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Merry Christmas, Bonaparte Cuckooclock

IMG_9618Happy holidays, everyone! I wrote you another story with the help of the Benedict Cumberbatch name generator. Hope you enjoy it.

Once Upon A Time there was a lad of eight years who went by the name of Bonaparte Cuckooclock.

He lived in a hollowed out tree in an enchanted forest, but he didn’t see anything unusual in that for it was the only life he had ever known – and a very fine life it was too, dining on cherry blossom and morning dew and never having to go to school.

Note to any younger readers: do not try to subsist on a diet of cherry blossom and morning dew.  You’ll make yourself spectacularly unwell – Bonaparte was a character in a story, and as such his digestive tract was subject to the whims of the author.  You are, one assumes, a human child and as such you need to eat heartier foodstuffs like jam sandwiches and pickled eggs and all those other lovely things children like to eat. Feel free to leave a list in the comments.

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Turn To Page 45

Last week, (on Monday 11th November to be precise) I was surfing Pinterest, as is my wont using Pinterest for important research to help fill the 12 Books Facebook Page with kickass content, when I came across this.

Page45

Continue reading “Turn To Page 45” →

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Open Mic Opportunity in Edinburgh

Doctor Who Open Mic Night Edinburgh 2013Are you a poet or penner of short fiction?  Have any of your poems or prose ever included aliens, time travel, jelly babies, or copious amounts of running?  Then have I got the Open Mic Night for you!

Organised by my good friend Andrew Blair and the chaps behind Blind Poetics*, the truthfully titled ‘The Doctor Who Open Mic Night’ is coming to Edinburgh pub The Blind Poet on November 25th.  Join performers Kevin Cadwallender, Tracey S. Rosenberg and Russell Jones as they celebrate the Fiftieth Anniversary of Doctor Who through spoken word.  And as you do it, you can help raise money for The Lullaby Trust, an amazing charity that supports bereaved families.

Open mic slots are available if you want to perform – email drwhoopenmic@hotmail.com for further info – but the organisers would like to make it clear that you don’t have to perform 100% Doctor material:  ‘anything even tangentially related, be it sci-fi, time travel, weeping angels, things-being-bigger-on-the-inside or Jon Pertwee, is totally cool.’

Meanwhile, if you just want to go and have a listen, that’s likely what I’m going to do.  Unless I spend the next week finally committing that Ode to Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart I’ve been composing to paper… But I fear I’ve said too much.  Anyway entry is free, although as discussed there is the option to donate to the Lullaby Trust (they are suggesting a very reasonable £2).

If you fancy coming along or know someone else whose cup of tea it is, please help spread the word – join the Facebook event, share this blog post, and generally make a lot of noise.  Like Kevin Cadwallender might do:

Hope to see you there!

When: Monday 25th November, 7.30pm
Where: The Blind Poet, 32 West Nicholson Street, Edinburgh

*Those chaps are Roddy Shippin and Alec Beattie, and you can keep up with Blind Poetics, a monthly night of spoken word, on Facebook and Twitter.

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The Unfortunate Wandering Wimbledon

commonIt’s Tuesday, so it must be time for another short story inspired by the Benedict Cumberbatch name generator.  In case you’re new to this idea, B. Cumberbatch (actor) has a silly name that inspired someone to devise a generator to create similarly silly names, and I thought I would use it to spark some story ideas.  I’m posting them here in lieu of any more interesting or relevant content, for you to peruse or ignore at your discretion.  First I told you of Timothy Clavichord, and last week it was Syphilis Crumplehorn.  Today you can read about the unfortunate Wimbledon Commonwealth.

Continue reading “The Unfortunate Wandering Wimbledon” →

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The Book Blogger Files #6 – Jess Haigh (aka BookElfLeeds)

Me black and white smilingThis week The Book Blogger Files features Jess Haigh, who you may know from Twitter as @BookElfLeeds.  She’s not exclusively a book blogger, but she does know her books and bookish events, so I wanted to find out more about her site.  Here goes!

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The Book Blogger Files #5 – On Starships and Dragonwings

There are so many book bloggers on the internet that if you laid them all end to end they’d reach to Alpha Centauri and back – but how do you know whether the reviews on any one site will match your own tastes?  One way might be to find out a little more about the people behind them.  And so I present The Book Blogger Files – a series of interviews with the literary enthusiasts behind the keyboards.  Today I’m speaking to Anya, who reviews SF and Fantasy on her blog On Starships and Dragonwings.

me_and_ozWho are you, where are you in the world, and what inspired you to get started with book blogging?

I’m a graduate student in Computer Science in Michigan, though I lived my life in Minnesota up until grad school. I started book blogging because I wanted to try out this crazy blogging thing and could only think of one hobby that I was unlikely to ever get tired of: reading!

Where did the name ‘On Starships and Dragonwings’ come from?

My blog was originally called ‘About The Story,’ but when I switched to self-hosted, I wanted a name that fit me better – I realized I no longer only cared about the story!  My genres of choice are sci-fi and fantasy, so I wanted a name that incorporated both of them. I basically decided that I most enjoy escaping ‘on starships and dragonwings’, so that became the name!

What is it about SF/Fantasy that appeals to you over other genres?

Continue reading “The Book Blogger Files #5 – On Starships and Dragonwings” →

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