The Nag Hammadi library is a collection of early Christian and Gnostic texts discovered near the Upper Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi in 1945. It is comparable to the Dead Sea Scrolls in terms of its literary significance, though less well known. Please note that what follows is a discussion of the texts and their... Continue Reading →
A Brief History of the Most Unread Book of All Time.
Stephen Hawking’s book A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes was a landmark work in popular science books. The book discusses theoretical cosmology and was written expressly for the lay reader. As such, it uses non-technical terms and starts from basics to show the development of theories and their implications.... Continue Reading →
A Reclusive Genius
There is a stereotype of authors as solo operators who toil away in isolation, driven to create by the work itself more than dreams of financial reward. Like most stereotypes that isn’t always the case, but there are examples who embody it. For this stereotype, I can’t think of a better example than Henry Joseph... Continue Reading →
An Author’s Worst Nightmare
Many authors have destroyed the only copies of their works. James Joyce burned his play, A Brilliant Career; Terry Pratchett had his unfinished works destroyed when he died in accordance with his wishes. Sometimes though, a manuscript is lost by accident and found later (such as Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman which will feature... Continue Reading →
A Night to Remember
A friend of mine recently reposted a FB article celebrating the 130 year anniversary of the publication of The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. Her post reminded me of the extraordinary story of how the book came to be. An American, Joseph Marshall Stoddart (managing editor of the American publication Lippincott's Monthly Magazine),... Continue Reading →
Rachel’s next book.
My daughter, Rachel, and I wrote a newly published book together, Unicorn's Egyptian Rescue. It has been available long enough to generate a few sales. Rather than wait for royalties to be paid in the real world, I gave Rachel some money as her share of what we had sold to date. This was very... Continue Reading →
New Interview
https://www.newinbooks.com/interview-with-robert-new-author-of-sovereign-assassin/ I'm delighted to be featured on the NewInBooks.com site this week. They are highlighting and promoting my new release book, Sovereign Assassin. The book tells the story of Niobe, who is about to ascend to the throne of Tantalia. Once queen she will have sovereign immunity and be able to carry out her plan... Continue Reading →
3rd Place Wordfest Short Story
TL/DR *Cue Happy Dance* I placed third in a writing competition! YAY! Last night was the annual Monash Wordfest Short Story awards ceremony. This year (like last) it was conducted via zoom and was invitation only. When I received an invite I thought it was simply because I was an entrant in the open category... Continue Reading →
Pre-Order Sovereign Assassin
I'm delighted to report that my publisher Shooting Star Press has made my new book available for pre-order. Link below. Release date is June 7th. 🙂 https://www.shootingstar.pub/product/sa21/
New Novel Release Easter 2021
2020 was hard, but not without some positives. My family dynamic actually improved over two rounds of lockdown, I started a PhD, and I signed a publishing contract. This latter achievement was a big deal for me and felt like vindication for the effort I've put into my fiction writing for the last decade. I... Continue Reading →