Winter's End (2024) Update

Friday, 01 March, 2024

It is Spring at last! That was one harsh winter, wasn't it? Anyway, we are through it now, and it is time to look forward to better things...

Healthwise, I am hoping for a fantastic season ahead. My new meds, seen as a wonder drug by my consultant, have proved as good as promised and I officially return to my day job next Thursday.

Over the past winter, I have managed to progress my Cold Comfort novel and it is just a matter of formatting the thing now prior to its publication, which still has its official release date of March 31 intact - although this may stretch into April if anything gets in my way of progress it this month.

Progress of my Guy N Smith book is also going well, with all my Lego photography completed (I still don't know what to do with all the GNS Lego dioramas I've created over the past few months). I have one field trip lined up before completing this particular book. This was originally going to involve a visit to Hopwas Wood, the scene of The Sucking Pit and numerous other GNS tales, with Knighton being a reserve alternative should the weather prove too wet for woodland walking. With the continuing uncertainty surrounding the location of the bomb crater in Hopwas Wood (whose rain-filled depths inspired The Sucking Pit), I have decided to delay this visit for another day (and probably another year). Instead, I have now decided that my field trip will be to Shell Bay, the location of GNS' classic Night of the Crabs. This change of location came as a relief to my wife and son, who will accompany me on this field trip, as there is far more to occupy my family's time on the coast of North Wales than a meander through a single woodland. Knighton remains in reserve if the weather forecast proves too gloomy for beach camping at the time. The GNS book is still scheduled for a close of June 2024 release.

Prior to the above field trip, the three of us (and hopefully my daughter if she can find the time) have another trip planned, this time to Glastonbury so I can take photographs for Issue 2 of Glastonbury guidebooks, Avalon. This should be my third publication of 2024, scheduled for the end of September.

After that, I will be working on my fourth Gower guidebook - Tidal Gower. 

After that, my prospective 9th novel, about a girl's unusual friendship with a toad - Familiar - should lead me nicely into 2025...

Here's hoping the nice weather brings good times for myself, my family and all my friends, readers and site visitors. Have a love Spring :)

Notes for today's work schedule for Avalon

June 22, 2022

Well, I only gone and did it!

 Well, I only gone and did it! Avalon ~ The Glastonbury Zine is published! And you Glastonbury lovers out there can buy your copy here :)

Thinking of Glastonbury from the back garden

 June 23, 2022

x2 Cover Art

 With the publication dates of both Solstice and Avalon getting close, I thought it was time that I designed some book covers. And here they are - the front cover of Solstice and the full jacket layout for Avalon. I hope you like them :)

x2 second drafts completed

May 25, 2022

 I have been very busy this week writing and am now happy to report that the second draft of both Avalon, my book exploring Glastonbury, and my novel Solstice has now been completed. Now it's time for the third and final drafts of these docs, which in these instances is just proofreading, grammatical tidying up and typesetting the documents for publication. What a good start to this cold and drizzly Wednesday morning 🙂

More Project Juggling

May 22. 2020 

 Okay, so time-wise, I am nearly a quarter of the way through this Avalon zine project. Having taken a week off to crack on with another project I am working on (Solstice), I thought it was time that I had better crack on with Avalon:

Juggling Projects

May 12, 2022

 I've been cracking on with the Avalon project at a fair pace. But after the first draft of it has been done,  I will have to ease back on its progress to concentrate on the second draft of Solstice. Oh, and that Gower book I had to put on hold because of illness wrecking my creativity, well, my mind has finally returned to this delayed project. The book won't be as first envisioned, but… Well, I'll speak further on this matter soon...

My outside office :)

May 7, 2022

Avalon ~ The Glastonbury Zine

May 04, 2022

Probably the best bench in Glastonbury

"Whenever my mind turns to Glastonbury, I always remember the times I spent there atop Wearyall Hill. Once I spent hours on its summit in the freezing snow of a Winter’s solstice, having mistimed the sunrise! Sat there in the complete darkness, I still remember the chill and the shuffling and munching noises of the local sheep, made mysterious in the blackness of the night, who came to keep me company. It was as though it had happened only yesterday..."

- snippet from the upcoming issue 1 of Avalon -The Glastonbury zine

Despite the nagging of The Soosh,  I managed to get the new Avalon zine website up and running today :) 

I have also sorted the imagery that will accompany the article I am writing for the physical Avalon zine, some of which you can see below:

I like the images above as I think they illustrate the stark polarities that characterise the human condition. In this instance, people who go out of their way to wantonly kill something as innocent as a tree and those who cherished and actually loved the now sadly demised Glastonbury Thorn. I count myself lucky to have had the opportunity of both witnessing and recording the ceremony. Sadly, even the trunk of the tree has now been removed from the hill :(

Anyway, I think that's enough work done for today...

Interupting Pswcat lol