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.