The Quiet Before the Storm

The quiet before the storm of activity. Nanowrimo, or write a novel in a month, commences tomorrow...

Autumn Delight

Dracula

Fresh through the letterbox this morning - Dracula looking more like the figure described within the pages of the novel than most other editions.

The Nun

My final pop shots for Halloween 2024. The Nun, from The Conjuring and also the self-titled spin-off franchise. There are a few different versions. This moonlit version is my favourite. For those who hate Pop Funkos, and there a hell of a lot of you out there, my fb feed will be funko-free now until Christmas...

 

Reading Again...

Billie Quick's blood has just streaked the pale vampire's faces, meking them appear "like clowns from an unholy circus." Love it!

Flight

Me and Jamie went down the Taliesin Centre today as a late birthday treat for him. Our mission? To board a flight that explored life, death, quantum mechanics and more.

Set aboard an aircraft set-up housed within a long shipping container, we took our seats with trepidation and more than a little excitement.

Buckling in, we donned our headphoned and prepared for take-off.

The floor rumbled nicely as we took our imaginary flight and the sound effects really did give a good impression of thrust as the lights dimmed and we were cast into absolute darkness.

Then the captain introduced what we could expect from the flight. He explained the concept of Schrodinger's cut - the Quantum Mechanics metaphor  of a cat in a sealed box being in both states of life and death until the box was opened and we looked inside. This flight set us in the same equation, with us being the cat.

Suddenly the darkness was interupted by lighting flashing through the cabin windows as a huge thunderstorm erupted about us and we audirorially explored both experiences of flying safely through the storm and the plane suddenly careering to its doom...

To speak more of the 'flight' would be to spoil the experience for others who decide to take the trip for themselves after reading thing post. All I will add is that it was a tenner well spent. 🙂

Attic View, Looking North-West

Preening Pwscat

8

Plans

With the release of my Gower Beaches book and the conclusion of my union rep training, it looks like a have a whole week of free evenings ahead. So, how am I going to spend them? 

Well, I did a bit of planning for November's Nanowrimo last night. Whatever you think of the event, I have found it useful in the past to get a creative project that has got trapped in my head finally down on paper and out into the world at large. With its 30 day target, it's a tough event to complete, but even if I don't fully get what I want to take out of the event, I will at least have pushed the project forward, which is always a good enough result.

Anyway, just to get things clear as much in my own head as to keep anyone interested in my work updated, these are my projected plans going forward as from today, October 26th 2024:

November '24 - Get the first draft of Familiar - "Something Wicked" done and dusted.

February '25 -  Publish my next horror novel.

With the publication of Familar - "Something Wicked", I will get to work on the new Guy N Smith zine. Although I will be acting more as an editor than a creator on this book, I will be adding a couple of personal bits to its contents. Although not set in stone, these will probably take the form of a few more Lego GNS book covers and a Knighton fancon illustrated writeup...

April '25 - Publish the new GNS zine.

May '25 - Commence Work on my second book on Glastonbury. I may, or may not, undertake this as a 100-day project.

August '25 - Publish Avalon 2

Thereafter - Continue work on my long put-off story, Pyewacket.

My favourite reading spot of late

Gower Beaches, Coves and Bays.

Well, I managed to get this through publication fairly easy. So here it is - Gower Beaches, Coves and Bays. Nearly two score pages exploring every beach on the Gower Peninsula.

And if you want your own copy, (and why wouldn't you?), then you can buy it here.

Insidious Halloween Pop

Funko released a late entry to their horror range last week with the release of the Red-Faced Demom from Insidious. He it is, photographed against... see for yourself below:

Wendigo Pop Funko Photoshoot

Pop Funko Halloween - The Wendigo from the TV series Hannibal. This was to be my last Pop post for Halloween 2024, but Funko released a late new figure figure just last week, so watch this space...

Pre Halloween Reading

I've been so busy of late, with two important new jobs to learn, training courses  to complete and getting my latest Explore Gower book written and published. Hopefully the next two weeks will be a little quieter so I can crack on with some much needed reading...

Salem's Lot

I watched the new Salem's Lot film tonightI really enjoyed, the only two faults being it needed a good quarter of an hour to fully develop the story and the vampire was a bit too Marilyn Manson for my tastes. Althought it was never going to beat the 1970s TV miniseries version starring David Soul, it was far better than the 90's remake. 

fudjcakes

tsuchinshan-ATLAS

With the clouds offering no more than a 50/50 chance of seeing comet tsuchinshan-ATLAS, we decided to head out to try and see it. It has rained heavily since my last failed attempt and to see it as tonight was the last chance of capturing it on a mobile phone camera for 80,000,000 years.

We drove out to Pengwern Common, near the house where my Gran (on my father's side) used to live, our moods dampening as the clouds gathered heavily over the horizon. But then, not long after arriving, they broke ranks, and, hey presto, the comet was revealed! 

While the comet had dramatically diminished in size and visibility over the last few days, it was still a fantastic feeling to finally catch a glimpse of it, especially as tonight's viewing was a now-or-never last-ditch attempt!

Mission Completed.

"Don't be a fool", they said. "It can't be done. It's impossible. You are a busy man, learning two new important jobs. Where are you going to find the time?" Brushing the naysayers aside, I cracked on with with the endeavour. And today, with 6 days left before the 100-day deadline, I did it. Explore Gower's Beaches, Coves & Bays is complete and will be available to purchase on November 1st. 😯

Nearly There...

Working on the final draft of the final beach of my new Explore Gower Book.

Thank U Welsh Water

Not a bad start to the week 😀. The office closed before lunch due to an incident at Welsh Water. This spare time really was a godsend as it gave me a whole five extra hours work on my Gower Beaches book. There is now just 9 days left to complete the project, but I only have 7 more beaches to correct, plus an introduction to write. Its looking more and more likely I am actually going to complete this book on time!

The Pressure's On

10 days to complete my Gower Beaches book! Will I get it done on time? You bet your life I will.

Fall Bay

I finally revisited Fall Bay yesterday evening after a gap of over 2 decades. The path down to the beach was perilous, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone unable to undertake a lot of scrambling. That said, when we finally reached the sand, we found we had the whole bay to ourselves for the entirety of the sunset. And its moments like that which always make me leave Gower to the tourists in the summer months.

I had hoped to capture a pic of comet  tsuchinshan-ATLAS, not seen since neolithic times, but as you can see from the later pics from Rhossili, the clouds over the horizon, where it was positioned tonight, put paid to that ambition.