Folk Horror Titles Relaunch New Cover Designs!

February 29, 2020

Having looked through my back catalogue of books on Amazon with fresh eyes, I have come to the conclusion that the cover design of my first novel appears a little tired. And so I have started work on a classy new relaunch of my folk-horror titles. Look out for these spanking new cover artworks on heading your way soon...

Working on a classy new book cover for Crawley ~ an adult faery tale

Working late into the night on the new cover of Pixie-Led

Storm Jorge

All I seem to have recorded on my Tascam DR40 this year is the rain and the wind. It will be lovely when the weather finally improves and I get to do some rambling and record some less inclement sounds... Still, there's nothing quite as atmospheric as listening to a storm when you are chilling at home in the warmth, so here we go - Storm Jorge, recorded from my living room this afternoon. As usual, this is best appreciated whilst wearing a good pair of headphones (by the way, you can see the audio recorder to the right on the mantelpiece in the accompanying photograph to the audio):

Storm Jorge

All I seem to have recorded on my Tascam DR40 this year is the rain and the wind. It will be lovely when the weather finally improves and I get to do some rambling and record some less inclement sounds... Still, there's nothing quite as atmospheric as listening to a storm when you are chilling at home in the warmth, so here we go - Storm Jorge, recorded from my living room this afternoon. As usual, this is best appreciated whilst wearing a good pair of headphones (by the way, you can see the audio recorder to the right on the mantelpiece in the accompanying photograph to the audio):

Perfect Balance!

My favourite character amongst our garden birds. He has been visiting us for the nearly seven years we have been living in our house and is always a welcome sight.  Given his chunky size, he is still a bit of an acrobat. Look at those balancing skills!

Perfect Balance!

Given that he is a bit of hungry fella, and that we have known him for so long, he has earned himself a nickname. Here is is arriving, and lingering, on our birdfeeder the other day. He added to his girth quite considerably on this visit, and continued to eat until an impatient starling came and chased him off (caught at the end of the following video):

Sparrow

When we first moved into our house, nearly seven years ago now, the only birds we saw here were jackdaws, magpies, pigeons and seagulls. All lovely birds. But we really missed the smaller birds that used to frequent our previous garden. 

Despite setting up a bird table and keeping it well stocked, it took several years before we finally managed to attract smaller birds into the garden. But then, a couple of summer's ago, these little fellows, House Sparrows, suddenly arrived en masse in our garden. Not only did they feed from our bird feeders and enjoy the water from our bird-bath, they also nested in our privet hedge.  And last summer, the colony of house sparrows expanded again when the little birds nested for a second time in our hedge. Now, our garden is abuzz with the birds and their constant chattering from our hedge is a real joy to behold :) All great news given the population of these precious little creatures are in decline nationally.

House Sparrow Atop Our Garden Birdfeeder

House Sparrow (Passer domesticus)

The amount of seed and suet these guys get through on our birdfeeder is incredible and we sometimes have to restock it twice a day!

To further encourage the House Sparrows and retain them as residents in our garden, we have also installed a communal nesting box on our house. More news on the hopeful success of this if and when it happens...

Solstice Ghost Story...

My month-long break from writing is coming to a close. I am so looking forward to opening this writing bureau again on March 1st and cracking on with my Christmas ghost story...

Sweyne's Eye - Bish Bash Bosh

Whilst I have taken a break from creative writing this month, I have kept myself busy producing these three zines for my new Sweyne's Eye photography range:

Sweyne's Eye  -  Issues 1-3

The first three issues of my new Sweyne's Eye Photography zine

It's been an interesting month putting these zines together and there will definitely further issues in the range published soon. Watch this space...

You can purchase copies of this zine here:

Hand ̶i̶n̶ Glove
The Bay
Chronological Series 2014-2015

Working on Sweyne's Eye ~ Chronological Series 1

Working on the third issue of my photography zine, Sweyne's Eye. The zine manifests itself as two entities - as a series of focussed projects and as a meandering chronological diary of images, featuring the scenes that caught my eye as I navigated my home town during my day-to-day life. This issue will be the first in the new chronological series of Sweyne' Eye.

Working on Sweyne's Eye ~ Chronological Series 2014-2015

To help differentiate the two concurrently running strands of Sweyne’s Eye, the featured projects and chronological series are published in variant styles. However, both strains of the project can and should be seen as a whole. All three current issues of the zine should be available to purchase any day soon - watch this space...

Sweyne's Eye ~ The Bay (Ancient Forest Remains)

My last few pics from the second issue of my photography zine, Sweyne's Eye, which is titled The Bay and explores the natural beauty and diversity of my local beach:

Ancient tree remains

Ancient tree remains, believed to be over 7,000 years old

The above photographs show the scant remains of an ancient forest that one stood on the site now occupied by Swansea Bay. The forest remnants are believed to be over 7,000 years old and have been preserved in the old estuarine mud that was formed at the same time when this forest existed and still remains in situ in this portion of the beach.

Sweyne's Eye ~ The Bay (More Sunset Shots)

Two more sunset shots from the recently published photography zine Sweyne's Eye ~ The Bay:

Sweyne's Eye ~ The Bay (At Sunset)

The best time to be on the beach has to be sunset, right? Three more images from Sweyne's Eye ~ The Bay

I hope you enjoy this edition of Sweyne's Eye, whose price, in keeping with the spirit of zine printing, I have kept as low as Amazon allowed. :)

Sweyne's Eye ~ The Bay (Seaglass Finds)

Some of the seaglass finds from my local beach, including a very rare piece of pink seaglass :) Pictures from the recently published zine, Sweyne's Eye ~ The Bay:

Another Image from Sweyne's Eye - The Bay

And here's another image from the recently published photography zine Sweyne's Eye ~ The Bay:

The Bay ~ Sea Holly

Another image from the recently released zine Sweyne's Eye ~ The Bay:

Sweyne's Eye ~ The Bay

To celebrate the release of the second issue of my Sweyne's Eye zine, which is devoted to photographs of my local beach, I will be posting a few images from the publication over the next few days. 

First up are these images of the crows who seem to love this stretch of sand (and the worms and shellfish it contains). I like both images but finally decided on featuring only the second photograph in the zine. Still, it is nice to see them presented together here on Pixie-Led :)

Writing Up the Intro to Sweyne's Eye 2

Image Editing Sweyne's Eye ~ The Bay

Commencing Work on Sweyne's Eye 2

Fluttering Polythene Series #2 & #3

Two more photos of fluttering polythene that has got caught on security wire, continuing the thread started here.

Storm Dennis From My Bathtub

Well, we have certainly been battered by storms these past few weeks. I can't really remember such a continually blustery February!

But I do love the sound of the wind rattling through the house. The sounds are distinct in every room. The attic room with its twin skylights sounds great when the rain or hails pounds at the skyward-facing glass. The front porch has the sound of cars sluicing through the drenched streets, which when recorded can sound immense when replayed through headphones when the slushing cars sound like they are driving right through your head! From our back bedrooms, even during storms, the sound of our garden birds can be heard shrilling above the gusts. But during this last spell of wet and windy weather, I found it was my bathroom that transmitted the most evocative sounds. Have a listen to Storm Dennis below, recorded from my bathtub, but please use a set of headphones to get the full effect. Driving wind, lashing rain, howling pipes and creaking doors await...

Thunderstorm

I think our whole town was awakened by this mighty thunderstorm last week. Luckily, our security doorbell camera caught one of the flashes and rolls of thunders. I do love a good storm :)

Hand ̶i̶n̶ Glove

Damn. I just found this straggler on my laptop harddrive. I am a bit gutted, tbh, as I quite like this image but it is way too late now to add it to my Sweyne's Eye ~ Hand ̶i̶n̶ Glove zine. Oh well, at least I can still share it here on Pixie-Led.

Hand ̶i̶n̶ Glove Published :)

After a few design and publication issues, which are now happily resolved, I am pleased to report that the first issue of my new photography zine, Sweyne's Eye, is finally available for purchase :) You can order a copy of the first project featured in the inaugural issue here.

I had a fair amount of jip getting this zine to print, to be honest. And I had to scrap my first attempt, even after getting it as far as the printing stage. The main problem with my first attempt was that the 6 x 9 inch portrait format of the book meant that I could only get many of the images printed one to a page. This made the zine a fairly lengthy affair, which pumped up the printing costs of the zine and meant I was unable to make the book available for sale at an acceptable zine price.

Ist (Rejected) Copy of Sweyne's Eye ~ Hand ̶i̶n̶ Glove

Interior Pages of the Rejected 1st Proof of Sweyne's Eye ~ Hand ̶i̶n̶ Glove

Anyway, having received the first proof copy of Sweyne's Eye ~ Hand ̶i̶n̶ Glove, I decided that I would have to bite the bullet, scrap that version of the zine and redesign the product into a more accommodating 8 x 6 inch format publication. As a lot of the photographs in the zine were taken in a portrait format, this allowed me to fit two images onto each page and this helped drastically reduce the page count of the zine. This smaller format, and its resultant reduced cost, also helped identify the publication as a photography zine rather than a high-quality photo-book, something that was always an important factor for me in the production of the work.

Inside pages of Sweyne's Eye ~ Hand ̶i̶n̶ Glove
The 1st Rejected Version (Left) and the Final Published Version (Right)

Having now received a proof copy of this second version of Sweyne's eye, I am more than happy with what I have been able to achieve with the zine. And with my enthusiasm buoyed, I have already started work on the second issue of Sweyne's Eye, which will focus on the photographs I have taken of my local beach. I am proceeding apace with this second issue, so watch this space as I should hopefully get it published sometime over the next couple of weeks, fingers crossed.

In the meantime, here are a few pics of the published first issue Sweyne's Eye ~ Hand ̶i̶n̶ Glove to hopefully whet your appetite for my new zine:

The Published Copy of Sweyne's Eye ~ Hand ̶i̶n̶ Glove

Interior pages of Sweyne's Eye ~ Hand ̶i̶n̶ Glove

Interior pages of Sweyne's Eye ~ Hand ̶i̶n̶ Glove

Hand ̶i̶n̶ Glove ~ Unearthing more Images

Just when I thought my new photography zine was ready to be published, I find 8 more images (including this one) I want to include in it - grrrr.

Hand ̶i̶n̶ Glove ~ First and Last and Never Made It

This is the image that started off my project Hand ̶i̶n̶ Glove. Unfortunately, I was unable to use it in the completed project, as Hand ̶i̶n̶ Glove later fell under the umbrella of my larger, overarching project - my Sweyne's Eye photography zine, which dictates that all the images must have been taken in my home town. This particular image was taken near the Brecon Beacons whilst my family and I were out on a sledging adventure. Still, that's what I like about this blog, images that don't quite make it into print can always find a home here :)

Hand ̶i̶n̶ Glove - Outside the Boundary

Here are a couple of photographs I took for my Hand ̶i̶n̶ Glove project that didn't quite make it into my Sweyne's Eye zine. I am pretty gutted that I could not include them in the publication, but they were taken just outside the geographical boundary that binds all the images in the propounded zine series. Still, you can see them here so all is not lost :)

Sweyne's Eye ~ Hand ̶i̶n̶ Glove: Early Shots

Some early shots from the start of my project photographing abandoned clothing in my home town, before I fine-tuned it to concentrate only on dropped gloves. These and other early shots from the project do appear in Sweyne's Eye ~ Hand ̶i̶n̶ Glove, but only as thumbnail images, but I thought these particular photographs deserved a little more exposure, so here they are for your perusal. I don't know, perhaps shoes hanging from telephone wires deserves a little project of their own...

...and finally, I had to share this picture of one of the more unusual items of lost clothing I found during the project - a jester's cap lol.

Jester's Cap in the Sea

Sweyne's Eye ~ Hand ̶i̶n̶ Glove (7)

Small glove on kerb, taken from my new photography zine Sweyne's Eye ~ Hand ̶i̶n̶ Glove:

Sweyne's Eye ~ Hand ̶i̶n̶ Glove (6)

Another abandoned glove featured in my new photography zine Sweyne's Eye ~ Hand ̶i̶n̶ Glove.

Sweyne's Eye ~ Hand ̶i̶n̶ Glove (5)

From Sweyne's Eye - Hand ̶i̶n̶ Glove. 

Sweyne's Eye ~ Hand ̶i̶n̶ Glove (4)

Another image from the soon to be published published zine Sweyne's Eye ~ Hand ̶i̶n̶ Glove:

Sweyne's Eye ~ Hand ̶i̶n̶ Glove (3)

Here is another of my favourite pics from my new photography zine, Sweyne's Eye ~ Hand ̶i̶n̶ Glove:

Although the images in this book can be read literally as just a series of gloves that had been dropped, left behind and lost by their own, I believe that there is far more to be interpreted from the captured image. They speak of ownership/abandonment, loss, environmental change, of our need as a species to actually get our hands dirty and embrace our place and belonging in the natural world. And, perhaps above all else, I genuinely find the photographs as creepy as bejeesus!