100 Day Project - Day 3

May 03, 2022

I have to admit to being a bit lazy yesterday as I did absolutely zero work on Avalon ~ The Glastonbury Zine. I made up for lost time today though with a solid 4 hours work sorting out imagery and doing a bit of writing too for the zine. 97 days to go....

May Day 100 Day Project

 May 1, 2021

Well, day 1 of my #100dayschallenge went smoothly and productively. I have titled the project Avalon - the Glastonbury zine. I've worked out what articles and features will appear in the zine, and have decided if I can find any other writers or artists who would like to contribute to the zine. I have also registered a domain name avalonzine.co.uk to document the  progress of the zine, to advertise its presence in the market, to hopefully attract contributors and, ultimately, to get some advertisers on board. It's  not online just yet but here is an early preview of its first page:

I think I will call it a day now and get on with stuff. See ya.

The Good Doctor

 April 26, 2022

Well, I have finally completed the first draft of the conclusion to my portmanteau folk-horror novel Solstice. Fyi, during the course of writing this concluding story in the book I have decided to change its title from Shiver to The Good Doctor. This should make better sense when people finally get a chance to read the book. Anyway, before I make a start on the story's second draft, I think I will enjoy a nice and very long weekend break and concentrate more on my ongoing health problems...

Another sunny day. Another writing sesh concluded...

April 21, 2022

Writing in the Sunshine

April 20, 2022

Yeah, Home-Made Bread Day!

April 12, 2022

Battling On...

April 12, 2022 

Not feeling too well of late, but I am trying my best to battle on through with the writing of my conclusion to my Solstice series.

Still, there was a little peace to be found in the garden 😎

🥺

April 09, 2022

I never thought I would see this again. Indeed, until I saw all my bandages and cotton gloves hanging out to dry on our garden washing line, I had forgotten that this was a normal sight during my childhood eczema days. After 50 odd years of topical and oral steroid use battling this condition, it's the turn of TSW to decimate my well being. And I am still a long way down the queue to see a specialist 🤕

 

Solstice -a morning well spent

Wednesday, March 30, 2022

I spent the morning crafting the opening paragraph in the fourth and final story in the folk horror portmanteau novel Solstice. Oh, and the tale now has its own title - Shiver.

Current Reading...

 I am currently reading two books. One is the graphic novel Maus, which is particularly grim reading. Given the state of the planet at the moment, I can't see a better time for the world to read this book and perhaps stop history repeat itself:

The second book is by the enigmatic author Eric Ericson. I have enjoyed his earlier novels, The Sorcerer (excellent) and The Woman Who Slept With Demons (a good read). I am only a couple of chapters into The Master of the Temple but, judging by its fascinating introduction, I think I am going to enjoy this book.

On the subject of Eric Ericson, he appears to be a very elusive author. I, and many other readers have tried to find some info on the writer. So far, we have all been unsuccessful.  If anyone reading this has any info, please get in touch and let me know. Thanks.

Shed Doors

I love the colour of my shed door, so much so that I got round the thinking, if one door look so good, imagine having two doors on the garden building...

Shed door details

Getting to work...

Our new faerie door in situ

Enchanting, eh?

Solstice Finale Take Shape...

Solstice Continues...

March 26, 2022

It looks like my hope for renewed creativity, mentioned in my self-pity post the other day, has been granted. Sat out in the garden today, without a clue how I was going to bring the book to a conclusion, I started the final story in my Solstice series of stories afresh.

The new version of the finale of this portmanteau novel addresses the main problem I had with the conclusion that I previously could not quite square.

Whilst, as mentioned in my previous post, I will have topostpone the publication date of Pagan Stone, I feel confident again thatI should be able to keep to the Solstice publication deadline. 😊 

Pagan Stone -scratching an intro

March 19, 2022

Sunshine and a little bit of warmth has been like a godsend to me these past few days and I can feel the Spring weather doing more for my mental health than any fluoxetine or paroxetine tablet I have been taking over the past few month.

Whilst the plants in the garden grow, see  www.magickalgardening.co.uk,  so the stirring of creativity wriggle free of their constraints. Hopefully, it will flourish over the coming weeks. But, for now, its baby steps...

The Sunshine Starts - 2022

March 18, 2022

It has been a long time coming, but the weather was finally welcoming enough to invite me out in to the garden for an hour so this afternoon. And being a little behind in my writing, I took this opportunity to sit out and finally make a start on the introduction to the book Pagan Stone.

If you are interested in my garden, you can find more photographs I took of it today over on Magickal Gardening here.

Feeling Poorly

 It has been a tough few weeks, spent battling SWS. The NHS, disabled by this sour Tory government, have been of little help, save for the  prescribing of an antidepressant (paroxetine) to help my mind safely navigate my condition. To add to my physical pain and distress, I have been trying to secure my paid employment through these difficult times by attempting a negotiation for a different (working from home) role with my employer., the fruits of which are still unknown as my time off work sick continues its tick-tock.

Whilst I have had plenty of time of late to work on my personal creative project, foremost amongst them right now being Pagan Stone, SWS has left me both physically and mentally exhausted, to the degree where I now have serious misgivings about getting this guidebook published on time. As they say, only time will tell...

 

Pagan Stone ~ Haunts of the Olde Gods

'Tis time to crackdown with my second major project of 2022 - the third in my series of guide books on the Gower Peninsula. This new entry to my continuing exploration of my home turf, introduces the reader to this area's standing stones, prehistoric burial monuments and other ancient sacred sites.  I have called the book Pagan Stone ~ Haunts of the olde Gods.

Unfortunately, I have a rather tough deadline on the completion of this project and have just 55 left to get it all written, illustrated, designed and published. And with that in mind, I made an immediate start, working up ideas on a possible cover design of the book:

Its' time to knuckle down and make this book a reality...

Sweyne's Eye - Swansea Sunsets

Ahead of schedule, you can now get your mits on this beast of a fotozine 🙂

Swansea City Sunsets - Introduction Time

With 28 days left of my deadline to finish and publish the latest edition of Sweyne's Eye, it's time for me to turn my attention to writing the introduction to the collection of sunset photographs featured in the zine. I have a feeling that this zine might be completed a good few weeks ahead of schedule...

Writing the introduction to the latest Sweyne's Eye zine