I am still experimenting with working out the plots of my books by story-boarding them:
Sunday 25 August 2019
The Hylder-moer
According to early European folk tales, the tree-dwelling spirit, the Hylda-moer, would haunt those who cut down their trees. Furniture made from their trees would also be haunted, the occupants of the house being pinched black and blue by the resident wood spirit. This little titbit of research has inspired events in my forthcoming Christmas ghost story, which I hope to have published by Crimbo 2020 :)
September
The summer of 2019 is fading fast and whilst I still live in dread of the cold, dark and bleak season of winter, I do have a bit of a soft spot for September.
Perhaps more so than New Year, I see September as a time of new ventures, of moving on, of ditching the things that have not worked out so well for me over the past year. I suppose that this feeling is a remnant of the main cycle of yearly change that occurs in the school year, and later the college ad Higher Education years, all of which start in September (or early October in some cases for university courses).
This feeling of renewal balances out the awful feeling that emanates from the yearly turning of the wheel and the slipping away of summer. I will miss sitting out in the sunshine, with either a book or a blank page and pen in my hands. I will miss the joy of gardening, of watching seeds I have sown spring to life and eventually flowering. I will miss the warmth of the sun on my skin. I now have to wait a whole six months for these joys to return. But in the meantime, I have new projects and fresh ideas to work on and lose myself in.
Work on my writing shed will start anew in September (the shed had been needed for more traditional handiwork and joinery over the last few months) and I will start working on my new novella in there in the next few weeks. Those visitors to Pixie-Led with keen eyes might have already noticed that I have already made a tentative start on this next writing project - just rough scribblings so far though, enabled in the quieter moments of my new day job (another fresh start). Now that I am able to put The Verry Volk behind me, I am looking forward to working on this new novella, which is a Christmas ghost story entitled Solstice. I won't go into any detail about this new venture yet, though you may be able to get the gist of the story plot from these initial doodles:
To hopefully help in the writing of Solstice, I have also signed up to a free Open University online creative writing course, which looks like it may be useful to me. I am only on Week Two of the course but I am intent on completing the thing. I will discuss this O.U. course sometime in the near future, but for now I think I will leave this post here.
It is time to embrace the coming month of September and the new season ahead...
Perhaps more so than New Year, I see September as a time of new ventures, of moving on, of ditching the things that have not worked out so well for me over the past year. I suppose that this feeling is a remnant of the main cycle of yearly change that occurs in the school year, and later the college ad Higher Education years, all of which start in September (or early October in some cases for university courses).
This feeling of renewal balances out the awful feeling that emanates from the yearly turning of the wheel and the slipping away of summer. I will miss sitting out in the sunshine, with either a book or a blank page and pen in my hands. I will miss the joy of gardening, of watching seeds I have sown spring to life and eventually flowering. I will miss the warmth of the sun on my skin. I now have to wait a whole six months for these joys to return. But in the meantime, I have new projects and fresh ideas to work on and lose myself in.
Work on my writing shed will start anew in September (the shed had been needed for more traditional handiwork and joinery over the last few months) and I will start working on my new novella in there in the next few weeks. Those visitors to Pixie-Led with keen eyes might have already noticed that I have already made a tentative start on this next writing project - just rough scribblings so far though, enabled in the quieter moments of my new day job (another fresh start). Now that I am able to put The Verry Volk behind me, I am looking forward to working on this new novella, which is a Christmas ghost story entitled Solstice. I won't go into any detail about this new venture yet, though you may be able to get the gist of the story plot from these initial doodles:
To hopefully help in the writing of Solstice, I have also signed up to a free Open University online creative writing course, which looks like it may be useful to me. I am only on Week Two of the course but I am intent on completing the thing. I will discuss this O.U. course sometime in the near future, but for now I think I will leave this post here.
It is time to embrace the coming month of September and the new season ahead...
Completed: The Verry Volk
I am happy to report that my guide to local faery folklore, The Verry Volk, has now been completed. It should be hopefully available to buy sometime over the next week. :)
Saturday 24 August 2019
Misery in the Garden
What a welcome relief to feel the warmth of the sun again :)
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| Reading Stephen King's Misery out in the garden |
A Beach Campfire Beneath the Stars
Making the most of the last nights of Summer 2019:
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| Our campfire beneath The Plough constellation |
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| Yours truly beneath the stars |
Three Cliffs Bay, Pennard
I took a walk down to this fine beach today:
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| Three Cliffs Bay |
It was a lovely walk down from the car park...
...and I saw this curious scene en route:
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| Skittles decorating the path down to Three Cliffs Bay |
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| The magnificent Three Cliffs Bay |
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| Three Cliff Bay, looking towards Oxwich |
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| Pennard Cliffs |
...I stopped off for some refreshments at the Pennard Stores outdoors cafe, where I made this short field recording of the background chatter there:
I couldn't think of a better way to round off this year's summer :)
The Verry Volk #10 and #11
With The Verry Volk close to completion, I will conclude this short series of posts sharing some of the photographs contained in the book with these two images, both taken along the immense marshland that stretches from the foot of Llanmadoc.
It has been an immense pleasure writing and producing this book, which I hope you will finally be able to get your hands on sometime over the next weekend. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed working on it.
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| A pony meandering across the marshlands of Llanmadoc |
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| Cwm Ivy Tor, Llanmadoc |
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