Upping Sticks and Crooked Roads

I’m leaving.

Having released A Bump in the Night back in November, I had intended to crack on with finishing up Glade. Unfortunately, that was not to be the case.

I have done little in the way of writing since before Christmas. That’s not to say that nothing has been done. In much the same way that Mr Holmes may have considered something ‘a three-pipe problem’, I too find myself considering my work at times and often discover new ways to tell it. Sometimes, in letting a work rest, one stumbles upon something rather special. However, the fact that I have one foot out of the door is the main reason behind my lack of progress.

As I say, I’m leaving… well, almost.

Sadly, words alone just don’t pay the bills. As a result, I have been focused upon the closing of things as I prepare to up sticks and move to distant shores, where I hope to find two coins to rub together. This, in turn, means that I will flit in and out of the shadows for a time, posting here and there before disappearing once more until such time that I am able to resume a more stable… existence.

Where am I with Glade?

At the beginning of December, I decided that I would set my sights on finishing by spring. This will likely mean I hit summer and end up publishing in autumn/winter. So, with a slap of luck, Glade will be available in 2016. It will be worth the wait.

[ d-volved concept art ]

I also have some other projects that I’m working on. One is a collection of macabre stories; the other is a story with an anti-superhero flavour (I’ve attached a sample of concept art here). Then there are the scattered fragments of a new tale featuring Mr Snaggle & Mr Snuffle . It’s still too early to think about release dates for any of these projects, but they are coming along.

Any giveaways coming up?

No. That’s not to say that I won’t at some point, but it won’t be anytime soon. I will have a Q&A event for A Bump in the Night in the spring (when a few more people have read it) and I may run a giveaway with that. Again, there is no planned date, so you’ll just have to wait and see.

I will be making a brief stopover in the UK before heading off to new and familiar shores. If anyone has a copy of The Chalice or A Bump in the Night that they would like signed then you’ll probably find me down the pub (or sat in one of many airport lounges).

Anything else?

Yes. This year will also see me open the doors of Wyldwood Books and offer a few services. Professional book formatting – ebook and print – will be offered along with cover design and media packages (book trailers, web banners, etc.) amongst other assistance.

I know how hard it can be trying to find affordable help. The idea is to offer reasonable solutions so self-publishing becomes less of a headache for those on a tight budget. I’ll provide more details later in the year, but queries can be made at any time.

So, this is goodbye for now. Water the plants for me while I’m gone… and keep an eye out for dragons. Sneaky buggers!

Cheers!

A Christmas Message from Mr Snaggle & Mr Snuffle

 

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“Christmas… can be rather hard.

“Those friends and relatives that have ignored you all year suddenly crawl out of the woodwork and smile their way into your lives. They eat all your food, drink all your wine and eat all the caramels in your box of Quality Street!

“And what do you get in return? A pair of socks, a knitted jumper with mismatching arms or an out-of-date voucher for Marks & Spencer… brilliant.

“All you can do is sit there with a rictus grin plastered across your face as you glance up at the clock and wonder if the local D.I.Y shop is still open and whether they have a special on caskets…

“But this is not a message of gloom and despair… not at all! In fact, this is a message of hope. Embrace the spirit of the season. Get yourself down the pub for a pint or three, indulge yourself with that extra slice of cake and have a knees up with your loved ones.

“Carpe Diem, ladies and gentlemen! After all, you never know when it will be your last… Merry Christmas!”

Mr Snaggle & Mr Snuffle – Arbitrators to The Quick & The Dead (Est. 1275)

Beneath the Shroud – Wallpapers for “A Bump in the Night”

Give your device a new look… a shroud!

Okay, so these are really just some wallpapers that I designed for A Bump in the Night. As always, they are free, so go ahead and download them if you want. They’ll fit most desktop sizes along with iPhones and iPads.

I do have designs for bookmarks, pens, mugs, t-shirts, underwear… but all of these things cost money to produce and since that is in short supply, said designs have decided to sit and have a cuppa for a time; dwelling upon their future plans of world domination…

Anyway, here are the shrou… wallpapers!

 

A Bump in the Night 1280×1024

A Bump in the Night 1280×1024

Tunes in the Night – my writing playlist for “A Bump in the Night”

Those of you that know me or have stumbled across this blog (or some other social media outlet) will know that I like music. A lot.

As with quite a few things, I have varied taste when it comes to music. It’s not always the lyrics that I’m interested in, but the melody. Sometimes, it can even be the memory or emotion that a particular song evokes in me. In these cases, I might not really like the artist at all, but that one song just happened to be playing at a particular point in my life and it got wrapped up inside the memory. The song becomes the trigger or key to unlocking it.

I’m sure this happens to you as well.

For those of you accustomed to these pages, I’ve mentioned some of my musical influences under the page entitled ‘Influences’ (fancy that). That doesn’t mean I listen to all those artists all the time. I often find that, whenever I sit down to start writing a scene or a poem, I just seem to land on the track I want. It’s almost uncanny.

As I continue, I tend to skip tracks unconsciously without interrupting my flow. It’s just the way I work. When I finally pause for a tea-break or whatever I’ll jot down the tracks that stuck with me or any that I just know I need to hear when I’m going to be writing a particular story/scene. Later, I’ll create a playlist for them on my iPod (an old classic click-wheel model) and add to it during the course of writing. To be honest, I prefer vinyl over digital (much how I prefer books to ebooks), but I probably wouldn’t get much writing done if I had to get up and change the record every three or for minutes. I suppose I need to become wealthy enough where I can hire my very own Jeeves… a ‘vinyl-turner’ of sorts… someone to flip the records at a moments notice!

So, since I’ve finished writing A Bump in the Night I’ve decided to reveal the playlist that I listened to whilst writing it. You might not like some of the tracks/artists; you might even wonder how in the hell I can mix them. You might even wonder at my taste in music, but it might also let you catch a glimpse of what was going on inside my head (for those of you that are bored – the YouTube playlist is at the very end of the post).

Pins in the Night – Inspirational Pins for “A Bump in the Night”

Short and sweet. I like Pinterest. Having somewhere I can keep track of all the images I stumble across that serve as inspiration is great. In some cases, it’s not so much that a particular image inspires, but rather it realises the thoughts I already had in my head.

So, here is my Pinterest board for my recent novella, A Bump in the Night. A few images that I created and uploaded or those that I pulled from the dark waters of the internet as I trawled its river on Mr Bump’s old skiff.

Enjoy!

A Bump in the Night is now available in ebook and print via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and iBooks. The paperback can also be purchased via the Wyldwood Books eStore.

A Bump in the Night – book trailer!

Here it is… A Bump in the Night… the book trailer!

Enjoy…

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A Bump in the Night is now available in ebook and print via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and iBooks. The paperback can also be purchased via the Wyldwood Books eStore.

A Bump in the Night – book release

After much ado, I can finally say that A Bump in the Night is now available!

So… what’s it about?

Despite the title, A Bump in the Night is not a horror story. It’s not going to scare you (it really isn’t – but it might make you laugh). It is not even a ghost story, but rather a story about ghosts and death…

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“Being dead can be hard.

In the past, it was all rattling chains and white sheets. Now, it is all mortgages and unpaid bills.

Mr Snaggle and Mr Snuffle, Arbitrators for the Quick and the Dead, find themselves coming to the aid of an old friend, Mr Bump, formerly known as Mr Grym, Lurker-under-the-Bed-and-Frequenter-of-Wardrobes (or just Charon to his close friends).

Together, they must come up with a plan to prevent Mr Bump from fading. Of course, a cunning plan is never easy to come up with, but with the help of a few beers, a young girl, and an unfortunate victim, they might just pull it off… or will they?

Not everything that goes bump in the night is the stuff of nightmare… sometimes, the dead have nightmares themselves!”

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I originally wrote A Bump in the Night back in 2000 for a UK-based magazine. The magazine was going to print the novella in 3-parts but then passed it up for something else and so the story ended up in the rejected pile at the bottom of my drawer. Until now.

A Bump in the Night – cover reveal

Good things come to those that wait… or so I’m told. If so, there is a rather large van speeding its way towards me as I write with a logo plastered on the side displaying the words ‘Good Things’. Of course, the driver has never heard of GPS, Google Maps, or even roadmaps in general. They will drive said van stuffed with good things around the countryside, eyes locked upon the road, looking for something that resembles a giant letter ‘B’ (having already confirmed the existence of ‘A’ at the coffee machine back at the depot).

Yes, I’m still kicking my heels as I wait for things to arrive. I’m starting to wonder if G.R.R. Martin has taken on a part-time job as a courier agent in between writing the next sentence for Game of Thrones.

In the meantime… here’s the cover for my ‘soon-to-be-released’ novella – A Bump in the Night…

 

A Bump in the Night – coming to stores… almost, nearly, perhaps, in this lifetime…

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“Beware!” – a poem from the novella “A Bump in the Night”

This is the poem that comes from the soon to be released novella, “A Bump in the Night”.

Originally, I had intended to release the novella for Halloween. The fact that living in a rural part of the world that exists outside of the US means that my proofs take an age to arrive. Not only does it take longer than it should, but they are also not delivered to my door. Getting them requires an hour round-trip on a specific day. In short, I’m still waiting after nearly two weeks. Should I be unhappy with them, then there will be further delays. At this rate, it will become the nightmare before Christmas!

Still, perhaps it’s true what they say. Good things come to those that wait…
 

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Beware!

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The light switch clicks off,
You swallow in dread.
With covers pulled tight,
And arms around Ted.

“There’s nothing to fear,”
(So your mum and dad said).
But they hide in your wardrobe,
And under your bed.

(Your friends may laugh),
“It’s all in your head!”
But you know the truth…
And so do the dead!

– Crispian Thurlborn, “Beware!” (2015)

from the novella, “A Bump in the Night”

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