The Blogging Paradox (or Why I Stopped Blogging and Why I’m Starting Again)
Internet culture is a fascinating, terrifying, distorted reflection of human behaviour. Social media is a House of Mirrors which warps context, subverts emphasis and provokes opinion. I’ve learned...
View ArticleRandom Rant: The School (Trench) Run
I’d like to think that I’m not a coward, but the school run fills me with dread. Perhaps I’m overstating my reaction, sometimes it’s just mild trepidation with a smattering of frustration. Or general...
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Death, Life, & Video Games: A Documentary, a Podcast, and the Conversation to...
When my nephew died last year, a few weeks after his fifteenth birthday, the resulting emotional storm of torment, frustration and regret was impossible to process. Oddly, like a storm, there was a...
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Michael’s Guide to Unplugged Gaming, Coping with Isolation, and the Zombie...
Michael was my nephew. He was 15 when he died last year after six years of illness, treatment, and isolation. So when it comes to coping strategies for medical incarceration, he was a pro. Even before...
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Michael’s Next Adventure
When my nephew Michael died last year, a little over a month after his 15th birthday, the greatest part of the tragedy was the future his fate had stolen from him. In the weeks after his death, I...
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This Game Changed My Life
In these solitary times, podcasts are mana from heaven. Done well, they are engaging and informative entertainment for the long commute, a quiet walk, or as all of those things are currently somewhat...
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Behind the Podcast: Recording the Pilot of This Game Changed My Life
The day I visited BBC Broadcasting House to record the pilot episode of This Game Changed My Life was a surreal experience. Trips into Central London always make me feel like a yokel, so as a...
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New Growth in Elite Dangerous
My nephew disappeared in the Pencil Sector a little over a year ago. A garbled comms transmission shortly before launch was the last we heard of him. Local authorities have been supportive and...
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Guardians of the Infuriating Puzzles
My pilgrimage to New Growth in the back end of nowhere had led to my peaceful acceptance of the indifference of the universe. Choosing to settle in the region of space that was on the doorstep of my...
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Plotting a Streaming Re-Entry
Two years ago almost to the day I dabbled with livestreaming videogames on Twitch with my late nephew, Michael. Livestreaming was one of his ambitions that we were desperately attempting to fulfil in...
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In Defence of Odyssey: Are Players Complicit in the Rise of Early Access Culture
I’d love to approach this topic with an unbiased attitude of journalistic indifference, but I’m too invested and quite conflicted, for many reasons that will become clear. So allow me to poke the bear...
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Getting Marooned in Odyssey Was Almost Unscripted Gameplay Gold
Despite Frontier’s highly anticipated perambulation simulation, Odyssey, starting with a bit of a limp, some of the issues hint at the potential richness of gameplay that Odyssey can provide. For...
View ArticlePress Statement on Behalf of Laura Holyland
Yesterday, Laura Holyland gave brave testimony in Great Yarmouth Magistrates’ Court in the case against her former husband, Karl, who was found guilty of coercive and controlling behaviour during their...
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The Half-Life of Long Covid
It’s been nearly six months since I tested positive to COVID-19. I am still ill. I’ve grown increasingly frustrated with my inability to shake it off, and equally with the understandable misconceptions...
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The Shunned
Mallory watched as the man died. He wasn’t as old as his haggard face looked, but his 37-year-old body had been broken by the ravages of their forsaken existence. Each gurgling breath was weaker, less...
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How Odyssey Reignited My Passion for Elite Dangerous
This is my personal review of Elite Dangerous Odyssey, and I make no apologies that it is unambiguously positive. For me, Elite Dangerous has been revitalised and revolutionised by the addition of...
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When Life Gives You Lemons
Life. We’ve all got one. Until we haven’t. A succession of challenging life events has brought me to a tipping point. The last decade has seen the end of my ambulance career due to back injury, the...
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Novel Blog #1: Distraction, Discipline and Writing in Wagars
It’s been a week since the kids went back to school and I’ve been able to resume my ambition to write a complete novel. It’s a running joke among writers that we are world-class procrastinators easily...
View ArticleNovel Blog #2: Long Covid vs Writing
When I decided to plunge naively into attempted professional authordom, I had originally intended to write a weekly blog to report my progress. However, it is only now, at the end of week three that...
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Novel Blog #3: Milestones, Millstones, the Spectre of Uncertainty and the...
I’ve just realised it’s been nearly two months since I blogged about my novel progress. It’s funny, over the weeks I’d thought of plenty of things to share about the experience so far (and honestly...
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