James Calbraith's Blog, page 9
October 30, 2016
Black Mirror series 3, ranked.
[spoilers ahead] [subjective personal opinion ahead] . . . 6 (6). Hated in the Nation Boring, predictable and overlong, this one feels like a one-sentence pitch forcibly extended into a 90 min episode. The foreshadowing is very on the nose, the twists are straighter than EU bananas. The main idea could have been executed in … Continue reading Black Mirror series 3, ranked.
October 22, 2016
Kindle Direct Publishing – Paperback
About a week ago, I noticed a new chart on my daily sales report on KDP: Paperback. Turns out, Amazon decided to cannibalize its own print-on-demand branch, CreateSpace, and offer KDP authors an option to drop their books to paper straight from the KDP dashboard. For the moment, there is little incentive to do so … Continue reading Kindle Direct Publishing – Paperback
October 2, 2016
The shame of our time.
Today, 98% of those who took part in the Hungarian referendum voted against the EU plan of resettling the refugees arriving on Europe’s beaches. People who lived through World War II outside the Nazi-occupied territories had to later confront the pertinent questions: “what did you do during the war? How did you react to the atrocities? … Continue reading The shame of our time.
September 25, 2016
Writing Inspirations, 2 – Podcasts
Right, so here’s the second installment of my “writing inspirations” series. This time it’s the podcasts I listen to on my headphones. Continuing last week’s theme, these concern artists and artistry – in particular, once again, comedy and comedians. The one I’ve discovered first, and probably because of that my favourite, is RHLSTP (RHLSTP!) – catchily-named … Continue reading Writing Inspirations, 2 – Podcasts
September 18, 2016
Writing Inspirations: Netflix
As you might otherwise know, I have recently went through an episode of typing faster than any I’ve ever experienced: 100,000 words in less than two months, to finish the first draft of THE LAST DRAGON KING – the final volume of the Year of the Dragon saga. I don’t like silence when writing, odd … Continue reading Writing Inspirations: Netflix
September 10, 2016
Project X has begun :)
I got all my research material in the post today! Also on my Kindle: some Bernard Cornwell, Hilary Mantel, Manda Scott, Simon Scarrow… Can you tell what my next book is going to be about yet?
September 9, 2016
The Journey’s End – Final Chapter!
The evening breeze carried with it the scent of fresh peat and dew on wet heather. In this somewhat clumsy way, six years ago, started the first draft of the first volume in what would later become “The Year of the Dragon” saga. Last weekend, I put the last sentence of the first draft of … Continue reading The Journey’s End – Final Chapter!
July 19, 2016
Finale Reveal – Title and Cover!
Well, here it is. The cover of the final volume of the Year of the Dragon saga. I went for something special with this one, to commemorate this being the last volume cover in the series: I hired the services of the wonderful Collette J. Ellis of Flying Viper Illustrations. You might recognize the style…
June 25, 2016
We’re doomed.
Britain has never understood Europe. We had made the continent the butt of our jokes, and the root of all our evils. Europe was Napoleon, Europe was Hitler, Europe was Agincourt, Pope, the Great Armada, Eurovision. Europe was humourless Germans, pompous French, cowardly Italians. We treated “Allo, Allo!” as a documentary. If we fought with…
June 16, 2016
Don’t be daft, vote Remain.
We interrupt our usual programming to bring you this political message. On June 23rd the people of Britain will have a chance to answer the most important political question of their generation: “Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union?” To which the unequivocal, only possible answer is: YES. I could give…
