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Recent Posts
- Building a Universe – The Psi-Techs January 26, 2021
- Lois McMaster Bujold: Beguilement – The Sharing Knife #1 – For your reading pleasure January 22, 2021
- Building a Universe – Power Structures and Personal Stories. January 12, 2021
- Charles Stross: The Bloodline Feud – for your reading pleasure January 5, 2021
- My 2020 Reading December 31, 2020
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Category Archives: fantasy
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
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
2 Comments
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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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
2 Comments
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
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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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
2 Comments
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
3 Comments
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
8 Comments
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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Reading Writing and Rewriting
I was a voracious reader as a child, working my way steadily through the stock of my local public library children’s department. My literature of choice was anything with horses or ponies in it. Some of the books in my … Continue reading
Useful book cover tool online
I posted this to the Milford blog this week, but I’m so taken with it, I thought I’d post it here, too. Whether you’re self-published or traditionally published there’s a good chance that you’ll need to shout out about your … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, reading, science fiction, writing
Tagged authors' tools, book covers, book mockup maker, book promotion, book publicity.
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Quantifying Success
A few years ago, Chuck Wendig posted to his Terrible Minds blog saying: ‘It Only Gets Harder Once You’re Published’. (http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2015/08/19/it-only-gets-harder-once-youre-published/) How true. That article really resonated with me. I wonder if authors ever get over the self-doubt thing. When … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, reading, science fiction, writing
Tagged empire of dust, jacey bedford, psi-tech trilogy, Rowankind trilogy, shelfies
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Fantasy Food to Go – Part 2 – Overland
Land journeys Looking at the amount of storage required on board ship for all the provisions, it quickly becomes obvious that carrying anything close to naval rations for even a small party travelling on land would require wagons or, at … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, reading, writing
Tagged beans, fantasy food, Food, stew, travellers' food
9 Comments
Fantasy Food to Go – Part 1 – All at Sea
As a fantasy writer I’ve given much thought to what characters eat on those epic journeys by land and sea. My Rowankind Trilogy involved stocking the Heart of Oak, Ross’s tops’l schooner, for an Atlantic voyage. You need to base … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, reading, writing
Tagged fantasy food, Food, sailor's rations, sailors' food, Samuel Pepys, ship's biscuits, ship's provisions
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Updated Blog Archive: 2013 to 2019
2013 Bated Breath Seven Short Men and a Waif Preparing for Milford Jumping in at the Shallow End Serendipitous Book Browsing Four days to go Three Book Deal Milford Writers Publishers Marketplace Announcement Editor Talk New Book Log on LJ: Karen Traviss: … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, reading, science fiction, writing
Tagged Blog post index, jacey bedford
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2019 – Retrospective
2019 has been a pretty good year. I did a few conventions, read a lot of books, finished editing a couple of my own, saw a lot of movies, kept up with the day job, organised (and attended) a couple … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, reading, science fiction, writing
Tagged Artisan, books, Breanna Teintze, Jamie Lee Moyer, Jodi Taylor, movies, Sebastien de Castell, T Kingfisher
2 Comments
Creativity and the laugh-track of my life
I signed up for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) at the beginning of November, a commitment to write 50,000 words in a month. It’s fewer than 2000 words a day, so it should be—if not easy—not all that difficult. I’ve … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, reading, science fiction, writing
Tagged creativity, jacey bedford, making time to write, muse, writing, writing inspiration
2 Comments
Process
I’ve been thinking about process over the last few weeks. I’m writing a new, story which I hope will turn into the next novel project. It’s as yet untitled, and if I had to describe it at all it would … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, reading, science fiction, writing
Tagged aliens, characters, fantasy, inspiration, plot, scrivener, writing, writing process
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It’s not too late to join up – NaNoWriMo
NaNoWriMo – National NovelWriting Month-takes place each November. You sign up Her: https://nanowrimo.org and commit to writing 50,000 in November, which means writing just a little under 2,000 words a day. It’s only 3rd November, you still have time to … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, reading, science fiction, writing
Tagged NaNoWriMo, Nimbus, pantsers, plotters, procrastinatio, Silverwolf, Winterwood, writing
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Retro-Blog of a Pre-published Writer from Autumn 2008
With hindsight this is really interesting. This (edited) collection of blog posts is from the early days of writing The Amber Crown, which then had the working title of Spider on the Web. (Sometimes the working title became That Bloody … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, writing
Tagged Baltic, Baltic novel, jacey bedford, milford, Retro-blog, retrospective, The Amber Crown, writing
3 Comments
Writers Injuring Characters
I went to visit my dentist for a particularly difficult tooth extraction today, so as I write this I’m sitting nursing a sore jaw as the anaesthetic is wearing off. I can’t deny that I felt a bit wobbly after … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, science fiction, writing
Tagged head injuries, jacey bedford, Peaky Blinders, Promethius movie, psi-tech, psi-tech trilogy, PTSD, writing, writing injuries
5 Comments
Home from Milford – Tired but Happy
I’ve just arrived home from Milford SF Writers’ Conference in North Wales, and I could sleep for a week. I’m not ready for the real world yet. After a week of intense writing critique punctuated by meals taken with fourteen … Continue reading
Open Submissions for Anthologies – a guest post by Joshua Palmatier
Zombies Need Brains’ latest Kickstarter started up on August 7th and with the possibility of an open call for submissions if we fund, I thought that I’d spend some time talking about how you can better your chances of getting … Continue reading
Generating Ideas – a guest post by Joshua Palmatier
The three new themes for Zombies Need Brains’ Kickstarter have been revealed (apocalypses, food, old tech finding new life) and I thought I’d offer up a suggestion here for how to generate an idea that fits a theme AND make … Continue reading
Dublin Worldcon 2019
This was my third Worldcon. I attended in 2014 in London, and 2017 in Helsinki. The first thing to note is that Worldcon is BIG, with thousands of fans, authors, publishers and industry professionals with an enormous choice of panels, … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, science fiction, writing
Tagged authors, Charles Stross, cons, conventions, DAW, Dublin, milford, Milford SF Writers, panels, Sheila Gilbert, worldcon
7 Comments
My Other Journal in a Galaxy Far far Away
In 2008 I started a blog on LiveJornal (and later moved everything over to Dreamwidth, but that’s another story). These days I mostly keep Dreamwidth for book and movie reviews, but in those early days my blogs were much more … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, science fiction, writing
Tagged blogging, Dreamwidth, empire of dust, LiveJournal, old journals, other blog, psi-tech trilogy, titles, writing
2 Comments
A Visit to the British Museum
As I said in my last blog I was down in London for the Science for Fiction course and T and I stayed over an extra day to visit the British Museum. It’s mightily impressive both for its collections and … Continue reading