Tansy Rayner Roberts's Blog, page 166

Books and Babies

I linked yesterday to Tehani Wessely's reading of my story "Relentless Adaptations" from the upcoming Twelfth Planet Press anthology Sprawl. Only commented on it in passing, because I hadn't actually listened to it yet! But I did today, on my way to and from a baby playgroup (very appropriate) and it was so lovely to hear it!

This is a story I am especially proud of because it's the first piece of new writing I produced after Jem was born, and like my story "The Scent of Milk" was for...

Friday Musements

It was a week. I am officially back writing THE END of the third Creature Court book, which is slow going because – huh, you mean it always takes time to build up momentum every time you stop writing a book to do something else? Every single time? Maybe that's something I should remember in future! Plus, I'm editing what I have before I plunge into the last act, which I'm hoping will pay off in a week or two once that momentum hits. We'll see.

I've signed up to take Jemima to 'baby...

Arsenal: the Soap Opera

So the World Cup has crashed to a close, and around the world, millions of people are losing interest in soccer/football for another four years (cough, or one year if you're interested in how awesome the Matildas are going to be in the REAL World Cup next year).

Unless, you know, you follow a regular team!

For Arsenal supporters, the next few weeks are critical. We're watching the slow, painful process of our boys making their way back into regular training, sporting bruises, groin strains...

It's All About ME

You can get a double dose of Tansyfic on the internet airwaves right now. Tehani Wessely reads my story "Relentless Adaptations" from the upcoming TPP anthology Sprawl on the Twelfth Planet Cast, and you can hear me reading a slightly older story "Fleshy" at TISF.

Both are available on iTunes, too.

I would blog further, but we just got a freaking iPad and the household is in a total tizzy about it. Also I'm three quarters of the way through the latest Stephanie Plum and I won't make any...

Only the Good Spy Young, by Ally Carter

I've been reading the Gallagher Girls spy stories (otherwise known as the books with the awesomest titles in the whole world) for a couple of years now, and while I did fall harder for Carter's new Heist Society series, I have always enjoyed them.

With this fourth book in the series, though, I think Carter has quite noticeably lifted her game. The earlier books were fun, frothy adventures about a spy school for girls, and while there were hints of darkness and seriousness they were often...

35 Joyous Things About the New Season of Doctor Who

It's over, finally, and I've seen every episode, which means I can stop hiding from spoilers. Hooray! Also, Steven Moffatt's debut season of Doctor Who has delighted me beyond all reason.

Here is a list of things about the new show which I have loved:

1. Matt Smith. Just generally, Matt Smith. His performance is raw and endlessly good, and I never get bored when he in on screen.

2. The Eleventh Doctor. Character arcs for the Doctor are nothing new – we had Nine girning his way through...

Power and Majesty Trailer!

What is the one thing that would make the recent release of Power and Majesty: Book One of the Creature Court even more awesome? A BOOK TRAILER, YOU SAY?

My good friends Rowena & Daryl at R&D Studios have made this beautiful thing for me. I would be absolutely delighted if some of you reposted it on your blogs or linked to it. No point in a gorgeous book trailer if no one sees it, right?

Moonshine, by Alaya Johnson

To start out, the title of this debut novel is clever in several ways: it's a 1920's novel, about vampires, with a plot element that revolves around the distribution of a dodgy homemade beverage. The beverage in question isn't hooch, though, but Faust – a substitute for human blood that has a sting in its tail, much like the novel itself.

Moonshine, by Alaya Dawn Johnson, introduces Zephyr Hollis. At first look, Zephyr is a rather earnest do-gooder: poor as a church mouse, living on her...

nobody puts baby in an alcove…

I have a new podcast already – yes, I'm fickle! In this case it's Will Write for Wine, a brilliantly funny, giggly chatcast starring romance/paranormal/women's fiction writers Lucy March and CJ Barry. It's the closest thing I've found to Galactic Suburbia – only about a completely different genre. And you know, they drink while podcasting. We so couldn't do that – we'd end up with every episode FOUR hours long.

I started with Episode 62, in which Lucy & CJ relaunch the podcast after...

The Future of Reading

When recording Galactic Suburbia last night I mentioned that I stopped reading a particular book recently, and I was planning to talk about that in our reading section, but didn't write it in the Googledoc and thus forgot about it.

[This is not a review of said book. I made a decision a while back to only blog reviews about books when I had positive things to say, for several reasons: a) as a writer myself producing negative reviews would hurt the soul & almost certainly come back to bite me ...