You want to know what I think is one of the best things about the new WONDERFUL era of publishing and e-books? There no longer need be any such thing as 'out of print'. That's right. Books are now the most accessible they've ever been, and they can now live for ever online, just waiting … Continue reading No more ‘out of print’
It's my great pleasure to welcome author Rabia Gale to my blog today. Her bio says she breaks fairy tales and fuses fantasy and science fiction... How could you not want to read anything and everything she writes? I invited her here to discuss, among other things, her novella, Rainbird, which she launched this week. Here's … Continue reading Talking Rainbird with Rabia Gale
I asked my mother this (of me) the other day, wanting to correlate my memory of my first reading experience with hers -- and was surprised by the answer. I've long thought the first chapter book I ever read was Charlotte's Web, when I was about eight. This is what I've been telling people for years. Only it … Continue reading What was the 1st book you ever read?
There are some books that are so good as audiobooks that I can't really imagine 'reading' them any other way. One of these for me is Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination by Helen Fielding (of Bridget Jones fame), read by Suzy Aitchison. I had a situation this week, when the audio I was listening … Continue reading Olivia Joules: when audio rules
It's funny, but when I sit down to list my all-time favourite fantasy novels or series, most of them are not what you'd call recent. In fact some of them are just plain old. Maybe this is because I believe favourites must stand the test of time and re-reading. Or maybe it's because I just … Continue reading Seven fantasy favourites
Yesterday I was happily discussing with a friend the awesome book I'd just finished -- and which she'd read previously -- when I happened to mention a couple of things that didn't quite work for me. (I can't help it -- attempting to write novels has somewhat killed my ability to just read and enjoy... … Continue reading “It’s just a story”
Once upon a time it seemed as though I had hours and hours a day in which to read. I devoured books at an impressive rate. Although I'm not a particularly fast reader, I made up for it in sheer number of hours devoted to the cause. But that was before I started writing in the evenings, … Continue reading How reviews influence my choice of books
Reading is what it's all about, isn't it? That's why we writers turn up to the computer, day after day, to grind out the words. In fact, reading invariably came first. As children we devoured books; at least I did. Now I look back at those days with yearning, because I seemed to have so … Continue reading Reading places and spaces
Fiction or non-fiction? -- that is the question. And the answer is easy. Fiction. I read non-fiction under sufference. I'm a member of a reading group that chooses a fair amount of non-fiction... sometimes I give the books a go, sometimes I don't even try. Having said that, occasionally I'm surprised by a book I don't … Continue reading Fiction or non-fiction?
First off, let me admit I'm going to break the rules. I've decided these '11-question' games or memes or whatever you call them offer too much fodder for discussion to be used up in a single blog post. So instead I'm going to use each question as a launching point for a single post. And … Continue reading If I could live in a fictional world…
Ellen Gregory 