I started creating stories, well, actually writing them down in a serious fashion, thirteen years ago. At that time it was mainly to see if I could actually write a novel from beginning to end. I did. A vast long-winded epic fantasy. One day I might actually get round to editing it, but then again I might not. It served it’s purpose and was immense fun to research and write and I met a lot of good people during the adventure.

Over the years I have written three other novels. A bunch of short stories, some of which have been published. Thousands of words of collaborative work on various story forums. A selection of which, written with Dan Bieger, were published in an anthology called,  Seven Threads.

Seven Threads Cover Artwork by Rosemary MacDonald. Published by EQ books.

It even chalked up a half decent review.http://www.sfsite.com/09a/st183.htm

I was, and still am, proud of the stories in this anthology. It is long out of print. Maybe one day, Dan and I may get round to putting up am ebook version. The whole project was fun, and that was the main reason behind the stories, we wrote them for fun and to see if we could. That was the main driving force behind my writing in those days. Fun, along with could I actually do it.

Then my writing took me on another adventure  and for awhile I was represented by a literary agent, but we parted company in April this year. No hard feelings on either side.

Since the beginning of April I have been doing a lot of thinking with regards to my writing and wondering where did the fun go? When did the let’s see if I can do this become I can’t, it is too much.

The conclusion of all this pondering is;

I have novel called Hand of Glory. This is currently in the hands of a very talented editor. When they report back to me, I intend to have fun seeing if I can actually put into practice their suggestions with regards to this novel. Where I go from there, well I will see when I get there.

I have a novel called Oracle, this I am currently stripping out edits I had previously made, and re-writing sections.  Once this is done I will send it to the editor mentioned above, and again have fun seeing what I can actually do.

I have a novel called Stoneman Green, which is half written. I was trying to shoe-horn it into what I now realise was a unrealistic form. I now intend to allow it to go the way it wants too and have fun with it.

There are two anthologies currently calling for short stories, which I am interested in seeing if I can write suitable stories for. I might not make the submission dates, and the odds of the stories making it are next to zero, but I intend to have fun and see if I can.

So, there it is, my WIP.

Why this title for this blog?

Well it is simple.

While sitting in a bar talking about my writing the following phrase was uttered by a gentleman sitting opposite; “You write gentle horror, no, gentle parochial horror.”

At first I took this remark as a bit of an insult. No, I thought, I write fantasy. But the longer I thought about it and the more I looked at the work I had actually sold, plus the novel that I feel is my best work to date, the more I realised the statement was correct. The gent that had said it had hit the nail on the head.

So, I write about the normal world circa 1900-1960 with a large dash of the creepy drip-fed in. I also write fantasy, which edges towards the gaslight-romance type.