Goodbye January

 Jeez. January took its toll on my Seasonal Affective Disorder. The upshot of which is I have resigned my position in PCS (if I can't help myself how can I help others). I have also decided to quit my cat volunteering, as I am anxious of bringing cat diseases home to my furry daughter. My only hope is that February is kinder to me and allows me to regain at least a little self respect and self belief. 🙁

1/12

Well, after setting myself a more chilled goal for 2025, I have made some good progress during January.

Firstly, the first issue of Avalon ~ the Glastonbury zine is available again. Its had a bit of an update, correcting typos etc.  And I have given it more of a zine look by losing its glossy cover.

Secondly, I have virtually ploughed through the third and final edit/rewrite of Famiar. There are just a couple of chapers and a foreward to sort now and then my 9th and final novel will be available to buy and read. Expect to see it on sale sometime around the middle of February.

Also, I have a short ghost story making good progress on my Scribe 2. And believe it not, Pyewacket now has a whole 1st chapter finally written. Though that wont see the light of day for another year or so...

Targets for February 2025 then are:

Update and publish Explore Gower's Verry Volk and Gower Ghosts

Get my Guy N Smith fanzine on sale again in its slightly amended and updated zine-look format look

Publish my 9th novel, Familiar

Well, that's a bit of a tough target I've set myself for the month ahead.

Still, it'll keep me out of trouble...

A loooong January nears a close

Here is a pic of me, tired after a day at the office but still plugging away at my short story for the upcoming second edition of the GuyN Smith zine, which this year will be called 51 Years of Pulp Horror...

Avalon 1 re-issued

Issue 1 of Avalon ~ The Glastonbury Zine is back on sale in a new tweaked zine format. Look out for Issue 2 coming out this comming summer...

Seth's Ghost Stories Update

The current state of my Seth Ghost Stories Collection

After a few Amazon returns, I spent my Amazon funds on adding a few more titles to my Seth's Chrismas Ghost Stories collection. 

 

One gripe has emerged already. Take a look at The Open Door book pictured above. See anything different about this book compared to the others? It is published by Penguin, not Biblioasis, and is also a larger book than the others in my collection. There is annoyingly little info out there on this book series, so I have no idea why certain editions are only available in the Puffin version. It is annoying though...

Anyway, you can see more about my progress collecting this series of books on my dedicated SCGS page here. 

Sunday Morning Indoor Gardening

Sunday morning = Indoor gardening in 2025. This morning, I thought I would turn my attention to my 6-month-old Kanna seedlings, my Glastonbury Crassula ovata, grown from a single leaf from the excellent specimen that lives upstairs in The Speaking Tree bookshop in Glastonbury in 2010, and my small cacti pads, which are in need of some major TLC:

Starting work on GNS2

I completed the final edit Part 2 of my next novel early and so I got to start work on the second issue of the Guy N. Smith zine a little before its scheduled time:

🙂

Conjuring ghosts from the page

 Sometimes all I want to do during these cold, dark and miserable winter months is to hibernate until the clocks go forward an hour and the warm of spring awakens the countryside. For now, my best escape from the harsh inconviences of earning a crust and battling the afflictions and ailments of increasing age and ill health as to sit in a quiet place, away from the bustle of every life and create places, people and circumstances of my own. Let an imagined protagonist face a happenstance far more worthy of anxiety than my own petty concerns and lose myself in his actions and thoughts for awhile. And so I take a second sojourn to a andventure I'd hope never to endure in the real world.

Continuing my ghost story for GNS Zine 2

Mandrake & Money Tree

Sunday morning is my favourite time for indoor gardening. Today, I thought I'd share pics of my 4-year old Mandrake coming back to life and my new Crassula ovata project:

Seth's Christmas Ghost Story Collection

I promised a few entries ago that I would do another Seth's Christmas Ghost Stories book post and here it is. As of today, there appears to be 30 books already published in the series, so I have a lot of catching up to do with my collection, which, as of today, looks like this:

As I hope to collect the full series eventually, I have created a webpage to add more info about the series and detail my growing collection. You can find it both here and on my Library page.

Knock Knock

I had a couple of hours spare today and taking advantage of a creative urge, I opened up my Scribe 2 and turned my mind to the next Guy N Smith zine. Unlike the 1st issue, which was a solo effort, my work on the 2nd issue is going to be more of a compiler and design role. That said, I had promised to add something of my own to the project, and a promise is a promise.

I had thought of getting out my box of Lego and recreating a few more GNS Lego book cover recreations. But I haven't been in the mood to work with them for many a moon now. However, over the last few weeks a single scene of a ghost story has been running through my mind. And as I sat there today, ready to kill a couple of hours, I realised I could deal with two birds at the same time if I wrote up this story.

As regular followers of my socials, currently confined to this blog and Bluesky, I plan on writing a series of ghost stories - a genre I particularly favour but have never attempted before. I also need to produce content for the next GNS zine. The ghostly scene that had been haunting my mind of late ia based on a door. Whilst this door was an ordinary front door in my musings, I suddenly realised I could easily change it to a particular door owned by my favourite author, the great scribbler himself. I had seen pictures of it on a GNS forum, and had read a short story Guy himself had written about it. And then, as if by some alchemical mind-magic, my fingers began to scratch the surface of my Scribe 2, and before I knew it I had a good few pages of the short story written. I am rather pleased with it too. 🙂

 

Misty Morning

Mist and Monstrose

I was in a bit of a miserable mood today, sulking that I was trapped in work on a really gloomy and misty day, which I knew would be very photogenic. It was probably a visual hangover from last night's Nosferatu film and I needed to fund some visual feasts of my own.

Mrs E was starving though, having worked through her lunch break and so a trip to our local chippie was needed. And en route back to the this little misty scene caught my eye and satied my need for a pic of the mist: 🙂

Had a wee bit of energy in the evening and did a much needed repotting of my root-bound Trichocereus bridgesii (monstrose long-form) cactus. The prize cactus looks like ir has had a tough winter and is desperate for warmth and a nice, long drink...

Monday - dawn to dusk

A cold morning's drive into work this morning. But, boy, what a beautiful sunrise! 

Finished work early to catch the early evening showing of the new Nosferatu movie...

And, boy (again), I was glad I'd made the effort to catch it at the cinema. For not only was it a ponderous movie, a visual and story-telling masterpiece that  must surely rank as the finest Dracula adaptation to date, but I also to to see this glowing cloud at the carpark afterwards.

Fossil Topsoil

 

Fossil ammonites used as a shingle topping on my 30 year old Crassula ovata, which I grew from a single leaf cutting.

Pwscat Chilling in the Morning Sunshine

 

Polar Christmas Reading

It has been a recent tradition of mine these past few Christmas' to read a vintage ghost story published in Seth's illustrated range of books. Last month's title I chose to read was The Captain of the Polestar by Arthur Conan Doyle. 

Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Captain of the Polestar (1883) presents a chilling ghost story set against the backdrop of the desolate Arctic. The narrative follows John McAlister Ray, a ship's doctor aboard the Polestar, as he documents the unsettling experiences surrounding Captain Craigie. Through Ray's journal entries, the tale unfolds the psychological turmoil and supernatural disturbances that plague the captain, whose fixation on ghostly visions merges madness with the uncanny. 

Reading the story reminded me of another tale I read a few years back - the more modern and longer Dark Matter (2010) by Michelle Paver, which also navigates themes of isolation and fear within an Arctic setting. In this later book, the protagonist, Jack Miller, part of a doomed scientific mission, faces spectral occurrences as the endless Arctic night envelops him. Despite the gap of over a hundred years between the two works, both stories resonate with thematic parallels, and generate an atmosphere of dread stemming from human vulnerability in unforgiving environments.

Both narratives effectively employ the Arctic landscape as a backdrop for psychological and supernatural horror. In Doyle's The Captain of the Polestar, the frozen sea becomes an unforgiving force, mirroring Craigie’s troubled mind. Conversely, Paver's Dark Matter delves into the suffocating isolation of the Arctic, using the perpetual darkness to symbolize the encroaching fears of the unknown. While Doyle's writing is richly evocative, Paver creates a more visceral experience, vividly illustrating the relentless cold and silence that amplify the tension.

At the heart of both stories lies the fragile human psyche under extreme duress. Captain Craigie’s visions and unstable behaviour in The Captain of the Polestar echo Jack’s growing paranoia in Dark Matter. However, while Doyle leaves the supernatural elements open to interpretation—raising questions about the reality of the apparitions—Paver confirms the existence of sinister forces. This difference positions Doyle’s tale as a more enigmatic reflection of Victorian doubt, whereas Paver presents a contemporary psychological horror grounded in tangible threats.

In Doyle’s narrative, the brevity of the story shapes its characters; Captain Craigie remains an enigmatic figure, and Ray largely serves as an observer. In contrast, Paver’s Dark Matter provides a more profound emotional connection to Jack, whose personal fears and ambitions enrich his character's descent into madness. Paver, in developing her story to novel length, also creates a more robust cast of supporting characters, intensifying the story's tragic stakes.

Doyle’s prose, reflective of the Victorian era, possesses an elegance that may seem restrained by modern standards, favouring suggestion and ambience over explicit horror. In contrast, Paver's writing employs contemporary storytelling techniques, intertwining psychological tension with vivid sensory descriptions that immerse the reader in the protagonist's dread and isolation. The Captain of the Polestar stands as a notable example of Victorian ghost literature, infused with mystery and understated terror, while Dark Matter offers a more immediate and visceral horror experience, highlighting psychological intricacies and the unyielding threat posed by its Arctic setting. Readers drawn to ambiguous, atmospheric ghost stories may find resonance in Doyle’s work, whereas those in search of a harrowing, immersive narrative may gravitate towards Paver’s contemporary interpretation. Both tales, however, masterfully illustrate the lasting impact of the Arctic as a canvas for examining human vulnerability amidst extreme conditions. 

I would highly recommend both tales to ghost story enthusiasts.  And, given their chilly settings, the pair make for a fantastic supernatural Christmas reading treat.

And whilst Doyle's short story can be easily found in numerous anthologies, I do suggest you find the version I read over Christmas, if only for the small book's cool design, and Seth's cool minimalist yet highly evocative illustrations.

Watch this space for more info on Seth's range of Christmas ghost stories...

Sleeping Stuart Little