Author: Hugh Ashton

Audiobooks – a question

MrMoleCallsI’ve held off the idea of audiobooks for some time, mainly because I have not found them as easy to distribute as ebooks. However, I have recorded some of them for my own amusement – the Sherlock Ferret series allows me to do quite a lot of silly voices, and also add a little mystery to things.

Here’s a chapter out of Sherlock Ferret and the Phantom Photographer. The whole book lasts for about an hour read in this way.

My question is: how much would you consider paying for a recording of this kind, given that the price for the print edition is US$7.99 or £5.99? Please let me know in the comments below.

 

Posted on by Hugh Ashton

Alt.history

Alternative (or in the USA, alternate) history is a genre of fiction where the world has taken a different turn some time in the past, and has produced a timeline which differs from ours. In that the events described in the book rely on a distortion of history prior to those events, it may be seen as different from historical science fiction.

In this latter category, I think we have to place Susanna Clarke’s magnificent magical (in every sense of the word) tour de force, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, although it deals with people and places and events (the Duke of Wellington, Waterloo) in our world, together with others (John Uskglass, Faerie, etc.), that though meticulously described, have no counterpart in real life.

Continue reading “Alt.history” →

Posted on by Hugh Ashton

My blog (such as it is)

This site allows me to share my thoughts as a writer, and to tell you something about my books, and the processes behind their creation.

I also hope that in the future, I will be able to publish my conversations with other authors on here and provide considerably more general information on books, writing, and life, the universe and everything.

In the meantime, enjoy looking round the site.

 

Posted on by Hugh Ashton

And that’s probably it for today

Banana choco
A weird, but seemingly popular, food sold at festivals etc. in Japan. I’ve never had the courage to try one!

I’ve come further with this site than I thought I would. Just put up another page of unclassifiable books. Since I don’t stick to one genre all the time, it’s inevitable that there will be some outliers which refuse to fall neatly into one category.

However, some of these have been the most fun to write, and have attracted a fair amount of critical acclaim. Tales of Old Japanese gets almost universal praise, and I suppose it is the most “literary” of all my published writing. You might want to give it a go – although the protagonists of the stories are older Japanese people, you might find yourself identifying with them and their predicaments.

There’s also an attempt at a Father Brown pastiche. Much more difficult than a Sherlock Holmes pastiche for a variety of reasons.

 

Posted on by Hugh Ashton

What’s in a genre?

P5270047I’ve entitled one of my pages “Historical SF“, but what is historical science fiction, and where, if at all, does it differ from alternative history?

I try to give some sort of answer to this on the page, but probably one of the best answers I can give is my YouTube talk on Angels Unawares, my science fiction story set in Renaissance Italy, and an Islamic country at the same time, which you can find on the same page. The video also includes me reading the first chapter, so you can get an idea of what the book is about.

It’s a genre I am rather fond of, and one where I hope to be writing more in the future.

In the meantime, enjoy this trailer for The Untime Revisited.

Posted on by Hugh Ashton

Just added my thrillers to the site

857095_511371605572409_797216534_o

I’ve just added three more of my books to this site. They’re not my best sellers, but in some ways they’re the ones I’m most pleased with.

I started off with At the Sharpe End, crossing, double-crossing and triple-crossing at the time of the 2008 bank crisis. Set in Tokyo.

I particularly liked writing Leo’s Luck – it’s an insane romp through sex, rock and roll, and the paranormal. It made me laugh at the antics of its characters at times, and I hope it will do the same for you.

Or, of you want a hard-boiled thriller, check out Balance of Powers (currently a free download), dealing with the problems of an Afghan vet coming back to his Ohio home in 2007 .

More details on the Thrillers page.

Posted on by Hugh Ashton

Starting all over again…

I don’t consider myself to be a complete idiot when it comes to computers, but HTML and Web sites drive me up the wall, even with products like Adobe’s Muse (now, sadly, RIP) and the like. So I’ve bitten the bullet and signed up for a paid WordPress site to replace whatever went before. At the moment it is obviously a WordPress site, but it will eventually (in a day or so if I’m lucky) have its own domain.

KickMe

It’s taking me a little longer to get it going than I thought it would, but slowly but surely I am getting there. Eventually, I hope to be able to add all kinds of wonderful things, but for now, only the Sherlock Ferret books are being featured. More will appear soon, but there are only 24 hours in a day, and I only have 10 fingers.

Even though WordPress is much easier to use than it ever was, and most templates are responsive, meaning there are still problems with different browsers, HTML is far from a true WYSIWIG solution.

Which is why, I suppose, I still prefer books. But then, all new technology has its problems.

Posted on by Hugh Ashton