Hello everyone!

Well, my my my, how the weather has changed. Now the ground is rimed with frost and road salt and winter has well and truly set in. Christmas is on its way.

Unfortunately, much of my time, this last week, has been taken up with one thing or another regarding the seasonal changes.

It has taken much of my time trying to remain even remotely warm - some of my country's mandates regarding how much should be charged for electricity and gas have really been quite difficult and it has been quite a struggle. Even the act of sitting has meant headaches.

All in all, not much in the way of writing has been done at all, much to my chagrin. But this post seems to have plumbed into some vocabulary that I rarely use here. It might be that today isn't quite as cold, only recently dipping below freezing point. Many swear words have been aimed at those that have made people query whether such a situation would require the central heating being activated - the government mainly.

On some modelling sides of things, I've managed to work a little on my Druid's of Angelesey warband for The Woods from Oakbound Studio. Its been a bit too cold to get some of the finer details done, but I did manage to order some more paint that I needed, and get a couple of new brushes that I needed. One or two needed replacing.

But, onto other things, most of my Yule-time presents have been bought and it is now mostly prepared for. I also managed to get a few treats for myself, a copy of Swords and Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy volume 5 has been ordered. I've read much of the previous volumes, much to the point that I could perhaps venture writing a review of the series so far, at some point. I'll have to refresh myself with them soon.

Swords and Sorceries
Tales of Heroic Fantasy
Volume 5

I also managed to get their book called A Handful of Zombies as well which is a trial of four short stories, all centered around the walking dead.

A Handful of Zombies
Tales of the Restless Dead
David A Riley

Continuing on a more morbid level, I recently found on Twitter, a writer called Judith Sonnet who specialises in Splatterpunk stories, most of the novella and short story length.

I'm a little new to her work and I'm under the impression that she only started publishing her work near the beginning of the year and has consequently been very very proficient in her writing, having written twenty novellas and short stories since then. You can take a look at her immense output here. I managed to get a couple of her books to sample them, one entertainingly titled, Zombie Vomit Shitshow and the other being her, Magick. Its only now, while I'm getting the information and photos together for this that I get rather taken by another one of her books, Torture the Sinners! which looks like it could easily be adapted into a Lucio Fulci film.

Zombie Vomit Shitshow
Judith Sonnet

Magick,
Judith Sonnet

I'll give them all a read and hopefully managed to review them once I've managed to get through my ever growing To Be Read pile.

I have been talking with a few authors on a certain social media site called Mastadon about feeling a bit bogged down wit the work I've been doing so far.

One of the big problems I've been having is that the end of the projects seems to be so very far away. What I'd planned to do was to write about a hundred and seventy five thousand words worth of novellas and short stories, get the first drafts done, then move on to re-writing them all, then editing them all and so on until I was able to release several stories in comparatively quick succession. Now, I feel bogged down and the end doesn't seem to be in sight. I've talked a little about this with a few writers and I think I've needed a bit of a break for a little while. I think that's why I researched the Anglo-Saxon stories and that took so long.

So I think once Christmas is over, I'm going to try something different and start going through some of the stories that I already have, particularly a novella about an undead elven prince. I want to see how that's goes, but one thing I realise is that I'm about two thirds of the way through a novella first draft already. Whether I put that on hold until I do the first's editing, I'm unsure. It would make sense to complete this unfinished novella first though and finish that stage of the writing.

I think I'd viewed things as being a bit like a conveyor belt of writing and I'm not sure it's worked. A few folks were kind enough to respond to my troubles and basically said that that was why they only went through one or two writing projects at a time and that makes a lot of sense. Hopefully things will be clear soon and Christmas won't be too much of a pain in the bum to be too disruptive.

Anyway, that's what's been happening with me this last week. I hope you've all been well and have a nice winter period and a nice new year.

Hello everyone!

Some book news to start off with. I managed to order a copy of the complete Averoigne series of stories by Clark Ashton Smith ordered, it 'should' arrive tomorrow. Hopefully, couriers won't wally around too much and it'll actually arrive. The Post Office are still in the midst of strike actions. All the best to them, it's just screwed up deliveries a bit. Hey ho.

I am still working my way through the big stack of books I showed pictures of in a previous post, and I do still intend to do review posts as I finish them. I still have to do review posts of the first issue of New Edge Sword and Sorcery, which I thoroughly enjoyed and will hopefully go on leaps and bounds.

I also want to try and do posts on the Tales from the Magician's Skull magazines, even if I will be operating an issue behind. I most recently received the 7th issue and the 8th is already becoming available in the USA - I live in the UK.

Volume 5 of Swords and Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy has recently come out. I intent to get a copy soon and add it to the pile of 'must reads'. You can get a copy for yourself here.

Swords and Sorceries:
Tales of Heroic Fantasy,
Volume 5

Also, as a surprise, I received My copy of The Beast of Borgenwold by Harry Menear this morning. It was a OSE RPG supplement that I backed on Kickstarter. I wasn't expecting it for a while yet, so that was a nice surprise. I've had little more than a flick through so far so can only say that the artwork in it is great. I'll try and do a review on it soon. But there is a PDF version already available if you link the OSR stuff and have the OSE rules. It should be a fun RPG, I wouldn't have backed it if there wasn't an appeal. But here is a link to DrivethruRPG if you would like a copy of the PDF.

The Beast of Borgenwold,
by Henry Menear
for OSE RPG

Now for some social media stuff. I can now be found on Mastadon at @dancoghlan@mstdn.party and you should be able to use that as a link.

I had also tried to sign up to Hive, because that seems popular for literary types too, but it only seems to have a mobile version and I'm mostly going to be using my laptop for social media uses until I can get a new phone.

I'm also on Facebook with a page you can visit. There is some stuff up there already and I'm intending to update it regularly, like with my twitter and on here. The Facebook page is here. And just as a reminder, here's a link to my Twitter.

Just keep an eye out for the Celtic Elf.

Gwaeloch Irisgarth,
fantasy elf barbarian

Anyway, my writing is probably why you are here. There have been a few ups and downs with settling in with a story. As you have possibly seen if you've followed these posts, I needed a break from writing a fantasy novella that just seemed to grow and grow in size. Now, it's basically looking like it'll become a short novel, weighing in at about fifty thousand words, or there abouts.

I then needed to have a break from it to freshen up the synapses a bit so had wanted to try out Lester Dent's Master Plot Formula. It worked for him and looked like a fun way to write a story. I wanted to see what I could produce using it, so wanted to do a story based on Anglo-Saxon history.

I thought I was very confident with the period after helping out with a YouTube channel homing in on that period, but there where some very specific things I knew little about, so had to go through a research period to iron things out so that I felt confident know what I was talking about.

I was planning to set things just after the Norman Conquest when the aristocracy changed over, but I hadn't quite realised how things had changed during the years building up to the Conquest, how many leaders swapped over, changed sides and lost their loyalties. Even in the village I was planning on basing the story in had three lords holding lands there, all of whom changed three times in the forty years leading up to the Conquest. So there was a lot to take in.

All in all, it felt a bit like a distraction from a distraction from a distraction. I managed to get a third of the way into the story and realised that the research itself was the distraction I needed from the original series of stories.

So, I'm back to that now. There is a short, short story that I'm starting that I've planned out before. I've mentioned it before. It'll act as a way of me getting back into the swing of writing this series after such a long break from it. So soon, I should have a story based on what would happen during a bar-room brawl, if the participants are all wizards. Chaos ensues, I think that will be for sure.

By the end of the week, I should be back to the novella, Gwaeloch the Barbarian Elf should be making his way by sea to a Fomorian village and sorting out a break in the material between universes that fuels magick.

After that, I still want to get in another novella and a short story or two before moving onto editing and that whole process. I realise that I'm sort of doing all this the long way around and having a story published will take a while - I already have a novella and three short stories completed in first draft form that I will be getting around to.

Regardless of this, I still have a good layout for a set of Anglo-Saxon sword and Sorcery stories, though I am still puzzling over whether I should add a Lovecraftian element to them. But I have the ground work laid for that to return to. 

Anyway, that's pretty much all I have to say for this week, my Anglo-Saxon stuff is on hold while I return to the original stories I was writing, so hopefully, something will be finished soon.

All that remains to be said is to wish you all a fond farewell, good bye everyone.

 Hello everyone!

I realise that its been a while since I last did a blog post.

Unfortunately, life somewhat got in the way a bit. There have been illnesses and deaths and to be honest, things got on top of be a bit back there. But I'm back now, hopefully with a regular blog post again.

My made plan is still going ahead, I want to write a small selection of fantasy novellas and also, some short stories to send off to anthologies. I'm sort of planning on doing this in batches. Write a bunch of first drafts, then rewrite them, then edit and have beta read and all that jazz. Then will come self-publishing the novellas and then sending out the short stories.

There are a few regular  anthologies and magazines that I'd like to send them to. These are mainly Tales from the Magician's Skull, Whetstone and Swords and Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy. This will all hopefully get the ball rolling.

Tales from the Magician's Skull: issue 3

Whetstone Magazine: issue 3

Sword and Sorceries:
Tales of Heroic Fantasy
Volume 1

Currently, and I regret that things haven't moved on quicker, I am still on the first draft stage. I've two short stories and a novella involving Gwaeloch Irisgarth, a barbarian. he is the last elf in a medieval world mainly populated by humans and monsters. But other fantastical races do exist.

My current work in progress is a novella where Gwaeloch Irisgarth teams up with a wizard to explore strange energy fluctuations in the magick field. On the way, there are pirates, insane knights, a demonologist and a fomor township. I'm not too far into this story yet, but I'll be happy finishing the first draft in three weeks. But there'll be updates about that as time goes by.

After this, I want to get into another novella about ghoul dwarves and also write about four short stories, one involving a barroom brawl between wizards. Another will be a shorter piece about defeating an ancient liche. And in another, I'd like to do something like a dungeon delve, riffing on the concept of the DnD party, but where everyone back stabs each other and where many members die to the party's own incompetence and selfishness.

One thing I've always had in the back of my mind, something I was going to pursue before starting this novella, was to write a swords and sorcery novel. I just wanted to get the first draft done. I think it would help with some development with the character and the series, but that was something I wanted to do later on. I currently don't know what I would do with the novel, whether I'd self-publish it or get look into getting it traditionally published. I'm not sure yet. Ideally, I'd turn that into a trilogy, as you do with fantasy novels.

Anyway, I just thought I'd give a bit of an update on stuff, remind you good folks that I'm still here. There are other relevant things I'd like to tell you about, but I think that can wait until another blog post. Rest assured, it is still fantasy and sword and sorcery related. Some of it is even DnD related.

With that, i'll just wish you all a good farewell for now.