Blog

A personal reflection on health, fragility, and why we can’t take even a cold for granted.

I may be a cancer survivor, but my immune system has been compromised. Now, a bad cold has triggered something unexpected, fainting after sneezing. Here’s what I’ve learned about this overlooked and potentially serious condition called cough syncope.

Since finishing cancer treatment, my immune system has been living on borrowed strength. Immunotherapy has kept me stable, and for that I’m grateful, but it’...

"I regret to inform you that we can't repair it, nor can we replace it. It's company policy on signed for goods."

"But it was the last upgrade. As soon as it finished downloading the robot collapsed."

"Upgrades are made at the owner's discretion. We at Hanei's Universal Robots cannot be held responsible for an erroneous download."

"But..." There was a click and the line went dead.

"Waste of time," I muttered.

My broken robot, sat at the other side of the sofa, slumped and inert.

I stood up,...

She moved it with her mind.

That was the last entry in the victim’s diary, a shaky scrawl written as he was nearing the end of his life. I searched the pages for a clue as to who had shot dead the scientist. His lab was in perfect shape. No sign of a fight. The victim was slumped across his workbench, finger touching a desk toy, one of those gizmos of swinging metal ball-bearings.

“What was he working on?” I asked the head of research.

“Artificial Intelligence. His robot, she was his pride and...

“What just blew up?”

“Don’t know,” I said, sleepily, “but whatever it was it made a helluva a bang. I’ll go take a look.”

I slipped on my slippers and hoisted my robe round my shoulders and shuffled across the cold, tiled, floor to the front door. The dogs sat there, waiting to go out for a pee.

“You heard it too, huh?”

Duke and Daisy’s tails wagged in unison and they hopped from leg to leg in anticipation as I opened the door. I caught hold of them just in time, pulling them back into the...

Ray Colter didn’t look like trouble, but that was his game. At forty-two, with a wiry build and a face that could melt into any crowd, he was the kind of mugger who didn’t scare you until it was too late.

Tonight, his mark was an easy one, a stooped, solitary old man shuffling along a deserted side street, his overcoat flapping in the cold wind.

Ray slipped out of the shadows.

“Evening, grandpa. Hand over the wallet.” His tone was friendly enough, but the knife in his hand made the words matter....

There are few experiences in life more infuriating than a housefly making repeated kamikaze dives at your face. You can be sitting there in peaceful contemplation, a cup of tea in hand, and suddenly find yourself conducting an impromptu martial arts demonstration in your lounge. The dog looks concerned, the neighbours think you’ve lost your mind, and still the little bugger keeps coming back for more.

But contrary to popular belief, the housefly isn’t acting out of malice or a secret vendetta....

Throughout history, rulers have learned a simple, brutal truth: fear keeps people quiet. From the guillotine squares of revolutionary France to modern streets patrolled by militarised police, terror has often been the preferred tool of governments seeking obedience rather than consent. When authority can make people afraid, not just for their safety, but for their rights and dignity, it gains a power far stronger than law: submission through dread.

This article looks at how terror has been...

It’s not every day you discover that the world’s most famous peace prize was founded by the man who gave humanity dynamite.

Yes, you read that right. Alfred Nobel, the patron saint of pacifism, the man whose name is whispered in tones of reverence every time a medal is draped over a laureate’s neck… was once better known for blowing things up.

A Blast from the Past
In 1867, Alfred Nobel patented his latest invention, a “safer” explosive.

Before then, the goto explosive was the highly unstable...

Why Every Writer Needs an Online Presence

In the competitive world of self-publishing, having a strong online presence is not optional, it’s essential. For indie authors, an author website is more than just a digital business card; it’s the foundation of your brand, marketing, and reader relationships. Whether you write romance, fantasy, non-fiction, or poetry, your website can help you sell more books, grow your fanbase, and stand out in a crowded marketplace.

1. Your Author Website is Your...

The smallest thing set him off.

“Nahn, Nek-Nak! Rhink!”

He said it with such emotion I assumed I had annoyed him. Did I say him? Well, he had a deep voice indicating a male. Apart from that, he was blue with shaggy fur all over. He arrived at my house late one evening last week in a blaze of light. His confusion was evident immediately.

“Nek-Nak, behm!” He shouted so loud I expected the neighbours to call the police.

Next day another blaze of light heralded the appearance of a small device....

"How do you write a novel?"

It's a question I've been asked a few times, and not just by people who want to write a novel. Several indie authors have asked me the same question. Well, there isn't a 'set of rules' you must adhere to, that I am aware of. Most writers of fiction stories, novellas and novels usually class themselves as either a plotter or a panster.

Plotters

A plotter speaks for itself. This is where the writer plots out the story, characters, chapters, scenes and pretty much the...

Or, How I Learned That “Free Interview” Often Means “Give me $400 first”

Just lately I, like so many indie authors, have been inundated with emails and Social Media DMs trying to get me to hand cash over for an interview about my books, or an exclusive insight into advertising to book clubs or... well, need I go on. You get the picture.

I’ve always believed there are two kinds of con artists, the ones hiding in shadows, and the ones propping up a legit-looking email address that ends in “.tv”...

On Russia’s far-flung Kolyuchin Island, where the Arctic winds bite and the sea ice groans, a group of squatters has moved in. Not the human kind. These new tenants are furry, white, and decidedly less worried about paying rent.

Drone footage captured by travel blogger Vadim Makhorov shows polar bears strolling through the ruins of an abandoned Soviet weather station, peering out of shattered windows as though they were sizing up the neighbourhood. One particularly adventurous bear even...

When you hear talk about Leicester today, you might think of football glory, a buzzing multicultural city, or the echoes of Richard III. But roll the clock back to the Middle Ages, and Leicester was famous for something else entirely: wool.

From the rolling fields of Leicestershire came some of the finest fleeces in Europe. The county’s sheep produced long, strong wool that Flemish weavers adored. Flemish clothmakers were the best in the business, and they were willing to pay handsomely for...

It’s not kings, castles, or knights in shining armour that built England’s medieval wealth. It was sheep. Thousands upon thousands of them. Their wool, soft and deceptively humble, was once described as “England’s Gold,” and for good reason.

From the 12th century onwards, English monasteries and landowners turned rolling fields into vast sheep pastures. The fleeces were highly sought after in Flanders and northern Italy, where master weavers spun them into fine cloth. At one point, English...

Donald Trump doesn’t like windmills. He says they’re ugly, noisy, and apparently lethal to birds. Fair enough. Let’s not argue the point. Instead, let’s move past mere wind turbines and go straight to the logical next step in renewable energy: a Dyson Sphere.

For those who don’t know, a Dyson Sphere is not the latest household gadget from the vacuum cleaner people. It’s a hypothetical mega-structure that encases a star to capture its entire output of energy. In our case, the Sun. That’s right—...

Adidas has been trending again. Those three stripes, the logo, you see it everywhere. But did you know the brand was born out of conflict, and it's rival brand, Puma, was born of resistance to that conflict.

Resistance
Forget celebrity breakups, the most famous split of the 20th century wasn’t on reality TV, it was in a German shoe factory. Adolf “Adi” Dassler and his brother Rudolf “Rudi” started out working side by side. Then came World War II, suspicion, pride, and a fallout so spectacular...

The sun rose over Los Angeles like a blade, slicing through the smoke of the night before. The city was quiet, too quiet, as though it had exhaled all its rage and now held its breath.

Newsfeeds exploded with rumors before breakfast. Some claimed Jake Garvey had been captured at dawn, escorted in chains to a federal black site. Others swore he had vanished into the night, slipping past the barricades with Belle at his side, leaving behind nothing but questions. A third thread, wild and...

The fires in the streets had burned low, but the anger still glowed hot as steel. Curfews were imposed. Checkpoints sprouted like weeds across Los Angeles. Every screen in the city replayed the courthouse bombing, the drone strike, the doctored “evidence.”

Jake was now the most wanted man in America.

Belle kept him hidden, moving him from safehouse to safehouse, her legal connections stretched thin. Every night she watched the news twist further, every morning she woke knowing the walls were...

The first explosion came three days after the verdict.

Belle was halfway through a press interview at a downtown TV studio when a live feed of the courthouse lit up in a blossom of fire. Shouts filled the air, and the cameras caught it all, people fleeing, smoke curling into the afternoon sky, the metallic shriek of twisted metal barriers collapsing.

Within hours, headlines screamed:

“ROBOT TURNS VIOLENT"

"AI-ROBOT FACES NEW LIABILITY CLAIMS”

“ROBOT ATTACKS COURTHOUSE"

"IS AI ROBOT UNSTABLE”

Belle...