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Recent Posts
- Cory Doctorow – Little Brother – For your reading pleasure April 13, 2021
- Researching Historical Fantasy April 6, 2021
- Brent Weeks – The Way of Shadows – The Night Angel Trilogy #1 – For your reading pleasure March 30, 2021
- What have I learned about writing? March 23, 2021
- Kari Sperring: Living With Ghosts – For your reading pleasure March 16, 2021
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Author Archives: Jacey Bedford
Cory Doctorow – Little Brother – For your reading pleasure
This was up for a Best Novel in the Hugo awards and if I’d been eligible to vote that year I’d certainly have voted for it. Yes, it’s aimed at YA, but what the hell, it has Important things to … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, reading, science fiction, writing
Tagged Cory Doctorow, dystopia, near future, surveillance, USA
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Researching Historical Fantasy
The first scene of Winterwood came to me almost fully formed. I knew there was a young woman paying a deathbed visit to her estranged mother and finding that there was still no forgiveness between them. I knew the young … Continue reading
Brent Weeks – The Way of Shadows – The Night Angel Trilogy #1 – For your reading pleasure
I discovered Tanya Huff in 2003, Lois McMaster Bujold was a couple of years after that and Patricia Briggs in 2008. Brent Weeks become my discovery of the year in 2009. His Night Angel trilogy is riveting. Having bought the … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, reading, writing
Tagged books, Brent Weeks, fantasy, For your reading pleasure
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What have I learned about writing?
Writing is a funny old business. Writers probably learn most by reading. You are what you read. Reading develops your ear for tight prose and snappy dialogue. Without even thinking about it, you learn about character and plot. The difficulty … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, historical fiction, reading, science fiction
Tagged donald maass, jacey bedford, misc.writing, usenet, writing, writing advice
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Kari Sperring: Living With Ghosts – For your reading pleasure
This is a gorgeous multi-layered work with a cast of characters which includes the city of Merafi – as much a part of this as are Gracielis, failed Tarnaroqui assassin-priest now courtesan and spy; Thiercelin, husband of one of the … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, reading, writing
Tagged DAW, fantasy, For your reading pleasure, Kari Sperring
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Elizabeth Chadwick: Shadows and Strongholds – For your reading pleasure
The story of Fulke (known as Brunin) FitzWarin and Hawise de Dinan from the time Brunin is taken into the de Dinan household (Ludlow Castle) as a ten year old squire, at the request of his father who wants the … Continue reading
Posted in historical fiction, reading, writing
Tagged Elizabeth Chadwick, histprocal fiction, Ludlow Castle
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Sea Shanties, and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough’s Songkiller Saga
As a long-time folkie I watched with great amusement as the Good Morning America TV show interviewed Nathan Evans – the twenty-six year old Scottish postman whose Tiktok renditions of sea shanties seem to have sparked off their discovery by … Continue reading
Building a Universe – Law and Order in The Psi-Tech Novels
More about the universe in which the Psi-Tech books are set. The Monitors – Galactic PolicingFormed in 2391, the Monitors are an interstellar policing force largely concerned with providing law in the space-lanes and for those newly established colonies that … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, reading, science fiction, writing
Tagged crossways, empire of dust, jacey bedford, Nimbus, psi-tech, psi-tech trilogy, stephan martiniere, worldbuilding
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Patricia Briggs: Steal the Dragon – For your reading pleasure
There are no dragons in this book – well there is one, but not a significant one and it only appears on the page once, in a dream. So having got that out of the way, this is early Briggs … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, reading, writing
Tagged fantasy, fantasy books, For your reading pleasure, Patricia Briggs, reading, writing
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Building a Universe – Folding Space – The Psi-Tech Novels.
Early Space ExplorationHumans established several stations on the moon, and a joint scientific facility on Mars by 2050. At the same time commerical expeditions to mine the Kuiper Belt proved successful, and, following a twenty year scientific study, shipyards were … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, reading, science fiction, writing
Tagged crossways, empire of dust, Folding space, foldspace, Nimbus, psi-tech, psi-tech trilogy, psionics
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Lois McMaster Bujold: Legacy – Sharing Knife # 2 – For your reading pleasure
The continuing adventures of Lakewalker, Dag Redwing Hickory and his ‘farmer’ wife Fawn Bluefeld, following on directly from the events in ‘Beguilement’ which ended with Dag and Fawn’s wedding at the Bluefeld farm, having more or less overcome her family’s … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, reading
Tagged fantasy, fantasy books, Lois McMaster Bujold, romance, Sharing Knife
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Building a Universe – The Psi-Techs
My Psi-Tech Universe has implant-enhanced humans who have telepathy to a greater or lesser extent, combined with other psi talents. My main characters, Cara and Ben are psi-techs. Cara is a top class telepath with a side order of empathy, … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, reading, science fiction, writing
Tagged crossways, empire of dust, Nimbus, psi-tech, psi-tech trilogy, psionics, telepathy
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Lois McMaster Bujold: Beguilement – The Sharing Knife #1 – For your reading pleasure
All the reviews said: ‘Good, but not as good as Curse of Chalion,’ so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. On the whole I would agree, but to my mind it will be a very exceptional book that is … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, reading
Tagged fantasy, fantasy books, For your reading pleasure, Lois McMaster Bujold, regency romance, Sharing Knife
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Building a Universe – Power Structures and Personal Stories.
When I started to write Empire of Dust I didn’t really know much about my setting. I didn’t build my universe first and then people is and dream up stories. The people came first, and along with them a predicament. … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, reading, science fiction
Tagged crossways, empire of dust, jacey bedford, Nimbus, psi-tech, psi-tech trilogy, space opera, SpaceX, trilogies, trilogy, worldbuilding
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Charles Stross: The Bloodline Feud – for your reading pleasure
Charles Stross: The Family Trade – Merchant Princes #1 Two books, one story. I bought them as individual books, but they are now available in the omnibus The Bloodline Feud. Damn you, Charlie Stross! I was just getting into this … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, reading, science fiction, writing
Tagged Charles Stross, For your reading pleasure, Merchant Princes series
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Looking Both Ways – 2020 and 2021
As a year, 2020 sucked bigtime. It was not fit for purpose. If I’d paid good money for it I’d want a refund. Sure, it wasn’t too bad in January and February. The weather was miserable so I mostly stayed … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, reading, science fiction, writing
Tagged 2020, 2021, Amber Crown, Covid-19, jacey bedford, The Amber Crown, writing
2 Comments
Ann Aguirre: Grimspace – for your reading pleasure
I really liked this one. Telepathy, space travel, adventure, a damaged heroine and tormented telepathic hero. What’s not to like? Sirantha Jax carries the J-gene that enables her to jump ships across space. It’s a talent that’s likely to kill … Continue reading
Posted in reading, science fiction, writing
Tagged Ann Aguirre, For your reading pleasure, Grimspace, reading
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In My Other Life
I have two blogs, this one and a book blog at https://jacey.dreamwidth.org/ where I blog every book I read and every movie I see in the cinema – that one’s a bit thin on movies this year, but rich on … Continue reading
Posted in reading, writing
Tagged a cappella, Artisan, Artisan harmony, folk music, reading, writing
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Lisa Shearin’s Raine Benares books – for your reading pleasure.
I’ll be perfectly honest, though I liked the first Raine Benares book, Magic Lost, Trouble Found I wasn’t 100% in love with it. Luckily I liked it enough to get the second book, Armed and Magical, which picks up just … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, reading, writing
Tagged books, fantasy, For your reading pleasure, Lisa Shearin, Raine Benares
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Scene 1 of Winterwood – author analysis
This was first written for Tiffani Angus’ blog. Tiff teaches creative writing and publishing. Story interspersed with my comments in bold italic. This first scene pretty much sprang into my mind fully formed. When I started to write I didn’t … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, historical fiction, reading, writing
Tagged analysis, jacey bedford, Rowankind trilogy, Winterwood, writing
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Anne Lyle: Night’s Masque Trilogy – for your reading pleasure
Published by Angry Robot, The Alchemist of Souls, Merchant of Dreams, and The Prince of Lies are the three books in Anne Lyle’s Night’s Mask Trilogy, set in Elizabethan London with (kind of) aliens. Queen Elizabeth has married, produced heirs … Continue reading
Books etc. for Christmas
2020 has not been the year it was supposed to be. (Not fit for purpose. Can I get a refund?) I didn’t get anywhere as much writing done as I could have, but I read, and re-read an awful lot. … Continue reading
Scott Lynch: The Lies of Locke Lamora – for your reading pleasure
Thoroughly absorbing, interesting characters who are changed by events that happen to them, great backstory, twisty plot in the front-story leading to nail-biting tension. Highly recommended. Trying not to give away too many spoilers we get to see the formation … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, reading, science fiction, writing
Tagged book blogs, books, fantasy, For your reading pleasure, reviews, Scott Lynch
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What I learned about Tallinn that I couldn’t have found out from a guidebook.
I was supposed to be going to the World Science Fiction Convention in New Zealand this year, a country I’ve never been to, even though I visited Ausralia in 2000. Australia and NZ look conveniently close when viewed on a … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, historical fiction, reading, writing
Tagged Amber Crown, estonia, Finland, research, tallinn, travel
2 Comments
Liz Williams: The Snake Agent – for your reading pleasure
Any book which opens with the main protagonist swinging by his heels in Hell has got my attention from page one. This grabbed me and never let me go. Det. Insp. Chen is the cop whose responsibilities include the underworld … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, reading, science fiction, writing
Tagged fantasy, For your reading pleasure, Liz Williams, police procedural, reading
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Domestication in a time of Coronavirus
I’m currently reading/listening to Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari who says that early farmers did not domesticate wheat, wheat domesticated them. By the process of gradually farming it rather than gathering wild grains, early farmers (previously nomadic) began to stay … Continue reading
Georgette Heyer: The Toll Gate for your reading pleasure
Everyone has their favourite Heyer. This is one of mine. When Crazy Jack Staple, lately of Wellington’s army returns to civilian life after the defeat of Napoleon, he finds that there’s not much to satisfy the adrenaline junkie he’s become, … Continue reading
Style Sheets
Posted on February 7, 2017 by Jacey Bedford There’s a lot of information to keep in your head if you’re writing a book. There’s even more if you’re writing a trilogy or a series. I happily wrote seven books without … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, science fiction, writing
Tagged copy edit, DAW, psi-tech, psi-tech trilogy, style sheet, writing, writing advice
2 Comments
Joe Abercrombie: Best Served Cold – for your reading pleasure
Joe Abercrombie never fails to disappoint. After thoroughly exhausting myself reading his First Law trilogy towards the back end of 2011 it took taken me a while to come to Best Served Cold. I anticipated reading it last year but … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, reading, writing
Tagged deark fantasy, First Law Trilogy, For your reading pleasure, grimdark, Joe Abercrimbie
2 Comments
The Rule of Three
This post first appeared on David Tallerman’s blog. As humans we look for patterns. Three is the smallest number of elements that can form a pattern. Superstition suggests that three is the magic number, or that both bad things and … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, reading, science fiction, writing
Tagged Amber Crown, psi-tech trilogy, publishing, Rowankind trilogy, rule of three, writing
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Boy Wizards on the Lam. Three series beginnings – for your reading pleasure
This is the first of my new alternate Tuesday reading posts, so I thought I’d dip back in time to tell you about three books that are each the first in their own well-loved series. They all owe something to … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, reading, science fiction, writing
Tagged Benedict Jacka, book blog, books, fabtasy, For your reading pleasure, Jim Hines, Kevin Hearne, Magic, reading, reviews, urban fantasy
3 Comments
Space Opera
I write science fiction. I’m pretty sure my sub-genre is space opera. I’m happy with that definition. I grew up reading my dad’s Lensman books and the distinctive Gollancz yellow jacketed SF, however I wasn’t aware of any distinction between … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, reading, science fiction, writing
Tagged jacey bedford, science fiction, space opera, stephan martiniere, writing
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Book Blogs
I’ve been posting writing-related blogs every other Tuesday, and I’ll continue to do that, but from now on I’m also going to do reading-related blogs on the intermediate Tuesdays. Yes, that’s right, this blog is going weekly. I blog everything … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, reading, science fiction, writing
Tagged book blog, book reviews, jacey bedford, psi-tech trilogy, Rowankind trilogy, shelfies
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Game of Thrones Revisited
Just after Game of Thrones finished, Iain Grant sent a few of us some revealing questions about Game of Thrones. I know the ending was contentious, but though I would have wished for a happier ending, I wasn’t honestly expecting … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, reading, writing
Tagged characterisation, Game of Thrones, television, writing
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The Belgian Refugees of World War One
In 2017, when Alma Alexander asked if I’d be interested in writing a story for her refugees anthology, Children of A Different Sky, I jumped at the chance. There are so many refugee crises in the world that a writer … Continue reading
The Geography of Words
Writing science fiction and fantasy involves worldbuilding. Sometimes we take a concept, strip it right down to basics and invent a planet where the sea is pink, the sky is upside down and the dominant life form has seven tentacles … Continue reading
Hookey Garrity’s Story
The Rowankind books, Winterwood, Silverwolf, and Rowankind, are narrated by Rossalinde (Ross) Tremayne, but every now and then one of the other characters likes to have his say. You can find Corwen’s piece here. And pirate captain Gentleman Jim’s piece … Continue reading
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Getting Things Done – a guest post by Gail Z. Martin
I’ll admit it. I have a reputation for getting a lot done. People ask me if I sleep, or take vacations, or have down time. And the truth is that I generally log about seven hours sleep a night, take … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, reading, science fiction, writing
Tagged gail z martin, time management, writing
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How Long is a Piece of String?
Chopping and Changing – Revisions, Cuts and Additions. How long should your story or novel be? A piece (story, novel or poem) should be as long as it needs to be – but that’s not always as long as you, … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, reading, science fiction, writing
Tagged Ann Leckie, editing, fantasy, jacey bedford, revision, science fiction, Sheila Gilbert, word count, writing, writing advice
2 Comments
How Much is Too Much History? – A guest post by David Tallerman
Though I’ve gone on to write a couple of things since, my novel To End All Wars, out last week from publisher Aethon, was my first stab at writing historical fiction. It was a dramatic about-turn for me after years … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, reading, writing
Tagged books, David Tallerman, First World War, guest blog, guest post, historical fantasy, historical fiction, history, World War I
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Crew Dragon Launch – 30th May 2020
I watched the SpaceX terminated launch last Wednesday 27th May, and then again the actual launch on Saturday 30th – immediately followed by watching Apollo 11, the documentary using newly unearthed film footage and audio recordings. Apollo 11 was the … Continue reading
A Moment of Stuckness
Anyone who knows me will testify that I’m not usually stuck for words. It’s not that I don’t believe in writer’s block (obviously it is a thing) it’s that I’ve rarely experienced it. However, recently I had a period where … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, reading, science fiction, writing
Tagged jacey bedford, music, writers' blosk, writing, writing exercises, writing idead
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How I Got Here From There
First published on Gillian Polack’s blog in March 2020 for Women’s History Month It took me a long time to get here, possibly too long. If I’d known then, what I know now, it might not have taken so long… … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, reading, science fiction, writing
Tagged book deals, DAW, jacey bedford, milford, Milford SF Writers, misc.writing, psi-tech trilogy, Rowankind trilogy, Sheila Gilbert, writing
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The New Normal
To meet or not to meet – that is the question. I’m a big advocate of critique groups. I’ve been attending the Milford Writers’ Conference since 1998 with enough regularity that eventually I’ve ended up being the secretary. Milford is … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, reading, science fiction, writing
Tagged critique groups, critiquing, google hangouts, milford, Milford SF Writers, Northwrite, NorthwriteSF, trigonos
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Fiction Must Make More Sense Than Real Life
Fiction must make more sense than real life. I think we all know that real life isn’t making much sense at the moment. If we wrote about a global pandemic in which presidential staff held hands and prayed that it … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, reading, science fiction, writing
Tagged conspiracy theories, Covid 19, fiction, pandemic, self-sufficiency, vegetable growing, video calls, writing
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House Arrest
Due to Covid 19 we’ve pulled up the drawbridge and dug a shark infested moat around Bedford Towers. No, we’re not sick, but I’m diabetic and my other half has suddenly become classified as elderly. How scary is that? Our … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, reading, science fiction, writing
Tagged conspiracy theory, Coronavirus, Covid 19, Dan McKinnon, editing, pandemic, self-isolate, Survivors, time management, writing
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An interview first published in SF Signal
I like doing interviews, especially when the questions are both thoughtful and taxing. Carl Slaughter presented me with an intriguing set of questions way back in 2016. I thought I’d revisit them. CS: Your first series is cyberpunk space opera. … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, reading, science fiction, writing
Tagged Carl Slaughter, crossways, empire of dust, interview, Nimbus, psi-tech trilogy, rowankind, Rowankind trilogy, SF Signal, Silverwolf, Winterwood
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