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I’m going to float a view on writing about what you know. |

Like many writing advice truisms, “write what you know” is an example of training wheels, helpful for a new writer who has yet to learn to balance—find their style, their voice.

But you might say, Don’t start sentences with but.

And never and.

Or as Churchill said, “From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.”Show, don’t tell is a great rule, but applied religiously can bog a story down....

Hi and hello to my new subscribers, and a special thanks to those of you who come back for more.More, who doesn’t want more?

Well, I just took my own advice and started thinking about what the future looks like for one of my story’s plot and narrative.

Writers love to talk about their projects; it’s a bit like parents discussing their family, and nodding politely when they hear about their neighbours’ children, while itching to describe their kids’ triumphs.

Along the way, we do help each other...

When you don’t have a bridge, there may be a ford.

Hello, and welcome to new subscribers.

I have one of these in the village; it doesn’t get a lot of traffic. Some do locally, but fording the river is pretty much a rural thing these days. However, absent a bridge, a place where the river is either naturally or with a bit of help shallow enough to cross is still needed. Once upon a time, it might have been the only route from A to B; still today, a ford might afford a faster route.

As it does in...

Hello fellow travellers and hi to new subscribers.

Welcome one and all to another Friday Newsletter. Feedback Friday.

Feedback is critical, and...

Big news: I’ve finished the prequel novella to the Spectral Detective Series, Into Darkness, and it’s now in beta! I’m inviting you, my fellow travellers, to read it and share your feedback to help shape this thrilling tale.

Into Darkness thrusts a battle-hardened operative into a WWII mission where ancient relics spark spectral chaos. Think Jack...

Hello fellow travellers and hi to new subscribers.Welcome one and all to another Friday Newsletter.I’m busy and I’m at the effective end of the prequel novella to the Spectral Detective Series, called “Into Darkness”.There’s some tidying to do in the last handful of chapters, and the usual check... |

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Into Darkness

Into Darkness thrusts a battle-hardened operative into...

Hello and welcome to new subscribers. I’m fudging the numbers a little. If I start at 0, call my first attempt a Newsletter, sent to a handful of folks, a trial run, or a prologue, I can make-believe this is number 15, on Friday the 15th, which is good enough given my chosen profession—some of the time.

Over the years I hear phrases and idioms, “you can take the man out of the cave, but not the caveman out of mankind” is an example that seems to be a riff on the apt given my oft used Social...

It’s been a busy week — the kind of busy that sees words on the page. Some new, some recycled, and others reorganised.

So hey — and hello — to new subscribers.

I’ve been making decisions about stuff I’ve made up.

The Spectral Detective is an idea for a series of novels. The artwork here, and in previous newsletters, is from that concept.

While I can point to plenty of detective fiction and cinema as inspiration, this one began with a dream. A very particular dream. A distinctive hero, with a...

August 1st, and so to another august Newsletter.

First things first on this first... Hello, and welcome to new subscribers.

I have a lot of free time to read material. Most of that is Flash Fiction, available here at Telegram and here at X (Twitter)

Or here for Epub freebie.

My free novella, Dragons’ Shadows, is a prequel to Dragons Unleashed.

My current state is busy, slightly caffeinated, in an office that needs some tidying, which could be a metaphor for life in general.

The best stories have a...

Friday derives its name from Frigg, also known as Frigga or perhaps Freyja, as the Norse goddess of wisdom, marriage, and foresight, meaning Frigg can see into the future. Still, she only shares this knowledge on rare occasions, whereas I do so weekly; this is my Friday Newsletter, the tenth, as it happens—Halloo to new subscribers! I think this mythology makes Friday a fitting day to reveal snippets about the modern fables I’m creating. Rather than giving away spoilers, I get to share...

Being inventive is not about real life; it’s an imperfect mirror, and writers bend reality. For me, that’s about creating a happy ending—or at least a satisfying one. I don’t dislike real stories, and I find real-world history fascinating. If I’m looking for a miserable ending, I’ll read history, where there are plenty of examples.

In fiction, however, I like happy endings. I can endure a character going through seven kinds of hell, but I want them to win at the end. I know that’s not a real...

A happy Fourth of July to all those celebrating Independence Day, the 249th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America. In Blighty, it's another day, but then again, growing up on a farm, holidays almost all had to be, with the exception of a precious few going-away vacations; work continued, albeit with big jobs paused or delayed on the Sabbath, Christmas, and other specials—days of rest in relative terms. Still, animals needed feeding and care, and they didn't stop breaking...

Research.

When I first decided to write a Fantasy Novel, I did so with the childish expectation it would be easier.

Hey, teen me, said to himself, all I need to do is make stuff up. It's fantasy, so it is.

I'd twisted my ankle when I stood on a pebble on a concrete floor, and my foot shot out from under me. I just happened to be carrying a hundredweight of sacks of seed for sowing on my shoulder. So, I did a proper job of hobbling myself.

After deciding to write a world where I controlled...

It's a lovely June day in Blighty, with blue skies, wispy clouds and a temperature in the comfortable ~80F or 27C in my northern rural idyll.

It's not quite flaming like a rampant dragon taking on its prey or enemy, just warm enough.

Still, despite the blissful climes, I am as throng as Throp's wife; with so much to do, it seems, I could do with a fella as half as good as myself to take up some slack.

I think of time, as I want to do as we approach the summer solstice or the turn of the year....

In the north of Great Britain, especially Scotland, frit is a dialect word for fright, and many do take fright—are frit of Friday the 13th.

There are various takes as to why the superstition evolved. The combination of Good Friday and the number 13 seems to hinge on the role of Judas because those with a jot or a tittle worth of Biblical knowledge will have counted Jesus, and the twelve disciples make thirteen.

History has events like the arrest of the Knights Templar on Friday, 13th 1307,...

Writing, writing, writing...

Back in the day, well, last century in the main, I read Stephen King novels, not religiously, interspersed with whatever else caught my attention, I like action, thrillers, mysteries, and SF and Fantasy versions of the same. King's works were part and parcel of pop culture, with many of them adapted to film, to varying degrees of success, stellar for "The Shawshank Redemption" to the likes of "Graveyard Shift", which I did see in the cinema!

Some of King's stories I...

Writing every day is not a chore; is it a lot like breathing? Sometimes. Often, it's such a natural process that I don't think about it; other times, it's laboured. Still, it is optional, unlike breathing, and given the choice, it's something I do every day, but unlike the populous in Richard J Dowling's novel, I haven't yet reached the point where I am asking my AI how best to breathe.

What about writing?

Well, AI has moved on a tad since Clippy.
Although "nice" may very well still be a weak...

First things, I'm sorry for the formatting glitch in the last "Very Exciting Preview of a very exciting new story the day before tomorrow" email. The word spacing in places went awry—an unexpected corruption via copy and paste that I didn't see. It was late, and I very much had my "driving like an Italian" hat on. I missed it. I apologise to all the Italians who have built some fantastic cars and interesting tractors, as well as my readers.

So, housekeeping is out of the way, and how the...

It's Friday again, and I find myself writing another update about writing, a circular process, which is as entertaining as a kid on a merry-go-round.

There's real news this week with the publishing of Short Days, Shorter Stories 2.

So far, the Kindle and Paperback versions are up; the hardback option will follow any time soon.

A year has passed since my first anthology, and I confess I could and perhaps should have published sooner. I produce 600 words of Flash Fiction daily, and so I hit...