Catch Up

Last day off work for a while and I've nearly used up all my annual leave until March 2027!

Creativity-wise, I have taken a bit of a break. My. ADD symptoms definitely knocked my confidence, offer at I thought was my last edit; the GN53 book left over 50 typos uncorrected. All sorted now. Thankfully. 

That was several months ago and I am still not ready to  plunge back into writing or zine work, though I do feel the urge now and no and again.

Mrs P. L recently took voluntary reduncy and is currently looking for a new job. With money upper-most in mind, and the uncertainty of an income levels going forward, I decided to break up my Guy N Smith collection and build up a bit of a nest-egg to ensure the last item on my bucket list gets ticked off next year. 

I must have mentioned before that I really want to be able to pay for my children to come with us to South Spain next year to witness a total eclipse of the sun. And to do that I have to secure the necessary coin. 

Whilst it been kind of  sad seeing my Guy N. Smith collection dwindling, my savings for the Spanish Total Eclipse of the Sun has been fed handsomely with some great prices had to ease my losses:

Deat Meat £60 

Hangman's Hotel £57.02 

Nightmares from the Black Hill £57.02 

Deadbeat £100.29

Deatbeat £150 

Killer Crabs-The Return £90 29 

Psalm 151 £150 

Sabat 5 - Wistman's Wood £250 

The Night of the Crabs £56 

Night of the Werewolf £25 

Crabs Omnibus £130 

The Slime Beast £30 

The Last Train £85 

Nightspawn £95.48 

Spawn of the Slime Beast £150 

The Eighth Day £133. 

The Resurrected £114.71 

Carnage £114.71 Bamboo Guerillas  £100 

The Reaper £79

The Island £55

Limited Edition £99 13 

Hunting Big Cats £60 

Creature Feature £50 

Bamboo Guerillas £100.29 

At the moment, the money is outweighing the loss of the individual books, but I know, from personal experience and the other Guy N Smith fans, the regret felt later once the money side of the equation has been spent and you hit upon happier financial circumstances.

Anyway, the sun still shining again today,  so after a walk to the post office to send off another ebay sale, I sat out on the patio, continuing my reading of Man about the House.  There, that's about everything of concern  updated, I think. I think, maybe, this might be the first post I've published here without an accompanying photo or two, or 12. Perhaps there is even more change in the air...

Throwback by Guy N Smith

 This is a cool addition to my prized Guy N Smith collection:

It is going to be a fascinating read going through all these hand-written exercise books of Guy's and how this first draft of Throwback compares to the published book...

Crabs: The Human Sacrifice

This was harder to recreate than I had anticipated:

Halloween Lego Diorama 2025

Despite the odds, I managed to complete my, very cramped Guy N Smith Lego Diorama, which reference over 20 GNS novels: Can you name them all?

And here is the final Lego Guy N Smith Diorama. I hope you like it:

Flare

Been a rough final week of October. The end of summer has now really hit home and I have been off work for the past week with the worst skin flare up I've had since starting on my biologic injections. 

I have fallen way behind on my projects, what with the Sept/Oct walking challenge, and then my flare, but I am hoping that I still have time to pull everything together in the last 2 months of 2025

Work-wise, I am probably going to trigger an attendance warning, but it is what it is. I started 40/60 hybrid working at the start of the month, where I work from home every Tuesday and Thursday. I have applied to flip that to a 60/40 working pattern, where I work 3 days from home and 2 days in the office to help me better manage my various health conditions. This went down like a lead balloon in some quarters. I have been told I need to get both a GP and Consultant's letter to back up my application for a Reasonable Adjustment in my working pattern, but I still haven't heard back from my medical team since I emailed them. I had my Occupational Health interview with a doctor today though, and he told me he was going to back my application, and I am seeing my dermatologist tomorrow, so I can ask them face-to-face for a letter the morning. The only trouble with that is that she is not going to be my regular consultant , but I can't see why it will be too much of a problem. I will just have to see tomorrow. Again, it is what it is.

Lying awake at the moment, waiting to sleep, so I'll end this entry here, and get on with making a plan of action to get back on target with my New Year's target resolutions. 

Before I go though, whilst I have been too unwell to do much this past week, I have produced made an illustration for the Guy N Smith inspired ghost story, which is currently waiting for a second draft overhaul. It probably gives too much of the story away, but hey ho:

 

Satan's Snowdrop Legofied

Not perfect, but it's the best I could manage:

Getting Cramped.

 It's getting a bit cramped in there, but I am getting there. And I have 5 more days to get it finished...

Guy N Smith Halloween Lego Tribute

Working on a special Halloween Guy N Smith Lego tribute. Here is how far I have got so far:

So far, Ihave covered Doomflight, Dead Beat, The Slime Beast, The Pony Riders and Alligators. Still room to squeeze plenty more  in before the big day...

Ghostly Crabs

Just finished my first draft of my crabby ghost story. Sat down with pen and paper this afternoon to jot down a few lines and was suddenly carried away until the tale reached its conclusion!

Swansea Library

I took the opportunity to work on my ghostly giant crabs story for the next Guy N Smith fanzine down in the city library this evening. This will be my last ever visit to this location as the council are selling the building and the library is closing in a couple of day as it prepares to move into the city centre :(

Surely this is/was the beautifully located central library in the whole of the country?

I did a fair bit of crab research, as well as writing a several pages of the story itself as the sun sunk lower through the trees that line Swansea Bay:

An early evening very well spent :)

The (Lego) Slime Beast

 

You Know Who

 Out for nightly walk this evening along Swansea Bay and happened to spit this intriguiging piece of art and immediately thought of you know who:

Ghostly Crabs

I finally have the enthusiasm to start another writing project - a ghost story about... crabs!

Russian Crabs

Thanks to Paul Evans, who initiated me into the world of Guy N Smith fandom, for this magnificent tome. What kind of madness did he initiate me into. I can't even speak or read Russian lol.

Subotsky's Film that Never Was

Putting the final pieces together of my Lego reconstruction of the Guy N Smith film that, unfortunately, was never made: 

And for anyone who hasn't got the foggiest what this image refers to, here's a postcard I picked up from ladt year's Guy N Smith convention:

Crustacean Construction

Continuing work on my Guy N Smith construction for an upcoming fotoshoot for GNS3:

A Time Travelling Adventure Begins

Preparing something special for GNS3 - the third #guynsmith fanzine, which is a 50th Anniversary Night of the Crabs special.

Shell Island - Part 4/4

In the final of 4 blog posts exploring Shell Island and the locations there and thereabouts featured in Guy N Smith's Night of the Crabs, I will share a few more scenes from the island before stopping of at Barmouth to show you a few more images of places from the novel.

The dramatic mountains of North Wales dominate the horizon around Shell Island. And whilst he weather during our camp on the island was very changeable, the clouds afforded some dramatic scenes around the various beauty stops:

This is our tent:

These are the dunes on the southern end of Shell Island...

...where visitors are welcome to camp:

The old farmhouse, below, is reputedly haunted by a girl, and has featured on the UK TV paranornal investigation show, Most Haunted:

This is Dartmouth Townhall, where plans on how to defeat the invasion of giant crabs were drawn:

The building now also doubles as a local theatre.

This is Dartmouth harbour, featured in the latter stages of Night of the Crabs:

And finally, here is the bridge that carries the traintrack along which Dai Peters and his passengers met King Crab before being consigned to their watery graves:

And that's all I have to share from my trip to Shell Island. Until, that is, next year when my Guy N Smith's Night of the Crabs pilgrimage will feature in GNS3 - the 2026 issue of the Guy N Smith fanzine.

As 2026 marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of Guy's introductory novel in his Crabs franchise, GNS3 will be devoted to the author's giant crustaceans. Harking back to GNS1, I will also share a Gallery of Lego book cover mock ups of Guy's recent Crab book reissues. 

And that's not all. Whilst I can happily crack on with further crabby content for GNS3, like GNS2, I would ideally like to feature the creative work of other Guy N Smith fans in the fanzine. So, if you have any creative writing, book reviews, artwokmrk; quizzes or any other crab-related work you would like to see printed within the books covers of next year's Guy N Snith zine, get in touch with me via the new WhatsApp group devoted to the publication.