Hello everyone!

Yikes! It's been nearly a fortnight since I last did a post, and there was me thinking I had enough going on to do a handful of extra blog posts once in a while.

As you may have seen, I have retweeted a bit about the Kickstarter created by Gilead which is still going. And which you can still get involved with here.

Ned the Barbarian, Gilead

The Kickstarter of Gilead will also set him up to start producing his fantastic fantasy art in other formats and in different ways, so please take a look.

But with my last post, I think I'd waxed lyrically about a new magazine which had had its test issue out, called New Edge Sword and Sorcery, which seems to have been quite popular. Its available at cost and if things continue to go well, they'll do actual issues and the first two will be put up on Kickstarter. I'll let you know more about that as I learn more. Hopefully one day, I may have a story or two in there of my own.

New Edge Sword and Sorcery, with
Bass in Ye Olde Dolphin, Derby

New Edge Sword and Sorcery, with 
Bass, Ye Olde Dolphin, Derby

And those photo's were taken while I enjoyed my copy with a pint of tasty Bass in Derby's oldest pub, The Dolphin, which dates back to the 16th century.

In other news, I received my copy of Tales From The Magician's Skull number 7. I think in the last post, I'd recently ordered it, but it was coming all the way from America on its own little adventure. So, to my surprise, it plopped through my letterbox after a week.

Tales From the Magician's Skull, issue 7

Though I'm late in enjoying this issue - the Kickstarter backers received their issue in February and are now receiving issue 8 - but there are some really nice stories in it. I'm not disappointed. James Enge and John C Hocking are reliably excellent and very entertaining. I won't share a photo of me reading it while, shall we say, enthroned.

I have also managed to get a couple of Kickstarter rewards through that are good. Both are supplements to the Old School Essentials ttrpg game. One is Axian Library which adds a lot of extra bits and bobs, goodies and buyables, encounters and dangers to one's game of deadly peril.

Another is Toxic Woods by Lazy Lich, which provides a fantasy campaign setting suitable for, again, old School Essentials ttrpg. I could only find a link to Lazy Lich's twitter for updates on this. So I provide a link to Lazy Lich so you can follow them for yourself.

Axian Library,
for Old School Essentials TTRPG

Toxic Wood,
for Old School Essentials TTRPG

Anyway, onto writing and what I've done since the last post. I've completed a fair amount. I'm still working on a fantasy novella that includes pirates, Fomori, an elf barbarian, a wizard and mutant cultists, oh and an insane goddess protecting a holy space. But it's not been coming along as quickly as I'd sort of hoped. I think, originally, I'd hoped to have it finished around about now. But I'm now, as of writing this post, about half way through, which is a shame. But 17,000 words in that time isn't too shabby.

I'd felt a bit overwhelmed by it a couple of times over this last fortnight and needed to take a couple of days off from it to try and recuperate from it. Oddly, the sixth chapter was the shortest in terms of word count, but also it took the longest to actually write. It wound me up a little, but I think I've got passed that now.

While I was taking a couple of days off from my novella, I didn't spend it wasting time. I did managed to start and complete a fantasy short story that I'm quite pleased about. Its 5,200 words long and sees my elf barbarian character take down a long dead liche upon its return to un-life after many centuries. I'm quite pleased with how it panned out, but I think it will be cut down to be much shorter. I was trying to get into a very Sword and Sorcery style with it. In fact, when I come to running through all my fantasy stories again for edits and another draft, I think they'll become significantly shorter.

Anyway, I've returned to the fantasy novella and I've passed the troublesome chapter six, so things should start picking up again and I might have it completed by halfway through November, hopefully sooner. I may take some time off from it again to take a rest from it. But that is mainly so I can do another fantasy short story that involves a barroom brawl between wizards. Cue things getting way too out of hand and, despite the cleverness of wizards, a lot of stupid collateral damage is expected as they stupidly decide to bring spells to a fist fight.

And that's it for today. Hopefully I'll be able to get another writing blog post or two in during the week as I've a couple of other ttrpg things I'd like to show off - including some Gaia Complex and some WFRP 4th edition. If I don't, I'll just have to show them off next week.

Farewell everybody!

 Hello everyone!

I think this'll be a moderately long post.

First off, my writing seems to be going pretty well recently... pretty well. But it's always the same old thing, I would rather like to increase my daily average word count a fair amount, but how exactly I'll do that, I'm unsure.

But, I've been working on a novella, replete with pirates, wizards, knights, elf barbarians, evil cultists, Fomori and a strange god being. I've been at it about nine days and I'm a quarter of the way through it - just over ten thousand words. Which is fair, but i feel like I've struggled a little to get into the full swing of it.

So, what I did, was to start a short story to try and surpass this. And it seems to have worked. I started it yesterday, I'm two thousand words in, and I think I've almost finished it. I think I will today, but whether I pick up the novella today as well and carry on with that today as well, I'm not sure. I'll return to it nevertheless. Hopefully the break will have refreshed the old noggin.

I'm actually quite pleased with the short story so far, it's about the defeat of an ancient liche as it comes to life once again. I realise it could well rely on some well worn sword and sorcery tropes, but it's a story I've wanted to write in a few months so far, but haven't managed to get around to it for one reason or another.

And with that, that is what I've been doing with my writing over the last week. And on to other things. I am planning on a few stories over the coming weeks and months. i'll be working on completing a few first drafts then work through rewrites, then edits etc. It might not be the best way to go about doing this, but it's the way I think makes sense.

As I said in a post I wrote roughly a week ago, I intend to write a few posts about other sundry things that are adjacent to my fantasy writing. With that, a few things have happened.

I have ordered the seventh issue of Tales From The Magician's Skull and that is yet to come, because of sundry things relating to it being part of a kickstarter before being available to the public. Some are receiving the eighth issue as the seventh comes on sale to the public and mine is now on the way. Much to my jealousy - a jest of course. I'll be including that in a blog post when it arrives.

I have also signed up with Discord, and I'm quite enjoying it. there is one server I've joined that I'm particularly enjoying dedicated to all things related to fantasy writing and it's sundry peripherals, including magazines, TV and games. I've actually found it greatly reassuring and a wonderful asset. I know feel part of a community with my writing, which is something that I've not really ever felt.

It was through this discord server that I managed to find out about the New Edge Swords and Sorcery magazine, which has had it's issue zero, a test piece issue to iron out wrinkles and the like and see if organising regular issues would be viable. and I got my issue through the post yesterday.

New Edge Sword and Sorcery, issue 0

I've delved into it only briefly. It is a magazine of two halves really. The first has a collection of five stories, and the second half involves a handful of Sword and Sorcery articles. One from Howard Andrew Jones, and some exploring Sword and Sorcery in a modern age. There is even an in depth look at Dark Agnes, which I've found to be of particular interest so far.

I've read many of the articles so far, and I've found them very interesting, coming from a place of authority in the Sword and Sorcery genre. I'll try and put things in a better review anon.

You can visit their facebook page here and visit their website here and explore things yourself.

I also managed to get a canny t-shirt for myself as well.

I Write Sword and Sorcery Stories,
Gilead Artist, Redbubble.

It's from a talented and hard working artist that I like called Gilead. I got this off his Redbubble site.

But he can also be visited on his instagram, his twitter, his amazon and his patreon.

He also has a kickstarter live as he is trying to fund a book of his work. Please check it out and back if it tickles your fancy

Anyway, that's pretty much the bulk of what I want to say in this post, other than, I'm sorely tempted to start playing some RPGs. I've started a Discord server for friends to play and share relevant things. And of course, the usual thing is the case, organising the players around their schedules is being frustrating. But, that's to be expected to the point that cartoons are made about it.

Anyway, I hope to see you all soon, farewell!