update

Finished a creature feature short and hoped to sell it to a publisher, but most publishers I looked  up wanted stories of less than 5000 words, and this one is about 5600 words long. I really tried to keep it less than 5000 words but the story wouldn't co-operate. I guess I could try to edit it, but then, it wouldn't be the story I want. Ah well, so be it.

Lots of snow recently, snowed in today, couldn't get to work, but didn't write much either. Won't get paid either. No holiday left, so I really must try for work tomorrow. Just hope I don't break my neck getting to the bus stop.

People moan about the roads, but I haven't heard anyone talk about the pavements, especially on old country lanes or housing estates, where loads of people have compacted the snow into ice and I am firm believer that these pavements are more dangerous than many roads.

Roads are there for people to travel, and in their accidents, they are usually in cars which nowadays are designed like safety cages. People on pavements can slip up with not even a safety net and break limbs and necks.

I heard that a friend of my mother's slipped up in Guildford and broke her arm in two places, and she was a younger woman.

I am depressing myself. Don't want to go tomorrow, but I can't afford another payless day.

Until next blog, next week, whether I'm at home, hospital or morgue...

update

Second time I wrote this, accidentally closing this tab!

I need to bring some discipline to my writing, I have got four- or five short stories in various stages of completion. A couple need a little effort to get them going whilst one seems to be writing itself. I need to concentrate on one at a time!

I see  BBC2 are showing a new dramatisation of Whistle And I'll Come To You, with John Hurt. Based on the M.R. James short story Whistle And I Will Come To You, My Lad. I got the old b&w version on dvd somewhere...

Until next time.

update

Not a real lot to say this week, progressed in one short story and found something I was looking for on the internet which I didn't know what it was called  for another story idea.

Also been thinking about the King Arthur legends, simply because of the series finale of Merlin on Saturday.  It's getting ridiculous that Arthur still doesn't know that Merlin is a sorceror.

I was thinking of what a modern day take on the legend would be like. Would a modern day King Arthur be a CEO of a mega-company? And his knights boardroom directors? Corporate espionage becomes open military warfare. Gives a new meaning to a hostile takeover. Perhaps Arthur would be the CEO and his knights are the corporate security troops.  Or maybe have the Arthur story set modern day or near future, post apocalyptic meltdown and Arthur fighting in a civil war, or give it a fantasy twist, aliens or genetically engineered  super soldiers.

I might be interested in watching or reading such a story, but I am not interested in writing it.  If ever I do write an Arthurian story, it would be the old armour plate type  medieval kind of setting.

And I know Star Wars was kind of based on it,  with Obi-wan being Merlin and Luke Arthur. The original, that is.

Well, that's all for today.

update

Feeling good at the moment with my first short story, Circus Macabre published. Working on two or three other ideas now.

Don't really have anything else to say at the moment.

More later.

circus macabre

My first published story is now available  as a chapbook only at the moment. Circus Macabe will be avaible on Amazon sometime, but the only link I got at the moment is http://thepennydreadfulcompany.com/. I been waiting to put this up for a few weeks now. I hope to have better links up next week.

update

Haven't updated in a while, anticipating news that hasn't quite delivered yet.

I got a pet tarantula last week, encased in plastic, so I don't have to feed it birds (Renfield might go crazy about that!), as it is, supposedly, a bird eating tarantula. I also ordered a scorpion in plastic (or whatever) from Amazon. Look for insect paperweights.

As you might imagine, just looking at it looking at me have given me some ideas.

I think I will call him George...

update

Just writing to try and keep my blog going at least once a week.

Just plodding on basically, nothing more to report, but I hope to have more next week.

update

Nothing much to say, but I have began two projects, one of which is hard science fiction with no horror overtones - yet!

By began, I mean mapping  out the stories.

I have plenty of ideas, it's just finding time to write.

update

Not much to say this week.

Started and well into a new short story, Combat, so far it's quick and easy, a more of an action story.

Nothing from my publisher regarding Circus Macabre, as it was due to be published a couple weeks ago.

More later.

update

That's another short story finished. A mere 10,707 words long. I am exhausted. Stayed up late last night and still hadn't finished it. Only finished it a few minutes ago.

When I say I finished it...

I got to the end of the story, it reached it's (un)natural end. I will give it a few days and come at it again fresh, see how it reads. Probably a slight edit is needed. I think I missed something that I wanted to put into the story...Can't remember...

And, I suppose, onto another tale.

update

Didn't get much writing done this weekend, I had bought a Kindle e-book reader and put half-a-dozen books on it and read one, William Meikle's Crustaceans, I just love giant crabs on the rampage!

I hope to finish a short this week. Got more lined up, tho.

If only I didn't have to go to work...

update

Just had buffalo burgers, grilled with potato croquettes and peas drowned in a thick beef gravy. Very delicious. Never had buffalo burgers before. Never seen them before. I will get them again.

Still writing.

update

Being a Liverpool fan means pain. We lost 1-2 against Blackpool at home. We are languishing third from  bottom. We are supposed to be a good side. A top side. An European side. Why are we so lacklustre now? We should have a good side, but we aren't performing to our potential. I am not going to rant about the American owners or the manager. Whatever the problems off the pitch, we should have players who are proud to put a Liverpool shirt on, proud to play on a pitch and being professionals, pride in themselves, if only to increase their own value. The likes of Steven Gerrard, who has played his entire career at Liverpool, are rare, with most players happy to be mercenaries, playing for whoever pays them the most. And maybe that is the problem. They get the money no matter how they play. Maybe we should have contracts that pay for performance and results, with no pay for matches lost, pay deducted for yellow and red cards and own goals, and a bonus for every goal scored.

I don't know, all I want to do is cry.

update

Did a fair bit of writing over the weekend, despite some distractions and shopping. I felt it went well, with it now being longer than The Whitby Ripper and the end is still not in sight. A fair bit still to write. It is in the first person perspective, my least favourite type, but the nature of the tale demands it and I think it is coming out well.

But that is just my perspective.

More later.

update

Just writing to keep  this blog going.

Nothing really has happened to me since my last blog.

Still writing.

x-ray eyes

I was at work today, thinking how to develop my next short story when I suddenly thought of the 1963 Roger Corman film The Man with X-ray Eyes with Ray Milland, and remembered that years ago I thought  it would have been better that after Milland's character had ripped his eyes out, he would say 'I can still see!'

Years later, a couple years ago, I read in a movie magazine that the producers had thought of that ending but thought it was too horrifying for the audience of the time. Pity.

Just idle thoughts during a boring day. Work is slacking at the moment, not many orders coming in.

new story

I have just completed a new short story, The Whitby Ripper, mostly a police detective tale until the end, with a double-whammy ending.

I may have completed it, but I may not have finished it yet. I will give it a few days. maybe longer and come at it fresh and see if it needs a re-edit or any embellishing.

I will not submit this yet, as this is intended as the first of a themed collection of tales. I would have finished this weeks ago, except my father died. Fortunately, only the ending needed doing and I had mapped out the ending in my head first. It was the lead up to the end which I had to work on, and that was mostly finished before my father died.

A deep breath and on to the next one.

happy birthday!

Happy birthday to me!

Celebrated with a Thai take-a-way, a number 35 with egg fried rice. Very nice.

I should try to write more, but my concentration is all over the place.

I am new to blogging, so this blogger will develop slowly over the days, weeks and months to come.

Years ago, I tried to keep a diary, but couldn't stick with it. Let's see how this blog develops, then.

first blog

Tuesday 7th September, my blog created and this is my first blog!

Nothing else to add, really.

Tomorrow is my birthday but I'm not in a celebratory mood, still down from the death of my father.