 2021 has been a good one for you. As with much of the UK, we remain under travel and in-person meeting restrictions. I’ve lost track of how many different virtual meetings applications I now have installed on my PC. That leads to awkward situations where I’m hanging around in the wrong waiting room while my fellow attendees are impatiently wondering where I’ve got to

At least there’s still been time for reading and even a bit of writing. Although I had intended The...

A Bite-Sized Adventure

If you’re on Twitter, you might have noticed that the very short story community ran a special series of prompts in October. The hashtag was #vssmurder. I didn’t intend to write a continuous story, but the detective and the rookie decided they wanted to take over. I’ve put some of their daily tales together here to offer you A Bite-Sized Adventure.

The detective frowned. “A bloodless corpse?”

“And no splashes at the scene,” added the rookie.

“So, the killer let the victim exsanguinate somewhe...