Hi everyone!

I recently got a bit of a book haul and I thought I'd show it off a bit.

First off is a trio of books I've got from a fantasy author called Charles Moffat. I've been meaning to get some of his work for a while and I'm not fully sure why its taken so long for me to actually invest in his books. He's a self published author and his work can be found on Amazon. He's written a good selection of books to choose from already.

I managed to get Wulfric the Wanderer: Black Monoliths of Al-Kazar and The Adventures of Wrathgar: The Sunken Castle by Charles Moffat and they're stand alone novellas, while I also have a collection of Lilith Bloodstone stories in the omnibus. They should be enjoyable and all are set in the same world of Korovia, that Charles Moffat has built. I've had a read of the first few pages of The Sunken City in my excitement and its enjoyable enough at the moment, but of course, I'm not in a position to make any actual comment on them yet.

A trio of books in the Korovia series
by Charles Moffat

Next up is a selection from DMR Books. These are off Amazon as well. I live in England, but ideally I would have got them off the DMR Books website, but it looks like they don't ship over seas anymore - at this time - because of some mishaps that have occurred during transit. Apparently, things have gotten lost. Anyone interested in they're books that live in america should still be able to purchase them from their website if they wish.

In this, Death Dealers and Diabolists has a good selection of stories and one by Keith Taylor of Bard fame. I've read one of the Bard tales before in Samhain Sorceries - also by DMR Books - and was suitably impressed. 

Heroes of Atlantis and Lemuria has a number of stories by Manly Wade Wellman and Frederick Arnold Kummer Jr, and also a story finishing it off by Leigh Brackett who penned Jirel of Joiry.

There is also Wulfhere, by A B Higginson, which is set during Anglo-Saxon ruled Britain and was originally serialised in Adventure Magazine in 1920, and hadn't been published since. I've already started reading this in bed.

In the photo, there is also a book that is, as far as I know, out of print and which I didn't get from DMR Books. Redbeard by Michael Resnick is a tale from and is a tale of a mutant barbarian from a dystopian future, written in 1969.

Redbeard by Michael Resnick
plus three anthologies by DMR Books

Up next are a trio of anthologies edited by Nathaniel Webb. Rakehell is a collection of swashbuckling pieces that look suitably rip-roaring. Wyngraf Volumes 1 and 2 are advertised as cozy fantasy. These all came recommended to me and I'm really looking forward to reading them. I'm curious to find out just how cozy is cozy fantasy. Now that the winter months are settling in, this sounds very pleasant.

Rakehell Magazine and Wyngraf issues

Next is Strawjack by Keith Page, which I bought as a recommendation from Amazon. I've had a flick through because I was curious to find that it was an A4 book and I found that it was a self-published graphic-novel. 

I'd bought it under the presumption that it was another novella, but I was wrong, and pleasantly surprised. It does look very entertaining. Its a tale of Georgian highwaymen in the vein of Reverend Syn. It should be enjoyable, even if it I wasn't expecting it. That'll teach me to actually read the product description better.

Strawjack by Keith Page

Another book I got off Amazon is The Averoigne Legacy by Pickman's Press. Its a collection - quick a large collection - of poems and tales based on the Averoigne setting that Ashton Clark Smith came up with, I have ordered the collected Averoigne tales by Clark Ashton Smith, but I got that off Ebay and it hasn't arrived just yet.

I have started reading this and I'm thoroughly impressed by Brian McNaughton's The Return of the Colossus. But more on that when I do a review. There must be about 35 tales and poems in this volume.

I'm familiar with Clark Ashton Smith's work, but its been a while since I read any of his work and of those stories I've read, only a small few must have been set in Averoigne, but I remember them most vividly. Clark Ashton Smith was one of those that was a pen pal of HP Lovecraft, Robert E Howard and Robert Bloch, so I'm looking forward to finishing this volume and the collection of Clark Ashton Smith's own tales set in the dark woods of Averoigne. I think I have also, many years ago, read Lovecraft inspired tales published in anthologies by Pickman's Press before, but its hard to tell. Some of the layout and writing style feels familiar, but its been years since I've even held those volumes.

Averoigne Legacy, based on the work of
Clark Ashton Smith

Anyway, that's it for now. I'll hopefully review these books properly once I've finished them. And also, I'll get to including some other books I have that I think are of interest. There are a few RPG books I'd like to review on here too, some of which I got from kickstarters.

But I think those are for another time.

Needless to say, I am still trucking on with getting stories sorted. I'm currently working on a story or two that were originally mean to be refresher stories and a break from a novella that I was writing. I needed a break from the novella because it was browing in size and getting out of hand, and now, the stories I'm doing to take a break are themselves getting out of hand. Who'd have thought that there'd have been so much backstabbing and treachery and war in Anglo-Saxon England hey? It puts Game of Thrones to shame.

Hello everyone!

Oooo, I'm doing a blog post early this week!

Well, with my writing, I needed a bit of a rest from my novella and that time is almost over, Soon, I'll delve back into the world of Elf barbarians, wizards, pirates and Fomori, I just needed to refresh my brain a little from it. Thankfully, I did wait until I'd finished the third act of five.

But my my my, it's proving to almost be classed as a novel at this rate. Even now, with being three fifths of the way through, I think its as long as my previous novella. It's looking to be about 43,000 words long in total, compared to the last novella which was at 25,000 words. Both will perhaps be cut down quite a fair about in the editing process. I'm aiming at these being in the Sword and Sorcery markets.

But in the mean time on my rest from the novella, I've still been busy. I've sort of refrained from starting a new writing project as I would like to finish this novella at some point and I think like a few writers, I'm prone to start a new story at the drop of a hat. Though new projects have sorely tempted me.

I did look again at the Lester Dent Master Plot Formula, which I've loosely based my plotting techniques on, though I do add a fifth act and use a Shakespearean way of organising story. If you guys are interested, I can always reprint the Plot Formula on my blog, if you guys wished.

I've also been thinking of doing a couple of historical based stories that I'd plotted out a while ago, one of which I did about six years ago. One is an English Civil War Story that I'd always planned to do when I was in the Sealed Knot and was very keen on that period of history but never got around to completing. Though I'd started and re-started it about three or four times.

I'd also previously been wondering if there ever was any Lord Flashheart fan fiction out there - the character from Blackadder played by the unparalleled Rik Mayall. I think the character is wonderful, even if it is a sort of Harry Flashman style character, there is still the pulp hero ethos to him. Well, I found that there were some stories the other day on fan fiction sites. But I'm wondering about doing a pulp hero version of him, specifically from the second series of Blackadder. So t hat's a temptation to do now as well.

And another story I'd wanted to do was one based about Repton in the ninth century from when it was the Viking capital of Mercia. It was the furthest inland that the Vikings had managed to venture by river and had fortified Saint Wystan's church. I remember doing a horror story about the place years ago, but have gone off it. In the mean time, I was looking at the place's history, with it supposedly having the grave of Ivar the Boneless - of The Vikings fame. But one thing I though twas odd was that there was a battle there and the bodies were buried in a mass grave and from what I recall, there were very very few skeletons in it that had a Norse background. Strange, I wonder why. They couldn't have all been One Man Armies, surely. Anyway, I was thinking of a story that included some Lovecraftian, Cthulhu Mythos element to it to explain.

But now onto other stuff. I had thought about doing something for Halloween and was wondering what. I have an idea. I could do a post that incorporates the Revenant portions of William of Newburgh's History of English Affairs. They are something I've wondered basing stories on, having a medieval vampire hunter perhaps, but I figured that folks might love some medieval zombie/vampire action for the spooky season. What do you think?

Anyway, I also got some reading matter through the post during the week. It came two days early, which is nice. I've started reading them and intend on doing a review on them both, but I managed to get an anthology of Halloween based Sword and Sorcery stories called Samhain Sorceries come through. I doubt, unfortunately, that I'll be able to have a review done by Halloween, which is a shame.

I also managed to get a copy of War on Rome, by Adrian Cole come through. This looks good and is based in an alternate history, that has magic involved. This is based on the Roman invasion of Germany. I'm enjoying it so far, though haven't got very far. I'll also try and do a review of this as well, once I've finished it.

War on Rome book 1, by Adrian Cole,
DMR Books

Samhain Sorceries, DMR Books

Sorry for the quality of the photos.

I;m also hoping to get reviews done of New Edge Sword and Sorcery Issue 0, and Tales From the Magician's Skull Issue 7 as time comes. I've almost finished reading both of these excellent fantasy short story magazines, so I should start getting that sorted soon-ish. I've talked about both of these in earlier posts.

Now, please indulge me a little as I go onto a little bit of wargame related stuff. I managed to get a trio of wargaming models through today. Through the post I managed to receive these guys:

Mad Donna Ulanti, Necromunda

Corum of the Silver Hand by
Games Workshop for Stormbringer RPG

Jerry Cornelius by Games Workshop,
for Stormbringer RPG

They are an old Mad Donna Ulanti model from Necromunda, and I'm guessing that it's from when the '90s edition of the game got relaunched in the early 2000s. I can't wait to paint her up. It's a shame I can't find my copy of the Mad Donna Necromunda tie-in novel. I might have to get myself a new copy.

But there is also Corum of the Silver Hand and Jerry Cornelius as well. Both of these are from a line of miniatures that Games Workshop made in 1987. They were of a short run of models for the Stormbringer RPG that Games Workshop made models form. I know there had been some copyright kerfuffle with the games, but I'm unsure what. I think there were two games being made of Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion stuff and that confused matters.

But anyway. I feel lucky to have them. Corum is one of my favourites of Michael Moorcock and Jerry Cornelius is a solid character too. I want to paint them all up. Sometimes I take inspiration from this stuff. Its nice to have a physical representation of something that exists in your head. I may use the Jerry Cornelius model as part of a warband for Inquisitor. I recently had a thing for that and got quite nostalgic for that game. I even found the rulebooks in PDF form online.