Pixie-Led | The digital home of author & photographer Chris Elphick: Tidal Gower

Showing posts with label Tidal Gower. Show all posts

Wednesday 31 July 2024

Tidal Gower Cover Work

I'm starting work on the cover of Tidal Gower. Though I like the cover pic of my home village, Penclawdd, the typography is definitely a work in progress...

Sunday 14 July 2024

Spending time spotting the errors in the proofs of my Guy N Smith book that arrived yesterday morning. As well as fixing them, I will change the answers to the x2 quizzes to a feinter print so they don't stand out too much and spoil the fun. The publication date is just a couple of weeks away now 🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀.

Tomorrow marks Day 1 of my next 100-day project - my fourth Explore Gower guidebook, Tidal Gower. During this time, I will also revamp some of my other Gower guidebooks.

Wednesday 1 May 2024

Chuffed

Tuesday, 30 April, 2023

Making the most of my week away from the office. My Guy N Smith book is coming along nicely, as is my next novel, Familiar. My Explore Gower and Swansea Photography sites are up and running, I've cleaned up the design of this blog, and now I've started work on my next Gower guidebook, Tidal Gower.

Picking up our mail from our old house in the evening, I found a very special package waiting for me. If there is such a thing as grail items in the world of Guy N Smith collecting, then these are two are top of that list.

Sunday 14 April 2024

Penclawdd Industrial Revolution Slag

Sunday, 14 April, 2014

I took a walk out to the old rocks on the east side of the Penclawdd marsh this afternoon. These curious large boulders on the east end of the Penclawdd marsh are the industrial slag waste from the old metal works that were once located here and formed part of Britain's historic Industrial Revolution. During that time, coal, tinplate, lead, copper, silver and brass were all worked on this part of the Gower coastline. Today, as you can see, the landscape this industry once polluted to drive Britain's wealth is a scene of serenity.

I have been meaning to visit this area of Penclawdd for a while now, but I have always failed to take decent photos of these 'rocks'. I'm happy with the images I managed to harvest today, though. They will be useful for my Explore Gower book, Tidal Gower, which I shall be working on later in the year.

If you enjoy my creative work, please help support this blog and my other creative projects. You can buy me a coffee there to sustain me through the marathon. THANK YOU FOR YOUR KIND SUPPORT.

Links

https://goweros.blogspot.com/2013/06/penclawdd-copperworks-slag-boulders.html

Tuesday 26 March 2024

Llanrhidian Marsh

Tuesday, 26 March, 2024

A beautiful evening down at Llanrhidian makes up for a tough day at the house. What's more, some of the images I've taken over these recent evening returns to the caravan park will come in handy later in the year when I put together my next Explore Gower book, Tidal Gower.

Monday 25 March 2024

The Doors of Hell Have Opened

Monday, 25 March, 2024

I hope this little beast of a book will be published in a week or so. The Cover design is done and dusted (see above), and the formatting of the novel for publishing is now also completed. I've just got to do a quick page-by-page check on the final typeset work, and then it will be ready...

What's next? I hope I hear you ask? Well, it's finally time for me to sort out that Guy N Smith zine I have been promising for so long. After that, I'm not too sure. I had planned on producing a second issue of Avalon, but with the cancellation of our Glaston visit for the May Day celebrations, I am going to put that on hold for a year. Reissuing/reworking my Hand in Gove book may be an option as this theme seems to have grown in popularity recently, but I'm not too certain yet. And my fourth Gower book, Tidal Gower, will still probably conclude my publications this year.

Of course, while all the above is going on, I will be writing my ninth horror novel, Familiar, and ideas for it are already coming thick and fast.

Until my next post, keep happy :)

Friday 1 March 2024

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 :)