Helllooo! Well this was a weird week at the start of my week my dad was rushed to hospital and spent five days for tests.  He’s now out and looking much better but playing it by ear (happily Drs seem curious more than worried). Then a trip to London (more on that below) and then on my way back to Liverpool I noticed a very red eye nope not Sauron but yours truly with viral conjuncitivitis – imagine waking up and not being able to easily open your eyes mixed with a bad dose of flu!! I couldn’t even read easily ☹ But healing and resting mean my end of today I can see and type so let’s get back in the game

What Have I been Watching?

Super Relaxed Fantasy Club (London) – Oh this si something I’ve wanted to see for years. A simple format usually three authors do readings and a short interview with the audience. Being based in Liverpool tricky for me to get to but hearing RF Barker, Ed Cox, Gillian Redfern and Gavin G Smith were doing a quiz show I had to go!  Special mention to Ed Wilson and Marcus Gipps for stepping in at the last minute when guest couldn’t make it. Imagine Just A Minute mixed with insanity and poor Gav took a lot of the brunt of the jokes, He will never mention Lord of the Rings again without fear.

Lovely to meet so many from twitter and apologies if I was a bit quiet but I was a bit flustered meeting people for the first time!  I’m shyer than my twitter persona when meeting people for the first time! Yes, there were books bought too

Digging for Britain – iplayer – a great show that looks at the most interesting archaeological digs in the year. This can bounce from monasteries to ancient burial grounds to witches’ caves.  Fascinating show and I do love seeing what is buried under our feet.

What Have I Been Listening To?

The Magnus Archives – season 1 is complete and I’m still sad about what happened to one of the team!!

What have I reviewed or read?

Memo to self - conjunctivitis is bad for reading – I manged to type slowly for a few reviews and then reading schedule went out the window – actual pages were hard to read!

Xmas Tempting – yes this week on the blog in review you can find loads of ideas by genre for Christmas presents for you or other people  - have a look here

The Swallows by Lisa Lutz - a stunning dark thriller where an elite school is hiding secrets a new teacher will set the path to their revealing. Deals with hard subjects but it’s a hard novel to put down!

The Deep by Rivers Solomon - a novel I’ve been hearing great things about for a few months and its all deserved. Dealing with the impact of slavery; forgetting or holding onto the past and an amazing aquatic world.  Highly recommended

Interviewing Anna Smith Spark - a great interview with Anna about the Empires of Dust series and her approach to writing. Some fascinating responses

The Light Go Out in Lychford by Paul Cornell – review to come – a great penultimate instalment in a fascinating rural British fantasy series.  All the feels were had

Skin Deep aka Strange Ink by Gary Kemble – DNF – umm 10% of the book and noped out of it.  Felt a more like a mid life crisis than a horror and didn’t grab me

What am I reading or coming soon?

Loads to do before the year is out but this week on imminent TBR

Legacy of Ash by Matthew Ward – a behemoth of a new fantasy tale but the first few chapters are excellent at grabbing my attention…

Mutant Empire by Christopher Golden – Marvel prose again and so far so good

The Mortal Word by Genevieve Cogman – I fancy something lighter after a heavy week so Irene should help!

The Djinn Falls in Love edited by Mahvesh Murad and Jared Shurin – need to sit down and lose myself into this

The Nightjar by Deborah Hewitt – an interesting new fantasy series to try