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  • The Open Road Calls: GPS for Adventure Motorcycling

    The Open Road Calls: GPS for Adventure Motorcycling

    The rumble of the engine, the open road ahead, and adventures waiting over the horizon—for many riders, adventure motorcycling is true bliss

  • The Rise of ChatGPT and the Future of Book Writing 

    The Rise of ChatGPT and the Future of Book Writing 

    OK – I admit it, I hold up my hand. That entire blog, every single word, entirely unedited, was written by Claude the ChatGPT engine from Anthropic.

  • Are Modern Motorcycle Adventurers the New Children of the Magenta Line?

    Are Modern Motorcycle Adventurers the New Children of the Magenta Line?

    The term was originally coined in 1997 by veteran airline pilot Warren Vanderburgh, who came up with the phrase, somewhat caustically, for the new generation of pilots, who he believes have become overly dependent on automation and computer guidance, and thus fail to exercise their own situational awareness and judgment, when they should take controlContinue…

  • Why do Indie Authors Price the way they do?

    Why do Indie Authors Price the way they do?

    I posted recently on a Facebook motorcycle group that I had a couple of books, recently released, that younger members might be interested in. The books tell the tale of what it was like to ride solo and across closed borders in the days before GPS and Google Maps. I admit, being an author whoContinue…

  • Insights of the Interstellar Māori Matakite

    Insights of the Interstellar Māori Matakite

    I have always loved Science Fiction and, when I decided to make my first contribution to this genre, I wanted to blur the edges of two sub genres in the way that Frank Herbert did with Dune. Whereas Herbert’s Dune story is a solid mix of fantasy fiction and science fiction, Herbert intentionally suppressed theContinue…

  • Flies on the Visor

    A big shout out to Dave Ayers at the fantastic website that pitches itself as “the inane ramblings of the motorcyle obsessed.” He was good enough to work patiently with me to put together a promotional article based primarily around the recent release of “A Fast Bike to Byzantium.” You can read the full articleContinue…

  • “Unlocking the Secret of Sequel Power”

    With a series, readers can get more depth and detail about characters and the world they inhabit. For the author it also gives additional scope and reach for marketing efforts.

  • The hidden markets of the Antipodean

    The additional plus here is that the incredibly intelligent and discerning people who make up the Antipodean nations tend to give me my best reviews.

  • Travel in the 80s—Rotary Pay Phones & Paper Maps.

    Travel in the 80s—Rotary Pay Phones & Paper Maps.

    It was in that era that I decided to ride my motorcycle across Europe, through a large part of the USSR controlled Iron Curtain, to reach Asia and Istanbul.

  • We write a little history every day

    We write a little history every day

    It just goes to show that not all that gets passed down in the written word from those older times is necessarily all mighty revelation.

  • The ancient art of accidental preservation

    The ancient art of accidental preservation

    Thousands and thousands of these manuscripts were re-purposed in this manner and who knows what wealth of history and information lies hidden in the spines.

  • The essence of our ancestors

    The essence of our ancestors

    A line in a book I am reading made me think rather too deeply about something. And that surely is the power of the written word. Something banal and taken entirely for granted can spark a sudden feeling, an emotion, and all of a sudden it inspires a change of perspective. The book is “TheContinue…

  • An interrobang, or a dog’s cock‽

    An interrobang, or a dog’s cock‽

    It’s funny how as a writers we use common forms of punctuation without considering why in fact they exist in the forms that they do.

  • To KENP or not to make any moolah?

    KENP stands for Kindle Edition Normalized Pages, so I am guessing the name was made up by some guy in IT rather than some seventeen year-old marketing whizz kid

  • More out of order than a Pulp Fiction movie

    I was thrilled at the beginning of this month to release my third book. Ignoring, for a moment, my supernatural thriller novel, it was book two in my travel memoir series and was aptly titled, “It’s not as bad as it looks.” Book two continues and completes the story started in “Mistakes were Made” whichContinue…

  • The challenges and opportunities of writing in multiple genres.

    The challenges and opportunities of writing in multiple genres.

    In traditional publishing it has long been the mantra that an author needed to pick, and subsequently, stick to a single genre.

  • A blog wot I wrote…

    Language is a strange thing when you pause to truly consider it. And writing is another. Amazing what magic the written word can evoke.

  • Mirror, mirror, on the wall…

    Mirror, mirror, on the wall…

    The belief was that the soul of the dead person could easily become entrapped within the hidden realm of the mirror, unable to depart and find peace.

  • Mr. Crowley – did you talk to the dead?

    Mr. Crowley – did you talk to the dead?

    Many modern concepts of magic, wicca and the paranormal stem from the philosophies of the Golden Dawn and the teachings of Crowley himself.

  • Did the printed page make us who we are?

    Did the printed page make us who we are?

    For 99 percent of the tenure of humans on earth, nobody could read or write. The great invention had not yet been made.

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