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Continue reading →: Book Review: The Roman Mysteries XIII – The Slave-girl from Jerusalem by Caroline Lawrence
“…I was totally unprepared for the ending…” We’re back with our old friends, the child detectives, and many of their companions. This time we’ve got a classic story: murder victims and a slave-girl who’s in the frame for the crime. Along the way, Lawrence gives us a whole stack of…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: Count Zero by William Gibson
“…this isn’t an engaging novel that makes me want to turn the next page…” Having attempted Gibson’s first ‘classic’ sci-fi novel, Neuromancer, and realising there’s at least two further books in the series, I figured I’d better get started on the second before I forgot the premise of the original.…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: The Bullet that Missed by Richard Osman
“All fans of this gang will want to read this book…” If you’ve read my previous reviews of The Thursday Murder Club and The Man Who Died Twice then it will come as no surprise that I’m going to say I loved this third instalment of this little gang of…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
“…the story was a friend along the way, quietly holding my hand for a while…” It’s been a while since I read a book by Matt Haig. The last one I reviewed was The Humans and I ended up giving quite a favourable review. This very much surprised me because…
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Continue reading →: A Brief Guide to Writing: 9 – Instant Plots
Or How to Become a Thief “…I want to give you…the principle behind all the various tricks and methods. It’s this: steal the plot…” If you want to write fiction – be it a novel, short story, screenplay or whatever – you need to plot. There are some out there…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: The Roman Mysteries XII – The Charioteer of Delphi by Caroline Lawrence
“The plot was every bit as engaging as the first books…” We’re back to the kind of writing Caroline Lawrence was coming up with at the beginning of this wonderful series of books telling the stories of four young would-be detectives in ancient Roman times. There’s no love intrigues or…
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Continue reading →: A Brief Guide to Writing: 8 – What Happened to That Damned Turtle?
or Making Sure You Keep Your Reader’s Attention “…if you craft your characters with care and attention…you might just have your own iconic turtle moment too…” Although it took me several decades to realise it, I think John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath is a brilliantly written novel. I’m not…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: The Golden Road by William Dalrymple
“…illuminating and helpful for understanding India’s place in the world…” I have to confess a slight bias regarding the author as I have followed him on Twitter for a long while and found I very much like the man and what he stands for, especially in his love and concern…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer
“…There’s the crux of what he did wrong. He put in huge amounts of effort to memorise very specific things…but didn’t find anything practically useful to him on a day-to-day basis…” This is my second review where I have to give fair warning of a conflict of interest. My first…
Hello, I’m Ken.
Welcome to Write Out Loud, my blog dedicated to all sorts of things to do with writing.
This page will be updated constantly every week with book reviews and writing-related stuff.
The blog is the baby sister of my personal blog kenthinksaloud where I write ‘Monday Murmurings’—insights into life and philosophy. Get a clever take on politics with ‘Wednesday Banker,’ and ‘Future Friday’ for the latest in psychology, environment, and tech.
I will use this blog to give helpful advice, tips, tricks and resources as I come across them to other writers and to advertise my own writing especially as my books start to be published.
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Write Out Loud (Reviews and Writing) 