Where’s Worrad?

(Thanks to Steve Cameron)

That planned Uncle Albert spin-off series was pretty high concept. #OnlyFoolsAndHorses #NewWaveSF #Plonker

The Omnivorous Mind

I’ve been thinking recently, would our species have achieved its intelligence, civilisation, technology etc if we hadn’t have been omnivorous? And, by extension,does intelligent life in the universe only (or very typically) evolve from omnivorous species? My thinking is that a carnivorous or herbivorous species is locked into a non-risk taking groove, while omnivores have […]

Scrivener’s Page Fade Feature: Any good? Yeah, Actually.

Been playing around with backgrounds on Scrivener’s compose setting recently. To be honest I was wasting time: I figured any image around the page as I wrote would be distracting. Initially my instincts were correct. The bright white of the page doesn’t sit well with any imagery along its borders, at least not to me. […]

Katana and Science Fiction

You never see/read any cyberpunk futures where people have cutlasses. Which is weird because in practice they’re the same thing as katana: a one-sided shortish sword mainly intended for slashing with. Or, it’s just been suggested to me, an Indian tulwar. Which, like a cutlass, has better hand protection than a katana. A near-future full […]

Debut Novel News!!!

So I’ve got a novel coming out soon with the wonderful folks at Castrum Press. I’ll leave it at that for now but, in the mean time, here’s a bio on their site, detailing who I am, what I’m about and the risks I may or may not present to the public at large. […]

I’ve started singing to the cat when I feed her. I sort of improv each time I come back from work. So far, my favourites have been the 1930’s ballroom crooner ‘Oh Leila (what a swell gal)’ and the Beach Boys-inspired ‘Leila Kitty Beach Party’. I’ll run out of material sooner or later but I’m […]

On The Way Home From Work

WWI Body Armour: An inspirational anachronism

I think genre writers and artists can find real inspiration in history’s cul de sacs, its conceptual still births. How would things be if they had seized the world’s imagination and become the norm? It’s a great launchpad for both worldbuilding and tone. The European powers, desperate to remedy the hellish stalemate of the trenches, […]

My Worldcon Saturday In A Mobility Scooter

I was somewhere in the exhibition hall when the liquorice began to take hold. Sugar-coated stuff, metre-long, hanging from my mouth like a tongue as I pushed the mobility scooter full-tilt across the wide and depopulated floor. Sure, there were people, a few, but most of us had gone, readying for the Hugos. I could […]

J.L. Worrad

Fantasy And Science Fiction Author