Showing posts with label Writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Writing. Show all posts

Rest

Sunday, 17 March, 2024 

Today, we are taking a break from the house for our health and sanity. Here's Fudge sleeping as I continue working on my next novel this morning. Remarkably, it's still on track to be published at the end of this month!



And whilst leaving the caravan site's laundrette this afternoon, I came across this fella. It looks like fudj is not the only cat on this particular block.

Last Day in Mumbles

Tuesday, 12 March, 2024

This is our last day at the Mumbles Airbnb. We picked up the keys to cheaper accommodation today on the other side of the peninsula before heading to our house and clearing more of the damage to make it safer for the builders who start work there next week. Fudjcat has settled in nicely here, so I hope the upheaval tomorrow doesn't upset her again. We've transferred the last of our Japan savings (we have had to postpone most of this year's planned trips), so we can hopefully afford to stay at the caravan/trailer until we can move back into our home. This should help ease fudjcat's anxiety and let her settle for longer. Loathe to post here without any pics, so here are some parting pics of Mumbles, all taken from the car as we drove to and from this particular let. These include some daytime shots of that strange scene I happened upon the other night. Onwards and upwards!








fudjcat chillin'

Nothing takes you out of your stressful situation better than
putting yourself into someone else's.
Continuing work on my 2025 novel, Familiar.

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 :)

Lights, Camera, Action

Thursday, December 4, 2024

Picked up these lights for £2 in the B&Q sale so I rammed them inside a glass head. In other news, after a 7-week break, I am writing again 🫡

Putty Cat

Saturday, October 28, 2023

A morning spent in bed, blogging with fudjcakes:

 

Loosening the Chains of Office Mundanity (1)

Thursday, October 26, 2023


I try to keep talk of my day job to a minimum for several reasons. Firstly, it's not work that I feel particularly passionate about. To my eyes, it is a mundane drain on both my time and my energy - resources I want to spend on my creative output. But I have rent to pay, food to put on the table, two cats and a tortoise to raise and several rather expensive hobbies and interests I like to indulge in. And so I am chained to my office desk, on most weekdays at any rate.

Of course, one of the joys of my secondary creative outlet, photography, is that it teaches the eye and the mind to search out interest even in the most dire of situations and locations.  And securing a window desk in one of my hometown's tallest office blocks, with its unparalleled views over the distant urban countryside, I at least have the pleasure of some cracking sunrises and, at this time of year, the eerie morning mists that shift slowly through the distant valleys.





Trying to make the best out of bad situations, I hope to get at least two books out of my time spent working for 'The Man'. The first could be a series of photographs I grab while at the office. The second is a horror novel that I hope anyone reading these mad scribblings will understand I can't go into any real detail about yet. All I say at this point, and to close this particular blog post, is the above photograph set in motion a rather cool finale to the novel-in-waiting. Watch this space for further info, but don't expect a publication any time before 2025...

Cold Comfort - Crackin' On

Wednesday, October 25, 2023

Despite working 10-hour days in the office, I am keeping to my writing schedule for Cold Comfort:

Sunday Mega-Edit

Sunday, September 24, 2023

A Sunday mega-edit with Fudge today:


fudcat hating on my laptop again. bless her

Saturday, September 23, 2023



Pipe Dreams by Guy N Smith

Wednesday, September 06, 2023

I can seriously recommend The Dark One as my favourite GNS novel. Masterly fast-paced writing. Anyway, time now to read my 17th GNS book of 2023. Taking a break from his novels for this one...




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...



On a Mission

July 14, 2023 

I'm on a mission this weekend. Can you guess what it is?

Even vampires can change their names

July 09,2023

Half way through the final edit of my next book. Oh, and it's having a last-minute title change too...

Cracking on with Vampires...

July 07, 2023

With the excitement of the publication of Explore Gower's Remnants of War already receding, my attention this month has been focused on getting the final draft of my next book ready to face the world. This is more of a novella than a novel, but in the past five days, I've already got the first four chapters finalised. Just eleven chapters to go now. The deadline is July 31st. The cover illustration is not quite finished, I think it needs a splash of blood lol, but here's a reminder of what will be taking up most of my time this month:

Remnants of War Reveal

 Saturday, June 3, 2023

Today's task is to make sense of all my research notes...


That done,  spent the evening with Photoshop, editing this image of a now destroyed WW2 building that was located near my old family home in Crofty.


And, busy bee as I have been of late, here's the reveal of the proposed cover for Remnants of War:


Sabotage

June 1, 2023

A morning writing session sabotaged by fudjcat:


 
 
 

In the end I had to relocate outside away from furry intrusions lol:

RoW Progress

Tuesday, May 23, 2023

 This week's shoot for RoW has now been completed. The introduction has also been written. I've also added more photographic content to the book. Gower WW2 remains covered in my new Gower book so far include those found at Clyne, Whiteford Sands, Swansea Bay and the watchtower out on the Burry Estuary near Weobley Castle. Oh, and I also finished another GNS book! I haven't yet decided on what the next book will be on this years GNSathon...

May Holiday, Day 2

Sunday, May 21, 2023

2/10. Well, day 1 of my holiday was lovely. It was my gorgeous wife's birthday and also our wedding anniversary. And the weather was glorious. I managed to get a lot of work done and should now be able to complete the second draft of ViC this evening. Meaning I can now do some planning and map out the north Gower WW2 anti-invasion sites I want to photograph tomorrow. Oh, how I love a holiday. The only sadness is that my meds warn that I have to keep out of the sun so I have to sit in the shade all day lol.

10 Days of Freedom!

May 20, 2023

1/10. I have been unable to put as much work into my project over the past few weeks as I would have liked. But, at the end of the day, I have to help keep a roof over our heads and food on our table, and training on my new day job has been quite demanding. But I now have ten clear days of holiday ahead of me and I am going to plough through my real work now with a vengeance. By the end of May I WILL have completed the second draft of ONB, which has now been retitled Vampires in Chains. I will have finished reading GNS' Water Rites and moved on to the next, as yet undecided, book. On the GNS front, my book detailing the joys and frustrations of collecting his and the addictive aspects of collecting is a GO and will form the main output of my project work next year. But, back to the here and now, and the next ten days in particular, I also need to photograph two separate Gower Peninsula sites for my third Gower book - Remnants of War, which I will be focussing on writing in June. With the weather looking generous for my holiday, I will also be spending some time working in the garden, so expect the Magickal Gardening website to kick back to life very soon. Well, that's me done with this update. Time to crack on...