One thing that you discover very early on when self-publishing an e-book is that it’s much like self-publishing an album: you spend a great deal of time writing/talking about yourself. You soon discover that you are nowhere near as pale and interesting as you thought you were, and start looking for other things to do […]
This is a very detailed account of probably the most successful airborne assault ever made. Thanks to NewClassroom for putting it up. Demonstrates just how much preparation goes into doing something like this, how easily things can go wrong, and how a number of mistakes and oversights by the defenders doomed them from the start. […]
Following on from my previous post about synergy and leverage, here’s a brilliant site that provides endless amusement.
There are any number of truly awful examples of ‘management speak’ driving people crazy in business these days, but there are two that I find particularly egregious. They are of course, synergy and leverage. Synergy is a medical term that describes “the combined effect of drugs, organs, etc that exceeds the sum of their individual effects” […]
The sequel to Blood and Blitzkrieg, ‘Butcher and Bolt’ just passed 21,000 words…
The hero of ‘Blood and Blitzkrieg’ is named after my grandfather, who volunteered for the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) in 1916 and made it to France just in time to go into action at the Battle of Messines in June 1917, where the Australian tunnellers blew up Hill 60 with 450 tonnes of explosives. The […]
1. The Happy Return, CS Forester Forester manages to convey more about a character in fewer words than just about any other writer I know. This book is a brilliant example, and brings to life one of the best-known yet most elusive characters of this genre: Horatio Hornblower, a man tormented by duty. 2. HMS Surprise, Patrick, […]
I’m now partway into the sequel to ‘Blood and Blitzkrieg’. The story is set mostly in Occupied France, and I realised when I started writing it that I knew very little about what actually went on France during the war. Nothing like telling a story to expose your lack of knowledge! The whole Vichy thing […]
It’s only taken six or so years but I’ve finally got a book out (‘Blood and Blitzkrieg’ in case you missed it) and a website up to let people know it exists (oh, you’re here already). I’ll be blogging more about how the book came into being and so on in due course, but in […]
Blood and Blitzkrieg – the first book in the Joe Dean series of World War 2 action adventure novels. 1940: Lieutenant Joe Dean, fresh out of officer school in Australia, is on exchange with the British Army when the Germans invade Poland, and Great Britain finds itself at war. Sent to France, Joe falls in […]