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Author archive:

Val

Back again…

Finally moved down to England, after lots of delays, and settling into my tiny, new flat. A lot of the stuff I was hoping to do last year never got done. Besides preperations for the expected move sidelining everything, my health has been getting steadily worse; I have myalgia, osteo-arthritis, a bad back and a […]

The Todmorden Tales

The Todmorden Tales is a collection of short stories that Brian & I wrote in the mid-90s for The Little Red Book, a little magazine we published at the time. We’d often talked about putting them all together into a book, and actually did so in 2020. It sold very poorly (mainly from lack of […]

My Work

Screenshot of my current layout and typesetting project, using Affinity Publisher I’ve been using DTP (Desktop Publishing) programs since (I think) 1996, trying out a few and finally sticking with Serif PagePlus. We wanted to print a small quarterly magazine and PagePlus was cheap and easy to use. Other people started asking us to design […]

“Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.”

A short update post – a lot has been going on since I last posted. Last year, after a long illness, my beloved Brian died. I am now on my own and thinking hard about my future. After two years of being a full-time carer, my health isn’t too good and I’ll need to move […]

A Cat’s Tale (with no cat)

When I was twenty-one or so and unemployed and single, I shared a flat with four others, all similarly un- and under-employed. It was very Young Ones at times – we squabbled over the cleaning rota, ate quite a lot of lentils, had a laid-back landlord who was into Jung and primal screaming. Our weekly […]

Hard Sun review

“It’s as if Luther, Line of Duty and Utopia all went to the pub together, emerged several hours later, steaming, and decided to form a supergroup.”

More Thoughts

This post is a sort of run-on from the last. I had a bit of a rant there about how “diverse” characters (and I’m not talking just about trans) shouldn’t be shoehorned into a creative work without justification. Welp, I wasn’t really expecting to have my point proved so quickly.

A Book Review (with diverse diversions)

Just finished John Scalzi’s Old Mans War. It’s now been out for 15 years and is one of those books that everyone who knows SF says you ought to read. So I finally did. Clearly a homage to Robert Heinlein, it’s not a bad read at all – I only skipped a few pages, near […]

Mr Mercedes S1 Review

WARNING: SPOILERS APLENTY So, having dealt with Designated Survivor (which didn’t survive), I’ve been watching the first series of Mr Mercedes. I loved the book and was interested to see what sort of mess the adaptation would turn out to be. Up till now, I’ve seen screen adaptations of eight King works – The Shining, […]

Designated Survivor review Pt 2

SPOILERS AHEAD Well, I’ve carried on watching and have now finished Ep 15 (of 22). I’m not really excited about it, but I’ve paid for the whole series so I’m determined to get my money’s worth. Besides, I am mildly curious about how the story will pan out. The US has turned out some excellent […]