Tree Through a Rainy Windshield

Forest

Merman Inspiration

All, and I mean all, of the original ideas behind my fiction writing occur to me whilst I am out walking in the wilds. My muse is obviously the outdoors type. This past weekend, whilst taking a walk along a lonely stretch of coastline, I happened upon this particular scene:

The scene that set up an entire short story

The picture shows a large log/tree stump that had been washed ashore on a particularly high tide. Now, my eyesight is not at all good these days, but the lack of clarity in my sight does, I believe, make food for creative thought. For example, it can take a little while for me to work out exactly what it is that sometimes catches my eye on my countryside walks. My mind then engages in a little creative whimsy as it tries to focus on the object it tries to delineate. In this particular instance, I wondered if this object washed up on the high tide line might have been a seal. Then I realised it was too big to be a seal- it being of almost of sea-lion dimensions. But, of course, exotic animals like sea lions never get washed up on the U.K. coastline, do they?. Hmm. I then wondered what other wonderful creature it would be fascinating to discover washed up here. The thing looked large, with a tail and a torso, maybe? As I neared the object, it turned out, as it so often does, to be something far more mundane than my imagination had fired me up for - a great whacking log. But my creative juices had been stirred and I had myself a rather late night when I got back home as I jotted out the rough outline of  a story of an old fisherman who stumbles upon the washed up body of an aged merman!

I am rather proud of the fishy little tale I conceived after this foreshore walk. I have always wanted to write a tale of Selkies and Mermen/Mermaids and often enjoy a bit of reading on their folklore. The story is now fully fleshed out and will be next writing project when I complete work on Edn™...

14,000 Words In, Despite This Furry Girl

Friday, September 01, 2017

I am now 14,000 words into my new novel, despite this furry girl:

Faery Door

Our new faery door

Bala Lake

On moonlit nights, in the depths of Bala Lake, it is said that you can glimpse the shimmering spires of the old town, long since flooded beneath its deep, dark waters [1]. A monster too, is said to reside in the lake - Teggie, a humped crocodile-like creature with a penchant for wrecking the boats that sail upon ins waters [1] On my visit to the lake, however, I saw no drowned township nor terrifying water-monster. No, all I saw was its entrancing, mesmerising, ripples play with the storm-leadened sky reflected upon its surface. An equally magickal sight, if you were to ask me:

Nag Champa

There is no more calming and serenity-inducing fragrance for me than Nag Champa incense. The scent has an immediate effect upon my nerves and thoughts. The meditative chilled atmosphere it induces is immense. Burning this incense also induces creativity and is the perfect way to set the scene for a good old writing session. It works for me anyway and I loves it. Here are some links if you fancy reading some more on the topic [1][2].

Zombie Gnome

Monster Fish & Chips

The Loch Ness Fish & Chips shop, located near the famous Loch in Fort Augustus. I can personally recommend their lovely chips too :)

rainy window at sunrise

It is seldom a nice walk along the corridor that leads to my office in work. However, sometimes, just sometimes, I catch a nice glimpse of the sunrise through one of its windows there. And on even rarer occasions, the glass in that window appears as fine and beautiful a display as any expensive stained glass window I have ever seen:

There are wonders to behold even in the most mundane of places and situations...

Pixie and Chives

The "Stop typing and give me attention" glare!

July 31, 2017

The "Stop typing and give me attention" glare!

Crawley - New 2nd Printing Design

July 30, 2017

Before I get more entrenched in the writing of my next novel, I really wanted to put my first novel, Crawley, behind me so I could finally get the story and its characters out of my head. And so, over the past few evenings, I have put a bit of work into the one bug bear I had about my first book - its cover design.

I tried three new designs, all based on a more woodland theme and using a trio of images I had taken from a nearby pine woodland.

Whilst being more than happy with the all of three new designs I came up with, I finally settled on using this third image, which I felt had more of a daunting atmosphere about it:

The original photo used for the final design of Crawley ~ an adult faery tale

And here is the finished thing:

The new cover gives more of an emphasis to the forest, rather than to Frank Crawley himself. I hope it illustrates the otherworldliness of the forest in the book and that the cover is more suggestive of menace than the former picture. Anyway, the new design has been uploaded and is now the official cover of Crawley ~ an adult faery tale. If you haven't read it, please give and try. And if you like it, please leave a nice friendly review over on Amazon for me. Thanks :)

There, now that is done, I can crack on with my new writing project and give it all the attention it needs and hopefully deserves...

Crawley Promo - Loch Ness

July 26, 2017

For our last evening in Scotland, we camped up on the shore of Loch Ness. Whilst I have no belief in the Loch Ness monster, the place definitely carries a charged magickal aura about it. Here are my last Scottish advertising pics for Crawley ~ an adult faery tale, taken on the shore or Loch Ness:

Crawley Promo - Skye

Monday, 25 July 2017

On our summer van-camp holiday around Scotland in 2017, I took along a copy of my newly published novel, Crawley ~ an adult faery tale, so that I could take some advertising shots of the book in some pretty amazing locations. For the first of my Scottish advertising shoots, I chose the country's most photographed and filmed castles - Eilean Donan:

From here, we headed over to the Isle of Skye, my favourite place in the whole world. And a great place for another advertising photoshoot for Crawley: