Jeremy Hawkins sneak preview...

Here's a sneak preview of a special blog post by the fantastically talented artist, Jeremy Hawkins, coming soon.....
If you're intrigued, pop on back on 27th September. If you can't wait that long, visit Being Retro or Amazon

An inspiring video

When I watch a Youtube video that touches me like this has done, I like to spread the word. This is essentially a book trailer for Jonathan Field's upcoming book, Uncertainty. Check it out...

Book Review: Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble by HP Mallory

When I first got this book (I bought the kindle version), I thought it was a YA fantasy book... I was wrong, it was definitely more chick lit meets fantasy than for very young adults. It's got a smattering of rather sexy scenes in it and quite a few swear words... not that it matters to me of course. I'm a big girl, I can handle it ; )
The book was far better than I thought it would be. In fact, it was excellent. Beautifully written, the story flowed particularly well and the characters were just so cool. I did think it was amusing that almost all of the men in the book were mightily sexy, all smouldering good looks and a tad on the horny (!) side though. But I'm assuming that it was written like that on purpose, a bit tongue in cheek, if you get my drift?
The story follows Jolie Wilkins, a medium who discovers there is much more to her talent than originally meets the eye. In comes Rand, a gorgeous hunk of a man who isn't actually a man, but a warlock. You can probably imagine the kind of things they get up to, and you'd be almost all right. Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble is a must-read. I would recommend it to everyone old enough to be reading this kind of thing!
5 Stars

Ian Harding... the perfect Sammy Morton!

I'm sitting here, enjoying a glass of white wine watching Pretty Little Liars (season 1) and it suddenly hit me. Mr Fitz would make the most perfect Sammy Morton!
In my original post about who I would cast in Raven: The Movie, I cast Jensen Ackles but that was more because he's just so damn sexy (sorry, Jensen.... I'll write a new character for you!). When actually, Mr Fitz is just perfect! Of course, his real name is not Mr Fitz so I've just googled him and discovered his real name is Ian Harding and he is, in fact, German.
After I'd made my casting discovery, I continued to watch and noticed something else. In this particular scene he's wearing a T-shirt with wings on it! OMG it's like a sign, or something! (You need to read Raven to understand!!)
Here he is though... my Sammy Morton. Ian Harding (not the best picture but you get the idea!):

Author Spotlight: Craig Hallam

I’ve been writing for a few years now, starting with a pair if novels that will never see the light of day. Ever. So don’t ask. They were a real learning curve and after I got over the initial creative splurge, I tackled short stories. With a lot of encouragement (and a kick in the backside) from my wonderful partner, I finally plucked up courage to send them to magazines. The first was accepted to New Horizons (British Fantasy Society) in 2009 and I haven’t stopped writing since. Seeing one of my stories pressed between the pages of a publication is about as close as I get to Nirvana.
While leaning toward the darker side of fiction, I’ll dabble in anything. Although, ‘An Ode to Post-its’ will probably remain the only poem I ever write. I like gothic imagery and Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast is my idea of perfection. I’m also a sucker for Steampunk and all the fantastic doo-dads and thingumies that come along with it.

My collection of short stories, Not Before Bed, is finally available from Amazon. It’s an accumulation of a few years’ dark fiction. Some funny, some weird. Some published, some new. I’m nervous, but itching to find out if people enjoy it. A few early reviews have been good, but my big head is filling with dust and old furniture rather than being useful.
My real labour of love has been Greaveburn. Written over two years, it’s the first novel that I’m truly happy with. Set in the eponymous fictional city, it’s really about the nature of good and evil; how good people can be driven to madness, how far villains will go for redemption. And, above all that, how the love of one girl can steer different men to new destinies. It’s dark, pretty bleak and even has some Steampunk elements that wrote themselves in without my knowledge.
I hope I’m making this sound good.
So, if you’re a literary agent, there might just be a copy of Greaveburn hidden away in your slush-pile. Do the poor thing a favour will you? Dig it out, wrap a blanket around its shoulders and give it a cup of tea while it waits. It’s had a long, arduous journey.
My next project is a very different beast from Greaveburn. It’s a rip-roaring Steampunk swashbuckler; a collection of adventures taken as snapshots from the main character, Alan Shaw’s life. It has automatons, mechanical tentacles, flying frog-men and alchemists and I’m only a quarter of the way in. I’m starting to worry about what trouble Alan will get into next.
My writing motivation is purely selfish for two reasons. The first is that I love it. I can’t think of anything better than giving myself a bad back hunkered over my laptop all day, thrashing out words. The second is self defence. If I don’t get all these pictures out, I think I might burst. Imagine getting all those cogs and spiders out of the carpet.
My blog, Pseudowriter: http://craighallam.blogspot.com
Not Before Bed Amazon Page: http://tinyurl.com/NBBamzn