The digital home of author, artist & photographer Chris Elphick | All content, unless otherwise stated, is copyrighted © Chris Elphick

Tuesday, 23 August 2022

Cold Comfort

Thursday, December 1, 2022

Twenty-three years ago, I decided to write my first novel, Cold Comfort, in the gap between discovering I had landed myself a new job and taking up the position. I believed that in taking the job, the likelihood of me finding the time to become an author would be restricted. And so I sat at my old computer, typing at the keyboard every day until my fingers were sore, determined to complete the story that had sat in my head for a long, long time. My determination was such that I completed the task before the drudge of a 9-5 life engulfed me. And the printed manuscript was put in a drawer - where it remained for nearly a quarter of a century. 

The other night, I dusted down the old stack of paper, expecting to throw it in the trash. But the writing was pretty good, and the story better than I had remembered. And so, I decided to give the thing a polish. The digital file was long since lost, but I found an app that allowed me to photograph the pages and get them converted into an editable word doc, and so here I am, finally bringing the beast into the light of day once more. Hopefully, 2023 will see it finally published, twenty-four years after it was first put to paper 🙂


Familiar Progression

Tuesday, November 22, 2022

Taking a short break from One Night Dead, I thought I'd spend a couple of days working on another project, one that I've left gather dust of late. And so out came my Familiar notebook once more:


 Familiar will no longer be a novel, but will, instead, be a collect of folk horror short stories. Given the amount of books I have planned for publication, I can't really envision this project seeing the light of day until 2024, at the earliest. Though, as in Solstice, if any of the short stories are completed well before the publication of the larger volume of work, I may publish them as individuals and alone titles as well...

Monday, 22 August 2022

Skipping Work

Monday, November 21, 2022

Didn't go into work today as it was raining and the office heating is broken and there's no running hot water there. I'm getting older and I still haven't fully recovered my health and the thought of sitting in the office, wet from the rain and shivering in the cold, was enough to stop me going in. Now, in the warmth of my own home, I can continue with my own work, in the fine company of this one:


One Night Buried - draft 1 completed

Sunday, November 20, 2022

Well, this is quickest first draft of a novel I have ever knocked up. And, given the speed of its construction, I am quite pleased with the tale. The storyline has more twists in its plot than any of my other books, many of which surprised even me! I am already looking forward to the hard graft of crafting, polishing and word-smithing draft 2 of One Night Buried.



Sunday, 21 August 2022

One Night Buried

Saturday, November 19, 2022

Well, the good news is that this has been the easiest first draft of a story I have ever written. I am now happy to report that I am just a couple of chapters shy of completing the first draft of this book. My target for the completion of this draft was by the close of November so all good there. Eagle-eyed visitors to the Pixie-led blog may have already spotted that I have now finally decided a title for the book, which can be found in the title of this blog post. 🙂 For this story, the emphasis is firmly on Goths, secret occult sects and vampires!


Saturday, 20 August 2022

More woodland magic

More woodland magic from Gelli-Hir Woods, Gower:


Friday, 19 August 2022

Sulphur-Tufts

Two more photographs from my recent walk through Gelli-Hir Woods, Three Crosses, Gower. When the weather is pretty dire, mushrooms always makes a woodland photogenic. In this particular instance, it's Sulphur-Tuft that add a definite magical vibe to the woodland:



Thursday, 18 August 2022

Spots

I stumbled upon this interesting character whilst visiting some local woods recently. Lovely isn't s/he!



Whilst you can see all the photographs I took on the walk on my Explore Gower blog, I'll probably post more of my favourite images from Gelli-Hir Woods here over the next few days too. I hope you like them :)

Wednesday, 17 August 2022

Tuesday, 16 August 2022

Doomflight by Guy N Smith

October 8, 2022

You can't beat a bit of Guy N Smith:




Monday, 15 August 2022

Sunday, 14 August 2022

Guy Fawke's Night

 November 5, 2022

I spent this bonfire night comforting the furry girls and progressing my new Vampire novel...

Saturday, 13 August 2022

Candyman Pop

October 31, 2022

And this is my final horror Pop Funko pic for 2022 - a really cool funko version of the scary Candyman!


 Happy Halloween.

Friday, 12 August 2022

Bram Stoker Pop Funko

October 30, 2022

The man himself - mighty Bram Stoker. Pardon the pun(let), but I was really stoked to see the funko factory had brought out this particular character :)

Wednesday, 10 August 2022

Vincent Price Pop

October 29, 2022

Not one of Funko's greatest likenesses, but I couldn't say no to adding Vincent Price to my collection of horror Pops: