Very quick post to say that I have a limerick about lockdown published in On the Premises, a fiction e-zine I subscribe to. And they paid actual money, which is always helpful in these straitened times. If you want to read it, and the other winning entries, click below. If not, move on with your life.
Reducing your misery footprint
9 JunIt seems quite appropriate that, just after the statue of a man who profited from the slave trade is pulled down, my article on modern-day slavery comes out. I started writing it way before the incident that kicked off the recent protests, of course, and even before lockdown (although it’s been edited to reflect the new situation) but the problem has not gone away.
Continue readingThere are more slaves now than there have ever been.
Noir from the Bar
5 Jun
Some of you may have virtually come along to session five of Virtual Noir at the Bar when I was doing a reading from my unpublished novel The Sarcophagus Scroll. Virtual Noir at the Bar has been running all through lockdown, and 100 authors have taken part to date.
Continue readingEsperanto is fun, ĉu ne?
4 May
If you so much as glance through the old posts of this blog, you’ll notice that I have a fair few interests and hobbies, from the domestic to the arcane. There’s crochet, of course (the temperature blanket is coming along beautifully) and baking, which under lockdown has got a bit out of control. I suggested baking some biscuits today and my sister looked at me in horror. “But we’ve already got crumpets, potato scones and flapjack!” I think the problem is that people aren’t eating fast enough 😉
Join me at the (virtual) bar
27 AprThis Wednesday, 29th April 2020, I’ll be reading from my unpublished novel The Sarcophagus Scroll at Virtual Noir in the Bar.
Noir at the Bar is a crime fiction event that used to take place in pubs in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Newcastle, but has now moved to Zoom, like everything else in the world. Continue reading
Five stars for Robin Hood
22 Apr
I just got another lovely review for Why Everything You Know about Robin Hood Is Wrong, this time from Reader’s Favorite. As it was a five-star review, I now have the right to put their lovely badge on my book, if I like (as in the picture above) or buy some sheets of sticky badges for oodles of money. I think I’ll make do with the digital kind.
The woman who did the review gave me too much credit for original research, when WEYKARHIW was really just a synthesis of existing research. But a five-star review is a five-star review and I’ll take it, thank you very much.
If you want to read it, it is here: Reader’s Favorite review. Otherwise, you can just coo in admiration over the rather snazzy metallic-effect badge superimposed above.
Life in Lockdown
3 AprHere in the UK we are approaching the second week of ‘lockdown’. It’s not a real lockdown because you can still go out for exercise (once a day), shopping (ideally once a day) and many people are still going to work. In Azerbaijan, you now need permission from the government to even step out your door, I’m told.
But still, it’s fairly restrictive, and it has altered my life as I expect it has yours. I’m actually on the third week of lockdown because I’m in one of these ‘vulnerable groups’ and so was able to go the supermarket during one of their restricted hours and wrestle pensioners for toilet paper. Heroism is not dead.
Robin Hood Review
27 MarJust a quickie to say that there’s a new review of Why Everything You Know about Robin Hood is Wrong from Reader Views. The nice girl who reviewed it, Rachel Dehning, describes the book as being “akin to a humorous research project” which seems entirely fair. Sometimes it seems my whole life is akin to a humorous research project…
Anyway, I’ll let you read it in its entirety if you like:
WEYKARHIW review on Reader Views
And hopefully in the not-too-distant future I’ll be posting about my experience of self-isolation. Just like every other blogger in the world.
Happy (belated) International Women’s Day!
9 Mar
If I had been more organised, I would have written this post in good time and set it up to come out on International Women’s Day. But I didn’t, so the next best time is now.
I wrote a wee blog post for Premier about five Christian women who have been unjustly forgotten. I got to choose all but one of them, so naturally I included one of my personal heroes, Olympia Fulvia Morata. (I’ll take any excuse to go on about her.)
If you would like to find out about this amazing woman, and also about Perpetua (whose feast day is the day before International Women’s Day, coincidentally), Josephine Butler, Susan B. Anthony and Catherine Booth, please go ahead and click the link.
Five incredible Christian women you should really know
If you already know about all of them, well done you. And get in touch – we should probably be friends!
K C Murdarasi 