Wednesday 29th September, 2021

I forgot to link some more Greenwood-related links since the last update, so we will do a full Greenwood recap today. By which I mean I shall include what I was / am trying to do with them and some pointers to some links!

I have three novellas in various stages of publishing / acceptance with the Other Side Books that are essentially fairy tale mash-ups that I tend to refer to as “Greenwood” or “Into The Greenwood” tales. The structure is a new story (despite my use of the “found tale” conceit) of about 15-20,000 words with five older fairy tales embedded as tales within tales to compare and contrast. I gave Run Along The Shelves an interview about them in the recent flush of reviews, and you can find that here: [External Link]

The first story is called The Knight’s Daughter, a sort of distaff Hamlet with a dose of Robin Hood and a starring role for a volcano (I have a story background for it here). Run Along The Shelves did a review which you can find here: [External Link]. And it’s available to purchase from Amazon here: [External Link]

The second installment of my Greenwood collection is the Isle of Ravens. This time around the environmental star is European Windstorms (more on the technical aspects from a day-job colleague here: [External Link]) and the heroes surviving these destructive storms are in a tale that could be described as The City of Ys meets Bisclavret for those with a more modern understanding of the world. Again, Run Along the Shelves has done a kind review: [External Link]. It can be purchased from Amazon here: [External Link]

ASIDE: I haven’t done a story background for this one. I pretty sure I owe you several, by now.

In draft state, the third story is currently under the working title of The Dragon Queen. There are earthquakes in North Wales and a whole Snow White by way of Lludd and Llefelys thing going on. Things may change and I can’t be sure when it will land simply as real life has a tendency to interfere with small press publishing schedules. (No offense or sleight intended to publishers, editors and my fellow writers, it’s just the way these things are given that we’re all doing this as an evening job.)

If you’re interested in a bit of a taster of either of these three Greenwood stories, I have the opening sections available here.

And, as I confessed to extending the collection somewhat last time, here’s a bit of an explanation of what’s going on with that. Basically, it’s fun to play with folk tales and this one is playing with Gawain and the Green Knight and a bit of Beowulf, although whether it remains that way or even gets published depends on how well I do. Beyond using the same conceit of a found tale and tales within the main tale to contrast, I’m not trying especially hard to match up completely with the feel of the first three, so the voice may be somewhat different – I finished the drafts of the original three a couple of years ago and there have been a number of other WIPs in between, so trying to match them consciously would be laborious. It is, however, still playing with the same ideas and the internal chronology of the whole, so people who notice such things may see some similarities to other characters or events even if names are continually changed in the Greenwood to protect the not so innocent.

Wednesday 8th September, 2021

Just a quick recap of some writing news and links:

We’ll start with the reminder that Dreamland: Other Stories is out from Black Shuck Books and you can find it here: [External Link]

I didn’t mention it last week, but the first draft of Under Smoke City has been removed from my Patreon account and the second draft is being published in weekly passage installments on my Buy Me A Coffee page. The new index is here: [External Link]

The second installment of my Greenwood set of stories is out now. Isle of Ravens can be purchased for Kindle from Amazon: [External Link]

Run Along The Shelves has published a rather nice review of the first Greenwood installment, The Knight’s Daughter, and you can find said review here: [External Link]

If you’re interested in a bit of a taster of either of those, I have the opening sections of all three (finished) Greenwood stories available on this site.

And, in the interests of background research, you might like to know that Isle of Ravens has a starring role for European Windstorms – and I talked a colleague of mine into doing an explanatory blog about the windstorms some time ago: [External Link] (It ties in with what the company does and, weirdly enough, storm season is coming soon. Despite several colleagues being vulcanologists, I didn’t manage to get anything about volcano eruptions…)

Finally, on the Greenwood side of things for today, I appear to be writing a fourth one. Sorry about that, folks.

Published: Isle of Ravens

The Other Side Books [External Link] published Isle of Ravens on Saturday 4th September, 2021.

This novella is available in ebook and paperback formats straight from Amazon (direct link: [External Link]). Other Amazons are available but their website should do the magic of redirecting you to the right one for you.

For those of you kind enough to review work, as well as Amazon’s own reviews, there’s space on Goodreads here: [External Link]

Fantasy, novella

The opening paragraphs of the work at time of acceptance are readable here.

Wednesday 1st September, 2021

Basically just a reminder that Sea Heart is now published – and you can purchase both ebooks and paperbacks of the anthology that holds it, Dreamland: Other Stories, direct from the publisher, Black Shuck Books. (Direct link here: [External Link]) If you do read the anthology, please consider leaving a review on whatever sharing sites you use and / or Amazon.

In less fun news, it turns out I now have food allergies. Probably not a cause of the digestive issues that put me in hospital back in May, definitely not connected to the gallstones I shall be having an ultrasound for in a couple of weeks. While nothing is trying to kill me, the five foods most likely to cause me major discomfort are almonds, peanuts, rice, soy, and wheat. Yes, I am now cutting them out of my diet. No, I don’t want any further advice right now unless you want to give me a really banging recipe for chocolate brownies that avoids them.

Published: Sea Heart

Part of the Dreamlands: Other Stories anthology from Black Shuck Books [External Link], published on Thursday 26th August, 2021

This anthology is available in paperback and ebook from the publisher here: [External Link]

It’s also available as a paperback from Amazon UK (direct link: [External Link]). Other Amazons are available but their website should do the magic of redirecting you to the right one for you.

It will also be available (for order if not in stock) from other book stores, so if you want to support your local bookshop, the ISBN is 978-1913038687

Short, science fiction / horror

Wednesday 4th August, 2021

Hi everyone, just a round-up of writerly news that’s also been mentioned in other places.

My first announcement is being able to publicly admit that my short story, Sea Heart, has been accepted. The news dropped on Thursday 29th July and the anthology itself, Dreamland, will be out from Black Shuck Books [External Link] on Thursday 26th August. You can find out more and pre-order it here: [External Link]

My second announcement is for the book trailer for Isle of Ravens, the second of the Into The Greenwood novellas, and soon to be published by The Other Side Books [External Link]. This is the first book trailer editor Michael S. Collins has attempted and I think he’s done a pretty good job with these 18 seconds:

I’m still moving short stories over to my Buy Me A Coffee page [External Link] and, given how intermittent things have been of late, it’ll probably take another couple of months or three to get things shifted over. Once I have them all moved, I think I may actually delete the pages (now referrals only) on this site. It’ll cause some broken links in the site diaries but, let’s be honest, no-one goes back through the old posts, it’s mostly just me being anally retentive by keeping hold of the whole archive.

However, there will soon be a related change on my Patreon page, as announced in my recent post there, Moving Day(s)  [External Link]. The first draft of Under Smoke City (and associated posts) will be removed on Friday 27th August. I have been intermittently redrafting behind the scenes and Draft the Second will be going up on the Buy Me A Coffee page from Monday 30th. The intention is to set up the index page and the first passage for the first day and work my way through publishing passages again on a weekly basis – announcing the updates by linking the index page on my social media accounts, etc. The apocrypha will also return (backers only) and be released irregularly between passages and short story shifts.

I think that covers everything I need to tell you about. If you would like to know how the actual writing is going I crossed the 50,000 word line with my not-Gothic Lords of the Marsh thing but I’m not quite a third of the way through what I think the plot is. I have an idea for another Greenwood novella and am currently chatting with various people about various bits but I’m not so secretly obsessed wit an sf western idea, so you ca probably expect to hear more about that when I summon the energy for another update!

Wednesday 30th June, 2021

This is a mainly a behind the scenes of behind the scenes update about how things are in life but there is a little bit of writing news at the bottom if you just want to skip to the last para.

So. This is kind of an announcement for everyone (and those who know me in real life and/or converse with me in other places already know a lot of this). However, we’ve got to the stage where it’s handy for me to have something of a public announcement of what’s going on so that I have an explainer for others.

As of about eight weeks ago, I officially became not-healthy little bunny, although the build up took a while.

For at least the last two years, I’ve suffered from a level of indigestion that can only be considered epic. I burp. A lot. It can even restrict my breathing with the gathering burp before it escapes. And, yes, I know this sounds hilarious and like excellent childish fun. It is not, despite the epic noises. See statement about restricted breathing. Even if it were, the resulting anxiety and that’s side-effects can be, erm, terrifying. I’ve been on medication on and off for the indigestion – various types of stomach acid suppressing medication.

It’s probably been affecting both my appetite (oddly, increasing, I have been almost always hungry for most of this time) and how much I can put away (which has gradually decreased over time). This came to a head around two months ago and I’m basically on a liquid diet (not alcohol, please pay attention, I’m being serious for a change) with the odd small, healthy solid snack.

This is being investigated – and so far nothing untoward has been found. After the initial reporting to doctor, I was examined and a lump was found. Nothing showed up on x-ray, CT scan or endoscopy. I’ve had a few trips to hospital, several and am still waiting all the biopsy results (from the endoscopy bit). There is much communicating with the GP.

So, why the update on this detail you didn’t ask for? Basically just to let you know that online life and writing is intermittent for a more explainable reason than usual.

For actual writing news, I’m continuing to move stories from the website to my Buy Me A Coffee page – and even published a new story, And The Mountains Cried [External Link]. Everything remains free to read there (as things stand, see previous post.) I’m wondering about moving over fragments of WIP I previously posted and if you have any comments or recommendations about how I use the page, please let me know. Oh, and I’m still tapping away at The Lords Of The Marsh 1st draft.

Wednesday 28th April, 2021

Hello and welcome to my first catch-up with you in a while. Things have remained more or less the same for a long time. I mean, the planet itself keeps spinning, seasons change and time passes but it feels like I’m pretty much where I was this time last year. Except with a few DIY projects done…

Things have moved on with writerly news but there’s only so much I can tell you. Like the metaphorical duck paddling like hell underneath the water’s surface, what work I have done may not have visible aspects I can talk about. However, let’s start in order of obviousness:

  • My last post was the cover reveal for the eventual Isle of Ravens
  • Plumtree [External Link] is complete (but probably a bit scrappy, all things considered)
  • I have opened an account on Buy Me A Coffee [External Link] (or a tea, in my case). This will, eventually, take the place of my Patreon account as it allows people to give one off support as well as subscription. Give that I am not exactly wildly popular, I feel this will fit better – a few people express the wish to give me a little something to indicate their support of my writing work but I’m not writing in huge quanity, here. Anyway, what’s happening as a result:
    1. There are only one-off payments available at the moment (through paypal). I should be absorbing all fees and taxes.
    2. I am moving the stories I have as part of the website (the online fiction category) to the new home, as I have time to do so. These will remain publicly available (and get a bit of a cleaning up), just in a different place. The associated pages in this incarnation of the website will stay up with links to the new home. The first stories moved are St James Infirmary Blues (Flash) and Distractions (Flash).
    3. Any new short stories that don’t really fit elsewhere will go up there. I am undecided if I will put them supporter only for a time period. We shall see how it works out.
    4. I will, at some point, move the two completed Patreon projects to this new home. Passages that are publicly available will remain publicly available (and get a bit of a cleaning up) and any additional materials will be for members and / or supporters only, depending on how I put things in place.
    5. Once everything is moved, I will shut down the Patreon account.
    6. I will maybe look at doing a few extras, like self-publishing the collected Under Smioke City works or new side-projects, once we have everything in place.
  • I have some good news about acceptances but, given the nature of the things they have been accepted to, I can’t tell you anything about them. Just, you know, a couple of short stories should be in the wild soon-ish
  • Laserslinger got finished – at least to the end of the first draft. It’s currently going through some readings to see if it works
  • My latest first draft WIP is called Lords Of The Marsh and it is like pulling teeth. It does not want to be written. I think I may not be cut out to be a writer of Gothic. I still keep going.
  • I’m also working on the second draft of my Not-Musketeers, or The Queen’s Lancers, having got it back from a few read-throughs and having had a few suggestions made that might salvage it from my own privilege-related idiocy. (And if you want some editing or sensitivity reading done, may I suggest the talented Cae Hawksmoor: [External Link])