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Wednesday 30th August, 2017

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It’s been a fortnight since we talked last but, dear reader, I have had a rather awesome experience or two in between. I hope that I may be forgiven for the generally state of anxiety that stopped me posting last week.

On Saturday 19th August, Academie Glorianna (the HEMA club that allows me to play with them) were doing some display work at Hall i’ th’ Wood Hall. That’s this place: [External Link]. Given the age of the hall, we tailored our talk to Shakespeare’s era and Mark Hillyard and I did some I33, Saviolo and Di Grassi plays to show the kind of fighting that Shakespeare and his contemporaries were probably familiar with. It also led to a conversation amongst ourselves about whether the acting companies (usually patronised by one lord of another) were really a way of hiding trained fighting men who were part of a lord’s entourage seeing as keeping soldiers and affinities were no longer legal after the whole York – Lancaster rivalry got out of hand. This may be an idea I play with at a later point.

smallsword hilt

A smallsword owned by Craven Museum

On the Sunday (20th), we went for a sword handling session at Craven Museum in Skipton (that’s this place [External Link]). It turns out, they have a rather impressive set of swords. This pic is my favourite one, a smallsword, but I have no doubt that other people would prefer some of the beefier blades.

Thursday 24th to Sunday 27th I was in London – specifically at St Mary’s University near Teddington [External Link] – for ChapterCon, where I met some amazing fellow authors. Amazing in the sense of all being lovely, helpful, friendly, supportive, positive people. I had a great time (but took few photos) and I’ve come away with a healthier respect for indie authors in other genres. Oh, didn’t I say? I was totally out of my usual con circuit as the bulk of the writers and bloggers there could be considered to have branched out from romance and (rather disparagingly but unintentionally so) “chick lit” rather than fantasy. There was a lot of overlap but it was like walking into a totally different and beguiling world. Anyway, there will be a ChapterCon 2019, which is shaping up to be more industry / backend focussed than for readers and members of the public but I’m looking forward to attending if I can.

And on Bank Holiday Monday (28th) I watched my niece at a riding lesson. She can canter and everything! (I am a proud auntie, right now.)

Unfortunately, Mousie did not accompany me on any of these trips (she didn’t fit in the case for the London trip), so there are no postcards.

In other news, the Aurora WIP has been snipped by 5000 words and not recovered any. It does, however, look like it might be drawing to a close this week or next. And Swords & Sourcery is creeping up on me. I may be slightly panicky about it seeing as I’m one of the organisers.

Wednesday 16th August, 2017

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Yes, it really has been that long since we talked.

In the intervening period, I have given reader tickets for the upcoming ChapterCon away, detoured from my WIP by way of two lots of pseudo-mythology based on some basic reading about proto-indo-european mythology (Divine Twins and World Tree), and got to the point where I can admit the fencing club I attend (Academie Glorianna) is organising a women’s HEMA event for next month. By which I mean I am one of the organising team and apparently I’m one of the instructors for the event.

Oh, and the WIP (Aurora) is around 25,000 words long, and ChapterCon is just over a week away.

There are obviously more newsworthy things going on in the world (more specifically, America, I’m looking at you) but that’s all of mine for now.

Giveaway: ChapterCon Reader Tickets Winner

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In case you’ve missed mentions, I shall be attending the ChapterCon event of the year (24th-26th August) as an author. If you haven’t been and looked already, you can find loads of details on the official website here: [External Link]

I had three reader tickets (access to a morning or afternoon session of accosting authors for books, signatures and general conversation) to give away and these have been won by Shona … Continue reading →

Wednesday 5th July, 2017

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I have been somewhat remiss in that I haven’t mentioned Edge Lit 6 and it’s coming up not this weekend coming but the weekend after. I shall be there (as member of the public and of the Fox Spirit [External Link] Skulk) and I’ve finally put up a link page for it.

Also coming up, and with a link page for significantly longer, I’ll be attending ChapterCon 2017 in Teddington (apparently that’s London) the last weekend in August. I also have some free reader tickets for that, so there’s a giveaway for those. I had originally posted that the giveaway would be for the whole of July but that’s a long time, so let’s make that until a fortnight today, eh? (Wednesday 19th July)

And, final update, option number one on last week’s list of projects won. Which I guess is why it came out number one on the list, although I didn’t actually think about it at the time. I am now about 4,000 words into a project that I have no idea how long it will turn out to be due to the weirdness of trying to capture a social media feed and make it sensible! As the working title is “Aurora”, I’ve now added that to the tags as it may come up a lot in the next few months to a year.

Giveaway: ChapterCon Reader Tickets

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So, we’ve just less than two months to go until the ChapterCon event of the year (24th-26th August). If you haven’t been and looked already, you can find loads of details on the official website here: [External Link]

However, the bit important to our giveaway!

The way this event is being run means that Readers / the public are invited to attend on the Saturday (26th) and tickets are available for morning … Continue reading →

Wednesday 31st May, 2017

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Today is your last chance to pre-order my books if you want signed copies for ChapterCon in August. The mess o’links from includes the link to the form for my books (which includes Monster and Fox Pocket anthologies, but only if you buy in advance!) and some other authors who will be running theirs longer. I only intend to carry a limited number of copies to sell, otherwise, as trees are heavy. Actual closure of the form will happen sometime tomorrow afternoon / evening when I get back in from work.

Somewhat belatedly (sorry, I skipped a week again) you can listen again to my visit to Hannah’s Bookshelf here: [External Link] Hannah Kate has, of course, had another show since then and she’s got that, as well as three years-ish of previous shows, all available on mixcloud. Specialist subjects have included Manchester, werewolves, medieval literature and poetry.

And in writing news, I am now halfway-to-sixty-percent through the first draft of the latest Greenwood WIP. Here’s hoping it’s the last for a while because I’m starting to have thoughts about social media stories and werewolves. Not necessarily together.

Thursday 18th May, 2017

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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!

Thursday 4th May, 2017

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As is now traditional for this date: May the fourth be with you.

I’ve realised I haven’t done a catch-up post for a while, so here’s the latest since my last diary post.

My visit to Humber SFF #3 seemed to go well – aside from my usual Hull car parking adventures that meant I was slightly late getting to the library. I think I was forgiven and I certainly enjoyed myself.

But that was over three weeks ago and I’ve been kind of quiet on the web-site since. Excepting that May 1st was Blogging Against Disablism Day 2017 (#BADD2017) [External Link] and, having skipped a post last year, I managed to put together a post on time management (oh the irony) called ‘Becoming a girl who CAN say “no”‘. I recommend going through to the proper BADD2017 page and catching up with all the blog posts.

The on-site ChapterCon event page has gone through a bit more of a tweak. As well as my own pre-order form, I’ve put links to a few other authors who are attempting to be efficient with luggage space on their travels. I’ve also posted links to their home pages, so please go and find out more about some awesome authors.

Having completed the first draft of a second Greenwood-y project, and run through the basic redrafting the first Greenwood-y project, it turns out the next / current WP first draft is going to be… you guessed it, another Greenwood-y novella. So my faux-medieval fantasy jag continues. If I remember, I think I’ll do a post with the “first page” of each of them so you can see what I mean about attempting to create folk tales that feel like they have been around for hundreds of years. I’ve previously posted opening draft paragraphs on Facebook, so I guess it’s only fair that the rest of you get to see the current state – although still not necessarily the final version if they make it into print. I shall have to work out how to include my footnotes…

Wednesday 12th April, 2017

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Good news!

Draft the first of my current / second Greenwood-y project is complete. It weighs in at 39,000 words but will probably see some changes before it’s declared ready to rehome. The next intended project, which I’ll be starting tomorrow or Good Friday, will actually be to start going through a redraft of the previous / first Greenwood-y project to make it ready for rehoming. The two aren’t really connected outside of my own head beyond a few themes and a little bit of pretentious author conceit. However, they’re both intentionally faux-medieval fantasy in that they’re attempts to make fairy tales that feel like they have been around for hundreds of years. I don’t mean fairy tales in the sense of a novel with fairy tale tropes, I mean fairy tales as you find them in old collections.

In other news, you can now pre-order my books (and some not but in the same series, as I’m a co-editor of the first two Fox Spirit Monster books and have a short story in one of the Fox Pockets) if you’re intending to come to ChapterCon. I have updated my event details accordingly.

On Saturday, I shall be reading from 25 Ways To Kill A Werewolf, and possibly one of the short stories from this website, time allowing, in Hull as part of Humber SFF #3. See you there if you’re coming!

Also, there are chocolate eggs – whether you associate them with pagan festivals, Christian celebrations or just plain love of chocolate – and this makes me happy. And full.

Wednesday 8th March, 2017

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And this week it’s International Women’s Day, so yay for the women! Whether you’re cis or trans*, this is your day 🙂

For those of you feeling left out, there’s an International Men’s Day. Please remember to make as much noise on my Twitter and FB feeds about how men need support too as you’re doing now on November 19th.

And for today’s round up:

The Amazon.com giveaway of 25 Ways To Kill A Werewolf has finished and the five copies have started winging their way to the winners. And Amazon handled all of that, so I may have to do this sort of thing again!

I do have another giveaway to organise in the not too distant future, but it will have to be on another platform that Amazon. I will be attending ChapterCon, a new convention that has an interesting way of doing things. We authors and others in the industry get a work conference in the week and then the Saturday (26th August) will be open to the public – provided you buy a reader’s ticket to cover the morning or afternoon session. And I have three reader tickets available to give away.

I don’t remember to put up events pages for the Yorkshire area SFF socials as often as I should but I’m going to be at the Humber SF&F social in Hull on Easter Saturday (April 15th) so I’ve done a links page here. I’ll be there in the capacity as author as well as the more usual heckling member of the audience who talks too much.

There’s another event, that won’t make it to an event page, the weekend after next called “By the Sword – The Women’s HEMA weekender” (also occasionally referred to as “SHEMA”). I shall be attending and doing a bit of smallsword instruction. So I shall be otherwise engaged for St Patrick’s Day and the Six Nation’s Super Saturday. Greater love hath no HEMAiste, etc.

Other than that, the writing creeps on and I may be looking at the outline of another 40,000 word novella with Greenwood-y themes. I think I may have read too many fairy tales and similar as a child.