This is a blog that concentrates on the influences and writing of two aspiring author friends called Thadeus Morticaine and Dan Coghlan. They have been friends for many years and found that they have a common interest in what they write, even though they write different things.

Thadeus Morticaine is working on a series of Folk horror stories, fantasy stories, some ghost stories and some sci-fi. He likes HP Lovecraft, Gareth L Powell, Robert Rankin and Kim Newman. He is also very much into his folktales and Celtic and Norse myths and legends.

Dan Coghlan is currently working on a Sword and Sorcery series about a Wood Elf Barbarian, and also a pulp fiction style series of Post-Apocalyptic stories. He likes Robert E Howard and Steve Dilks, as well as Lin Carter and Clarke Ashton Smith.

The Dark Garret twitter account can be found here at @GarretDark.
Showing posts with label wizard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wizard. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 20, 2022

 Hello everyone!

Well, that was a good writing week. I'm really quite pleased with progress so far. To be honest, I had planned on making a post on Monday, but to be honest, I'd lost track of time. So, here we go.

I still feel a bit awkward about how life had got in the way before with writing and to be honest, I'm not really sure how to think about it, it still feels a bit of a weird two or three weeks having to divert my attention so whole-heartedly.

But needless to say, I'm back writing and have managed to dedicate much of every day over the last nine days to writing, though I did have to start the novella over again, which is a shame.

Looking back, I wasn't too happy about the way that the original draft was going, so starting again was probably for the best. The previous draft had taken three weeks to get half way through - about ten thousand words - and though its looking to be a shorter story than expected, not by much but after nine days, I'm at the same word count and I think the first draft could total around seventeen thousand words.

I seem to be averaging about one thousand one hundred words a day. Its not much, but its manageable for me. I think I could have the rest of the story finished by next Tuesday. Its the day after I normally do a blog post, but I may hold off on the next post until then so that I can fully update folks on things and plans. I think I know what I'll be doing next, but I'll wait until then to write about it.

Anyway, you may be asking what this novella is about. Well, in short, its about an elf barbarian called Gwaeloch Irisgarth who gets employed by a wizard apprentice called Yasmina Bruhns - who is actually based on a friend who gave me permission to do so - to help find her mistress, a fully qualified wizard who lives deep in an ancient forest that covers a vast area. They think the wizard had gone after something called the Royal Star, and on the way, they get involved with evil satyrs and also find a ruined elven city, dead for centuries, filled with the undead. And things culminate there.

Its a story that I've been trying to get my head around for a few months and its been a bit difficult. I've not really been used to writing something so long and its been hard planning to get the level of content suitable for a story two or three times the length of what I'm used to. To be honest, its wound me up quite a lot on occasion and I had originally planned to have this ready for publication with another novella by Christmas and that hasn't happened. Its sort of something that's really got to me, even if I don't always like to admit it.

Its one of those things, sometimes and for some reasons that I'm not sure I fully understand, I sometimes have great anxiety over projects. I think it stems from a time when I was basically anorexic and a workoholic and had to give up writing for a while to recover. I even ended up in hospital a couple of times with a suspected heart attack.

I think some of my anxiety around trying to get fully back into writing is down to that. If anyone has any tips to help, that would be great as I do feel that I still pressurize myself with it a lot and I want to get passed that. I keep remembering the days where I used to be able to do seventeen thousand words a day - a word count I've only heard of Michael Moorcock rivalling when he was on cocaine.

I realise that's not practical in the slightest, but improving my daily word count would be great too. I'd sort of like to average about four to five thousand words a day, but at best, I manage half that and it sort of feels a bit disappointing. Anyway, if anyone has any times about that too - improving word count, please let me know.

Anyway, that's enough from me. To be honest, I can't really think of anything else that's particularly bloggable at this time, other than me ordering an all female dwarf Blood Bowl team, but that's still to arrive. I still want to get the main box set to learn the game. I miss it. I may even do a write up of some games or some videos or something once that's sorted.

Blood Bowl, dwarf, female, team, female dwarf, dwarf blood bowl team, blood bowl team, elf barbarian, wizard, wizard apprentice, undead, skeleton, zombie, satyr, goatman, satyrs, fantasy, sowrd and sorcery, writing, writer, author, word count, anxiety, Gwaeloch Irisgarth, Gwaeloch, Yasmina, Yasmina Bruhns,
All Female Dwarf Blood Bowl Team


With that all out of the way and with part of that getting a lot deeper than I thought it would, I just want to wish everyone good health and prosperity.

Bye bye everyone!

Tuesday, March 1, 2022

 Hello everyone!

I had thought I'd get a post up yesterday, but I had thought how the first of these new regular posts had gone up on a Tuesday, there wasn't much of a problem with putting one up today instead. there had been that impromptu post put up on Sunday about Andy Remic and him sadly loosing his battle with cancer as well. May he go on adventures wit the gods and goddesses now.

A bit of news about Thadeus Morticaine, he is still studying away at a few things, looking into the lesser known things of the world and the universe, 'playing with chaos and dancing with the fae' as he puts it but he has been looking into some very interesting stories. He has managed to et an interest in Folk Horror and has been working his way through both the collections of 2000AD's Thistlebone and he is thoroughly enjoying them.

Thistlebone Volume One
Thistlebone Volume One, 2000AD

Thistlebone rising, volume one
Thistlebone Rising, 2000AD

Thistlebone, 2000AD
Thistlebone, 2000AD


If you would like to take a look for yourselves or buy them, take a look here for volume one.

And here for volume two.

Now onto what Dan Coghlan has been up to. Well, the essence of it is that he is still trucking away at his novella. It's taking a bit longer than he planned, but he has broached the half way mark and soon, once there has been a prison break, the undead will run rampant and a wizard will be found to have been dead for longer than was thought - no, she wasn't leading the undead. He hopes that during the week to come, he'll be storming his way through the final chapters.

After he's finished with this novella, there'll be another first draft written about fimir breaking into a strange dimension and a short story about ancient and unearthly powers being woken below a city that's been built over a pyramid complex. He then should really start editing those stories and the two from before Christmas, but he may well try and get another two or three first drafts done before he grinds through the edits.

And that's about it for this week. I hope to see you next time.