Reading and Writing

A chilled middle day of my 3-day weekend. Popped up to our house at the top of the hill as we waited for our laundry to wash. It was nice to find the electrics are all sorted in the house now. The landlord is just waiting for the surveyor to complete their report now and then he can start getting the place fixed up for us.  Our garden there is now in full bloom and it is such a shame that we can only enjoy its colourful splendour in fits and starts.

The weather is a bit too hot for me at the moment, but I managed to get the bulk of my Tricho cacti out in our temporary bottom of the hill garden so they could sunbathe with The Mont.

I spent the hottest part of the afternoon indoors, catching up on some reading...

...and finally managed to do a little more work on my Gut N Smith zine in the night. Noting that I am already 51 days into that particular 100-day project, it felt great to get stuck into that again.

Slugs by Shaun Hutson

Started reading my first Shaun Hutson book 😱 - saw this 42 year old book going for a fiver so I thought wth!

Catweazel

 Wednesday, 16 April, 2024

Peace

 Sunday, 24 March, 2024

Peace. My favourite thing in the world right now.

We decided we needed a day away from the house today. And with beautiful sunshine being the order of the day, I enjoyed a nice little sit down outside the caravan in the afternoon :)

I finally put Cold Comfort to bed in the evening. I won't lie, this novel was a bit of a beast to write and is definitely the longest of my novels. 

Merry Christmas One and All

Monday, December 19, 2023

Reading Caracal. Reaching the part where Bertie gets left out in the dark and rain without his supper...

Reading my last Guy N Smith book for a while as my year-long reading project comes to a close. Which means, it's time to start putting together some thoughts for my write-up of reading, collecting and enjoying Guy's work. This will be featured in a full-colour fanzine book called The Imaginarium. 

The book, dedicated wholly to Guy, is planned to be the first in a series of zines/books celebrating scary storytelling. I've already got an idea for issue 2 percolating in my head (something along the lines of eerie children's books) so I think it's time to crack on with Issue One. Thanks Guy, you've truly entertained me throughout 2023.

Guy N Smith - Caracal

 Sunday, 19 November 2023

Starting my 20th and last GNS book of 2023. It's been a long and entertaining journey. Thanks to the lovely people on the Guy N Smith Appreciation FB Group, including Guy's wonderful family, for making the reads a hell of a lot richer, and helping me get hold of some of his very rare books. Chuffed I kept to my New Year's resolution to devote my reading year to Guy ☺️

Liver News

 Friday, 17 November 2023

My liver scan at the hospital gave me good news so I can continue on my low dose chemotherapy to help my condition. The walk to hospital yielded some nice view too. Even the waiting room in the hospital was cool. 

Wall Art outside Three Corners Orchard, Sketty 

Singleton Church

The last remaining leaves of Autumn

A nice coastal view from the hospital waiting room

A quick foto grab from the bus into town

Relaxed in the evening with a good book (Guy N Smith's Nightspawn):

Reading

Monday, 13 November 2023

 Sunday, 12 November 2023

An afternoon read. One of Guy N Smith's best - Nightspawn

Reading Nightspawn

November 04, 2023

Reading Nightspawn - Up there with my favourite Guy N Smith reads so far...

Guy N Smith - Nightspawn

 Starting my 19th and penultimate GNS read of 2023:

GNS: Finishing Deadbeat

Even though it was a busy out-and-about weekend, I was determined to finish this fascinating read before Monday...

It's September

September 02, 2023

It's September. Which means my August break from project work is over. Four projects will be occupying my evenings over the course of the next few weeks. The first is Cold Comfort, my 200,000-word zombie apocalypse novel. I want the final draft of Part One of the book completed this month. Expect to see the full book published sometime in early 2024. The second project will be Tidal Gower. I want to source as much of my photography for this guidebook by the end of September as possible. The third project is the horror novel I want to publish in 2025, which is set in a city office block. I have the title already sorted, and the main premise of the story is looking great. During the next four weeks, I want to put a little meat on the bones of the tale and take advice that there will be no legal or other repercussions for me, given the book's incendiary title and the nature of the novel. Finally, I have a couple of Guy N Smith books I want to read in the next few weeks. I need to start taking notes for my book on the addictive nature of collecting in general and, more specifically, the trials and tribulations of collecting GNS books, manuscripts etc. So, that's my September sorted...

Guy N Smith - The Dark One

August 26, 2023

Time to start reading my 16th GNS book of the year. 

GNS Update

August 24, 2023

It's been a busy, and non too cheap, week here on the GNS front. First of all, I managed to grab these four fighters from a previous collector, which included that scarce and probably rarest GNS to find in today's market - Deadbeat.

The have now found their new home snuggled against other classics from "the great scribbler", including Guy's autobiography, which I was offered the day after I purchased above.

Unfortunately, the above titled isn't signed, so if anyone out there reading this has a signed copy they think might find a good home with me, please let me know.

Anyway, here's a pic of my GNS collection as it stands today. This includes all of his books, chapbooks, fanzines and actual hand-written manuscripts from the writer. For those interested in a more in-depth guide to my collection, please click here: https://www.pixie-led.co.uk/p/1.html

Coincidentally, I finished reading my 15th GNS book today. And so I pulled my 16th read from the shelves above:

 I sourced this book a few months back from an online USA thrift shop. And now it's time to open it's cover on this side of the Atlantic and delve into another of Guy's dark work of horror fiction...

Trying to read

July 01, 2023

With Remnants of War written and waiting for publication, I can finally catch up on some reading - if this one lets me:

CHILLED

June 11. 23

Graveyard Rendezvous

My first GNS zines. These make for fascinating reading.

Last Day

Monday, May 29, 2023

Last day of our 1st holiday of the year. I've ticked everything off on my To Do list for May so today is just a day for chilling and acclimatising myself to the thought of returning to the office tomorrow. Still, I'm off again soon enough for a day-long reccy of somewhere I have long since wanted to explore - watch this space...

Sabat 2

Sunday, May 28, 2023

Time for book 14 of my 2023 GNSathon. After my enjoyment of Sabat 1, I though I had to stay with the man for his next dark adventure: