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!
Showing posts with label Writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Writing. Show all posts
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!
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 :)
Labels:
Avalon,
Cats,
Cold Comfort,
Familiar,
Guy N Smith,
Health,
The Imaginarium,
Tidal Gower,
Writing
Lights, Camera, Action
Thursday, December 4, 2024
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:
Pipe Dreams by Guy N Smith
Wednesday, September 06, 2023
It's September
September 02, 2023
Even vampires can change their names
July 09,2023
Cracking on with Vampires...
July 07, 2023
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.
Sabotage
June 1, 2023
A morning writing session sabotaged by fudjcat:
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
10 Days of Freedom!
May 20, 2023
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)