Author: Jack Dowd

Nanowrimo 2022

Nanowrimo 2022

Hello everyone, NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, has arrived. I’ve completed NaNoWriMo several times and spoken about it at length before on this website but if you’ve forgotten what it is, allow me to refresh your memory. The aim of NaNoWriMo is to write 50,000 words of a new project during the month of November. …

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Spitfire Review: The Thirteenth Doctor’s Era

Spitfire Review: The Thirteenth Doctor’s Era

I had such high hopes for the Thirteenth Doctor’s era. Back in 2017 everything looked promising. The chequered showrunner Steven Moffat was leaving, Jodie Whittaker, a fantastic actress that I admired, was cast as the Time Lord and previous Doctor Who and Torchwood writer Chris Chibnall was taking control of the programme. It had so …

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Spitfire Review: I, Joan

Spitfire Review: I, Joan

I always enjoy going to Shakespeare’s Globe and although I like watching Shakespeare plays I also watch new and alternative performances. Aside from writing, one of my biggest passions is history so when I heard that I, Joan, a retelling of Joan of Arc’s life story, was to be performed at the Globe I immediately …

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Camden Fringe Review 2022

Camden Fringe Review 2022

I love going to the Camden Fringe. You never know what sort of show you are going to see, it’s like putting your hand into a lucky dip. In 2020 the Camden Fringe was cancelled because of the Covid-19 pandemic and in 2021 I was still remote working and I couldn’t justify traveling up to …

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What if you could bring the dead back to life? 

What if you could bring the dead back to life? 

You must have heard the urban legend of Walt Disney, by now. When Walt Disney died in 1966 his body was cryogenically frozen and is currently held in a vault beneath Disneyland. When society has the ability to bring the dead back to life, Walt Disney will be first in line so that he can …

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Top Five British Royal Family Mysteries

Top Five British Royal Family Mysteries

Here in the UK we’re celebrating the Platinum Jubilee for Queen Elizabeth the Second, Britain’s longest reigning monarch. Although the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee was actually on Sunday, February 6th, we’re celebrating it it in June now that Covid restrictions have been fully lifted. We’re currently enjoying a four day bank holiday weekend, a Platinum Party …

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Five tales from the South Coast

Five tales from the South Coast

Hello everyone. Today I’m doing something slightly different. In 2020 I planned to have one week away in a cottage on the south coast, to catch up on my writing and to escape the hustle of London. I love my writing retreats, the village that I stay in is normally in the ‘off’ season and …

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Why do we like Shakespeare?

Why do we like Shakespeare?

Hello everyone, I’m writing the first draft of this website post on the notes app on my Iphone. At time of writing it’s 19:32 on Saturday 14th August 2021 and I’m in the interval of an amateur production of A Midsummer’s Night Dream at my local park. Shakespeare is- That’s all I wrote back in …

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Top Five Spelling and Grammar Mistakes – part two.

Top Five Spelling and Grammar Mistakes – part two.

In January 2018 I published an article called Top Five Spelling Mistakes in Published Pieces of Work which you can read by clicking anywhere in its title. Although that post is somewhat dated in terms of style, when I re-read it I enjoyed the contents (contrary to popular belief a writer can’t remember everything they’ve ever written). …

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Top 5 characters in the public domain

Top 5 characters in the public domain

The adverts we see online are tailored to us through algorithms. That is to say that robots monitor our search history (a scary thought) and then suggest products or services that they think we might be interested in. After I published my post last December about Sony’s Spider-Verse (you can read that post by clicking …

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