Category Archives: Fictional Musings

Feb 27

A Disappointment of Owls

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Is released on the 3rd March. Set in the middle of Unkindness of Ravens, Symington is adjusting to life in Fournier Street. A chance encounter with Albert Shawcross – a solicitor with a sideline in illegal divorces – is just one of those things, until Shawcross winds up dead and local bobby Constable Dennison comes […]

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New Website.

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Had a bit of a writer’s revamp, so there’s a new website to go with it. Do pop over to sesmith.pub and have a look. If I don’t post before, may your 2021 be a darn sight better than your 2020 PS huge shout out to @panistroglodyte for noticing the error 🙂

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Jun 07

An open letter to my current WIP*

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*work in progress Dear WIP First let me start by saying it is a pleasure to meet you. You have been a long time coming and at times I thought you’d never turn up. You have been a challenge and a joy and the bit you revealed of yourself today, although rough around the edges, […]

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Apr 09

William Melville Returns

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Currently sitting in the inbox, or possibly now on the desktop of my poor publisher, is a copy of Symington Byrd’s third adventure. Set during Byrd’s sojourn in Fournier Street, its a tale of revenge. However, more importantly it sees the return of one of the historical figures from my time travel trilogy: William Melville. […]

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Aug 14

Lip Reading

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Today’s research led me into the world of lip reading and an amazing puzzle created in 1914. Too late for my Emily to refer to, but useful for my purposes The photograph was taken just as each boy starts to pronounce his name. And yes, you can tell which boy is which – just by […]

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Aug 13

Akouphones & Sign Language

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…An early electric hearing aid to the rest of us, has been the focus of today’s research. Invented by Miller Reece Hutchinson in 1898, it used carbon transmitters to convert a weak electrical signal. It was bulky by all accounts – needing to be housed on a table – and thus cumbersome to transport. It […]

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Jul 15

Symington Byrd 2… an update

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Byrd’s latest mystery is proving a bit of a bugger. (Excuse my French). The corpses are piling up nicely. The murderer has motive and opportunity. Everybody who was at Hamblebee Hall (court, house – I’ll make my mind up by the end of the book) on the night of the murder is lying, and their […]

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Burning question

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Six people give an account of a dinner party. One member of the party doesn’t mention one of the guests at all during his account. Why not?

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Jul 25

Emily: A Metamorphosis

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I have been having a look at this blog in the last few days, making a few changes here – tweaking there; preparing for the summmer when I can blog and post to my heart’s content. Doing so, I came across an old post – It’s all in the clothes. This post contained my initial […]

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Dec 31

A Dilemma

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First let me explain, I have not been posting because I have been writing. I have in the last week written 10,500 words explaining what has happened to Lucy since the end of book two. And some of those words seem to be making sense. But this new spurt of activity has caused a problem. […]

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