There are several genres/sub-genres in which I write (or have written), and a number of communities with which I have engaged. Many of the following issues will be uncovered as this part of the blog progresses:
Events – that I attend as a writer;
Experiences – of being a writer;
Methods – some thoughts about the writing process;
Non-fiction – non-fiction articles and promotion;
Speculative Fiction – stories, excerpts and writing samples;.
A brief summary of my Writing is as follows:
- Comedy: Like many, I’m sure, I began by writing Douglas Adams pastiches based on The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy. I pretty much rewrote the guide itself, and then ventured into the wholly original arena of “philosophical-political-religious-romantic-fantasy-comedy” (or phil-pol-rel-rom-fan-com, for short). My swansong was a millennium novel called Millennial Rights (aka Psychopomp and Circumstance) which I started in late 1999 and completely failed to complete in time. One day I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. My comedy novel, The Tall Man in the Clean White Underpants shall eventually see the light of day. That said, I do dabble in comedy short stories, most have which end up in publications of my own devising; but more than that, I have been responsible for a great number of book titles-some of which saw the light of day, some of which remain to be seen.
- Doctor Who: Yep, like many it was the fandom of Doctor Who, way back in the days of the classic series, that stimulated my creative itch. Between 1991 I wrote countless chapter ones, edited around 300 fanzines, won and lost book contracts, fought libel battles, had spats with the egocentric and eventually retired in a cloud of space dust after producing more stuff in three short years than anyone has a right to. In 2005 I was lured back to write a novel as a dare, and that turned into a memorial anthology for Craig Hinton, the man that invited me. He died in 2006, and Shelf Life took up most of the next two years. As my first venture into proper publishing, it opened my eyes.
- Historical: Whether it is historical adventure, historical drama, historical fantasy or just sword and sorcery set within historical context, much of my work looks back upon local and national history – be it the origins of Birmingham and the adventures of Beorma, its founder, or tales about the Peaky Blinders.
- Horror: I dabble more than I delve, but when its called for, my sleeves are rolled up and my pen twitches.
- Modern horror and zombie horror tend to leave me a little cold. I prefer cosmic horror a-la-Lovecraft, or Gothic horror a-la-Stoker. Or folk-horror. The latter now has a home on my sister site, Tales of Old Hawne.
- Sherlock Holmes: nobody would have ever convinced me that I’d end up as a fan of Sherlock Holmes. Odd, because he inspired many of the things I truly love: adventure, historical fiction, mystery, pulp and, of course, Doctor Who. As the creative force behind The Moriarty Paradigm, a retelling of the entire Holmes canon in a steampunk vein, I’ve become almost as keen a Sherlockian as I once was a Whonatic. To this end, I run a sister site, the Sherlock Street Blog.
- Science Fiction: A guilty pleasure, but one I take far too seriously. My SF is reserved for the special stuff. My eternal work-in-progress, the Fat Man trilogy shall yet rise.
- Twisted Fairy Tales: Okay, I commission these more than I write them, but I do write them. Fairy tales, folk tales, myths, legends. Most of my energy is directed to the Grimm & Grimmer book series series that I commission and publish for Fringeworks. The problem with that, of course, is that… I feckin’ hate fairies.
- Urban Fantasy: I like dark, modern, gritty, twisted stuff with a science fantasy edge. Don’t expect elves (they’re #2 on my hit-list after fairies), but do expect to be surprised. I had planned on getting a magazine or blog off the ground with the name Urban Shadows. It was meant to start in 2014, but I’ve been very, very busy. It’ll probably never happen.
metabaronic 