M J Logue – Author Interview
M J Logue is the subject of this week's interview. M J Logue is the author of several historical novels set in the 17th century. She's one of only two authors I know that write about Roundheads. English: Battle of Marston Moor, 1644 by John Barker (Photo credit: Wikipedia) M J Logue has been passionate about the English Civil War since writing her first novel over 20 years ago. After a brief flirtation with horror and dark fantasy, she returned to her first love, historical fiction, and now combines the two. She has a degree in English literature, trained as an archivist, and likes Jacobean theatre, loud music, and cheese. When not attempting to redeem the reputation of the Army of Parliament, she lives in Cornwall with her husband and son, three cats, and a toad under the back doorstep.…
The Secret of Success or Snake Oil?
Clark Stanley's Snake Oil Liniment. Before 1920. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) The Secret of Success is offered on many pages across the Internet. They're almost all snake oil salesmen trying to part you from your money with the temptation of an easy win. The real secret of success is nothing of the sort. Secret of Success I think that there are four elements to being successful. Here is the secret of success as I see it. work hard learn from failures perseverance get lucky Why should you believe me? You've never heard of me as a big shot. Well that would be fair. In my chosen career, as a public servant, I'm moderately successful. I'm in the top 2% of UK civil servants. Not big enough for you have heard of, but successful enough to have worked out how the system…
Redshirts by John Scalzi [Book Review]
Redshirts by John Scalzi My rating: 3 of 5 stars Redshirts is a pastiche on the original Star Trek. As a premise it's interesting, and Scalzi executes it well. However it's not really enough for a full length book. I can see it working very well as a 90 minute movie though. Redshirts - Review All through Redshirts there are little chuckles and wry smiles. The plot is an observation of the sort of tricks series writers use to keep audience attention. So it is a meta story more than it is its own story. Redshirts is full of Scalzi's trademark snarkiness and cleverness, which I happen to like. Scalzi said in a recent blog post that he wrote Redshirts in five weeks. That makes Redshirts the fastest book he's written, and it sort of shows. I did like it, but only just.…
Red Horse by M.J. Logue [Book Review]
Red Horse by Logue My rating: 5 of 5 stars Red Horse is set at the beginning of the First English Civil War in 1642. The primary characters are Captain Hollie Babbitt and his young Cornet Luce Pettitt. Babbitt is a grizzled and damaged English mercenary back from the continent to fight for Parliament. Pettitt fights from conviction and conscience, he is a distant relation to the Earl of Essex. This sets us up nicely for a tale from a cavalry viewpoint with the odd glimpse of higher command. There are a troop of supporting characters as well. For the most part they simply give enough context for the main characters not to be in isolation. Both main characters are flawed, and this makes their character development engaging. Luce starts off naive and relatively innocent. I could identify my…
Influential Books – Ten Books You Should Read
Some of my most influential books A friend recently did a facebook list of the ten most influential books that had the most impact on his life, and he tagged me in it. This got me thinking. I found it hard to identify ten influential books. I firmly believe that every book you read is an influential book and has some sort of impact on your life. One of the issues I have is that I’ve read a lot of books. I’m reading 50-60 books a year just now. I read more before the internet. Doing an OU degree also cut down my reading rate. In 2012, just before my daughter was born, I gave up my study for her bedroom. I filled over 20 crates with books to keep, the ones I thought that I might re-read or refer to later. I gave…