Hello everyone!

This last week has generally been better.

This are beginning to calm down quite a lot. I think things are returning to normal again. I hope. So posts should start becoming cheerier as the weeks progress.

I found out when my Grandmas's funeral will be - in about a week and a half as of writing - so hopefully that will go smoothly. Family occasions are always fun, aren't they? I say that with a dose of sarcasm, saying that it'll be a funeral.

I think a few folks are starting  to come around to my way of thinking with everything. Whether I had wound myself up a lot about some stuff and began feeling very very bogged down by things could be a factor in this.

I think some of the people hadn't realised they were being, shall we say oblivious? Well, it's said now. I think I probably need to be more blunt with them, but it doesn't help when you're feeling how tough things are and are already bogged down with life and trying to play catch up with so much stuff. I think that's usually a sign I should slow down, but I'm meant to be working with a deadline with some of this stuff, which doesn't help. Thankfully, I think I've managed to move the deadline back a bit and hopefully things aren't going to be so hectic.

So, things are cooling down and I am able to start getting back into a rut with stuff. I think the chaos of changing my sleep pattern so drastically hadn't helped with that. Maybe I should have allowed more time to settle down after that, I'm unsure. Hopefully the last few things will sort themselves out.

Struth, I really dislike winter. Lots of things seem to go wrong and plain just get in the way.

Anyway, I'm beginning to feel like I can actually settle back into work properly without things getting too much.

On some tangent though, the Kickstarter for New Edge Sword &Sorcery, I think I mentioned it last week, but that was fulfilled and is well on its way to completion. I'm looking forward to the first issue coming out in August as Michael Moorcock of Elric of Melnibone fame has agreed to do a story for them. The trial issue can still be bought here. Or if you live in American, from here.

New Edge Sword & Sorcery issue 0
getting ready for issues 1 and 2

Onto writing. I've put a few of the 'not fantasy' stories to one side and returned to my original plan to get another novella sorted so that it can be released alongside one that's already on its way to publication.

Perhaps later today or early tomorrow, I'll have to choose between a ghoul dwarf story, a faery and undead story, and an elf in Hollow Earth story. So if you have any preferences as to which you'd like to see first, please let me know.

Then once its released, I'll get on getting on with other stories. I definitely want to get some ghost stories sorted by early into the new year, but they might well be short stories and I have a couple already half ready, depending on how much I need to re-write them. I'd still like two or three more done along side them.

The wartime village slasher thing I'm not sure what to do with. there was talk of doing it in the style of diary entries, so that could become a social media thing with regular, short entries. I may even get someone else involved with that too.

I'd also like to get the '80s style Corpse Breeches and bogman thing done. That's a story I've been mulling over for a while. But that's on the back burner too until I've got some fantasy stories out. Once I've got the next fantasy novella started, I want to get that and its partially completed companion piece released as soon as I can manage it.

There isn't much to say in regards to wargaming. Plans for things are still ongoing, but I've been struggling withthe whole writing thing, which has gotten in the way.

Oakbound Studio still has it's Kickstarter up for another six days - as of writing - and if you like the idea of having numerous oldhammer orcs, then take a look. There's a regiment builder and weapons options and you can even get a bulk order in. As of writing, they've been doing well and have added a siege tower and a Deep Troll as add-ons. They're also on their way to having an armoured giant as an add-on too. Its a good way to get a oldhammer, warhammer army, in metal for a reasonable price - warlords and wizards sold separately.

Hobgoblins of the Black Waste
a Kickstarter by Oakbound Studio for The Woods
or any self respecting Oldhammer Orc player,

Of course, there is still the option to get a batch for their The Woods skirmish game as hobgoblins, the rules for which will be in a supplement that will be released towards the end of April.

Oakbound Studio is a game I've found delightful and I'm not sure why it's not already become more popular. They were at Salute this year and they managed to get a Scenario into Miniature Wargames magazine, which I got a copy of.

A The Woods scenario in an article
for Miniature Wargames Magazine
Watch out for those Leprechauns

If you'd like to visit Oakbound Studio and take a look for yourself, click here. They also have a gamer's facebook group too.

That's pretty much it for this week. I'm hoping that things will get better from here. Once I feel overloaded, I realise I have difficulty fully expressing things and breaking down how I feel. I think I need to work on that, perhaps not letting things get so bad. I try, but it doesn't always work and sometimes, folks aren't always forthcoming with help.

Anyway, now its time for a usual ending slot. I've had a lovely mug of coffee and a refreshing mug of tea while writing this. And I was listening to something that I'd been waiting to restart for a few months now. A channel I watch called Sorcererdave had taken a break of many months from his Oblivion playthrough and he recently restarted it. So, I'd watched the latest episode. I found it greatly reassuring for a variety of reasons. If that is your thing and would like to watch from the start, here is the playlist.

All that is left for me to say is that I wish you all good health and hopefully next week, I'll have a bit more good news to share and things will have fallen into productivity once again. Farewell everyone!

 Hello everyone!

Well, I've had a fortnight off - that's two weeks for those that don't know it's more than a game. This last couple of weeks seems to have gone by with a lot happening but very little to show for it, which is thoroughly frustrating. Thoroughly frustrating seems to be the best way to describe it as well.

I managed to drastically alter my sleep pattern, mostly by staying up for as long as I could for a week until I was waking up at a reasonable time. That's decent enough, but it always feels like I'm courting a severe migraine every day I'm doing it and that's not exactly conducive to getting much in the way done.

It's not that I've not done anything, it's that that really gets in the way of stuff. Especially when the fire alarm in the communal area has been broken and been on for days, and that is, to say the least, meant to be one of the most jarring sounds invented by mankind. Harrumph. It has recently been fixed though, but this seems to be happening every week or two now, so if there is a real fire in my block of flats, I'm not sure if any of us would actually be safe from it. Again, harrumph. Harrumph indeed.

On more productive notes, I managed to plan a story I've been meaning to plan for a while. One that involves those lovely Corpse Breeches and how making them is perhaps better not left down to high school students because it'll perhaps involve a bog man's revenge. This story started out with a talk between a friend and I and I wanted to try and write something in the vein of an American '80s b-movie as a number of them seem to revolve around high school students getting themselves into a lot of silly shenanigans, especially when they decide to wind up inbred hillbillies.

Nabrok - Icelandic Corpse Breeches

But I distracted myself from this when I looked into a character from a beloved English sitcom called Dad's Army. After a bit of research, the show's Corporal Jones, with his thirty years as a career soldier, slaughtering people, and then as a butcher for another thirty years, slaughtering animals generally made me think that this person might have a patio that suspiciously hasn't been completed in many decades. I figured this could make the basis for a curious little story where his thirst for blood might make him think that cannibalism would be a suitable way to relieve rationing.

Corporal Jones
from Dad's Army

I also managed to find a couple of my old ghost stories that I did a few years back and have ideas of updating/rewriting them, but how I do them or release them, I'm unsure. That's going to have to take a little bit of thought.

One of the reasons I fished them out is because I had the misfortune of missing the UK Ghost Story Festival that was on a couple of weekends ago. You can also follow them on Twitter here. It's something I've really wanted to get involved in when it started a few years ago before it took a break for The Disease. I wanted to get involved when I originally wrote the stories years ago, but there were other commitments at the time and the ghost stories were for something else as well and things didn't really correspond well at the time. Now I can rethink things and I can try again for next year.

But the thing is, these just seem to be distractions from distractions from distractions. I'm not too sure how to get back to where I should be. I still need to get another fantasy novella finished as quickly as possible to be released alongside the other one. But that seems to be depressingly less and less likely. I should have them both released by now, but well...

It just seems to go to frustrate and addle myself as time goes on. It doesn't help that when I've asked for help, it has been anything but, or that some of the support from, say, parents has been counter-productive if it exists at all, so I'm not really sure what to do about all of that. Sometimes I feel absolutely ignored, but I think that's just partly me winding myself up. A lot of the help seems to be from folks who haven't read any of my stuff, nor this blog, and who's idea of helping someone focus is to say that they should work on many more stories. much of the help seems to be along the lines of: "Why get stressed out because you're working on five novellas when you could work on eight instead?" Yeah, that's not quite the help I'm after and it seems to be all I'm getting from folks at the moment and to be honest, with the deadlines to get stuff finished as well, its actually got to me a lot. I'm not sure how to get myself out of this if I'm honest. Sometimes it feels like I don't have the support for when I need it. Being told that I should just sell ideas or other snide comments doesn't feel like actual help. It gets exhausting having to explain that that doesn't actually help focus the mind through melt downs, depression and the like to a point where things are accomplished.

I suppose I've got to just push forward. There are a couple of plans for fantasy novellas I'm finishing off, then I'll probably be back asking which to choose to accompany the other.

I think partly, I'm just being harsh on myself. It's not been a good couple of months and perhaps I'm just grumbling, but sometimes it really does bog me down. Maybe I am being harsh thinking that about others. I'm unsure. It doesn't feel like I'm getting the support though.

This, particularly with the news of my grandma dying, may be something that I need to sort out. I think I perhaps do need to actively look for more support that is actually supportive because this last couple of months has just felt tougher and tougher in general and I think I'm now on the verge of feeling like I'm actual depression and I don't want things to get worse from there. And to be honest, just saying all of this, that I have been struggling a lot, putting pen to paper, has helped a lot. Hopefully things will get better.

Well, that's the writing news up. I've whinged and moaned and this evening I'll get on with some of these fantasy novella plans. Lets see where I am next week.

On the good side, I did manage to get a couple of likes on my Facebook page, which is good.

On other writing news, one of my favourite authors, Christopher Fowler, unfortunately lost his battle with cancer on Friday just gone. The Guardian did a lovely piece on him and I'd thoroughly recommend looking for his books. I can particularly recommend his huge Bryant and May series. Its seen me through a few rough times and I will miss him and his writing.

Christopher Fowler

Strange Tides
by Christopher Fowler,
a Bryant and May novel

On some actual good news. there has been a new magazine started up called New Edge Sword & Sorcery. They had an issue 0 out to test the waters, which you can check out that I covered in previous posts and they managed to successfully Kickstart their issues 1 and 2, They have a Facebook group which you can follow here for any updates and to join in if you wanted.

New Edge Sword & Sorcery
Issue 0

And onto some other news that's pretty good, news that Segways into some wargaming stuff, The Woods by Oakbound Studio has another Kickstarter out themselves.

The Kickstarter is for the Hobgoblins of the Black Wastes. The rules for which will be in a forthcoming book. But they would be good for an Oldhammer Orc Army to go alongside any self respecting goblin. they have deals to have several units of the green skins. So take a look at the kickstarter if you'd like a core for an Orc Warhammer Fantasy army.

They've already funded and have reached their stretch goal, so now you can get a scout tower as well to go with them.

Hobgoblins of the Black Waste for The Woods
by Oakbound Studio

Well, I think that's it for this week. I know there's been quite a lot of grumbling, too much for my liking really. I hope you'll all understand and allow me a tough period. I don't plan on it lasting much longer, though I need to some how lay plans for it to not feel so bad again. It's felt tough and I think it's only while writing this post that I realise that there are ways out of some of this stuff. I think I've already laid plans to get out of this. There are a few people I think I could approach who can understand. There is even a group that I can start back with, I think, but I may have to make apologies for taking such a long sabbatical. So things aren't now as bad as they seemed.

That just leaves it for me to end with my usual slot. During the writing of this post, I've been tucking into a nice mug of tea, and a lovely mug of coffee, which I shouldn't make too strong in case of migraines. Also, while I've been writing this, I've been listening to my favourite gaming YouTuber play Minecraft. Gopher playing Minecraft has a certain settling quality to it. It's ideal for having on in the background.

And so, I'll end this post with wishing you good health and a good week. I hope it was better than mine and I hope that this coming week is better than the last, with something to tell you that's actually productive.

 Hello everyone!

Now it's time for my weekly ramble - might make that the nickname of these blog posts - and it's straight onto what I've been doing with my writing.

I like to treat these posts like a diary entry, in many ways, with trying to be honest with precisely what I'm doing, with all the successes and lows and things. And I'm not really sure where I'm going with this, but I think I've generally still been in the bad metal health zone recently and I trying to still dig myself out of it and subsequently getting frustrated because of it all.

This last week has felt a lot like that. It might be that I'm just getting under my own feet and tripping myself up. There's so much I want to try and do and that's probably overwhelming me.

I also got a bit frustrated with Twitter too. Whether I'm not 'doing Twitter right' or whether its the changes made by Mr Musk, I'm not sure. I thought I may be able to get over a few of my hurdles by asking Twitter, and no one responded. I got a retweet or two and a few likes, but did I got any responses? No. So I'm having a bit of a rethink with that.

I'm on Mastodon too, and posed the same questions there, but got even less of a response, so hum, not sure what to do about all of that. I think what's winding me up is that I'm trying to engage with things, but I'm not getting a response. Sometimes it just feels like I'm shouting into the wind to no avail.

So what does this mean in terms of my writing?

Well, that novella I was going to start last week? Well, I've re-planned it from the ground up because I wasn't happy with it. With the Tree of Life angle, there will now be a large cavern civilization of lost elves similar to Hollow Earth.

I also fully planned out another novella that will involve the reclamation of a lost hold, now populated by ghoul dwarves.

And now, I'm also wanting to lay all the plans for another novella... one inspired by how Sutton Hoo, the Saxon grave site, and Rendlesham Forest, famed for it's alien encounters, are surprisingly close to one another. I'm thinking there'll be undead and fairies involved in this, and a dungeon delve.

But yes, I think much of this is because I'm stressing out about a few other things. I really want to get a pair of novellas ready for publication as quickly as possible. There is something coming up soon that could change things drastically - I'm unsure if it will or not but I want things in place if things go badly - and I wanted to get stuff sorted out by then.

So far I have a lot of short stories in first draft form, a short novel that's partly complete and a novella in first draft form. I could really do with at least one more to put me in a place I need to be in and a lot of this stuff is just waylaying things and I think I'm beginning to panic. And today, I also woke up with a pinched nerve in my neck and can't move properly. It just all seems to be a case of there being a lot of things lining up to niggle away and really irritate. I'm finding it hard to focus through it all.

Regardless, I am still doing 'something', even if it isn't quite what I should be doing. There is a Discord server that I think I need to re-engage with and actually start talking to about some of this stuff. Some of this stuff is really beginning to bother me.

But, onto other things that are not so negative. I realise I'm winding myself up and you guys haven't necessarily come here to read that. I doubt me venting about things is very entertaining to read.

During the week, I did manage to get my copy of Tales From The Magician's Skull 9, which oddly, was on sale in England at the same time as issue 8.

Tales from the Magician's Skull,
Goodman games

Its a shame that issue 7 took so long to come on sale over here. But regardless, I'll be tucking into issue 9 straight after I've finished issue 8.

I plan to get a review done for issues 8 and 9, and realise that I want to do one for issue 7 too. I seem to have several books that I want to review once I've worked my way through reading my Pile of Shame.

Issue 8 seems to have a number of shorter tales from newer authors, which is nice. And also, in both of these two issues, James Enge returns with new Morlock Ambrosius tales. These are some of my favourites and I would like to actually get the novels that James Enge wrote about the character.

There isn't much in the way of wargaming news this week, I haven't really had the chance to do much. I've had other things on my mind. But plans are still in place. I want to start up a wargaming channel and play numerous games, including some Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy and some The Woods by Oakbound Studio.

I also want to play some RPG games on it. OSE and WFRP 4th seem to be my favourites at the moment. But I have wanted to try doing a Skyrim RPG too. I think there is one already out, but I was thinking of using DND 3rd edition or Pathfinder and then organising the background from there. I've always wanted to make Skyrim much bigger, doing things like making the cities actual cities and making The Reach big enough to have had several small kingdoms - one led by Red Eagle - and also add in things like Snow Elf ruins. Generally, I've always wanted to scale Skyrim up to something comparable to a real medieval country, where Solitude has a population comparable to a mid to late medieval capital, stuff like that.

Also, onto other news that isn't whinging or day dreaming, New Edge Sword & Sorcery still has it's Kickstarter up for its two official first issues. There will be a short story by Michael Moorcock, who has been a favourite of mine for decades, since I was in my early teens.

New Edge Sword & Sorcery

Michael Moorcock,
author of Elric of Melnibone

I've also backed another short RPG game on Kickstarter too, which you can check out here. There are four days left on this one and it does look fun, almost Pythonesque in a way, like their Holy Grail and Gilliam's Jabberwocky.

That's pretty much it for this week, sorry its been a bit of a downer blog post. I think I partly needed to vent. I hope there'll be a lot more to tell next week, a lot of progress to tell you all about, something that actually brings things nearer to something more tangible.

It just leaves me with the final thing, the usual slot that I'm not ending these posts on.

This week, while writing this post, I've had a lovely couple of mugs of tea, and have been listening to GopherLive play Skyrim in Virtual Reality, which I've found to be very entertaining indeed.

And so, to next week, I hope to see you there, and that I'll have something to actually tell you that's productive.

 Hello everyone!

It's been one of those weeks, I'm afraid.

It terms of writing this week it just seems to have been one thing after another getting in the way and I'm found it really disappointing, if I'm honest. It mainly seems to have been little things, which makes it feel all the more disappointing and I don't fully want to go into it here. Partly it's because it just seems to have been little things that shouldn't be of note.

I'm generally annoyed by it all, saying that it's a period when I really wanted to have knuckled down and rattled through writing a fantasy novella.

This is still on the cards. I'm really hoping that things calm down and I can get back into a routine and catch up.

Onto other things. More positive things that will hopefully stop me dwelling on that.

I did manage to get a copy of Tales From The Magician's Skull 8. I have Tales From The Magician's Skull 9 on order too. I live in England and they seem to be available in a sporadic fashion since they managed to fulfill a successful Kickstarter. Its just been slightly irritating trying to get my hands on issues.

In Tales From The Magician's Skull 8, I've only finished a couple of the stories, but I'm impressed so far, the first was a debut story by a new author, and the second was by one of my favourites, James Enge, with a Ambrosius Morlock story, which was satisfying.

Once I've finished it, I intend to write a review of it.

Tales from the magician's Skull 8
by Goodman Games

Saying that though, I realise that I haven't done a review of Tales From The Magician's Skull 7 yet, and I need to. I've now rather a large stack of books and magazines I need to properly finish and review now.

Onto a bit of wargaming, I managed to get another delivery from the marvelous Oakbound Studio! I got some reinforcements for my Pixie Badger-Rider warband for The Woods with a bag of badgers that they sell. I also managed to get one of their 6 Soul Sluagh models too, which is a sort of possessed treeman. I also got a werewolf Wulver model too!

And as it is still Faebruary, they offered a free elf too! Which is nice. If you'd like to take a look, follow this link to the website and try and take advantage of Faebruary.

Badgers for The Woods
from Oakbound Studio

Wulver for The Woods,
from Oakbound Studio

Woad Elf for The Woods,
from Oakbound Studio.
Fits in with Oldhammer Wood Elves?

6 Soul Sluagh treeman for The Woods
Oakbound Studio
suitable for Oldhammer Wood Elves

Badger badger badger badger,
all the badgers!
For The Woods by Oakbound Studio

Giant 6 Soul Sluagh treeman
for The Woods by Oakbound Studio

And lastly, to end how I usually do, I've been tucking into a tasty mug of tea and I've also been listening to Ask A Mortician on youtube. What have you been listening too while you read this?

I'd just like to finish with wishing you all well. Hopefully next week will be more productive.

 Hello everyone!

Well it's been a bit of a week. I've actually been quite busy in several regards.

Straight into writing news, I've been getting quite a lot done. I have a new fantasy novella starring a regular character, an elf barbarian by the name of Gwaeloch Irisgarth, and it's all plotted out with the relevant world building, character development outlines and background all sorted out. It has taken a lot longer than I planned to get it all done, but I was getting some old world building redone.

All in all, I've actually written about 15,500 words this last week. I'm pleased with that, but it's a shame that its all background stuff that folks probably aren't going to properly see. I just hope that I can keep that up that average word count when I come to actually start writing this novella. I think I feel more capable doing so now I've made a few dietary changes - please see last weeks blog post.

I feel My writing has been revitalised at the moment. It may be the dietary changes, but its started warming up here a bit. I don't now if this is a sign that Spring is coming here, or if we'll get another cold spell. I wouldn't be surprised if we do, we can get cold spells and snow up until the end of March, and sometimes into early April around here.

Anyway, this evening, I'll be able to sit down and full concentrating on this new novella. There'll be a Black Knight protector spirit and the remnants of lost elves. There'll also be a mad human general worshiping egotistical gods too.

I feel like writing this will go well.

Afterwards, I think I'd better start editing a few of the stories I have in the archive and start getting them actually published, but I have a feeling that I want to get the first draft for a third novella done before that, so I can get them out in quick-ish succession. Then worry about other works and getting a certain other novella finished that turned out to basically be a full on novel. I', putting that to one side for now as it's so long. It just feels like a better use of my time to concentrate on shorter pieces at the moment. I think one of the reasons I was so grumpy before Christmas was because I'd decided to get so many first drafts done before doing any editing, so I was feeling very bogged down by things, like I wouldn't be seeing the fruits of labour any time soon, probably for a couple of years.

But regardless, things are progressing very well at the moment and I intend to capitalise on it.

Onto other literary news, I managed to get a book delivery from the dreaded Amazon arrive during the week. I got a couple of Judith Sonnet splatterpunk volumes. One, Judith Sonnet wrote a few months ago called Torture the Sinners and one has just been released recently as part of a series.

Torture the Sinners looks good. There are undead monks in a monastery. It reminds me of one of the old Giallo books and films, like Lucio Fulci and Dario Argento.

Torture the Sinners,
a splatterpunk book by Judith Sonnet

The other Judith Sonnet is called Carnage on 84th Street and was written in conjunction with Brian G Berry's Hooker Massacre of Trash City and Otis Bateman's Medusa's Son. All are part of a trilogy called Splatter Crimes and I hope they are made into an actual series, even if it's only occasional with volumes added every six months or once a year or something.

I've only started reading Judith Sonnet's Carnage on 84th Street so far and I'm enjoying it. The three books are meant to be in the old '70s Grindhouse vein and I am getting that so far, with a strong dose of other exploitatin films. I can't help but imagine stuff like the Death Wish films or some of the Mickey Spillane stuff when I pick it up to read more.

Carnage on 84th Street
by Judith Sonnet,
Hooker Massacre in Trash City
by Brian G Berry,
and Medusa's Son by Otis Bateman,
Splatter Crimes books

That's pretty much it for literary news from me this week.

The only other thing is that I'd like to share a Kickstarter with you.

It's for the first two actual issues of New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine. I wrote a blog post during the week about it and you can see it by scrolling down a bit once you've finished reading this fine post.

But I'm impressed by what they are trying to achieve. I got their issue 0 in late August last year and the stories were a real fresh take on the Sword and Sorcery genre, with some really nice takes on the main character being an outcast, thrust into an uncaring, vicious world.

They have articles included too. The ones in issue zero were really intriguing, with one about women in Sword and Sorcery and one about Black Agnes, one of Robert E Howard's female main characters.

If you would be interested in looking at the Kickstarter, take a look here. They have even wrangled a certain Michael Moorcock into contributing, which has impressed me. He was one of the earliest fantasy authors I ever read and have been reading his stuff since.

New Edge Sword & Sorcery
Issue 0

Michael Moorcock, author of Elric of Melnibone,
contributor to New Edge Sword & Sorcery

I even have fond memories of enjoying New Edge Sword & Sorcery's issue 0 in Derby's oldest pub, the Dolphin, with a lovely pint of Bass.

New Edge Sword & Sorcery issue 0
in The Dolphin, Derby

Well into New Edge Sword & Sorcery
Issue 0 that I needed a 2nd pint of Bass
in The Dolphin, the oldest pub in Derby

There isn't much in the way of any wargaming news this week. I've been knuckling down with my writing mainly this last week. But I have ordered a few more things from Oakbound Studio to go with my The Woods warbands. Hopefully I'll get it all painted up soon. I want to get some games in and hopefully start getting some of those games filmed for YouTube.

Delivery from Oakbound Studios
that I received last week.
Reinforcements for The Woods'
Pixie Badger-Rider warband

But otherwise, I've been slowly painting up the models I had ordered last week and trying to finish off the human Druid warband I received from Oakbound Studio's Patreon.

The Druids of Anglesey warband
for The Woods by Oakbound Studio
Patreon exclusive

It's time for a regular slot now, just before I go. As probably usual, I've been drinking a nice mug of refreshing tea while writing this. I'm getting used to having it without sugar now that I've had a bit of a health scare with diabetes. But I am also watching the lovely, tipsy guys from Battlehammer play a game of Dystopian Wars. I think they're great, but I will say as a bit of a warning, there is some swearing and drinking in this, so it may not be fully safe for work.

And with that done, I wish you all safe travels and wellness.