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:

Writing on the Kyle of Tongue

Sunday 24, 2017

Started writing my 2nd novel today on the Kyle of Tongue Bridge, Scotland:

Crawley Promo - Local Woods

July 17, 2017

For my second advertising shoot for Crawley ~ an adult faery tale, I took a quick wander down to my local woods, which is just a five-minute walk from my home. To give the images a bit of a magickal boost, I added a few light squirls, which I think worked rather well:

Crawley Peak District Promo

July 08, 2017

Well, Crawley ~ an adult faery tale is finally published. It feels strange having a book for general sale and having a hard copy of the very thing in my hands and on my bookshelf. Anyway,  I used my recent family trip to Manchester (en route to a Radiohead gig) to stop off in the Peak District and take my first advertising picture for the book. The spectacular stones in the background of the image are the Ramshaw Rocks. I hope you like it:

New Book

Crawley Cover Art

June 18, 2017

I took this photograph of my shadow on the garden wall to use for the cover of Crawley.

My shadow on the garden wall

I thought the shadow held a certain strangeness to it, which I accentuated by ruffling up my hair and angling the shadow of my hand and fingers to make to make them look as crooked as possible. Using a few basic functions on Photoshop, I then came up with the following finished cover for the book. I added the green hue to give the picture a more woodland feel and made the shadow longer and thinner to better characterise the protagonist of the story.

The book is ready now to upload to Amazon and wait for it to be finally published. It took me so long to write this short novel that I publish it with a sigh of relief, lightened by finally being able to leave this character's side and walk away to ventures new...