Book Review Roundup | Breath, Silence, Red Shadow #booksky Breath, Silence and the Rise of the Red Shadow were the last books read in December, finishing up my Challenges for 2025. Also, a review of Going Solo, the second part of Roald Dahl's autobiography, appeared on whitewaterlandings.co.uk on…

#CCC067 | Enlightenment #flashfiction #booksky I suppose enlightenment is the best we can hope for as we leap into the unknown of 2026. (I keep typing, and even saying, 27). This week's Crimson’s Creative Challenge sent me in search of it. It's just over 150 words and I may have left one too many…

Reading Challenge Results 25 and Targets for 26 #booksky My Reading for 2025 was extensive. The last couple of years I've read a great deal because of physical problems. Now I seem to have got into the habit of reading rather than pottering at any number of things I could do on my feet. So one of…

Books of the Year 2025 This is the formal Book of the Year post, not the fun one which I did a few Mondays back. Here I'm going through my Five-Star Reads to pick the best in various genres, and hopefully an overall best of the year. Note: this is the year I read them in, not the year of…

Booker Reviews | The Remains … in the Bardo #booksky I've now completed six Booker Prize Winners for my Reading Challenge, mostly obtained from the library, either as books or ebooks. As with the previous update I'm combining reviews of two here: Lincoln in the Bardo and the Remains of the Day…

#CCC066 | Pillars in the Mist #flashfiction #booksky Pillars in the Mist is the last Crimson’s Creative Challenge of the year. It's strange: I had a slightly different photo fixed in my mind and I wrote to that, not this one. I had also been feeling a little down, and realised I was in danger of…

Krismas at Castle Marsh #flashfiction #booksky Krismas at Castle Marsh... a seasonal story for you featuring my favourite people. I've done Christmas stories for each of their websites in the past, but decided this year on just one. It gets tricky not giving away major plot points nowadays! It's…

Book Review | Under Pressure #booksky Under Pressure came from a steampunk-ish storybundle collection, although I'm not sure how this crept into it. It's more of a weird time travel adventure with literary and rock overtones. But it completes my Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge for the year (I've…

#CCC065 | The Holly and the Ivy #flashfiction #booksky This week's Crimson’s Creative Challenge was a surge of colour on an otherwise dull day. I thought it was perfect for a Holly and the Ivy prompt. It's 150 words. CCC065 - The Holly and the Ivy “You need to strip this ivy off this wall.” The…

Jane Austen at 250 #christmas #booksky Jane Austen would be 250 today. I wondered what she would make of life now. Especially since I saw someone eminent quoted as saying "anyone who compared life in 1950 with life today would conclude they were two different planets." And I would agree. The…

Book Review | Kiwi’s Christmas Tale (Kiwi #6) #mmgm #booksky Kiwi's Christmas Tale is the last of the Kiwi series, and my last Marvellous Middle Grade book for the year. I didnt expect to get this far, and I don't know how many more MG books I'm going to read and review, especially as I've been…

Book Review | Slow Gods by Claire North #sff #booksky Slow Gods: A space opera of breathtaking imagination from the most original voice in speculative fiction. That's the strapline, and it's a lot to live up to. Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for the ARC, although it was too close to…

#CCC064 | Fantasy Castle #flashfiction #booksky The Fantasy Castle came about as it was what I saw in the picture, before I saw its caption. This week's Crimson’s Creative Challenge is both uplifting and sad. I’ll take the uplifting bit. It's 150 words. Plus 45 I couldn’t cut out. CCC064 - the…

A Year in Books 2025 version My Year in Books is a fun thing which I do every year. I’d like to encourage more people to do it. Just copy the categories and add appropriate titles of books you've read this year. It's supposed to be funny, or at least slightly amusing. I link them to my reviews on…

Monthly Homework report: December 25 My December 25 Homework report! I'm doing this on the second Monday of the month... to avoid coinciding with the IWSG post in the same week. It can't be third Monday, because that is currently MMGM day. The Homework Report schedule I have a stack of things on…

Book Review | Holidays and Homicides #booktour #booksky Holidays and Homicides is on a blog tour with Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours from its publication on 2nd to 15th December. As you can guess, it's a seasonal anthology, and most of the authors are in the Sisters In Crime network in the US.…

#CCC063 – The One with Giftmas #Giftmas2025 #booksky Giftmas is a fundraiser by Rhonda Parrish, a blog hop that aims to raise money for the Edmonton Alberta Foodbank. You may feel up to donating to the foodbank, through the link below, but if not, please consider donating, in cash or kind, to your…

Woot! It’s finally happened! #IWSG #booksky It's finally happened! I'm now on Draft2Digital. You may have been there for two years, I know, but there was a hitch for those of us that had publisher accounts AND author accounts at Smashwords. I'd been 14 years with Smashwords almost to the day. It…

Storybundle Book Review Round-up #SFF #booksky I always need a Book Review Round-up of some kind, every year. There are always ones that got away, short books that I didn't have much to say about, collections that should be treated together. This one started with my reading Prime Meridian, then…

#CCC062 | Pecan Peccadillos #flashfiction #booksky This week's Crimson’s Creative Challenge takes us to Cromer, and this shop with pistachio and pecan goodies. I've been reading Slow Gods (review next month), and the two sort of merged together into something nutty. It's 159 words. With another…

Back Down The TBR Hole 25.4 Last time I went down the TBR Hole my list ended at 914 (plus 7 in currently reading). I'm pruning things from my TBR list I am never going to read, realistically. I am posting monthly for a bit, then whenever I want to take some older books off my TBR shelf.  Down The…

Book Review | Artificial Evolution (Big Sigma #3) #sff #booksky Artificial Evolution is the third book in Joseph R Lallo's Big Sigma series. The previous were Bypass Gemini and Unstable Prototypes. He's also responsible for the Free-Wrench series, and you know how much I loved that. This is more…

#CCC061 | Telephone Box #flashfiction #booksky This week's Crimson’s Creative Challenge takes us to a telephone box in the middle of Ringland woods, not far from where I used to live. This might not translate too well for US readers, but then again... It's 195 words, sorry. CCC061 - Telephone Box…

Book Review | Yertle the Turtle #mmgm #booksky Yertle the Turtle was added to my TBR in desperation as I searched for a title beginning with Y for my Alphabet Soup reading challenge. You may find it hard to believe, but I had never before read anything by Dr, Seuss. He may be the mainstay of…

Book Review | What Sheep Think About the Weather #booksky Given how much time I spend trying to communicate with my animals, What Sheep Think About the Weather appeared to be the ideal book for me. The blurb promises ideas and techniques to understand animals better, to see things from their point…

#CCC060 | Good Vibrations #flashfiction #booksky This week Crimson’s Creative Challenge gives us good vibrations in the woods on Mousehold Heath, just outside the City of Norwich. You get a fabulous view of the city from there. The beech trees with their mounds and neighbouring paths are…

Jane Austen and me #booksky Jane Austen and me. We would have been well acquainted, I think, although I would need to be rather more ladylike to fit into her friendship circle. Would she have been generous with her writing advice, or was the critique of works of fiction restricted to trusted…

Monthly Homework report: new feature A Homework report! I never tell you what I've been up to behind the scenes with any regularity, and it doesn't show as outputs (unless I direct you to it), so I decided to do a new feature on the second Monday of the month - my Homework report. Logically, it…

Time Travel Extra | The Book of Lost Hours plus The Frozen People #booksky I have 2 time travel reviews for you today. The Book of Lost Hours is recommended by Net-galley and the publishers for lovers of The Ministry of Time and the Midnight Library, among others. Hmm, that sounds like me then. It…

#CCC059 | Tapestry #flashfiction #booksky A tapestry of colours in this week's Crimson’s Creative Challenge. Although...it's not one of the Challenge photos, it's one from the Sunday post that inspired me more. It's what happens when you decide you need more coloured pencils to do justice to your…

Life as a Writer #IWSG #booksky The IWSG question of the month for November asks about life as a writer. I had a look at all the other things that go on at IWSG as listed in the monthly email. I wonder whether I really want to be bothered with any of it? Coupled with, am I getting too old to be…

Booker Reviews | Heat, Dust, and Atonement #booksky I've completed five and a half Booker Prize Winners for my Reading Challenge, mostly obtained from the library, either as books or ebooks. I'm combining reviews of two here: Heat and Dust, and Atonement. Library books do not count in my TBR…

#CCC058 | Diary of a woodsman #flashfiction #booksky This week's Crimson’s Creative Challenge is a hut in the woods. I had a little trouble getting inspired by the choices this week, but I've been reading time travel books, so my head wasn't in the right places. It's 170 words. CCC058 - Diary of a…

Book Review | The Salt Oracle #sff #booksky @solarisbooks The Salt Oracle turns out to be a second in series, We Are All Ghosts in the Forest. I received an ARC from the publishers and Netgalley without appreciating that. At one point I stopped to read the blurb of its predecessor. I decided that…

#CCC057 | Gull on a buoy #flashfiction #booksky A gull, on a buoy. I saw a fair number of gulls at Pagham Harbour this week, the day before the storm. The clouds were magnificent. But back to work… This week's Crimson’s Creative Challenge is light on words, but hopefully long on emotion. I was…

Book Review | Kiwi in the Realm of Ra (Kiwi #5) #mmgm #booksky Kiwi in the Realm of Ra is the fifth adventure in the world of Kiwi, a cat with a secret life, as well as the standard nine. Kiwi in the Realm of Ra (Kiwi #5) by Vickie Johnstone Inspired by the film Back to the Future, Whiskers…

Book Review | Not Another Bloody Christmas #cosy #crime #booksky Not Another Bloody Christmas was offered to me by the publishers and Netgalley as I'd thoroughly enjoyed Jo Middleton's first book last year. It may not match Happy Bloody Christmas, but it's well worth a read! Not Another Bloody…

#CCC056 | How long is too long? #flashfiction #booksky How long is too long to dither about what to write? This week's Crimson’s Creative Challenge gave me a lot of trouble. I just couldn't decide which of the pictures to go with. So I resorted to a quick flash with four hidden things in it. It's…

Back Down The TBR Hole 25.3 Last time I went down the TBR Hole my list ended at 915 (plus 9 in currently reading. I'm looking at things on my TBR list I was never going to read, realistically. I am posting monthly for a bit, then whenever I want to take some older books off my TBR shelf.  Down The…

Book Review & Tour | Merry Merry Merry Murder #booksky Merry Merry Merry Murder is a new release from the prolific Paty Jager. This launch tour started yesterday, and I’m confident you’ll enjoy its Christmassy feel, although it mostly happens during the week after Thanksgiving. There’s a giveaway…

#CCC055 | The Holiday of a Lifetime #flashfiction #booksky This week's Crimson’s Creative Challenge takes us to this lovely holiday villa in a mystery location. There are hints of water sports nearby, with the life buoy mounted on the side. And maybe the palms are not indigenous, if you look…

Jane Austen’s Dowries and Dalliances #cardgames #booksky Dowries and Dalliances - a blog tour for a Jane Austen-inspired card game! I think this is only available in the USA, so if you try to buy it online and get it shipped, you may end up with extra taxes and import duties - just beware. OTOH if…

Universal Book Links and other news In the background of indie publishing, a quiet revolution is taking place. Draft2Digital merged with Smashwords (or vice versa) and most authors are safely moved over. I'm not for technical reasons I don't understand, but I have created the most important…

Book Review | X (Kinsey Millhone #24) #booksky As I struggled once more to find a book beginning with X that I wanted to read for the Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge, I realised that this was my tenth year of doing it. It's not surprising I'm struggling with the letter X. In fact, it was finally…

#CCC054 | A Bridge for All Seasons #flash fiction #booksky I discovered a bridge for all seasons. This is not quite the prompt for this week's Crimson’s Creative Challenge. I've borrowed one of the other pictures she showed on her Sunday walk, and sort of mixed it up with the Writephoto piece I…

What would Jane Austen have done? #IWSG #booksky Jane Austen celebrates her 250th Anniversary this month. I often wonder what she'd have done if she'd had all the writing advice we have, or done a creative writing course before she started. I reckon she'd have ignored all the advice given and…

Book Review | In a Dark Dark Wood #thriller #booksky I am fairly sure I got this paperback copy of In a Dark Dark Wood as one of the freebies at Noirwich, the Norwich Crime Festival in 2015/16. I checked my books as I packed them up for moving, which is why it was only put on my TBR in April 20.…

#CCC053 | A Bridge of Sighs #flash fiction #booksky A Bridge of Sighs is my take on this week's Crimson’s Creative Challenge. I was challenged to make a choice from the four photos: nothing really sprang to mind, although, having read the previous posts where the images were previewed, I was…

Book Review | Contaminant Six (Free-Wrench #6) #booksky With Contaminant Six we reach the end of the excellent Free-Wrench series by Joseph R Lallo. A hint of steampunk, a great amount of chemical scifi, a brilliant piece of world-building, and lovely characters. I'll miss them. Contaminant Six…

#CCC052 | The Garden Fork #flash fiction #booksky It's a nice garden fork, I like that style. This week's Crimson’s Creative Challenge reminds me of how my vegetable patches used to look. Maybe I'll get them back under control next year. It's only 117 words this week. Can I save some for later? 😀…