Andrew Ferguson
Children's/YA Author
Authors/Writers Category
Book Review: Ready Player One
Posted on April 15, 2021 Leave a Comment
‘Enchanting. Willy Wonka meets The Matrix’ (USA Today). That’s what the little quotation says on the front cover of Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.
High praise indeed. High enough to make me buy it and read it. But I know what you’re thinking: ‘did it deliver?’
Author Interview: Sharleen Nelson (part 2 of 2)
Posted on April 9, 2021 Leave a Comment
I had the pleasure of interviewing Sharleen, whose debut novel The Time Tourists is available to buy on Amazon and other retail outlets. This is the second half of that interview.
Author Interview: Sharleen Nelson (part 1 of 2)
Posted on April 8, 2021 Leave a Comment
I had the pleasure of interviewing Sharleen Nelson, whose debut novel The Time Tourists is available to buy on Amazon and other retail outlets. What follows is part one of that interview. Be sure to check back next week for part two!
6 Useful Posts on Fiction and Writing
Posted on March 30, 2021 Leave a Comment
Here we have it: another exciting instalment of Useful Posts on Fiction and Writing, where I share some of the most useful, insightful or just downright enjoyable posts on fiction writing that I’ve found on WordPress in the last week.
The Well of Ascension: A Review
Posted on March 26, 2021 Leave a Comment
So, here we have it: my full scale review of The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson; the second book in the high fantasy Mistborn series.
Author Interview: Nancet Marques
Posted on March 8, 2021 Leave a Comment
With a little help from everyone’s new favourite video conferencing app, I am now pleased to present this little video of Nancet Marques and I shooting the breeze about Chino and the Boy Scouts, life in Scotland and the proper shape of sausages.
Book Review: Chino & The Boy Scouts by Nancet Marques
Posted on March 8, 2021 Leave a Comment
I consider Nancet Marques, author of Chino & the Boy Scouts, to be a personal friend… so I do hope you’ll bear with me as I share some of my thoughts and impressions on this debut novel.
Spotlight: Chino & The Boy Scouts by Nancet Marques
Posted on March 8, 2021 Leave a Comment
Chino and the Boy Scouts introduces the mysterious world of Summerhill, a western island state with high immigration from the world over and a mysterious connection to India…. What at first seems like a fun, if academically hazardous venture, spirals more and more into a world of danger and magic, as the school’s hidden past and depths reveal themselves to the ironically unprepared scouts
Being a ‘Real’ Writer
Posted on February 24, 2021 Leave a Comment
There seems to be a notion in a lot of folks’ minds that while lots of people may wish to be authors, and may even actually sit down and try to thrash out an original work of fiction, not all of these are real writers. If you look around the internet or other public forums where writers gather, you’ll see what I mean. People will say things like ‘if you don’t write something every day, you’re not a real writer,’ or ‘real writers read at least twenty books a year– oh and newspapers as well!’
These are just examples but you get the idea. Many try to be writers, but only those who do this-this-and-that are real writers. But wait just a minute. What does it even mean to be a ‘real writer’?
Penstricken: Collected Stories by Andrew Ferguson – Out Now!
Posted on February 18, 2021 Leave a Comment
There are short stories, there are very short stories and then there is flash fiction: the delicate and often tricky art of telling a story in as few words as possible.The stories in this tiny little book (all originally published between 2015 and 2020 on the fiction blog, Penstricken) are deliberate exercises in brevity.
In total, this book contains twelve flash fictions ranging from fifty to 2,000 words apiece, plus six collections of six word stories.
While these stories vary in mood and genre, you will find in many that the author’s tongue was firmly entrenched in his cheek; whether it be in the brief tale of a Martian liberating his ‘kin’ from the deep fat fryer of a Glasgow chip shop or the nightmarish tragedy of Santa Claus’ true genesis, Penstricken: Collected Stories is a brief snapshot of one writer’s meandering imagination.
Andrew Ferguson 