Tropes, Brain Fluid & Love That Defies Death
A story involving intimacy, two people meet and form a union.
I could describe Pride and Prejudice, or the one where a plumber drops his toolkit to work on the pipe, and the lady drops her drawers.
These are polar opposites.
I’ve opined before that fiction is all fantasy, and why I prefer the older terms Sword and Sorcery / Science Fiction, and noted that stories enjoyed by folks who would never admit to liking either will enjoy the fantastical...
Well, without further ado, let me announce that King in the Dark: Part 2 — Swan’s Song is available to buy on Amazon!
The author would like to thank his friends for their kindness and support; without diligent beta-readers, this series would not be possible.
I have written about the writing process and word-building for King in the Dark across several newsletters. For the uninitiated, this is a historical novel-meets-urban fantasy.
It began as a prequel concept that spawned its own prequel, an...
Fantasy is all made up.
Whether a story is set yesterday in a close approximation of reality or if the author invents Realtown in Real County, complete with a realtor who is really good at their job. Comfy or cosy, chaotic or catastrophic.
For this reason, I look fondly back to when, as a boy, I perused the Sword and Sorcery section of my friendly neighbourhood bookshop, because I knew what this meant—a fantasy about swords or some sort, with magic of some kind.
Times change, and so do...
Three times around… Re-reading King in the Dark Part Two, before launching the book. A necessary work.
So what does that look like?
Every author develops their own way of doing things. I reckon, absent a randomised controlled trial... that two people could have almost identical approaches, and create very different works. Tone, style and genre. I’m just as sure another pair might create similar stories using diametrically opposing methods.
Methods are often defined this way: by the seat of your...
Friday Newsletter, or Trusting the Reader (Even When AI Doesn’t)
1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.Respect your reader’s time—make every moment count.
The first rule of ‘write club’, according to Kurt Vonnegut.
Often called his “Creative Writing 101” his advice totals eight, however, I’ve been working through these rules like a beauty queen’s results—in reverse order,
So at last dear reader, we’re finally at rule one.
The Golden...
From Iceberg to Heartfelt.
It’s Good Friday once again. A week hath passed, the draft of King in the Dark: Part Two — Swan’s Song is being polished—again, second read through… and so again I pause.
March: “In like a lion, out like a lamb” or vice versa.
While March is over, the ‘lion’ is late, the genteel ‘lamb-like’ start to last month, as the proverb warns, promises a ‘lion-like’ end, and Storm Dave hits this weekend. What’s a few days between friends?
Right now, it’s just a bit grey and damp....
It’s Friday once more. A week hath passed, the draft of King in the Dark: Part Two — Swan’s Song is being polished.
I’m at chapter 89 of 128 in King in the Dark. Part two commences with chapter 50. So, 39 down, 49 to go...
I pause to march backwards through Kurt Vonnegut’s list from the preface to Bagombo Snuff Box.
Next:
Rule #3: Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
Vonnegut’s rules are impactful in part because they are a tad hyperbolic. Every character?...
As my long-suffering, irregular readers might remember, I began working backwards through Kurt Vonnegut’s famous list of 8 rules for creative writing, which appeared in the preface to his 1999 short story collection Bagombo Snuff Box.
After a two-week hiatus, it’s a fitting time to return, and in reverse order, the next rule is #4
Every sentence must do one of two things: reveal character or advance the action.
Why so apt?
Well, I’ve completed the second part of King in the Dark. Here’s a...
When the outline meets reality and politely asks, ‘What now?’
As a writer, I’m a plotter; it means my answer remains…
As I get older, my plans adjust. “No plan survives contact with the enemy.” Writing is one place where I get to go on rip-roaring adventures in my head. “The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age.” In my head, I can be a genius—seriously, all my characters agree. After all, great minds think alike.
Okay, fools...
Stacking my files in the digital age doesn’t look like a warehouse in Indiana Jones, which inspired a wacky TV show; it’s file trees in the drive, and oh boy, how have they changed, right? |
Still, I started on Substack, and it’s fun to get back on the horse, as it were, with another social network.
This being a newsletter, what’s the news? Well, sometimes it falls into this: ‘news to me,’ or, in internet speak, ‘this days old when I learned that…’ In England and her colonies from 1155 to...
Hey, and hello to new subscribers and regular readers.
In the previous three Newsletters, I’ve mused on Kurt Vonnegut’s famous list of 8 rules for creative writing, one at a time, starting with 8,— 7 and 6. So, in reverse order, the next one is…
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
Those ardent fans who hang on my every word will remember I mentioned this rule before. There’s a related advisory that goes something along the lines of ‘Avoid opening with birth, childhood, school days, or...
Hey, and hello to new subscribers and regular readers.
Kurt Vonnegut’s famous list of 8 rules for creative writing appeared in the preface to his 1999 short story collection Bagombo Snuff Box.
Like many observations about life, these are general rules, and there are always exceptions.
Vonnegut pointed out that Flannery O'Connor, a prominent short story writer of his era, often disregarded these rules, except for the first one. He observed that "Great writers tend to do that."
Exceptional...
Last week, I pontificated on Kurt Vonnegut’s famous list of 8 rules for creative writing. You can find them and last week's Newsletter over at my blog here.
Or rather, I concentrated on the one that bothered me the most.
Rule 8.
"Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages."
My...
Hey, and hello to new subscribers and regular readers.
Kurt Vonnegut’s famous list of 8 rules for creative writing appeared in the preface to his 1999 short story collection Bagombo Snuff Box.
Hey, and hello to new subscribers and regular readers.
“Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.” — T.S. Eliot.
There are many maxims about writing.
Furtivus means stolen or hidden, and I stole the idea of hiddenness from Hemingway — “If a writer of prose knows enough about what he is writing about, he may omit things that he knows... The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water”.
Still, where to begin. That’s a pressing question, whether it’s a blog...
Hey, and hello to new subscribers and regular readers. |
Facebook has been around since 2004. I’ve often been an early adopter of the latest online thing, and I’ve been around for most of the Internet. Back in 1994, thanks to my dad being invited to beta-test Win 95. Dial-up modem and a global village—a tiny number of users by today’s standards, across the world. MSN became a nascent social network, essentially a bulletin board system, but being Microsoft, they broke it.
In the early years,...
As Grok AI says...>>Yes, I absolutely stand by it—no smoke, no fluff. I've parsed thousands of stories in training data and user shares, from polished classics to raw drafts, and this one genuinely hooks me with its atmosphere, subtlety, and that slow-burn unease. It's not generic vampire fare; it feels thoughtful and original. If I didn't rate it highly, I'd say so plainly (I'm built for truth-seeking, after all). Keep going—you've got something special here.<<And it's here...
If you clicked the free-to-read prequel to the Spectral Detective Series, called Into Darkness, I hope you are enjoying the story, and go on to spend 99 cents on King in the Dark: Part One: Duty Calls.If you’ve time to leave me a review, I would appreciate it
The second part of King in the Dark is progressing; it has, at the moment, the feel of a plan coming together as pieces slot into place. It helps to have a plan, of course.
I began writing way back when, as a kid, by accident, and as a...
Hey, and hello to new subscribers and regular readers.
Happy New Year, on this second day of our lord two thousand and twenty-six.
I’m still very much in favour of, and so steeped in, the twelve days of Christmas.
The plan of alternating days between the two worlds of the Spectral Detective and the Chimera Cycle, which I likened to split training in the gym, works. Albeit a little interrupted by the Christmas and New Year festivities.
Progress in the second part of the Spectral Detective’s first...
Hey, and hello to new subscribers and regular readers. |
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to one and all.I had a lovely day yesterday, and being well fed and watered, and I hope all of you who celebrate the birth of Jesus enjoyed yours too.
Today is Boxing Day, which has nothing to do with the noble art of pugilism, still there are competing theories as to its origins.
