February 2012
1 post
8 tags
If you're thinking of writing a book, think again.
I don’t doubt for a minute; the old adage that we all have a book, somewhere deep inside us just waiting to get out but, from what I understand of the way that the publishing game works, there are certain ingredients that you need to bake a successful cake. The Cathedral of Wonderful Imaginings is usually ‘novel’ shaped for most writers and whilst many succeed in building a...
January 2012
1 post
7 tags
Another year marks a chapter ending
Facebook has changed the world in many ways and in spite of the negative coverage it often gets in the popular press, all of us who use it cannot deny the positive benefits it brings to our everyday lives.
In a world where much of our ‘digital’ life is stored in ‘the cloud’ - that mysterious place in the ether where all the music, films, photographs and email messages...
December 2011
2 posts
4 tags
Generation of the child-adults
I never once saw my father lie on the floor except the day I found him dead. In spite of that rather grim observation, I have come to the conclusion that I am of the generation of adults that have never quite ‘grown up’.
I am much happier eating cheerios whilst lying on the floor in front of the TV on a Saturday morning, watching cartoons than I would be sitting at a dinner table,...
7 tags
VALVEPUNKS! - novel ways. A promo synopsis
What’s it all about? “Valvepunks! The long road to Quixotica” is an epistolary novel. To you and I - that’s a novel that is written as a series of documents. Typically stories like this have the narrative flowing through letters but in this case there are diary entries, newspaper cuttings and other personal documents which are threaded throughout the adventure along with...
November 2011
3 posts
5 tags
Closure is such sad sweet parting
It’s a very strange feeling having completed a book. On the one hand, there is the elation that it is all finished: that every twist and turn has been explored, every angle examined and every exposition exposed. But, on the other hand, there is the very tangible feeling that it is ‘all over’. In some ways, that is more terrifying than the prospect of embarking on such a project.
...
12 tags
A taste of wild honey
A synopsis.
Two, middle aged friends find their life-paths crossing - after having had no contact since their student days - when a terrible shared secret comes screaming through the years to haunt them, threatening their sanity, freedom and comfortable lives. Evidence surfaces, when Joshua (the ten year old son of the family who had just moved in to the former student flats) finds a ring in the...
6 tags
The long road to...
The city streets of York are the last place on earth that one should consider taking LSD. However. If you are, in fact, the sort of person that would ever consider taking LSD in the first place (just to restate my observation) then York is the perhaps the last place you should do it and I’d like to explain why I think so.
Coming from an unremarkable, West Yorkshire market town as I do,...
October 2011
3 posts
11 tags
Hellicious Halloween writing festival
Thrillers, Killers ‘n’ Chillers is a webzine that aims to do what it says in the title - at least to thrill and chill (they haven’t and wouldn’t advocate anyone killing just yet!) It is faithfully dedicated to writing and reading short stories and flash fiction in the most daring of genres, including crime, noir, action, thriller, horror, weird, spooky, supernatural and...
3 tags
'Figure', 'en' or 'em' dash?
Quote: “Various style guides and national varieties of languages prescribe different guidance on dashes. Dashes have been cited as being treated differently in the US and the UK, with the former preferring the use of an em-dash with no additional spacing, and the latter preferring a spaced en-dash. As an example of the US style, The Chicago Manual of Style still recommends unspaced em...
7 tags
Interview with the mind
What literature has had the most influence on you? To be honest, I have to say that it was children’s books that have always had the biggest influence on me. As a father, I have spent nearly thirty years reading aloud to my children and though all that time have absorbed the ‘inner truths’ of simple story telling: there’s a character, they want something, they try to get...
September 2011
2 posts
6 tags
Edgar Allen Poe - The Forgotten Cosmologist
By Philip Jennings. From ALGOL - The Official Magazine of The York Astronomical Society. Issue 79 – June 2011 Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary. Edgar Allan Poe is best associated with dark, gothic tales of black cats and swinging pendulums; a disturbed fellow who ended his days in a very mysterious manner – repeatedly shouting ‘Reynolds’ before dying of unknown causes....
6 tags
An unquiet slumber
It is a most terrible night. The wind is roaring outside and I have been woken from sleep and some terrible dreams. The last thing in my mind as I gained consciousness, was a ghost story which I had to write down, immediately, before it slipped back into the night. It’s written here, in first draft, exactly as the dream dictated it to me. An unquiet slumber The Coach & Horses was a...
August 2011
2 posts
6 tags
And the rain shall come
Far away and in darkness now, the still night changes the features of this street to carbon black and there: like a dense, solid mass is a house like any other - the rolling fog of early autumn sticking to its damp walls. Upstairs, a thin light breaks through the curtains in the gap created by the lens of a telescope; impotently peering out. It stands, attentive but redundant and inside he sits...
6 tags
Romantic pulp fiction
Rescued - By Susie Milford BLURB- Trudy’s humdrum world at the local charity shop took a surprising turn the day she discovered an abandoned pet and called the ‘Cat Rescue’ office. ___________________________________________ ‘Oh well,’ thought Trudy as she unlocked the door to her world of second-hand clothes and unwanted clutter. Being the manager of a sleepy town...
July 2011
1 post
6 tags
Cul de Sac creativity
One of the perils of embarking on the journey of writing, is the very likely possibility of ending up down a road with no exit route. A cul-de-sac (literally meaning “bottom of bag” in French) is a word which refers to a dead end street, a close, or a no through road and it’s a place that every writer fears, no matter how spectacular the houses are along that road.
During May...
June 2011
1 post
8 tags
How Dr Who was born
What follows is an actual transcript from a genuine archive document written in 1963 containing annotations from Sydney Newman the producer responsible for creating the original Dr Who mythology which became the now legendary television series. As you can see, the ‘doctor’ was originally intended to be: ‘A frail old man lost in space and time who has lost his memory’...
May 2011
10 posts
8 tags
How Motorhead's Lemmy got his nickname
Contrary to any popular, urban myths that you might have heard, Lemmy told me (when I worked for Hawkwind as a roadie, many many years ago) that his nickname came from his childhood fondness (and ability to impersonate) a character called “Lemmy” Barnet, who was a ‘techie’ in a British science fiction radio programme called “Journey Into Space”. It was written...
9 tags
"Interview with a Timelord" - Extract 3
It is a time of innocence and a place of no consequence as we soar through the night air, carried along by the vibrations that inform, educate and entertain a nation. Over the moonlit, Christmas-cosy rooftops and between the softly smoking chimney pots of suburban Middle-England, we see avenue after crescent of semi detached houses. Closer now, we see the glow of hearth and home, illuminating the...
9 tags
"Interview with a Timelord" - Extract 2
“Good afternoon. Do you have anything on valve radios?” says a mellow voice that rings through the willows and elms, almost making the pond ripple in reverberant sympathy.
“Reggie!” I call as I turn and there he is, dressed in his familiar Gabardine raincoat and tweeds and he lifts his hat as he greets me with that huge, silly grin of his.
“How the devil are you, you old goat?”
I pull the...
12 tags
Surprise visitors
This isn’t the usual kind of post that I would normally make but this week has seen some extraordinary activity on Tumblr that I couldn’t let pass without some acknowledgement.
I am in the process of ‘workshopping’ my current work in progress: a valvepunk comedy epic psychological adventure, and from now on, various chapters and extracts will appear amongst the usual...
9 tags
"Interview with a Timelord" - Extract 1
(First draft)
~
Every Sunday I do this. I take the scooter down to the pond and feed the ducks. I like to have a little routine in my life, you know? A little routine goes a long way: it helps pass the time and it’s nice to have something to look forward to. Monday is Post Office day - I like to check my balance and then on the days when it’s due: collect my pension (ach, it’s not much but then...
7 tags
Crisis of confidence
For every writer, there sometimes comes a point where they take the ‘big picture’ and think “what the hell am I writing about?” Unfortunately for me, this has happened this week.
After spending a year and a half nurturing my baby with tender loving care, feeding and tending it on a daily basis, this week it looked up at me and said ‘what the hell have you made me?...
All roads lead to somewhere
“The sound of the distant motorway at nighttime is the most beautiful sound I’ve ever heard, for each speck of sound in the entirity of the landscape, (that’s 100 people going away, 100 people leaving people behind and adventuring, 100 people tired and happy and laughing and feeling, 100 people revisiting familiar places and 100 people coming home.) makes me want to cry” -...
9 tags
Life can be stranger than fiction - EMBRACE IT!
A good writer should have their radar on at all times. Life has a way of hurling incidents that, when viewed with ‘novel-goggles’ has a perspective which makes them larger than life and absolute gold dust when it comes to the tricky business of inspiration.
There was an incident which happened to me today which I have to admit was unlike anything I have ever experienced before. So,...
6 tags
Writing - The Traumsprache method
I find it completely fascinating the way that the mind is able to process ideas and thoughts in ways that we least expect . This is most obvious when we analyse our dreams and find that there have been certain aspects of our lives that have been lurking there in the shadows whilst we go about the daily business of whatever it is we have to do. For example, the other night I was awoken from a...
4 tags
Where love blossoms
Audrey’s husband, not known for his open displays of love in life, managed to get a message through to her on the anniversary of his passing.
—- ‘If only Jim were here. He wouldn’t have let it get this way,’ thought Audrey as she looked through the kitchen window and across the bedraggled, overgrown garden. It wasn’t that she didn’t care, she just didn’t have the energy any more, or if she...
April 2011
8 posts
4 tags
How to Write a Novel: The Yak Shaving Method
We all know it’s wrong and yet still we embark on that long climb up a mountain to shave a yak. It’s something that most of us do at some point or another (oh yes we do) but how can we recognise the warning signs?
In terms of writing, the tell tale warning flags are there right from the start and sometimes go something like this: We get the ‘big idea’ and decide that to...
4 tags
How to Write a Novel: The Dramatica Method
RE-BLOGGED from - The Dramatica Method at their website, out of Burbank, California. Please visit their site. With acknowledgements and thanks.
—-
What Is Dramatica?
So, what exactly is Dramatica? Dramatica is a whole new theory of Story. Because it wasn’t based on any pre-existing theories, much of what it has to say can sound pretty unfamiliar. Still, the amazing part is that...
3 tags
How to Write a Novel: The Snowflake Method
RE-BLOGGED from -
How to write a novel by Randy Ingermanson, Ph.D. With acknowledgements and thanks.
—-
Before you start writing, you need to get organized. You need to put all those wonderful ideas down on paper in a form you can use. Why? Because your memory is fallible, and your creativity has probably left a lot of holes in your story — holes you need to fill in before you...
9 tags
A short horror story
Dinner for one (Or, The Mad Mortician of Brindle Street)
~
Joshua looked on in horror as Hickson skilfully removed huge slabs of meat from the body lying on the table before him. “This,” he said, “is the best bit,” holding up a darkened orb that resembled a heart. It was the first time that Joshua had seen his employer behave this way but then, it was also his first...
6 tags
TEN REASONS WHY THE WORLD WILL END
The problem with most people is that they just don’t ‘think’. I don’t mean this unkindly, I simply mean in that today’s media rich lifestyles, the tendency is to be swamped with stimulus that invades our consciousness and pushes out not only our ‘inner commentaries’ but also our natural tendency to critically analyse the experiences we find ourselves in.
...
3 tags
STORYCRAFT - part 3
Getting the most out of a scene. This is the third of several blogs about #storycraft based on various research and study resources. Whilst the definitions may not be conclusive (or indeed correct!) they nevertheless provide a starting point for discussion and further citation and are outlined here for my own further understanding and reference. Please feel free to comment or contribute. —- The...
6 tags
STORYCRAFT - part 2
Plotting by numbers This is the second of several blogs about #storycraft based on various research and study resources. Whilst the definitions may not be conclusive (or indeed correct!) they nevertheless provide a starting point for discussion and further citation and are outlined here for my own further understanding and reference. Please feel free to comment or contribute. —- History has...
9 tags
STORYCRAFT - part 1
Mystical phrases retold in English This is the first of several blogs about #storycraft based on extensive research and study. Whilst the definitions may not be conclusive (or indeed correct!) they nevertheless provide a starting point for discussion and further citation. Please feel free to comment or contribute. —-
The novel ‘query’ (to agents, publishers etc) The goal is not...
March 2011
10 posts
6 tags
Thy will be done
Shelved novel idea.
_______________________
The 700 word synopsis Life couldn’t have been sweeter for Marcus Noone and his lovely new wife Sasha, living in the upwardly mobile suburbs with his Chrysler Sebring; his widescreen TV and heated pool. They threw great dinner parties and Marcus was a hit on the squash courts and at the company dinners. He didn’t really enjoy selling photocopiers but he...
6 tags
Sins of the fathers
‘My wife was murdered you see? If only I could change the way things turned out, I wouldn’t feel so empty now.’ George looked at him, sitting there in the poor light of his humble lodging house. He’d had a few strange guests over the years but this one was stranger than most. I’ve got a question for you Izaak. How did you know that I had a room to rent before I had...
3 tags
Body in the suitcase
It was horrible, the day when I found Conrad lying dead on the kitchen floor. Fifteen years we’d been together and he’d been my closest friend. I was usually woken very early each day when he wanted his breakfast but I suppose that on that morning he’d decided to try to get his own. I’d no idea what to do as I’d never had to deal with anything like that before and, as...
4 tags
Baby in the fire
Amongst the lithe and transient breezes, my words float but I am resolute in my resilience to tell my tale - such were the terrible deeds that sculpted the essence of my being. This room is my only knowledge and resting place now as I have long since lost the capability of rational account. For it was here that the lord of the manor, in his infinite wisdom, decided to vent his wicked power over me...
5 tags
Insubstantial innocence
It’s such a relief to be finally boarding a train. At last, I can escape from the terror that my life had become and as I settle myself into the empty carriage I can look forward to a new beginning; released from all that haunted me. I don’t know how it all started, I suppose it was gradual at first. Like most people, I don’t pay much attention to spam emails. Every day...
5 tags
Ancient ways
“I can hear the gale, roaring down my chimney to be let in. Outside, the sound of frail objects are heard as they cascade between structures and at my window, the devil sucks his teeth in defiance at my warmth. Wearily, I look up for a moment as the sound of my grandmother’s whisper echoes in the hall only to be replaced with the rush of elemental violence. When such, was a night like...
4 tags
Runaway dad
An aging street beggar is being kicked to death by thugs in a darkened park. They laugh as he bleeds and we hear his thoughts as he recounts why he was reduced to being a homeless destitute. He’d lost his job, his home, his life because of something so terrible that he did which was simply a monumental error of judgement on his part. The event had a catastrophic effect on his life and those...
3 tags
Twenty four clocks
It is a place of no consequence, darkened by fear and built on a crumbling cathedral of dreams. To enter this place is to be wrenched from the fundamental spirit which surges through all men and illuminates the path to redemption and to dwell there takes a courage of such magnitude that the weight is sufficient to crush even the most robust soul. Within these walls there are two such survivors...
6 tags
Un oeuf is enough
Beware! The one-legged space chickens are plotting our demise. Even as I write in the confines of my self-made prison, I know they are out there, building their empire and patiently waiting for the day that they will inherit the earth. It all happened very slowly at first and no-one took much notice except me. I could see what they were doing back in 2011, when it all started for me, but nobody...
6 tags
Deconstruction of the forces dark
It’s an intense and slightly cryptic opening sentence that is crafted to capture your imagination which leads on to introduce the main character in a scenario that is crudely drawn at first, but which is sufficient to engage your interest. The main character then goes on to reveal an aspect of their life which is paramount to the restoration of their status quo and which you know will be...
February 2011
10 posts
5 tags
Pepper's ghost
Call me Al. I’m thirty seven and never amounted to much, until now - as I lay, incarcerated by the past, to which only I am the silent witness. But then, it was different. I’d been tired with my life a long while, and, being of an age and without the burden of domestic ties, found myself at a crossroads. That junction in life, where all things point to change. I’d made a habit...
5 tags
Micro fiction
A vulnerable character, portrayed in time and location, experienced a threat to their status quo and was motivated to action. However, an antagonist looked set to thwart their efforts until, in an unusual twist, our hero triumphed - restoring the equilibrium and in the process, became transformed. (45 words)
OR…
Widow Josephine, from Victorian London, was about to loose her home because of...
6 tags
The long road to nowhere
How would you like to die? It’s not a choice anymore, you have to face facts. You had a choice, once, but now it’s simply a matter of detail. You drift from dull thoughts into a world of pain and sounds you don’t recognise. Everything is strange and jagged in your memory but you are desperate - driven to know where you went wrong.
The sounds hit you first: soft chatter and the bleeping of...
5 tags
Shooting the breeze
‘No news about your new kitchen yet then?’ said the first one. ‘No, but we are going to get double glazing they say,’ said the other, leaning forward a little to one side. ‘Pardon?’ ‘Double glazing,’ he said louder. ‘The lady from the council came and brought us a leaflet that said there was ‘such and such an amount’ of money for renovations so, we are going to be getting them, but we...
5 tags
After the laughter
Joyce threw back the curtains on another silent day. The sky mirrored her gray thoughts as she looked out into its empty depths and breathed out, slowly.
It had been four weeks since the funeral and the flowers had been standing in stale water. Now, they were captured in the moment - dried and flaking, as in a photograph become real. She studied them for a while and remembered how much he had...
2 tags
Hands of blood
Synopsis. A girl is a stranger in town and agrees to go out with friends from her new workplace to get acquainted. They go for a meal and then visit a club but she is pestered by a man all evening which is made worse by her becoming increasingly drunk. Another man steps in to rescue her and she spends the rest of the evening in his company. When the workmates decide to leave, the man tells them...