King Parewick’s Folly
In the endless search for elegance some paragraphs, pages, and even chapters, are cut from a draft. Never was this more true than my current draft of The Keep Within. Here’s a bit that, tearfully, got the chop. I present it here instead. It gives a flavour of the TKW. “Larksdale reached his chamber and […]
Read more "King Parewick’s Folly"NEW FANTASY NOVEL, ‘THE KEEP WITHIN’, Spring ‘23 from Titan Books!
NEW NOVEL!!! SPRING ‘23!!! Set hundreds of years after the events of Pennyblade, a theatre manager/bastard brother of the king deals with rumours of a very real folktale murderer and a building whose very existence corrupts the minds of those who see or hear about it. Set in the world of Pennyblade, Becken Keep is […]
Read more "NEW FANTASY NOVEL, ‘THE KEEP WITHIN’, Spring ‘23 from Titan Books!"New Pastures
I’m to be leaving my night receptionist job. I do so with much sadness, for you couldn’t ask for a kinder bunch of workmates than at Premier Inn Leicester North West. It’s been a family, truly, and if you ever have need to stay in Leicester you can do no better than LNW. But I’ve […]
Read more "New Pastures"Thanks!
Forgive me posting this kind of thing but it’s still quite new to me and gives intense job satisfaction. Writers are partly paid in the happiness of total strangers.
Read more "Thanks!"Patton Recognition
My morning
Spending a nice morning typing up my great-grand aunt’s poetry from the 1910s-1920s from scanned copies of versions my grandmother typed up on paper in the fifties. I’m learning new words like ‘pendent’ and ‘throstles’.
Read more "My morning"The Arango Building
Still going through my obsession with the houses of John Lautner. This one is the Arango residence in Acapulco, Mexico, built for a supermarket tycoon. Lautner had a moment of opulent genius with this one: the upper level doesn’t have a safety wall or rail but a goddamn swimming pool moat!!! It’s just as hard […]
Read more "The Arango Building"The Pennyblade Musical Playlist
So The Real Writing Process podcast suggested I compile a Pennyblade playlist. A neat idea! Two kinds of music on this one. The albums on the list are what I’d listen to as I ground through the writing of Pennyblade while the standalone tunes on the list are what I listened to just before writing […]
Read more "The Pennyblade Musical Playlist"Things I Like: The Garcia House
The place I most want to live right now is the Garcia House, Hollywood, also known as the Rainbow House. It’s unusual shape is due to owner Russell Garcia wanting great acoustics: a tv theme composer and jazz band leader, he liked to do gigs at his house parties. The house has a divide at […]
Read more "Things I Like: The Garcia House"