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!

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.

 Hello everyone!

Straight into a couple of health things first. Don't worry, things are generally alright. But I've had a bit of a journey over the last few months with diabetes. I haven't developed it yet, but I was close to getting type 2 diabetes. I've been going to a clinic to help prevent it, which has been useful. As part of that, I've managed to give up sugar, and managed to cut down on a couple of other bits too which should improve my health.

So far, I have actually seen improvements! I feel a lot clearer inside. Much like how you can feel the benefits of having a shower after a week of not washing, this feels like an internal version. I feel a bit clearer inside.

This has had the brilliant effect of... me getting over the sort of writer's block I'd been going through. I'm most of the way through working out a story I'm going to finish.

It's a fantasy novella and I'm returning to the Gwaeloch Irisgarth stories I'd originally been doing. He'll be meeting some other survivors of the fall of the elven empire. There's going to be some Black Knight stuff in there too. The huge 'novella that is a more like a novel' is still on the back burner, but I think it will still make good sense to go ahead with this current novella.

One of the things is that I want to get some manageable stories ready to be published as quickly as possible. I think I've been pressurizing myself a lot about that and it's got in the way. But I feel like I've got passed that, for now at least.

Yes, I want to try and knuckle down and get this story and another novella I have in first draft form sorted as quickly as I can and I feel I can do that. There have also been a couple of other things in my life happen over this last week that seem to have motivated me a bit along this path. I might get into it as time comes and some other things become more definite. I'm eager and intend to utilise this motivation as much as I can.

So watch this space. 

On to some wargaming stuff now for those that come here for that side of things.

I'm going to do things a bit out of chronological order here, starting with something that's happened earlier today.

Through the post, I got a delivery. It came quickly! Which surprised me, so well done to the post office, especially in the trying times with them fighting for fair pay and there being delays with the post. Compared to the service that a number of courier services have given me, the Post Office is much more impressive and something that shouldn't be lost.

There we go, I'm off my soap box now. I got a delivery from a lesser known game that I have found to be delightful, run by a single man called Oakbound Studio. the game is called The Woods and I got an RPG supplement for it and some reinforcements for my pixie badger-rider warband and a couple of gifts for a friend who I hope will also become enchanted by the game and its background - some owls and a leprechaun magic user.

So here's an unboxing of what I received:

The Woods by Oakbound Studio,
unboxing

Goodies from Oakbound Studios for
The Woods

Models catalogue and rules reference
for The Woods by Oakbound Studio

Barrow Ring Burning RPG supplement
for The Woods by Oakbound Studio

Pixie Badger-Riders for The Woods
by Oakbound Studio

Owls for a Leprechaun warband by
The Woods by Oakbound Studio

Leprechaun wizard for The Woods
by Oakbound Studio

I'm usually impressed by what they pack in, so the rules reference sheet and the catalogue are a welcome addition.

Once I've given the leprechauns to a friend - I have some other leprechaun models to make a full warband - and once we've painted them all up, I hope to start a wargaming channel and start with a few games of The Woods and see how things go. I'll want to probably cover some older editions of Warhammer Fantasy and also Warhammer 40k too. I've an Eldar force - I dislike calling them Aeldari - to build for that and I need to go into a big painting and building session to get that all sorted out. I'll hopefully manage to get around to doing all of that soon now that things seem to be warming up a touch as the room I paint in has been absolutely freezing.

So hopefully soon, I'll get my arse in gear with that.

In further news, early on during the last week, a little after I'd finished the previous writing blog post, I got my copies of the Barons' War rulebook by Footsore Miniatures and it's first supplement. I here another supplement set in the Holy lands on the crusades - Richard the Lionheart and all that - has just gone through a Kickstarter and may well be on sale soon.

Barons' War rulebook and supplement
by Footsore Miniatures

I've been tucking into these. There are rules for outlaw bands in them, which is interesting, and for Robin Hood and his Merry Men. I just need to need to save up a bit and actually choose a force to collect. I like the look of the Welsh, and the Romano-Britons too, but also the Late Saxons and Early Irish. Sigh, decisions decisions...

Anyway, I'll likely have to save up and also, there's quite a lot for me to be getting on with anyway, so I sort of need to calm my eagerness down a little.

I think that's it for this week! And it's the third outing of something I think will become a regular fixture. It's the Drink and Show Slot.

Much like last week, I've been drinking a tasty mug of tea, this time without sugar and while I've been writing this blog post, I've been watching a selection of Ashleigh Burton reaction videos on YouTube. Let me know what you've been drinking and watching or listening to in the background while reading this.

That's it for this week! Hopefully you'll tune in again for next week's post.

See you all soon!