Listening to an audiobook, I was struck by the weird pronunciation of shone. It rhymed with scone but not scone. It’s odd. It’s not like anyone says cone instead of cone. Is this an American thing? I’ve never heard it in British English.
#languageisodd #pronounciation #voicework
*well, 90% of them. And I haven’t even checked if I’ve done it in the past!
“But, surely that’s a myth?”
How come in every #UrbanFantasy*, there’s a moment where our hero’s mentor proclaims that the MacGuffin is just a myth. Like, my Brother in Cthulhu, you’ve spent your whole existence protected by the masquerade, how can you fall for that?
#writing
Sometimes the things you find mid-research are delightful. Like this, a blog where someone's gone through Georgian newspaper reports looking for the names of lost pets. What a clever idea.
I hope some of them found their homes.
about1816.wordpress.com/2021/11/12/5...
#writing #indieauthor
Next in my series of occasional Character Sketches is Patty Scholes. Yeah, she’s the matriarch of the Scholes clan, collecting the waifs and strays of Trotterwell … the question is, are all her brood technically…
For my next trick, I'll figure out how to get the re-poster to pick up the image ... hopefully! Here he is ;)
So, I went off and sketched Akira Pixels for you. But if prefer your headcannon version, you go right ahead and keep that 😉 Not that Akira is his birthname. We met his mum in…
You were fifteen then, drinking with your mates. Pushing through the fence and down to the untamed banks of the old mill stream. There you first heard it, that #murmur that wasn’t the water running cold over unforgiving stone. It told you things.
When you came back, you were alone.
Almost.
#vss365
In 1954 the Fae made a #delivery, hiding it in a bag of coal. It would have been burnt at once, but that day the central heating went in.
Last week they cleared the old houses ready for demolition, taking everything to the incinerator.
There’s a dragon egg in that bag.
Will it still hatch?
#vss365
Book cover of woman and dog in front of haunted house
I'm thrilled to have made it into this year's #SPFBO with my cosy paranormal adventure 'No Fae Back Now'
The milk we left out for the house elf,
We found it left undrunk.
In time we sought to ask the creature,
What think it thought it thunk.
I’d prefer, it said, all twinkle-eyed,
A wad of cold hard cash.
The idea I might like juice-of cow,
Well that’s just #balderdash.
#vss365
You'll be a day out, according to the entry criteria "The book must actually be self-published(*) by the start date (Feb 1st 2026), not something you're considering self-publishing in future."
Can you go a day early?
On the way to dinner, they crash Kira’s home-made flying machine.
“I told you it wouldn’t work!” Pete complains, after counting his limbs.
“I’m so sorry,” says Kira, blushing. “And I’m hungry. Sadly, one cannot live on #humble pie alone.”
#vss365
The carriers pause, resting their crate halfway to the ziggurat's summit.
“I hate #transport day,” mutters one. "And we still have to wait for a storm.”
The other pats the wooden hull, thinking of the lifeless statue inside. “Yeah, but at least the bastard will walk themselves down again.”
#vss365
I pause to add them up, the tree stump’s rings. I ask, before the big oak died, was it older than the church that broods on the hill?
But really I ask: does my every incarnation add another layer around my soul? And if you cut my spirit through, to what #number would you count?
#vss365
Those battered boys, of the moon born
The sighing scythe of claws drawn
With fell fiends our heroes fought
With these words their #myth is wrought
That dipping down they find their death
Your love they lure, with their last breath.
#vss365
#vss365
They were waiting for us in the bloodstained dining room, that collection of eccentric and estranged family members that we called suspects.
Taylor paused outside, adjusting his bow tie. “I love this bit. The #business of being right about the business of being wrong.”
Picture of a book wearing headphones
If you're looking to fill a gap in your Youtube schedule this Halloween - or indeed, any particular day you come across this post - this might fill it. A 40 minute reading of cosy paranormal adventure 'Argana Zeit Ruins Halloween'.
youtu.be/84JGfoduIS4
Pumpkins in front of a picture of the book "Paranormal in the Peaks" by Owain Oakwood.
To celebrate Halloween, my compilation 'Paranormal in the Peaks' is free until Sunday. You can find it here!
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09NP7T9NZ
Working on the sequel to No Fae Back Now, I've hit the magic 25% mark ... for me, this is the point where I figure out what the plot _really_ is, and plan out the rest of it.
One of my favourite steps :)
I love Scrivener
Right up until I'm compiling
