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Why the Isle of Man Makes a Great Setting for Thrillers
Douglas Promenade, where the main character realises his old life has caught up with him. Not many books are set on the Isle of Man, but when I wrote my own gangland novel, I found it makes a great setting for thrillers. “The Sea Vista Hotel lurked on a dingy, narrow side street like it… Read more
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Iceland (4): Land of Arrows, Thermal Baths and Robot Sculptures
A Nailbiting Drive On Day 4 of our Ring Road tour, the receptionist of our Hofn hotel told us she wouldn’t drive to Egilstaddir in such bad conditions. Which was worrying, since that’s where we needed to go. However, we noticed a tour bus across the street, which she said was making the same drive.… Read more
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Iceland (3): Land of Horses, Viking Film Sets and Tourist Information Centres
From our expensive-soup selling country hotel, we drive to Hofn, but took a diversion to the Viking film set in the shadow of Vestrahorn, a mountain that supposedly looks like the Batcar, although I couldn’t seen the resemblance. Horses The road to the Viking film set is what Icelandic people call a gravel road, which… Read more
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AI Writing in Primary Schools
Many people say it’s easy to recognise AI writing (em dashes, it’s not X, it’s Y, too many similes or analogies, etc). As well as crafting good stories, authors have to ensure their work does not read like AI. After all, editors and AI haters are ON THE LOOK OUT!!! But there’s a problem, because… Read more
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Iceland (2) – Land of Diamonds, Glaciers and Snow.
Click to see the before image from post one to see the same street before the snow. So Much Snow It snowed throughout our first night in Vik. Luckily, the car rental company provided a scraper, because in the morning the snow was four inches deep on the car. We drove up to the church… Read more
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Iceland (1) – Land of Chess, Thrones and Soup
We’ve recently returned from an amazing holiday in Iceland, driving all the way around the Ring Road. Here are three things that stood out on Day One: Keflavik Airport to Vik. Road.is When we arrived at Keflovik, it was snowing, which didn’t bode well for our driving tour. The weather reports were grim, with many… Read more