Happy Halloween, one and all

George Lucas sells a little bit more...

As amusing as this is (I love R2's reaction to the video game), it is a little sad to see these icons selling Currys. Ah well, enjoy the dancing...

In Portugal - A Real Life Ghost Story

In 1989, my friend Craig Tankard & I went on holiday to Portugal. Whilst there, we experienced something that, to this day, neither of can properly explain.

Mark Deniz’s Beyond Fiction website is having a Ghost Awareness Month and he invited me to write a blog entry for him, so I thought I’d publicly tell mine and Craig’s story.

All of this is true (I even got Craig to read through the piece, to make sure our memory of the events meshed) and I’ll leave it up to you to decide what we saw.

In Portugal, a real life ghost story can be accessed from here, at the Beyond Fiction website

Sweet dreams!

The Man Who Loved Yngve

I had two good films to review for VideoVista this month - the Aussie horror film “The Loved Ones” (which was excellent) and the beautiful, poignant, fun “The Man Who Loved Ygnve”, from Norway. I’ll let you know when both reviews go live, but I just thought I’d mention something about the latter here.

As I mentioned before, in relation to “Flashbacks Of A Fool” (you can read my post here, if you’re so inclined), I love coming of ages film and this works for me on several counts - it’s set in the 80s, it’s quirky and spiky and made with real passion.

If you get a chance, seek this out, it’s well worth a watch.

And no, I can't pronounce the name in the title either.

Rolf Kristian Larsen, Arthur Berning and Ida Elise Broch, the leads of the film

What I Do, Sometimes

Okay, so ZoQuNo is definitely on the backburner for now - the synopsis (brief and indepth) is complete, the first three chapters are complete (and have been workshopped by the NSFWG, in addition to going through the rigours of my pre-readers), but a leading publisher has passed and so I’m going to concentrate on other projects for the moment.

First up, obviously, is the Lost Film novella. It’s been a good while since I did anything on it - perhaps three weeks - and it feels very distant at the moment, but I’m confident I can get back into it.

The weird thing is, I am currently reading “Shoes, Ships & Cadavers”, the NSFWG anthology that contains my story “What We Do Sometimes, Without Thinking”. I’d got to my story and thought “hey, what the hell” and started reading it. And you know what, I liked it a lot. And more, as I read it, I realised that the 80s part of it, the school-kids, was the ideal foundation for “Project Gash”. I’ve been thinking over that for the last couple of days and I reckon I can make it go, so that’s next up on the slate.

Still to fit in - the ‘proper collaboration’ with Steve Bacon, a top secret novella project (also with Mr Bacon and a leading small press publisher) and the 4-writer-project.

Cool, eh?

Does anyone else remember "The Blimeys"?

A bit of an interruption here, from Mark Townsend, bass guitarist of the much lamented “The Blimeys” - best known for their single ‘It’s Criminal Baby’ from the ‘Ironing The Soul’ album.

Not web invisible now, are we Towney?

Subscriptions ahoy

I don't know if you'll be interested, but I've added a "subscription button" to the blog - click on it, enter your email address and be advised of each new shiny blog-post as they occur.

You know you want to.

It's all about the ego, baby!

I have a little gizmo on here, from sitemeter, that serves as a statistical analysis - the hits I've had, how long people were here for, what they looked at and where they're from. For the latter, you get a map and occasionally I like to click on it, just to see where all of you readers are. I did that today and, blimey, it's a mixed continent readership!

So thank you, one and all - I thought this blog would only be read by me and my sister and to know that people around the world are also tuning in is fantastic!

Cheers, folks!

It's late...

I shouldn’t have gone online tonight because, to be honest, I’m a little depressed now. I’ve read about plagiarists who create multiple identities (and seriously, if you’re not getting paid, what on earth do you get out of such an endeavour?) so that they can put “their work” into even more markets; I’ve read about idiots whose ‘great new books’ feature generous and glittering cover blurbs from people neither I nor Google have heard of and I’ve read about people who big themselves up out of all recognition to their talent or publishing credits.

Don’t get me wrong, everyone has to start somewhere and we all need to shout from the rooftops about our wares every now and again but some people seem to forget one key detail - you need to write. You need to produce a work, an original piece of fiction that will make people stop and say “Christ, that was good”. A cover blurb from your Uncle Frank telling me that your new novel is a work of genius will just result in a) your not getting a penny from me and b) me never, ever taking you seriously again.

Like the spam stuff I get through Facebook and, sadly, GoodReads - ‘Become my fan’ or ‘I suggest you read my book’. You know what, I’m sorry to say that your sterling efforts to recruit me have just resulted in your being wiped off my friends list. On Facebook, I’ll become a fan of what I want, when I want to do it - I won’t do it because you ask me to and I’ll delete you because you asked (Facebook rule number 2). Likewise, on GoodReads - yes, you’ve written a book and that’s brilliant, but why suggest it to me? That just sounds desperate. And invokes rule number 2.

I’m very lucky. I’m part of a vibrant small press scene, with several of my peers and friends breaking out into the mainstream markets and presses. That’s brilliant. I revel in the creative energy and spirit of that. Reading through my Facebook updates today has been depressing (the plagiarist especially) and my tolerance for message board idiocy is at an all-time low (I’m done with Shocklines now - I should have gone when Greg Lamberson did).

When did this beloved genre, for some, become not about the writing but, instead, about the “look at me”. Don’t tell me, you idiot, show me - write it, publish it, make an impression.

Flashbacks Of A Fool

You won't know this, probably because I've never told you, but despite loving the horror genre and defending it staunchly whenever necessary, I do have a little secret. My first two proper novels - "The Loved One" and "Alice" - were contemporary drama and it's one of my long-held ambitions to write something lit'ry, kind of like The Great British Novel. Every now and again, I'll have a tinker and make some notes and then something comes up and I never complete it. In fact, I probably never will but tonight, the idea is playing on my mind.

I went over to have dinner with Pauline, who is beautiful and spirited and one of my oldest friends and I love her dearly. We had a pizza and rented a film ("The Losers", it wasn't bad) and then watched the late BBC film, which was "Flashbacks Of a Fool". I hadn't heard too many good reports about it, but we decided to stick it out and I'm so glad we did. It had flaws, certainly, but parts of it were - I'm convinced - touched by genius. I much prefered the flashback to the opening Daniel Craig segment (though the coda segment with Craig was good) and it was just an incredible film.

The one sequence which really sticks with me is where young Joe and young Ruth are at her house, messing around and they lip-sync to Roxy Music. The sequence is slowed down and there's so much life and vitality and fun, it's a joy to watch. And that's what makes me think - I'd love to do that. Just the once.

Watch "Flashbacks Of A Fool", it's a good film.