Steve Turnbull's Blog

I'm not going to answer that question directly because it's very naughty.

When we think of dragons we're usually all about the fantasy and the magic and the completely improbably breathing of fire. I mean, seriously, what kind of evolutionary rabbit hole did dragons dive down to end up breathing fire? And where does all that energy come from.

Yeah. I'm a scientist. And, apart from anything else, dragons are usually too big to go down rabbit holes.

Unless the rabbits are very big. In fact, dra...

I can't deny I am still in a state of shock over the fact that KYMIERA has not even been launched yet and here I am with a TV deal.

B7Media is a successful British independent TV, Film, and audio production company (recently producing a radio adaptation of Isaac Asimov's "I, Robot" stories, the award-winning Dan Dare audio series, as well as the award-winning film "Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont").

This is a fantastic opportunity for both me but also for British Science Fiction as a whole.

The...

The choice of location for her interview with the ex-Foreign Office representative was a difficult one. Eventually he had suggested the Lyons Tea Rooms located in the heart of the shopping district if the Compound.

She was not particularly concerned for her own reputation. She had been in far more compromising positions than afternoon tea with a single gentleman in a public place.

He was seated at the table and stood as she approached. Tall but not excessively so; considerate in manner as he...

The following interview with Miss Maliha Anderson was conducted on the day she left for South Africa. At the time she gave no indication that she would not return but it has been a year and there has been nothing except rumours of her whereabouts.

“I am not at all comfortable.”

I don’t know why Miss Anderson says this, after all the room is pleasant enough. The Pleiades Club for Ladies, located in the Compound near the main shopping district, is very well appointed and their library, where we...

This year I've written about 330,000 words even if I didn't meet my target of 12 books published. That's quite a lot of words.

My final book of the year, Under the Burning Clouds (the last in the Maliha Anderson series) was published on December 30th, 2015. It is essentially the second half of the story that started in Thunder Over the Grass, and concludes the primary story arc that started in Halo Round the Moon. I also published Wind in the East and the side-prequel Broken Vows, so that was...

...on the Rocking Self Publishing podcast. About 45 minutes. Click the image to go to the podcast:

The Asylum is the premier Steampunk event in the UK taking place over the last weekend of August in Lincoln.

A couple of thousand steampunks in one place at one time - awesome.

I will be there, selling and signing my books plus taking part in a couple of talks.

If you can be there do come along and say "hi" it will be great to see you.

Anyone who knows anything about my writing will be aware I write female-led stories.

Of every screenplay and novel I've ever written the number that had male leads could be counted on the fingers of one hand - even if I had only three fingers on that hand. And one of those stories is the completely unpublishable first novel from when I was 15. Some stories are ensembles but even those are female-led.

None of my female characters are men in disguise - well, being literal that's not true becaus...

I write period or fantasy works. And that means I have to do a lot of research to make sure the words I'm using are right for the period.

For example I discovered the name Barbara was much more popular in the 1800s and early 1900s than it is now. I also found that the name Jeannette (and not the spelling Jeanette) was also in use. Which is good because I've been using it.

My main tool for this is Google Ngrams where Google digitised thousands of books and let's you find and compare word frequen...

I'm doing this because someone asked me to. I suppose it's revealing in some ways, but unfortunately many of the questions simply don't apply to me, from my viewpoint.

Do you share your work with your partner or spouse? Does it matter if it’s been published yet?

My wife is a trained and very experienced editor. She reads a lot of what I write but she's also very busy so, while I value her opinion, I don't like to press her to read what I've written.

How much of your family and/or closest “friend...