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Looking back, I’m mildly astonished by my younger self. Not in a boastful way. More in the same way one looks at an old photograph and thinks, good grief, was that really me?

I wasn’t a ladies’ man. I never thought of myself that way. I just seemed, mysteriously, to have a lot of girlfriends. Sometimes consecutively. Occasionally… not quite.

At one point I had two, and both turned up at the same pub on the same night. How I survived that encounter remains one of life’s unsolved mysteries. There...

There was a time, children, when a British holiday did not involve airports, security trays, or arguing over whether the seat reclined far enough. No. We went to Butlin’s.

For those unfamiliar with this particular corner of British heritage, Butlin’s was not merely a holiday resort. It was a social experiment. A place where optimism went on holiday and personal dignity stayed at home.

From the 1950s through to the 1970s, Butlin’s was the beating heart of British seaside joy. Rows upon rows of...

There was a time when ordering a steak was a simple affair.

Rare. Medium. Well done, if you were feeling reckless.

Those days, it seems, may be numbered.

With the news that scientists have successfully produced beef steak using a 3D printer, I can’t help imagining a future restaurant exchange that goes something like this:

CUSTOMER: “Can I have a steak, please.”

WAITER: “Certainly, sir. How would you like it printed?”

At first glance, this sounds like the opening line of a dystopian novel. But let’...

At some point in every serious discussion about existence, someone will ask the big question.

“What is the meaning of life?”

This is usually followed by a thoughtful silence, a sip of coffee, and absolutely no useful answer whatsoever.

I’ve given this some thought. Possibly too much. And having flirted briefly with the edge of things, I can now report back with confidence that the universe does not, in fact, provide a laminated instruction manual. There is no checklist. No final exam. No pop-up...

Near death experiences are usually spoken about in hushed tones. Soft voices. Meaningful pauses. The sort of conversations that happen late at night, with the lights low and the kettle already boiled.

I’ve had one. Or something close enough that the distinction hardly matters.

I didn’t float above my body. I didn’t see a tunnel full of departed relatives waving cheerfully like it was a family reunion. No choir. No booming voice asking awkward questions about my life choices. And sadly, no...

An Outside Observer's Notes on a Writer Called Tom Kane

A reflective note from an outside observer

If I were asked to describe Tom from a distance, I would begin with the quiet hours. Five in the morning. A cup of coffee going cold. A screen glowing faintly in a room where most of the world is still asleep. This is where he often is, not because he must be, but because that is where his mind feels most at home.

Tom is a writer, but that is only the surface description. Beneath it is a watcher....

It is a question that sounds as though it should be asked at two in the morning, preferably while staring at the ceiling and wondering where the socks keep disappearing to. Is there a theoretical relationship between quantum mechanics and an afterlife?

The short answer is no.

The longer answer is… well, it is complicated, fascinating, and surprisingly fun to think about.

Quantum mechanics is the branch of physics that politely refuses to behave. Particles can be waves, waves can be particles,...

Pain can be a terrible thing. Pain in all my bones, throughout my body, from the chemotherapy for my 80% invasive rare form of lymphoma made me cry at night. The only relief was a bath in very hot water. Pain like that is one thing, but mental anguish is quite another.

Physical pain announces itself. It has rules. You can point to it, measure it, medicate it, describe it. People understand it, or at least they try to. They see the hospital appointments, the medication, the scars, the fatigue....

Quantum Immortality

The other day on Twitter, someone asked an entirely reasonable, perfectly sane question:

“Do you think Quantum Immortality could be real?”

Naturally, I replied that I was writing about it in my next novel, The Ragged End of Time. Because if you are going to respond to existential dread, you might as well do it with fiction.

For the uninitiated, Quantum Immortality is the comforting theory that you never actually die. From your own point of view, at least. Every time something...

They lied to me.

Not maliciously, you understand. More in the same way people lie about dogs not shedding hair, or about a “quick look” in Lidl.

They said Cyprus was warm.

And it is.

At lunchtime.

In July.

At 5am in Paphos, on a winter morning in January, Cyprus reveals its true personality. It becomes a damp, shivering reminder that the Mediterranean has a sense of humour and that it enjoys using writers as punchlines.

This morning, I woke before dawn, as writers do. Not because we're disciplined,...

As humans, we all suffer setbacks.

Trauma. Stress. Loss. And sometimes a plain old slap in the face that life delivers without warning or apology.

Health issues arrive uninvited. A loved one dies. A much-loved pet leaves a silence that is louder than noise. Marriages end. Love goes unanswered. Dreams stumble. Plans fail. Effort does not always equal reward.

We are, in many ways, carbon-based punch-bags for life to practise its moves on.

No one escapes untouched.

The trouble is not the hit itself....

I have spent the last few months conducting what can only be described as deep market research. Not with spreadsheets or focus groups, you understand, but by watching the internet very carefully while drinking coffee.

Why? Because I am an indie author, and indie authors are, by necessity, part writer, part publisher, part marketer, and part slightly bewildered Victorian inventor muttering, “If I just turn this lever…”

Like every author who has ever stared at an empty sales dashboard, I wanted...

Time travel is one of those ideas that refuses to behave. The moment it appears in fiction, it starts asking awkward questions. Can you change the past. Should you. And if you do, who pays the price.

For well over a century, writers and filmmakers have used time travel not simply as a spectacle, but as a lens through which to examine regret, destiny, and consequence.

Time Travel on Television

Television thrives on the elasticity of time travel. Doctor Who treats time as a playground, yet...

"Twas Christmas Eve in the workhouse, and the rain was snowing fast. The barefooted boy with clogs on, stood sitting on the grass." David Banks grinned as he watched his two children's faces. Emily was a mixture of disdain and boredom. Jack looked confused.

"What are clogs?" the nine year old asked.

"Wooden shoes," Emily muttered. "Dad recites that every Christmas Eve. Don't you remember last year?"

Jack shook his head. "And what's a workhouse?"

"A place poor people were sent to in Victorian...

There is a moment in every indie author’s life when you realise that writing the book was the easy part. You think the hard work is chapters, characters, plots and deadlines. You believe finishing the final draft is the end of the journey.

Then you publish your first book.

And from that moment on you become, whether you like it or not, a full time, unpaid marketing department.

For ten years now I have written stories, novels and trilogies, all of which I am proud of. I have created worlds,...

When I first started writing The Midnight Series, I had no idea quite how strongly Jessie Fordham would take hold of my imagination. I knew she would be clever, determined and quietly rebellious, but I did not expect her to grow into one of the most fascinating characters I have ever written. Looking back, it seems only right that her story begins long before she ever steps into the world of espionage.

Walking Away from Midnight is where we first meet...

Or why I sometimes miss pencils with rubbers on the end

There was a time when writing meant one thing: grabbing a pencil, licking the end of it for luck (everyone did it, nobody admits it), and getting on with it. Your entire creative arsenal consisted of:

1. A blunt pencil.
2. A shared metal pencil sharpener the teacher guarded like the Crown Jewels.
3. A rubber squeezed into a metal ring stuck at the end of said pencil to erase your spelling disasters.

That was it. No menus. No updates. No blue...

From beads on sticks to boxes that silently judge our passwords

Humanity has always had two great fears:

1. That we’ll run out of tea.
2. That someone, somewhere, will ask us to do long division.

To avoid the latter, civilisations have spent thousands of years inventing gadgets to do the thinking for us. Here is their story, or at least the version any half-awake historian would produce after an extended pub lunch.

The Abacus:
The original pocket calculator, but without pockets.

Invented so long ago...

Could We Really Have a Zombie Apocalypse?
Short Answer: Yes.
Long Answer: Oh, for heaven’s sake, imagine the queues.

Let’s be honest. For decades we’ve been warned about zombies staggering out of graveyards, supermarkets and the occasional discount DIY store, all snarling for brains. But what if the reality is far less dramatic and infinitely more annoying?

Before we get to that, let’s look at how likely a zombie apocalypse actually is. You might be surprised.

1. Science Absolutely Has the Range...

There is a curious absence in my novels.

People drown. Nations fall. Spies double-cross each other on cold Parisian rooftops. Time itself bends just to make things difficult for everyone. Empires rise and then, quite rudely, collapse before I’ve finished the chapter.

But dogs?

No. Not really. Not often. And when they do appear, they tend to trot in, look endearingly loyal, and trot back out again before anyone notices.

This is odd because in real life I am absolutely a dog person. Completely....