The Delirium Brief by Charles Stross [Book Review]
The Delirium Brief by Charles Stross My rating: 5 of 5 stars Bob is back, and the whole Laundry series just levelled up a couple of notches. I'm a major fan of Charlie Stross and have read his entire output. The Laundry is right up my street (being a civil servant with more than a passing interest in IT). This novel even more so, because it gets into other areas that I've got a professional interest in too. The Delirium Brief In terms of broad storyline, the Delirium Brief brings back some old characters and uncovers secrets that were compartmented away from Bob in the earlier stories. It also shows more of the inner workings and rationale for the Laundry that Bob wouldn't have either known about or cared much about if he had known. The Delirium Brief of the…
Down The Harbour [Flash Fiction] [Harwood]
Down The Harbour is a flash fiction sequel to Rounds which was written for my Open University Creative Writing course. Rounds was also included in my book Themself. Down The Harbour was written for the NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge 2017. The challenge was to write 1,000 word romance set in a harbour with a bandage in the story. The Challenge gives you 48 hours, but I was at cub camp that weekend and it left me only a couple of hours of writing time to get in a 1,000 word story that met the requirements. Here's a slightly edited version of the story. Down The Harbour Alice swore softly under her breath and threw bandages from the delivery into the store cupboard. None of the midwifery supplies she'd ordered had arrived. It wasn't one of her better days. She'd promised to get Dianne a date with Ed,…
B204 Feedback – A Student Perspective of B204 Leadership, Influencing & Change
I've recently finished studying for B204 Leadership, Influencing and Change, I thought I'd share my B204 feedback. It's not a module I can recommend, for a variety of reasons. Some of these are to do with the specific tutor I had (who I didn't find effective) and some are around the course-work and assessment. I'm posting this before I know what my final mark is, just to avoid the 'sour grapes' aspect of failing it (which I doubt, I scored in the low 60s for my continuous assessment). In the spirit of constructive feedback I copied down my responses to the OU's end of course student questionnaire to get B204 feedback. I doubt any of these comments will feature in their prospectus, so I thought I'd post them on my blog for future prospective students of B204 to find. Feel…
Sissy & Dunbar – Gone on a Guinea Pig Adventure
Our two guinea pigs, Sissy & Dunbar, have gone on an adventure, or at least that's what we're telling the kids. Sissy and Dunbar have been part of our family for the last 19 months. They're almost four years old according to the RSPCA rescue report, not old for a guinea pig. Dunbar (l) & Sissy (centre) with Lucy (not a Guinea Pig) not long after they joined the family. For the last year they've lived in the garden in a rabbit hutch with a C&C mesh run attached (4x4). Since we're around a lot we've taken to letting them out to get more exercise and eat fresh grass. They've enjoyed exploring the garden and normally put themselves back into the hutch in the evening. We've had a couple of episodes where they've needed to be encouraged to leave the…
Toybarnhaus Redhill Raffle Winner
Toybarnhaus in Redhill celebrated its first birthday in its current shop on 17 June with a raffle for its customers. The prize was a shop display box of Lego's Nexo Knights. Alexander spent some minutes staring at it before we went into the shop. Me and the kids collecting our raffle prize from Toybarnhaus Redhill (photo: Tracy Kemp) As I often do on a Saturday morning, I went in with Alexander to look at the Lego. We were enticed by the special birthday offers to buy some Lego with Alexander's saved pocket money. Lucy also got some, and we got a raffle ticket. I put it in my wallet and thought no more of it. It was quite a surprise to find out that we'd won the raffle! We picked up the display box yesterday. It's a huge box…