Games

Back on 30 October, I opened the blog up to receiving donations. In the interests of transparency, I can confirm that in the last four months I have received £150 in donations, to help keep the blog ticking over. Many thanks to everyone who has contributed so far, or will do so in the future. Meanwhile, a brief update on things: What I'm Watching: Deadwood Season 2, to be followed by Fringe Season 1. What I'm Reading: The Daylight War by Peter V. Brett (a review of Master and Fool by J.V. Jones should be posted in the next day or so). What I'm Playing: Skyrim: Dragonborn and Dragon Age: Origins (nearly done with the former). Also (more intermittently) Final Fantasy XIII .

After receiving a few requests for this over the last few years, I have added a Paypal Donations button to the blog (see top-right) for those wishing to help make a contribution to the site. A few clarifying points below: There is no alternate or 'exclusive' content for those who choose to contribute. This is a purely voluntary thing. You - thankfully - won't get a "I'm in Wert's Zone!" T-shirt for contributing :-) Please contribute based on your enjoyment of the blog's content so far, not on what I might do or not do with the blog in the future. Contributions will go towards the upkeep of the site. Although Blogger provides a free service, there are additional charges involved in running the site which have become steeper recently (i.e. my monthly internet bill and my rent for the property from which I bloggeth). To emphasise, this is a purely voluntary endeavour. My heartiest thanks to any who do contribute.

In the middle of a house move at the moment, which is why updates have been thin on the ground. I'm also starting a new job which may continue to keep things on the quiet side around here for the next few weeks. Currently Watching: Red Dwarf Season 10 (okay), Chuck Season 5 (entertaining), Merlin Season 5 (rather PG Game of Thrones -esque this year). Currently Reading: The Middle Kingdom by David Wingrove. Currently Playing: Dishonored , XCOM: Enemy Unknown .

The Fantastical Librarian blog has posted an interview with myself about blogging, reviewing and so forth. Some interesting questions there on why I started the blog and why it has such a silly name :-)

After five and a half years, it's time to give the blog a bit of a facelift. This is my first attempt, so what do people think? The white on grey text is something I know some people have issues with, though I like it (and this doesn't give me strobing headaches like a lot of white-on-black text options do). It's fairly easy to change things around though, so if this design is unpopular I can try something else out. Cheers. UPDATE: Have switched to an easier-to-read interface. The generic background picture will likely get changed but I'm a bit happier with this one. UPDATE 2: The background picture was too cheesy, so it's gone.

I've been having problems with the 'Author Review' index on the right hand side of the page for a while now. Basically, I maxed it out as it suddenly stopped me adding any more books to the list. As a result I deleted the list and created a new one listing authors by their tag entries, which makes for a more concise list but also still allows people to find the reviews. Unfortunately, Blogger has seen fit to somehow merge the old, deleted list and the new one together, creating an unwieldy monster of a list which I now cannot edit at all. Apologies for this. I'm trying to rectify the problem.

Mark Lawrence, the author of Prince of Thorns and its forthcoming sequel, King of Thorns , has published an interview with me on his blog which may be of interest.

Yesterday the blog turned five years old. Wow, how did that happen? Half a decade ago I started the site on a whim following another poster's suggestion on the Westeros.org forum and it's gotten bigger and led to more interesting opportunities than I ever thought possible. Because of the blog I've met a large number of my favourite authors, got into contact with many more and been able to pursue some paid writing and editing work (more on this next year) which otherwise would not have been possible. All great stuff, made possible because people seem to like reading the blog. So, that's five years, 1,407 posts, well over 1.6 million site visits (and over 2.5 million page views) and 354 book reviews under my belt. Where from here? Onwards and upwards, hopefully (and definitely a page redesign at some point). Thanks to everyone for stopping by over the years. Sorry for the lack of cake :-)