Wednesday 5th June, 2019

OK. I’m alive. I admit it. I have just been well out of spoons over the last couple of months.

The cause, if anyone is interested in that sort of thing, was that my work office moved. I didn’t change job, my employers’ office just had an address change. The move itself – which happened the weekend before Easter – was bad enough but the office is not designed for people who have issues with sensory overload. To be fair, I’m not convinced it’s designed for more neurotypical human beings, either, but they seem to wear down a little slower and a little less dramatically than, for example, me. Things should be turning around now but this is mainly down to my working from home most afternoons. This is not a long term solution.

Anyway, I’ve managed to keep things ticking over since then but posting to the website has not been one of the things ticked over. Here’s a list of things that may be of note – and I’ll try to turn up next week for an update of how things are going as well as completing some non-weekly posts in between.

  • I made it through method 16 of 25 Ways [Not] To Kill A Vampire. I am both simultaneously shocked and appalled. Shocked because I’m surprised I’m still going, appalled because of just how long this one is taking. It may be the side projects, or it may just be that I really need to get my head together and spend more time writing.
  • 25 Ways To Kill A Werewolf has been reviewed at Runalong The Shelves (here: [External Link])
  • Michael S. Collins of The Other Side Books [External Link] is working on a ghostly horror anthology – to arrive at some point next year. I have been invited to take part and the story I put together (I came up with the In Shunshine Or In Shadow idea mentioned previously for this) was accepted. I need to do an acceptance post for this and I’ll prepare a story background post for when the anthology comes out. Until I manage the former of those, file this under “Sekrit Projekt”.
  • The Future Fire [External Link] had a call for longer works for their August issue and I submitted my Goodbye, Snow Child story. It got accepted (yes, that’s another acceptance post I need to do) and, again, I’ll prepare a story background post for when the August issue comes out.
  • Plumtree creeps on through the other world she finds herself in. Or maybe thatshould be continues to rampage. Anyway, Patreon backers can now get Passage 13 (14 comes out Monday, after I’ve written it) and everyone else can go to the index page [External Link] where you read up to Passage 11.
  • My employers, JBA Risk Management [External Link], supplies mapping and modelling data on flood risk – and they also have a blog. So, in the interests of doing a bit more than their systems administration and stretching my writing skills a bit further, I crossed the streams to write for said blog and you can find my post on the terms used in flood insurance here: [External Link]

I think I caught everything. Maybe. Well, hopefully see you next week, spoons allowing.

Wednesday 3rd April, 2019

A coat rack hanging in a hall
This is my handiwork

I skipped a week again. I’m assuming you don’t want to know about how I did nothing last week. I gave myself a cracking concussion the Friday before and it took a few days to get back to my normal.

However, today I did DIY while waiting for things to be delivered. So you can have a photo of my new coat rack because this is the first thing I’ve done that required power tools in over three years and I’m proud of it, dammit.

Incidentally, now I’m waiting for someone to turn up about a gas leak…

This week has also seen a two-part interview with Damien Seaman [External Link] go up – I’m the interviewee, by the way. You can find the two parts here:

  1. The Buzzfeed approach to writing a novel, with dark fantasy author Jo M Thomas [External Link]
  2. What to do when writing overwhelms you <[External Link]

Damien will be releasing an indepth review of 25 Ways To Kill A Werewolf in the not too distant future as well. I may be a bit nervous.

In writing news, I’m about half way through method 15 of 25 Ways [Not] To Kill A Vampire, I’m considering getting into redrafting The Isle of Ravens (thematic follow-up to The Knight’s Daughter, making further use of that mythological Greenwood) and I’ll be playing with a ghost short story idea this week or next. Pencil that in as “In Sunshine Or In Shadow”.

For my Patreon backers, Plumtree Passage 9 is now available to read (here: [External Link]). Passage 6 gets added to the index ([External Link] on Monday.

Wednesday 13th February, 2019

My Facebook and Twitter competitions have closed and winners have been declared. In fact, things got posted off today, as promised. I don’t know how I managed it but we did it!

Anyway, you can still order paperbacks from Amazon and get the ebooks from them or direct from Fox Spirit books (which I’m linking here):

  1. 25 Ways To Kill A Werewolf [External Link]
  2. A Pack Of Lies [External Link]
  3. Fool If You Think It’s Over [External Link]

Plumtree Passage 3 has arrived for non-Patreon readers and can be found on the index page ([External Link]) and I’ve written Passage 6, which will go live for Patreon backers next Monday.

25 Ways [Not] To Kill A Vampire has limped a little bit further and the Snow Child noodling has remained silent since the last mention.

I think that covers everything I needed to update?

Wednesday 6th February, 2019

People who desirous of a hard copy of all three of the Elkie books could get their fix if they join in some fun on Facebook and Twitter. I have details here, which will give you links to hop in on the competition on your social medium of choice (as long as it’s one of those two). The competition closes on Saturday, which is a bit like saying it will run for the next three eras where social media is concerned but gives you plenty of time to join in.

If you want e-copies, don’t forget that the lovely Auntie Fox (Adele Wearing) and her feral team have been working through the Fox Spirit catalogue and making things available direct from the publisher. The Elkie trilogy direct links are as follows:

  1. 25 Ways To Kill A Werewolf [External Link]
  2. A Pack Of Lies [External Link]
  3. Fool If You Think It’s Over [External Link]

Over on to Plumtree, passage 5 went live for my backers on Monday. Passage 3 will turn up for non-Patreon on the index page ([External Link]) next Monday.

25 Ways [Not] To Kill A Vampire is exactly 50% through the projected length (I have not killed 12 and a half vampires, or something) and it’s now 53,000 words long. It’s not coming out quite as I intended when I sat down to it first with things I was hoping to keep hidden coming out straight away. If it survives, once I’ve done the first draft, it may need some severe editing.

And I have a third WIP in which I am currentlyplaying with the time loop concept. Still technically a fantasy novella – or it will be if / when it’s done – but it’s got a distinct Groundhog Day idea behind it. Or has it? Etc. (Because, for some reason, I like to think I’m not obvious and am capable of subtlety.) Working title is “Goodbye, Snow Child”, so expect things to get tagged up appropriately around here!

Giveaway: The Complete Elkie Bernstein x 2

In my latest move, I discovered I had two complete sets of the Elkie trilogy so I’ve decided to do a giveaway. Well, technically, two as I shall give away one set on Facebook and one set on Twitter.

Here’s what your shiny prize looks like:

Ill-Gotten Gains to be won

I’m … Continue reading

Wednesday 30th January, 2019

Hey up!

Welcome to a week with Plumtree, Elkie, Future Fire and competition updates. Let’s start with all the things that intersect with my publisher Fox Spirit [External Link], for theming purposes.

The lovely Auntie Fox (Adele Wearing) and her feral team have been going ebook independent, which mean they’re selling ebooks direct, so anyone who has objections to Amazon can purchase without compromising themselves. They’re working through the catalogue so not everything is available, yet, but Elkie has made it! I’ve updated the published announcements for each of them but here are the direct links for the trilogy to you an extra click:

  1. 25 Ways To Kill A Werewolf [External Link]
  2. A Pack Of Lies [External Link]
  3. Fool If You Think It’s Over [External Link]

Fool isn’t available as an ebook on Amazon (yet) so if you’re after an electronic fix of that one, you need to go straight to Auntie Fox!

For those who like hardcopies, I will be giving away two complete sets of the trilogy. These are “old” in that they don’t have my M-for-Mysterious rebrand on them (nor do the ebooks, because that redo will come later this year) but they are still deserving of an adoptive home. After a clever suggestion from Amber Fox, this will involve asking for your suggestions on how to kill werewolves – with one competition on Facebook and one on Twitter. I will be starting them Sunday (3rd) to run until end of Saturday (9th), to post things outh a fortnight today (13th). They will be UK & Europe only because of postage issues. Sorry to anyone further away.

Competitions are on topic because The Future Fire [External Link] is also running a competition for people to win a copy of HayleyStone’s weird west novel, Make Me No Grave. It involves commenting with some micro-fiction or poetry on the related blog post [External Link] but you can also play around on Twiter getting your micro-fiction right, if you so wish. You can find your way onto the relevant Twitter thread from here:

SOOOOOOOOOO… who wants to play a writing game?— Djibril al-AYAD (@thefuturefire) January 26, 2019

And on to Plumtree, currently the most visible of my projects. Non-Patreon-backers can read the prologue, first passage, second passage and epilogue and can get to them from the index page here: [External Link]. Backers will be getting passage 5 on Monday – after I’ve written it.

I’ll save updates on other projects for another week, when I may otherwise have less to tell you. See you soon!

Thursday 18th May, 2017

Let’s start with the deadline. If you’re attending ChapterCon in London at the end of August, you can pre-order some of the writers’ books through various Google forms. I have linked them on my ChapterCon mess o’links. This includes being able to pre-order a number of my books: 25 Ways To Kill A Werewolf, A Pack Of Lies, Fool If You Think It’s Over, all the Fox Spirit Monster anthologies to date and all of the Fox Pockets. At a slight discount.

I am making a big deal out of this because a) the deadline for ordering is the end of this month (i.e. Wednesday 31st May) and b) I’m going to be a bit of a miser about lugging books around England, so I’ll otherwise have limited numbers of the Elkie books with me and only my own copies of the others so that I can show off some signatures and persuade those of you who missed out to order them on-line.

Somewhat closer on the horizon, I shall be on (local) radio on Saturday, North Manchester FM between 2pm and 4pm to be precise. The lovely Hannah Kate has invited me to talk on Hannah’s Book Shelf and there’s a post with all the details here [External Link]. I may be mildly nervous. OK, a lot. Mainly because I’m terrible at remembering names and titles so you can expect me to tail off at least once in the two hours while I struggle to remember who or what I’m supposed to be mentioning. It might even be often enough to make it into a drinking game. But not while I’m actually there, obviously.

Finally, here’s your reward for being patient people. I remembered to put up the opening paragraphs of my current Greenwood WIP set (as promised). They’re at various stages of draft, so what I’ve put up may not be exactly what they read like by the time they’re published – if they’re published. Feedback, as always, welcome!

Giveaway: 25 Ways To Kill A Werewolf – Amazon.com

To celebrate the completion of the trilogy in combination with the fact that I’ve only just realised the American Amazon site allows people to do giveaways, I’m running a giveaway of 5 paperback copies – on Amazon.com (direct link here: [External Link]). You can skip right over there and see the conditions on-site but I’ll include the conditions below, too.

First, please be aware that this is only open to people in the … Continue reading

Order of Play, Version 3

Given that the final installment of the Elkie Bernstein trilogy / series has been published, here’s the latest version of the Fur-Skins Order of Play posts.

Reminders:

  • There is essentially just a write up of my world-building notes with respect to what I would like to do here if I get back to it – while hopefully avoiding spoilers of what already exists and what could exist.
  • As well as the page linked above … Continue reading
  • Wednesday 1st February, 2017

    Today’s update is basically an Elkie run down but, before we get into that, just to let you know that the current Greenwood WIP continues to crawl along – well, aside from this week’s crawl was 4,000 words so that’s practically a sprint by my standards.

    Anyway. Here’s your Elkie round-up.

    Fool If You Think It’s Over is officially published and has been available as a paperback from Amazon since Sunday. We’re still waiting for the Kindle version but it’s usually a week or so after the paperback.

    If you would like to know what this Elkie thing I keep mentioning is all about, I have an outline of the Fur-Skins world. However, the basic run-down is that Fool If You Think It’s Over is the third in a trilogy / series of three books about a young girl growing up in rural Wales fighting werewolves and doing her best to escape toxic relationships. You can see the covers, along with blurbs and some basic links for the whole series here.

    There is some more in-depth background material released with the first book, 25 Ways To Kill A Werewolf, along with the opening prologue and chapter, so here are their links:

    For those of you who’ve read the books, you may like this short story, Second Date, which features a significantly younger Conn.

    And, to finish off, if you have any question’s about Elkie’s world, let me know and I’ll do my best to answer in a way that makes sense to someone other than me!