Author Archives: James - Page 61
Cinnabar Moth
As mentioned earlier, there's rather too much going on right now to read books and review them, so here's a picture I took in my garden yesterday of a Cinnabar Moth (I initially mis-identified it as some sort of butterfly). One thing that is worth mentioning is that there are two sets of wings, and the lower set is completely red. You can just see them in the middle of the picture. When the moth flies it looks way more red than black, in fact I was surprised when it landed that the wings weren't completely red. Cinnabar Moth in North East Surrey May 2015 (photo: James Kemp) English: Caterpillar of Cinnabar Moth Cinnabar Moth on a Ragwort. 480921 (Photo credit: Wikipedia) This is the first time that I've seen one of these, although I've seen the caterpillars a number of…
Author Interview – Emily Eck
Today's interview is with Emily Eck, she's a wandering anthropologist who writes gritty romance about real women and their men. Her favourite word begins with F, because it is just so Emily Eck How long have you been writing for and what made you start writing? I've been writing fiction for two years. I have kept a journal since I was a kid. I've found it helps me to sort out the things in my head. I wrote scholarly articles in the field of Anthropology, but it was only recently that I did a 180 and started writing contemporary romance novels. Do you write for a living, or do you also do other work? I lived in Mexico and was able to write for a living. When living in the United States, it sadly becomes just a hobby. Were you…
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Thoughts on Commercial Success
Not a how to but just some reflections based on the things that I have read recently that seem to be successful. I doubt this will help anyone sell more books, or even me sell any. 'In' groups A number of the apparently successful stories have groups of characters that follow a defining characteristic. For example Harry Potter has the four houses, Divergent has factions, Game of Thrones has noble houses, Hunger Games has it too. Readers can see themself in one or more of these in groups and can feel that they could live in the fictional world. This helps to get emotional attachment and makes it more likely that they will get shared socially. YA target Almost everything I've mentioned above is targeted at young people, some more explicitly than others. The Twilight series is another example of…
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My political views
You may have gathered a political viewpoint from my blog posts. You may or may not agree with it. That's your prerogative. I'm fine with you believing what you want to believe, just don't try to convert me without evidence or a damn good argument. Also don't try if you get upset when flaws in your preferred political party's policies are pointed out. Personally I am staunchly apolitical, out of choice as much as because my job as a middle ranking civil servant requires me to be so. I do my best to be completely even handed and sticking to evidence based facts. I also try and see things from multiple perspectives as much as possible. Where I support things it is because I have tested the policy and looked at the flaws and alternatives. When I get new evidence…
UK General Election 2015 – A Reaction
Last night I flitted between the BBC and Channel 4's coverage of the election results, although only till about midnight. Exit Polls When I first saw these I didn't give them much credence, nor did the twitter stream that commented on them. I only saw a couple of very cautious positive comments at that point. Most twitter commenters rubbished the exit polls. After weeks of not much change in the opinion polls it seemed unlikely that the Conservatives would have suddenly gained momentum and Labour lost it. The SNP prediction also seemed extreme. This morning I'm writing this on the train platform and there are only 18 seats left to declare. The exit polls look very accurate indeed. From running neck and neck for weeks the Conservatives seemed to have stolen 3 points from Labour to give them a 6…