Welcome to Bookish, my occasional e-journal on all things books - for leadership and for fun. Subscribe here to get Bookish in your inbox and my novella Terra Blanca: Insurrection for free!
Welcome also to 2024 which promises to be a big year of BOOKS, LEARNING and ADVENTURE. This edition is chock full of news and recommendations, so let’s get into it!
Starting off with a COVER REVEAL of Olympus Bound, book 2 in the Gaia series!
Feast your eyes on this baby:
I am super proud of this book and cannot wait to get it into print and out into the world.
You can PRE-ORDER a limited edition signed paperback now from my website here. Like my previous novels, it comes with a special bookmark.
If you haven't bought any of my paperbacks yet, then I’ve got a special three book bundle for you in the Gaia series. Check it out here.
If you haven’t done so yet, I’d be really grateful if you’d COMPLETE THE BOOKISH SURVEY to let me know what kind of book chatter you’d like in this e-mag. (It only takes two minutes )
So far readers:
Prefer reading fiction
Want book recommendations and insider news about what’s coming up and how I write
The most preferred genres are science fiction, thriller, fantasy and mystery.
Questions from readers include:
How many books will the Gaia series have? Currently I can see the prequel, three full novels, and one just for Claire. So that makes five that are rattling around in my brain at the moment. Maybe more! We’ll see what the characters do when I let them loose a bit more.
Why did you want to become a writer? It’s what I’ve done since I was a kid. I love the flow of words, I love reading, and I love writing. Becoming a writer, an author, was something I held as a lofty ambition for years. It’s a passion and a calling. Making it a profitable -and enjoyable-business is my next challenge.
Book Recommendations
Rebel Without a Clue - a sci-fi comedy for women by Kerrie A Noor
This is one of the weirdest books I’ve read in a long time. Men have been made redundant and reduced to energy slaves who ride bicycles to fuel the planet Hy Man’s power. They need to return to Earth to deal with a calamity. Weird antics ensue. I’d love your opinion on it! You can read it for free here.
Dark Nebula - Contact by Sean Wilson
This is a more recognisable science fiction book. This is the lead book in a promising series. The author shows a first contact experience through the lens of several different parties, complete with gritty, compelling characters and awesome futuristic tech. I liked it and will be going back for more. Test it out here for free.
Strongmen: How they rise, why they succeed, how they fall by Ruth Ben-Ghiat.
This is my MUST READ non-fiction recommendation, and the most disturbing book I have read in a while. I tend to focus on more optimistic aspects of the future, and of leaders. And yet, we have around us, alive and active right now, ‘strongmen’ or autocratic despots who are rising to power, and keeping it, while exploiting others, resources, and their country for their own benefit. And humans being humans, we standby and encourage.
It is my firmly held belief that we need to come to terms with how we gain and wield power, and work towards immunizing ourselves against its traps, and preventing malignant abuse of it. It’s far too easy to see another Mussolini, Hitler, Putin and Trump seize power and dismantle the institutions we’ve built in democratic countries to prevent the very same abuses. Freedom and democracy is a fragile thing.
