I've decided to take on the 2013 Australian Women Writers Challenge. This means I'm going to read and review a minimum of six books by Australian women writers. It totally fits in with my pledge to read more this year, and will hopefully help me prioritise which ones on my expanding pile get the nod! … Continue reading Reading Australian Women Writers in 2013…
1. Poor Rhi -- my ranger -- is dead for good this time. (sniff) She was taken out on a snowy ledge by three ghouls, which paralysed and devoured her without her even swinging a blow. My party tried to preserve her body in the snow, but Rhi showed up later as a ghoul herself … Continue reading D&D Chronicles: Shit happens… and then you die
Our DM is trying to kill us. No matter where we go, what we do, death lurks around every corner. In the last two sessions since I've chronicled, we've battled giant beetles, a massive wolf, multiple orcs and goblins, enormous crocodiles, dog-sized venomous spiders, and scary vampire bats that sucked our constitution points away... And … Continue reading D&D Chronicles: Doors and a Giant Staircase
Finally it is my turn to play The Next Big Thing and I'm a little bit excited. I was first tagged way back in November by Siri Paulson, but being in the middle of NaNoWriMo at that stage, I put it on hold. Then Sherryl Clark approached me in December and I couldn't see the … Continue reading The Next Big Thing – My Turn
I 'read' something like 30 books in 2012 (as far as I can remember). This isn't a huge total, but it's quite a few more than I suspected. 'Not reading' was one of my huge frustrations last year -- I couldn't seem to fit it in! Thank all the gods for audiobooks. Around two-thirds of … Continue reading What I read in 2012
The Hobbit movie (part 1 -- An Unexpected Journey) has finally arrived. Given my love of the three Lord of the Rings movies, I have looked forward to this day with excitement and some trepidation -- could the dramatisation of this humble book possibly live up to the magnificence of LOTR? And what's with stretching it … Continue reading Thoughts on The Hobbit – An Unexpected Journey
As a one-time engineer, I am particularly interested in how things work -- especially pre-industrial objects that I can weave into the cultures I create for the fantastical worlds I write about. I have, for instance, two Galilean thermometers standing on my bookshelf. These are elegant cylinders filled with a clear liquid in which float … Continue reading What’s tall, bright and measures temperature?
One of the reasons I enjoy audiobooks so much, aside from their role in alleviating my commuting boredom, is due to the interpretation given to the text by a good reader/narrator. Often actors and performers, these good narrators not only give texture and inflection to the narrative, but also tend to put on voices to … Continue reading When you read, do you hear voices in your head?
The imminent arrival of the new Hobbit movie (part 1) to our cinemas has me indulging in yet another viewing of the movies that started it all: Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I love these movies. I'll never forget the first time I saw Fellowship of the Ring. I went a couple … Continue reading Journeying through Middle Earth again
Here's the thing. I died on Saturday night. That is, my D&D character did. She stepped on a pressure pad when trekking down a dark tunnel, fell into a pit and was defeated by a giant centipede. Excellent! Not. We'd all been traipsing up a river, looking for a back way into the goblins' secret … Continue reading D&D Chronicles: Death… and Resurrection
Ellen Gregory 