Saturday, January 07, 2023
I finished reading Guy N Smith's Doomflight this morning. It is certainly up there with some of the author's finer reads. Today, I commence with what I have been told is one of his darker works - Satan's Snowdrop...
Current W.I.P.s: GNS3 | Lost Glove Society
Resolutions Start Slowly
Friday, January 06, 2023
One week into the New Year, and my reading schedule is my only resolution going to plan. I have watched a lot less TV in the evenings, instead devoting this time to ploughing through the Guy N Smith novel Doomflight.
Healthwise, 2023 has not been too kind and I am now back on antibiotics to help reduce my skin inflammation, which is making my mobility an issue. This has obviously affected my goal of getting more exercise and reducing my weight - although I have cut back on my on snacking too heavily. I will continue to monitor my food/drink intake, I don't envision my health improving in that time so a new exercise regime may have to wait a while longer.
My Explore Gower fb page is up and running, though I need to increase its popularity.
I have a week away from my day job now as the union there has called a five-day strike for my department. I hope to use this time to get two further chapters of Cold Comfort sorted in second draft format and to start reading my second Guy N Smith novel of the year - the title of which I am still undecided upon.
The first writing Sesh of the year always feel good.
Well, I certainly didn't expect to be writing more of my Pyewacket novel on my first writing sesh of the year. But the idea for Chapter three buzzed in me yesterday evening whilst watching I-can't-remember-what.
Click on the above photo and see if you can see fudjcat hidden in there somewhere lol.
2023 Reading List
Sunday, January 01, 2023
Following on from my last post post, these three titles arrived through my letterbox the other day:
I am eager to read the top book of the above pile, but first I have to get through this little book:
I am going to try and read as many Guy N Smith books as I can in 2023. I wonder many I will be able to get thru...
Mr Strange's Christmas Dream
Wednesday, December 28, 2022
I had some fantastic gifts this Christmas, amongst them these - an original hand-written draft of a Guy N Smith's short story, along with its finalised printed book form. He wrote the tale on old banking paper whilst keeping down a day job as a clerk there in the early days of his career.
It is fascinating to see how Guy's original draft had changed by the time it was published.
The acquirement of this fascinating handwritten draft of my favourite author has enthused me to the degree where I am going to read as many of his horror novels as I can. I certainly have enough books by him on my library shelf:
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Sunday, December 11, 2022
What horror awaits in 2023?
2023 will see the conclusion of my 'Old Monsters' trio of novels, started in 2019 with the publication of my werewolf tale, Berserk!
Cold Comfort, my take on the zombie genre, tells the tale of resurrected murder victims of a devil-worshipping serial killer. The first draft of this book was actually written in 1998 but was left in a drawer to ferment for a quarter of a century before finally being delivered to the publisher.
One Night Buried concludes the series with a modern-day tale of inner-city vampires and follows the trials and tribulations of a recently converted misogynistic vampire in a world of empowered feminism.
As well as being published individually in paperback and Kindle formats, these three novels will also be published as a single collector's edition hardback book in time for the Christmas 2023 market.
~
On top of these horror novels, I will also add to my Explore Gower series of guides with a study of the World War II buildings that can still be explored on the Gower Peninsula.
So, along with my online projects, Explore Swansea and Magickal Gardening, 2023 looks like being a very busy year indeed?
Cold Comfort
Thursday, December 1, 2022
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 🙂
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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...
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...
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.
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!
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:
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 :)
Guy Fawke's Night
November 5, 2022
I spent this bonfire night comforting the furry girls and progressing my new Vampire novel...
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.
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 :)
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:
Twin Peaks Pop Funkos
October 26, 2022
Todays Funko foto features not one, but four Pops! I present a dead Laura, her possessed father Leland and the demonic Bob! Dale Cooper is there too, looking well too happy with his coffee given the gruesome circumstances, but hey ho. Happy Halloween 🎃
Burning the candles at both ends
October 24/25, 2022
Well, who would have thought it? Not me, for one. Yet here I am, working on a vampire novel!
The plot and main characters just sparked in my head the other night in the kind of clarity that my muse has been shy of delivering this past year. I received it's suggestion with earnest thanks and have made it my duty as I writer to crack on with translating these flashes of storylines into words on a page.
I'm tired now, but before I go, I thought I would use the opportunity offered by this post to communicate my publishing plans for the year ahead. I have nothing at the moment we close to publication but I do plan to release three completed books over the course of 2023.
The first to reach the Amazon shop will be this vampire novel I am currently working on. This will be followed, sometime in late Spring by my local history book detailing the WW2 structures still visible on the Gower peninsula. My final publication, The Curious Adventures of Mister Pyewacket should reach the light of day by late 2023, after which I really have no idea what I will be working on.
But, as usual, watch this space and I am sure these will be detailed at the earliest opportunity...
All-nighter!
October 22, 2022
It's not often I throw an all-nighter. But it's a rare treat to have a new storyline present itself to me so vividly, and such moments have to be savoured.
Pyewacket
Tuesday, October 4, 2022
With the closing of Magickal Gardening until early 2023, and time off from my day job to recover from a suffocating cold virus, this morning gave me the opportunity of progressing my next book - The Curious Adventures of Mister Jonathon Pyewacket.
This story is not my usual folk-horror fodder, though it is set in both the real and magickal world. It is, instead, a twisted children's story about a man borne from a love affair 'tween a human mother and an elf. Bored by the mundanity of the 'real' world, he nips in and out from the world of fae, to make his life more bearable. Unfortunately, if this has whetted your appetite to read the tale, I am still progressing the storyline on its first draft so this won't be available for purchase just yet...
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