Hello everyone!

It's the time of week when a new blog post appears. I'm writing this just after a kidney infection appears over the horizon, which is 'lovely'. So lets see how this next week goes.

But a few things have happened this past week that are good. I got a book I ordered before Christmas finally arrived. It's a collection of Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique Cycle called Zothique: The Final Cycle and is released by Hippocampus Press. I've only had a quick flick through and read the introduction so far, but I always enjoy Clark Ashton Smith. His stories are reliably entertaining and poetic. It should go well with my Averoigne collection of his too. I'll try and get reviews up of those once I've read them. There is also a collection of Averoigne pastiches that I'm about half way through that I'd like to review too.

Zothique: The Final Cycle,
Clark Ashton Smith,
Hippocampus Press

A copy of Zothique: The final cycle can be purchased here, for anyone interested.

Now, a bit on wargaming. I think I mentioned that I was expecting a few things through the post because I'd finally made the plunge into buying some Aeldari - Eldar for the old school - for Warhammer 40K. Well, it arrived. I'm now the pleased owned of two of the Aeldari Combat Patrol boxsets, the codex and a Fire Prism.

Eldar/Aeldari force
for Warhammer 40k

Sorry for the bad photo, it was taken on a phone that in phone years, is possibly considered a penshioner.

If I keep referring to them as Eldar, its because I'm so old, that's what they were before I gave up for a while. I still think the game is fun, but I see that there have been numerous bits of drama in the community which has felt a bit daunting for someone wanting to casually start up in the game again.

Regardless, I'm looking forward to painting them up. I've been chatting with a few folks in an Eldar group and am in the process of reading the codex from cover to cover. The only problem now is, I want to buy a load more.

Also, I still do have a big hankering for investing in the Barons' War game by Footsore Miniatures, the makers of Saga. Their Welsh and Romano-British miniatures are lovely, and they're in the process of releasing a early Crusades supplement, possibly with Richard the Lionheart and all. It looks curious, but my eyes are still currently on the Welsh and Romano-British.

Barons' War Wargame Rulebook
Footsore Miniatures

Welsh force for Barons' War
by Footsore Miniatures

Arthurian/Romano-British Cavalry,
for Saga or Barons' War,
by Footsore Miniatures

Also, I see that the DnD subculture is in uproar about Hasbro's OGL. Having expressed an interest in TTRPGs and RPGs on here numerous times I thought I might just mention that, for the foreseeable future, I'm happy with the numerous other companies that provide us with many enjoyable evenings, rolling dice and slaying great beasts in catacombs. Of my favourites, Old School Essentials, Dungeon Crawl Classics and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th edition are three of my favorites, and well supported. There are others too out there.

Old School Essentials Player's Tome
RPG

Dungeon Crawl Classics Rulebook,
DCC RPG

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
4th Edition

But onto some writing. I've had a really productive week. I've been planning a new series of fantasy stories inspired by the Anglo-Scottish Borderlands, with the Border Reivers. I've completed all the background information for the series. I found George MacDonald Fraser's The Candlemass Road and The Steel Bonnets a great help and great for anyone wanting to look into that region during the years 1066 and 1600. It can also give greater context to the Sawney Legends which has influenced things like The Hills Have Eyes.

The Candlemass Road,
George MacDonald Fraser

The Steel Bonnets,
George MacDonald Fraser

But there have been a few other things that have been influential, like the galloglass mercenaries from Ireland and Scotland.

I also managed to finish a pile of notes planning a novella and a short story in this series, with loose plans and plot hooks done for numerous other stories depending on how these ones are received. These will be a sort of fantasy, swords and sorcery swashbuckler, with an exiled noble and a galloglass teaming up and heading out around a land similar to the Anglo-Scottish borders.

The plan is that on completion of these two stories, I then start editing the big stack of first drafts I have piled up. They'll join the heroic fantasy/swords and sorcery stories about Gwaeloch Irisgarth, the Elf Barbarian.

I really need to start getting some stuff ready for publication soon. I want to have two or three novellas as the first stories out there, and then work through editing a hand full of short stories for magazines and anthologies. There had been a time when I was getting bogged down by all of this. I was working on so many stories that I was feeling that I wouldn't see the end of it.

I feel things renewed now. I'm eager to get some stuff out there. It gets a bit tiring trying to also think ahead of what writing will make good 'business sense' but things are coming along. If I can get into the swing of things, increasing my daily word count three-fold, that could help, at least with getting the first drafts out in quick time.

Here we are near the end, and because I quite liked it last week, its the bit I might call the Refreshment Watch segment. While writing this post, I was drinking nothing very exciting, it was a lovely refreshing glass of water, gasp. For what I was watching or listening to in the background, it was a Gopher Live playthrough of The Outer Worlds: The Murder on Eridanos. Let me know what you were drinking and listening to while reading this.

Anyway, that's it for this week. Hopefully this infection won't be two disruptive and I'll have plenty to tell you about in next week's writing blog.

Bye bye everyone!

 Hello everyone!

Well, its been a moderately busy week for me. On a bad side, my oven is on its way out and I need to think about getting a replacement. But I think I've hit my swing again with my writing.

I really don't like the Christmas period if I'm honest, I find it really disruptive and it seems to be that a lot of people don't really get into the 'Christmas Spirit' anymore. The corporatisation of the holiday seems to be taking it's toll on a few people around me and they are really getting bothered by all the pressure and expectations around this period. I think I sort of agree with them. Though there is still a lot of good to be had about this period. I managed to go to my regular Yule Dinner with friends, which was lovely.

It does seem to just get in the way of getting things like length projects being done. There are usually a couple of other things about this period that add to it all as well.

But I might just be getting a little bit of an old codger with the encroachment of middle age.

But I feel the start of the year has brought a freshness of mind and a new start, in a way. I'd like to take advantage of it. Hopefully, nothing unexpected will get in the way to disrupt things as it has done before.

Anyway, I'm still working on a set of fantasy short stories and novellas based on the adventures of a swashbuckling exiled lord and an aging mercenary based on the galloglass. I have the inspiration of some of Robert E Howard's historical fiction based about the mid 16th century like Shadow of the Vulture and his Solomon Kane to blame for that. And also, George MacDonald Fraser's The Steel Bonnets - about the Anglo-Scottish Border Reivers.

Solomon Kane by Robert E Howard

The Steel Bonnets by
George MacDonald Fraser

Things are coming along nicely with that. I've the characters and background pretty much sorted out and I'm setting up a couple of stories - a short story and a novella - and should be starting actually writing these during the coming week once I've got some story specific things set in place.

I'm generally feeling pretty optimistic about all of that. Then, once I've got a first draft or two or three done, they can join the stockpile of first drafts to be edited.

I think at that point I really need to start doing just that. Editing. I think part of the big miasma like grump I'd got myself into in the build up to Christmas was partly to do with that. I'd stayed too long on one stage without seeing the end of things, with it possibly being a year or two before I would see the end of a project and have something to show for anything. So I need to rectify that.

Also, again, if anyone has any suggestions for increasing their average word counts, that would be great. I seem to pressurise myself about that and I need to somehow work out how to get my head around all of that.

But now, onto a bit of wargaming. I did take the plunge and get myself a couple of boxsets of Eldar for Warhammer 40,000. I got the codex, a couple of the combat patrols and a fire prism. The codex has already arrived and I'm still waiting on the actual models.

Warhammer 40,000 is something I've sort of had a love/hate relationship over the years. Perhaps its the curmudgeonly encroachment of middle age again, but I keep finding myself favouring the oldhammer or early middlehammer era of stuff. Thankfully, with some of the base Eldar models, they can pass for that period. But I do miss the way that James Workshop used to do things in the '90s. But, it's one of the more popular games out there and it's where 'the cool kids are at', if you'll pardon the parlance.

Eldar/Aeldari Combat Patrol boxset
for Warhammer 40K

Anyway, I remember really liking the Eldar tanks when they first came out with the elegant lines. I think I'll enjoy building and painting them and then can join in with a few games. I know a few folks who play it, so should be fun.

Eldar/Aeldari Fire Prism
Warhammer 40K

I still need to get around to building up my Empire army I got for playing 6th edition Warhammer Fantasy. And the oldhammer style Undead and Chaos armies I got too. They use models cast from the original casts, which is nice to have found out - oldschool minis for modern prices is nice instead of the collectors prices for the originals that you find on Ebay. Its hard to build up an army that way. But once it starts warming up a bit, my modelling room won't feel so uncomfortable for long periods of time. I can then get a few games of 4th and 5th edition Fantasy in.

Anyway, I think that's pretty much everything for this week. I'll post updates as things go and see you all soon.

I'm almost tempted to start mentioning what I'm listening to while I write these posts and the favored beverage while I do so as well, just for a bit of fun. The answer is a Caesar III playthrough by DDRJake and a lovely mug of builder's tea - one of my favourites. Just a bit of silliness, I know, but some little bit of fun nonetheless.

 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.

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!

Hello everyone,

As a new year has come, so has a re-jigging of this blog. It will now be a place for the inspirations and work - and its progress - for two author friends called Thadeus Morticaine and Dan Coghlan. You can check out the About the Authors side bar for more on them.

In the mean time, other social media outlets will be set up and post by the two will be uploaded in time. I hope you enjoy what's to come.