Author Archives: James - Page 18
Sticky End [Flash Fiction] [WW2 SOE]
Sticky End is my flash fiction for the first round of the NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge this year. The first round was last weekend and the group I'm in were assigned a spy genre story to be set in a prison cell and featuring glue. The story had to be under one thousand words and written within 48 hours. (Last year I wrote Down the Harbour and Burning to Leave for the 2017 flash fiction challenge). I spent a bit of Saturday thinking about it, the hard bit for me was trying to work in the glue naturally and believably. Some help from Google showed me that the WW2 Special Operations Executive (SOE) used to include tubes of bostik adhesive in the containers that they dropped to the Jedburgh teams. The bostik was used to camouflage improved explosive devices…
Old Manchester, New Manchester – A Work in Progress
Manchester has a modern tram network running through the city centre (photo: James Kemp) Last week I spent three days in Manchester for work reasons. This involved one overnight stay where I had some time to go for a walk and take a look at some of the city centre and take pictures. The reason that I started to take the pictures of Manchester was because of the remarkable contrasts that I found there. I'm no stranger to cities, I've spent 23 years living and working in London, and grew up on the western edge of Glasgow's urban sprawl. I've also visited most of the other major cities in the UK for both work and pleasure. Manchester - First Impressions Manchester Town Hall, St Peter's Square. (photo: James Kemp) At first sight Manchester is no different from other older cities…
Yngvild and Noren – Editing my 2016 NaNoWriMo Novel
Working cover for Noren the Strong, my 2016 NaNoWriMo entry (image: James Kemp) At the end of May I went back to my 2016 NaNoWriMo novel, having left it in the early hours of December 2016. After a gap of 18 months I figured that I would have the detachment from it necessary to give it a good edit. Reading my 2016 NaNoWriMo novel It stood up pretty well on my first read through. I spotted many typos, and highlighted bits to re-write. But for the most part it got left alone on this read through because it was better than I'd expected. I'll do more with it as I find time, mostly when waiting for trains, or traveling. The main things that I noticed that I need to fix are: It needs a new title. The first six scenes…
The Denounced: A Grey Sun by S.J. Sherwood [Book Review]
The Denounced: A Grey Sun by Sherwood My rating: 4 of 5 stars The Denounced is a dystopian future that reminded me of Divergent and the Hunger Games. The Denounced is its own story, and once I started it I just wanted to read to the end to find out what happened. The author does really well at hooking you in and setting up questions for you to wonder about and want to zip through the story to find the answers. The Denounced: A Grey Sun The point of view character in The Denounced is Ned, he's an orphan who has been in the system since his parents died when he was seven. His entire aim has been to live in the shadows and become free at the age of 18. Unfortunately he's denounced anonymously and sentenced to death by…
Southwold Lighthouse – Writer’s Guide
During the half-term week I had a tour of Southwold Lighthouse, and there were a lot of interesting facts that I thought were worth capturing in case I ever want to write a story featuring a lighthouse. So here they are. Southwold Lighthouse Southwold Lighthouse is a late nineteenth century lighthouse, one of the later ones built on the East coast of England. It was deliberately built inland, on top of a hill right on the Northern edge of the town of Southwold. Of course it's now in the middle of town, opposite the Adnam's brewery. With the lighthouse automated there's no documentation. (Photo: James Kemp) The lighthouse started with an oil burning lamp, which was upgraded to electricity in the early 20th century. In the early 21st century it has been upgraded to using LED lights and fully automated…