In the second part of this series on using genealogical records for research we’ll look at census returns. The first modern census in the United Kingdom was taken on 7 June 1841. An enumerator delivered a schedule which the household completed, with the enumerator helping those who were illiterate. Each person living at the address […]

For the next few weeks, I will be using this blog to give information that may help those of you who want to trace a family tree or conduct other research into historical individuals who lived in the UK. We’ll start with births and baptisms. The General Registry office contains a searchable index of registered […]

This week Amazon decided to retire the author beta rank. This won’t mean a lot to readers as you will continue to see items ranked in relevant categories. Authors used to have, in private, a number based on their total sales in relation to others. The figures were often meaningless, sometimes with extreme and inexplicable […]

This week I was privileged to be interviewed about Jack the Ripper, specially my suspect encyclopedia, by Michael Hawley on the House of Mystery Radio Show. Mike is an expert on Francis Tumblety, the only suspect who has a whole chapter to himself in the book. We talked about a range of issues in the […]

Allegedly Ernest Hemmingway wrote a story with six words. Augusto Monterroso definitely wrote one with eight. In the 1980s Science Fiction pioneered Drabble, where every story is exactly 100 words. Variants of this are known as micro-fiction or flash fiction, sitting below the 1000 word mark where short stories begin. A short story should be […]

The best advice for writers is to read as much as possible. Unless you want to write for television or film, in which case you should watch as much as possible. For audio you should listen to as much as possible. Sounds simple. The hard part is forcing yourself to read, watch, or listen to […]

Writers of short fiction can choose to submit their work to anthologies or magazines. Anthologies are one-off collections with a theme. Magazines are regular publications accepting working in specific genres. Your choice may depend on how you write. Some people prefer to write first then find a market. Others prefer to write for the market. […]

Bruce Robinson’s book They All Love Jack  is a vitriolic attack on the nineteenth centry establishment. Reading this, I saw parallels with the modern corporate world. Robinson describes a vast conspiracy and cover up directed by freemasons at the heart of government to protect Jack the Ripper, frame an innocent woman with the connivance of […]

There is a growing trend for publications to read submissions blind. They ask you to remove your name and other details that may identify you from the manuscript then assess that manuscript solely on merit in line with their requirements. This virtually eliminates the possibility of bias but does not guarantee a more diverse publication […]