2023-05-13 14:30
Now, I apologise that I am ridiculously late with the rules this year. Life has been hectic and I simply never quite found time to work on this. Until now. And even now, I'm editing… Read More
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2023-03-31 19:29
Came down with a cold this morning and have been getting progressively worse and worse as the day has worn on; consequently today's challenge was pretty tough because I was largely ber… Read More
2023-03-30 19:35
Today's challenge was 'an ordinary moment from yesterday" and I decided I wanted to write something about my daughter, who is the sweetest little girl in the world (I'm obviously biased, but… Read More
2023-03-29 15:38
I had a few ideas for today's challenge that revolved around aliens choosing to cancel our culture, but none of them really felt right and then - while on the train - a different idea appear… Read More
2023-03-28 18:38
Today's challenge was 'inspired by a video game' and I spent quite a while thinking about which game I should use; I considered (and rejected) a few including Elite, the Final Fantasy series… Read More
2023-03-27 21:30
I was busy running an online workshop with a University in the US until 22.15 tonight so I was really cursing myself for coming up with such an awkward writing challenge for today - horror i… Read More
2023-03-26 21:06
This is the closest I've come (so far) to missing a day of the writing challenge. I had a load of work to sort out tonight and I didn't sit down to write until almost 10.30pm and I had zero… Read More
2023-03-25 12:21
I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to write for today's challenge. I'd originally thought about something related to a con, but I'd already written a con in an earlier challenge, so I fi… Read More
2023-03-24 21:48
Today's challenge gave me a chance to play around with time travel and I wanted to try and do something that used time travel as a means to provide something that wasn't too gimmicky (as is… Read More
2023-03-23 18:50
Today's challenge was "A childhood memory" and I decided to go back to a not-altogether safe game that my sister and I invented...A Childhood MemoryWe lived in a town called Halesowen, which… Read More
2023-03-22 19:51
Today's challenge was simply a title - "The Spire" and I decided to write something that feels like a fragment of a far bigger story. I find myself wondering just what price has been paid, a… Read More
2023-03-21 20:58
So, today's challenge was a title "Addicted To That Rush" (taken from a Mr. Big song) and it was another title that I didn't really have any real ideas about until I sat down and looked at t… Read More
2023-03-20 20:27
Today's challenge involved writing in a genre you've never written in before - which was tough because I've written science fiction, fantasy, horror, thrillers, westerns, and a few more thin… Read More
2023-03-19 20:25
Today's writing challenge hurt my head. It seemed fun when I set it ("no repeating words") but, my word, it's tough. And, of course, I couldn't resist trying to find some way in which to als… Read More
2023-03-18 19:40
So, most of the writing challenges I've set are either vague instructions (2nd person train journey) or are titles that are taken from songs. But, for today's challenge, I'd just taken a wor… Read More
2023-03-17 18:32
I had absolutely no idea what I was going to write for today's challenge, titled Burning Out (a title taken from a song by Philip Sayce). I had a busy morning and early afternoon and so it w… Read More
2023-03-16 21:00
For reasons known only to myself, I decided to bite off more than I could chew today. Today's challenge was to write something 'in the style of' and I was planning on doing another Iain M Ba… Read More
2023-03-15 19:58
I spent a while trying to work out which memory to pick for this, and then Spotify happened to randomly throw me a track from Whitesnake's Live at Donington 1990 album - which just so h… Read More
2023-03-14 18:54
Today's challenge was a difficult one to write - not because I didn't have an idea (one popped into my head quite quickly, but because I found (as a parent) this was really emotional to writ… Read More
2023-03-13 20:15
So, today's challenge was 'Only Dialogue' - which was not the kind of challenge I needed on a day as hectic as this one has been. I had a few ideas swilling around in my head and finally set… Read More
2023-03-12 09:48
Today's challenge was 'Your Worst Holiday' and, while I've had one or two unusual holidaying experiences over the years, it was easy to find the source material for this. It happened all the… Read More
2023-03-11 19:37
Today's challenge was inspired by a song title from a band called The Aristocrats (you can check out this live version if you like), and I had a vague idea of what I wanted to write but I co… Read More
2023-03-10 20:15
Today was a real struggle; I just couldn't think what to write. I played with several vague ideas but none of them seemed interesting upon even casual examination. And then, at about 8pm, an… Read More
2023-03-09 20:28
Today's challenge was completed at 6am, but I then ended up being so busy throughout the rest of the day that it's only now at 9.20pm that I'm finally sitting down to post it. I'm quite a fa… Read More
2023-03-08 19:41
Today's challenge involved creating a fictional piece of academic writing. I wasn't sure, until I started typing, exactly what I was going to write for this (I'd initially been toying with t… Read More
2023-03-07 21:50
Today was a difficult day. A very early start, a busy day, a busy evening, and I only got a chance to sit down with my laptop at 22.15. Fortunately, I had a reasonably good idea of what I wa… Read More
2023-03-06 20:09
Today was tough purely because I'm a bit under the weather and I feel utterly exhausted. But, the idea for today's challenge arrived to me out of the blue this afternoon and so I ignored the… Read More
2023-03-05 18:53
After writing a sonnet about unconditional love yesterday, today's challenge gave me a chance to splash around in more familiar waters. I can't say I'm deliriously happy with what I've writt… Read More
2023-03-04 20:30
So, this was the toughest day so far and there were moments where I said to myself "A poem, Oliver/ Why on Earth would you set a poem as a challenge?", because this is one of the forms of wr… Read More
2023-03-03 19:13
Today's challenge was to write a children's story - which left things pretty open compared to the title-based challenges of the first two days. But, that openness was a challenge in itself a… Read More
2023-03-02 19:38
Time was pressing even more today than yesterday and, thanks to needing an early start, it proved impossible to get up early and write (I couldn't face the thought of writing at 4.30am). So… Read More
2023-03-01 20:26
Today was, frankly, one of those days. The kind of day where you get swept up in stuff and have literally no time to yourself. So, I was thankful that I got up at 5.30am this morning to tack… Read More
2023-02-22 22:53
Now, those of you who have been reading this blog for many years will know that I am not adverse to the idea of a writing challenge. After all, I created and successfully completed one… Read More
2022-05-11 20:36
Now, I apologise that I am so very late with the rules this year. The simple truth is that I got hit pretty hard by Covid-19 a month ago and I've still not recovered. Which means there… Read More
2021-11-21 08:38
So, I've decided to next embark upon a somewhat experimental fiction path - using non-fungible tokens (NFT) as a starting point for a series of stories. Lots of details to sort out in order… Read More
2021-11-06 11:17
So, if you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, then you may have noticed that I'm not there an awful lot anymore. This is not an accident.I've gradually come to the conclusion that 2021 will… Read More
2021-05-15 13:46
So, here we are again. After a whole year without the musical madness that is Eurovision, we're now only a week away from Eurovision 2021 and the Netherlands having a chance to show the worl… Read More
2019-05-05 11:40
It's less than two weeks to go until Eurovision 2019, which means that you also have less than two weeks to stock up with enough alcohol to dull the pain of watching it. This year we're head… Read More
2019-04-24 18:04
Christmas was always special when I was a child.The tree would go up in the week before Christmas, decorated with strands of tinsel and all manner of homemade decorations that had been fashi… Read More
2019-04-21 17:27
A combination of work and a distinct lack of energy meant that I stayed stuck on Day 7 for quite some time. But I knew what I wanted to write, even if I struggled to turn it into words on th… Read More
2019-04-06 18:27
I’d always heard them say that the first one is the hardest; when you have to look them in the eyes and both of you know what’s coming next, that’s when you find out whethe… Read More
2019-04-06 09:19
Steve Ralph tumbled out of the doors of Ritz's nightclub laughing, broken pint glass in his hand still dripping with the blood of the man whose face he'd just slashed for spilling his drink… Read More
2019-04-04 20:58
Vance Pureheart’s Academy for Heroes was located within a somewhat ramshackle castle that was perched, some would say rather precariously, upon the edge of a soaring cliff. It could on… Read More
2019-04-03 16:07
My writing process when it comes to these challenges (if you're interested) is as follows:a. Ponder. I do this quite a bit. Spinning the word or phrase of the day's challenge in my head, and… Read More
2019-04-02 20:18
Another tough day when it comes to available time. All of which means that I had grand ideas which never quite managed to materialise. So you get instead a pale shadow of what I intended - w… Read More
2019-04-01 20:23
To step through the ornate double doors that led into the Xanadu Travel Agency was to step into an exotic blend of mansion and theme park; a place where pristine marble walls and flooring so… Read More
2019-03-24 18:05
I have to admit, this last year has been pretty tough on my creativity. A combination of a hectic workload, plus a bout of ill health, means that it's only been fairly recently that I've fel… Read More
2018-10-21 15:07
Short version - I've published two books on Amazon today. One a detective novel, set in 1900 London, and the other a collection of short stories (some of which first appeared on this very bl… Read More
2018-05-10 10:04
I realise that I am terribly, terribly late with this. Life and a bout of ill health got in the way of this year's update but - if you were concerned that there was to be no 2018 edition - h… Read More
2017-10-22 09:19
Star Trek: Discovery premiered on 24th September, 2017, ending a period of almost twelve and a half Star Trek-less years on the small screen. While, the overwhelming response of critics show… Read More
2017-06-17 18:24
The Gap is a story is currently being published on a episodic basis via my instagram and this post collects the first ten parts for those wishing to catch up...Part 1These are the places whe… Read More
2017-03-26 20:09
It is so nearly that time again...I know, I know; it seems like only yesterday that we were all waking up with the mother of all hangovers but it's nearly here. Like an iceberg looming over… Read More
2017-01-28 16:24
So, the following story was inspired by a writing prompt on reddit posted by the user crimsonpuppet that went as follows: Aliens give you a camera and say "only those you photograph wil… Read More
2016-12-08 15:11
Originally, I intended to record this as my first ever vlog; but a combination of bad lighting (last week) and an annoying cold (this week) put paid to that idea so I decided to simply rewor… Read More
2016-05-15 16:48
So, Eurovision 2016 is over and it's pretty obvious to me that something needs to change in the voting system.Now that the dust has settled and the alcohol has been placed at a safe distance… Read More
2016-04-11 19:33
Is it really nearly that time of year again? Good grief! Well, with just over a month to go until we begin the musical descent through Dante's nine circles of Hell that is the Eurovision Son… Read More
2016-03-19 18:53
Now, as regular readers may know, I am not always the luckiest of persons when it comes to travelling and - true to form - I managed to run into problems yesterday when travelling from Londo… Read More
2016-03-19 18:53
The last two days, I've been attending a conference in which a range of professionals from different industries get together to discuss developing trends in the media industry and take a pee… Read More
2016-03-19 18:53
The first time I heard the name el hombre de la lluvia was on a bright February morning. I was sitting on a bench alongside Barcelona harbour, drinking water from a bottle and watching the w… Read More
2016-03-19 18:53
Oliver arrives in Moscow. Briefly.Tuesday, 1st October started off reasonably well; I left the house at 8.10am with my suitcase, marched to the train station and sat down the on the train th… Read More
2015-11-22 08:03
“They say,” said Charles Carruthers, pausing for effect as the candlelight flickered against his thin face “that he has parlance with the Devil himself.”“He is… Read More
2015-11-13 06:14
Judgement day had finally arrived.The calculations had initially taken months and, in the end, he’d resorted to setting up a botnet in order to siphon away processing time from the Uni… Read More
2015-11-11 20:16
We'd left seismometers behind on the Moon after the lunar missions in 1969 and 1970 and we eventually used the data from them to prepare us for our return. In the eight years that they remai… Read More
2015-11-10 20:51
The object landed in the deserts outside Roswell, New Mexico on July 3rd, 1947.It had been tracked on radar as it entered Earth’s atmosphere and a team had been scrambled to recover it… Read More
2015-11-09 20:06
My head nodded against the glass of the window and I woke up, briefly confused about where I was and what I doing, before remembering that I was on a train to San Francisco. I rubbed the sle… Read More
2015-11-08 21:00
I arrived to work early after having taken the scenic route and let the autodrive function take the strain while I reviewed casefiles. I nodded good morning to Carol on the front desk when I… Read More
2015-11-07 20:50
Dear Diary; I miss people most at times like this.The fawn had been weak when I found it, its rear leg was broken and it had been left behind by its mother on the edge of the forest near my… Read More
2015-11-06 20:44
The dinner was fabulous; a dressed lobster with a sirloin steak and a collection of roasted vegetables arranged aesthetically in a series of small china dishes, a glass of champagne, and the… Read More
2015-11-05 20:07
Alan Finch always looked at a woman’s photo for a good few seconds before choosing whether to swipe left or to swipe right because he liked to be sure. He’d heard someone once sa… Read More
2015-11-04 20:52
Once upon a time, in a great city, there lived a little girl called Mary. Mary was a happy child, with parents who adored her, and she had a beautiful laugh that caused all who heard it to f… Read More
2015-11-03 21:23
Run, run, just as fast as you can,But you can’t run faster,Than the carpet crawlers can.The school looked completely different to how I remembered it. If you looked hard you could stil… Read More
2015-11-02 21:26
It had existed in this limited form for countless aeons, ever since the Great War had been raged and its kind had been forced to seek out refuge in the deepest, darkest places of the lesser… Read More
2015-11-01 21:18
“Mr. President,” said General Renfield, his voice ever so slightly strained, “we really need you to make a decision on this.”President Douglas Moore ignored him, and… Read More
2015-10-25 15:29
So, with just one week to go until my Short Story Challenge, I decided to write up a little on each of the tracks to explain why I picked these particular albums...1. Death on Two LegsGrowin… Read More
2015-10-11 19:47
November is, as many writers will know, the National Novel Writing Month - a time when thousands of writers attempt to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard, at least) and create a fully… Read More
2015-05-25 13:31
Sunset over Anfield (c) Ruaraidh GilliesToday marks exactly ten years since one of the most memorable Champions League finals of all time. But that night currently seems a long way away and… Read More
2015-04-26 12:35
With just 27 short days to go until we put aside musical taste and all sense of decorum and plunge headlong into the world of musical madness otherwise known as the Eurovision Song Contest… Read More
2015-03-15 19:48
I feel guilty that I'm not updating this a little more often but, just in case you're interested, then the work on the novel is proceeding like a glacier, which is to say relatively smoothly… Read More
2015-01-18 17:17
The Goblin Gate Let me tell you a story. It is a story with a beginning that has been lost to the mists of time; it is a story of a long desired and dreamed of vengeance; it is the stor… Read More
2015-01-18 10:03
First ContactI remember seeing the data that came in when the Outer Relay first picked up the asteroid; the telemetry indicated that it was moving fast, far faster than any of our models had… Read More
2014-07-31 07:17
For those of you who follow me on Facebook, you'll know that I'm taking a month off so that I can concentrate on writing my novel. Well, just under the halfway point and the removal of all s… Read More
2014-05-29 11:26
The Iconoclast dropped out of Patch-Space at the very edge of the system’s gravity well, rippling serenely back into corporeal existence as its drive wound fully down and relativistic… Read More
2014-05-16 20:44
The Golden Gate bridge rarely last long in monster movies...I think it is only fair to be upfront with you, dear reader, and tell you that I have been looking forward to seeing this movie ev… Read More
2014-05-08 07:44
Just under five weeks from today, we will - for one night only - abandon all musical taste and dive headlong into the world of pyrotechnics, ballads and unpronounceable acts that is the Euro… Read More
2014-05-08 07:43
Due to overwhelming demand (well, ok, there was one person who left a comment on the blog - but you take what you can get, eh?), I have created a printed version of the rules....I know, I'm… Read More
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