Edmund Lester

A little while ago my writing stalled. There were a number of factors involved in this; some of which I will spare you but I will confirm they included a slight question in my mind about the story I was writing. You see I was writing a science fiction novel set in a future version of Africa which I just wasn't getting. Now I still think that somewhere inside the idea is a good novel, I just need to rethink some elements of it and maybe do a little more research first, So I have spent the time since I stopped writing doing a little thinking. I keep notebooks wherever I go in case ideas come to me and I want to make a record of them before the flit away. So I sat down and read through a dozen or so of them (yes, I am kind of obsessive) in the hopes one of the ideas might jump out and demand to be written. After a while I narrowed the list to three of the stories and let my brain wander through each of them to see which one grew enough meat on the bones to be the one to go w...

[Sorry for getting political but I just can't steer clear] It's less than six weeks until the EU referendum in the UK; six weeks until we know just how screwed we are all going to be.  Yeah, I'm rather fearful that the people of the UK are about to vote to leave the European Union even though all common sense tells me that staying in is the only sensible option. And this covers all ends of the political spectrum. You see being in the EU is good for Britain's businesses. We have full access to the European single market making trading within its borders much easier. This has many benefits - for one a lot of investment is drawn into the UK from outside because we have this access. Take that away and this money could well end up going to other nations like Germany and Ireland. But it's not just the business types that should be in favour. The ordinary worker, you and I, have all benefited from the UK's membership. Many of the workplace rights that you have o...

Not sure if today was an exception or a new writing norm. After all it's not exactly possible to judge after a single day's endeavour is it? The fact is earlier today I sat at this keyboard and tried to write the next part of my new Ben Williamson novella and nothing happened. So I gave up, opened up this blog and started writing an entry. I figured if I'm not writing I might as well get back into the feel of typing sentences. Couldn't hurt. Well I wrote a blog entry. You might have read it. I posted it, tweeted a link to it and closed down the browser expecting to head off to watch some TV. Underneath was the Word Doc I'd so completely failed to add much to. I reread the single paragraph I'd written, decided it was terrible and deleted it. I then thought it might be worth another go at getting at least that paragraph done. Sixty words or so is better than nothing. So I did. This time it worked a little better. And when I got to the end of it I had an idea of...

I've been in them for a little while now. I've written on only two days in the last four weeks. I'm hoping this doesn't continue but I can't say for sure. I'm giving it a try today but my head is just not in it. Even the decision to give up writing the science fiction novel I started at the beginning of April to try my hand at another Ben Williamson novella has not got my juices going again. It's annoying; especially as I think the science fiction novel I stalled on, the Church, could well be the most original idea I've had for a story yet. Of course that's pretty much irrelevant if I never write it. I guess all I can do is remain hopeful it will come back in the future and try not to get too down about it. I am still having ideas though so I guess things are good in that respect. The other night I went for a walk around the village where I live with my wife (one of the ways we are trying to maintain at least a modicum of fitness as we get older...

I receive dozens of phishing etc emails each day. I'm sure anyone reading this, or, for that, anyone who goes online, receives similar quantities. It is one of the curses of the digital age. So every day when I download my emails I start off by deleting all the crap (I'm including the spam and Facebook updates in this). Mostly these unwanted emails only attract enough attention to trigger the autonomic right index finger depressing the delete button action. Today though it was different. I actually stopped long enough to read one. Now please don't think I was going to be fooled into doing something truly stupid like opening the zip file or clicking on the link. I'm not that daft. The reason I hesitated before just deleting was I'd not seen this particular variant before today. I received an email purporting to be from the International Court of Justice in the Hague. It even had the correct address. I recognised it as I've actually been there. (Only as a tou...