Shattered Minds

I said I would keep this blog up on a regular basis but the people at Career are working me so hard that I'm finding it difficult to get anywhere near them! Seriously, I am really up to my eyes in work.

The Lovecraft book A Haunted Mind which will be out next year is a lot of fun but it's also a lot of work if you want to get it right. This means I have to read very quickly through a lot of Lovecraft fiction as well as biographies of the man, commentaries on his work and role playing games. There are people out there who must live and breathe Lovecraft and who must own nearly everything he has ever written or that others in the Mythos have written or what has been written about him.

I'm nowhere near that league which I think is a good thing as it gives a bit of distance and objectivity to the project. So whilst my work may not be as intense as some of the stuff I'm reading I hope it will give a balanced view of his work. Don't be expecting a fan's view because whilst I enjoy his work I'm certainly not one of those all or nothing fans. In fact the one thing I've learned about Lovecraft is that I don 't think he's the sort of person you could have sat down with and had a friendly chat about football or something like that!

And as I argue in the book, perhaps that was one of his strengths as it gave a greater intensity to his vision. But doing this research - and trying to actually get inside the mind of Lovecraft - is quite a task in itself. But I hope that I'm doing it justice.

I'm also trying to finish off the American Vampires book as well. We're looking at it on a kind of geographical basis - although not exactly state by state - and we've decided we need a few more areas. So I'm momentarily concentrating on the swamps and bayous of Louisiana which is a fascinating place. Especially as I've been there.

One night we were driving back through the swamps between a couple of the bayou villages. It was pitch dark and suddenly the car headlights picked out something white moving along the side of the road. One of the guys in the car suggested that it was a haunt but as we drew closer we saw that it was a huge black man, wearing a white shirt and walking along with his arms wide, oblivious to our car.

I would have stopped to see if he was all right but the guys in the car, who came from the area, said not to -they spoke of a group in the swamps called Le Cochon Gris or the Grey Pig, which was a name for human flesh. These were voodoo people who were also cannibals and the man in the white shirt could be one of their numberr. A scarey moment on a back road in 1970s Louisiana. I'm beginning to scare myself so I'll end here and get a rest.

Talk about a haunted mind - mine's shattered. But thanks to Gina who has been reading over the material at New Page. I'm not sure what I'd do without her for an editor. Off to get something to eat. Where has the year gone?

Haunted Minds

The last couple of weeks have been frantic.

As some of you may know I am the chair of five different community projects right across Northern Ireland and unfortunately I'm not the kind of chairperson who can sit back and do nothing. And the projects are quite demanding.

One for example has been set up on a local estate to help one parent families attain education. It provides a creche and a number of other facilities such as laundry services etc mainly for young mothers on the estate. It actually started out as a women's drop in centre but has now a turnover of a few million pounds. Consequently it is run almost like a business - I was in at the start of it and I suppose myself and the Committee are victims of our own success - and it needs a Chairperson working closely with the Business and Project Manager to keep it even going. Recently it's been extended to include domestic abuse - started out with abuse towards females but now has been extended to include abuse towards males which is a growing problem on the estate and in Northern Ireland in general. There is no comparable organisation in Northern Ireland so we've been starting from scratch.

That's just one of the projects I chair and as you can probably see it takes up a lot of time - especially as everything requires a report, evaluation and assessment. We have meetings tomorrow with the police to look at abuse referrals from them and from the courts, so it's pretty steady going.

In the middle of things I'm writing the new Lovecraft book A Haunted Mind. It's hard going - there are so many Lovecraft fans out there that you want to get your information right because there are people who eat and breathe the Mythos. I don't think that there is another Lovecraft book like it in the market - see when it comes out and let me know what you think.

At the moment I'm going through the books of the Mythos in order to see if they could be based on some actual works and where Lovecraft and others might have got his inspiration for them from.

As well as that I'm working on American Vampires which will be following closely on the heels of A Haunted Mind. This has been a lot of fun but it's taken a lot of research too. I hope you will like the result.

So just eating sleeping and working. But I think the reults will be worth it. I'm also working on cannibal cults at the moment for the Cultes des Goules which may have had its origins in actual historical events. I'll not say any more - you'll have to buy the book when it comes out. Off now to grab a bit to eat and then back to American Vampires and Skinwalkers. It never ends!

American Vampires

I know I said that I'd keep these blogs - this and the Bogstandard Comix one going on a regular basis but it's been proving very difficult. I've been really under pressure over the past few months with both writing and community work and doing interviews on the books. Thankfully the interviews are easing off a bit but I'm still doing the odd one.

The community and historical work is taking on more and more impetus - I've just got involved in what will hopefully be a new project on the Spanish Armada as well as one celebrating 400 years of a local Council. All this on the top of about five committees which I chair and which run projects in various parts of Northern Ireland and writing briefing papers for various committees. I'm also trying to write two books simultaneously. One is A Haunted Mind which is on Lovecraft.

I enjoying doing it but it's such a complex subject and so much has been written for die-hard fans whom I want to keep happy, that it's quite a challenge. The other book is American Vampires which I've found fascinating to do but there is a vast amount of research to it. This looks as the various culture blocks within America and how the respective vampiric creatures have emerged out of this. Forget Buffy or Twilight - vampires are different all over America, just as they are all over the world. A vampire comes out of a different cultural background in say South Carolina than it does in New York State or in New Mexico. I need to keep on top of that - but I really do think that both books will be fascinating and hopefully very informative.

I'm also excited about the new digital books which should be out in 2012 and which I've signed the contracts for. I'll keep you all posted as to these.

Well I'd better get back to the books or New Page will be reminding me of my contract. I've bee watching and recording the new Spielberg television series Terra Nova which both my son and I are watching. It's good and no money has been spared on it, but don't you think it's a bit predictable - sort of like a Star Trek with dinosaurs? Maybe it will become more interesting - it's very formulaeic at the moment.

Anyway, I promise I'll try and do these more often, though I might have said that before.

Going Digital

I think I'm falling behind a bit with these blogs.

The past few weeks have been so busy that I really haven't had time to write them. And I've been suffering a bit of a reaction to a 'flu jab which I got a couple of weeks ago which has turned into a very minor chest infection. Not enough to floor me but enough to slow me down a little bit.

However, I've been able to keep on with my projects one of which is a new one on the Spanish Armada in Ireland which is very exciting. We're looking at the trail o a survivor from the Armada who treked his way overland from Sligo to North Antrim - Francisco de Cuellar and his adventures read like a novel. All good stuff possibly for future tourist material.

The other big thing is that New Page have been contact with me and we're doing a deal with a company to produce enhanced e-books. Now for an old technological dinosaur like me I'm not fully sure what this is but I know it's a book which can be downloaded to a tablet or new Amazon Kindle device which also includes animation, interviews with the author and the like - maybe even movies. I'm assured that they're the next step in modern fiction and that this new company is most impressive. I'm all for the advance of technology but I still like the feel and smell of an actual book. They'll never take that away from me but I suppose I can give it a go. The people at New Page are very excited about this and who am I to stand in the way of progress.

I'm told that the book company will want to interview and film me for the "extras" on the book and will be doing it next year. They're doing quite a lot of my back catalogue too so maybe all of you who want to ask me to expand further on some things will get your wish.

Anyway, I think that the first of the new books will be out next October all being well. My son who is heavily into technological things is also very excited about this as well, so maybe I'm doing something right. It's the future I'm told and I'm not going to argue. It'll be interesting to see what it's like. You'vbe all been warned well in advance! I'd fortify yourselves with strong drink now!

In the Wee Hours

Where is the time going? I promised that I'd do more on this blog and I haven't been able to find the time.

I've been up to my eyes in interviews on the radio - mostly in the States but in oher parts of the world as well. For instance this morning I was up at 3 am to speak to Brisbane and then at 5 am I was speaking to Boulder in Colorado. It really wasn't worth my while going to bed - you roll in and in you're so frightened of actually sleeping through the alarm, or at least I am, that you can't sleep anyway. So it's just as handy to get up and do some work. The only thing is that I'm writing this and I'm absolutely zonked. They didn't tell me this when I started being a writer. We finished this morning about 7 but as I'm usually up by that time anyway, there seemed very little point in heading back to bed.

Earlier in the week I did Burlington in North Carolina and I've also done Baltimore and Newcastle upon Tyne in England. Next Sunday night I'm speaking on the Strange Frequencies radio show - I'm not sure where that comes from as I'm starting to lose track and before that 10/19 on the Mancow Muller show which I think is somewhere in Illinois.

The new book - The World's Creepiest Places - is now out and seems to be generating some interest as does the article on poltergeists in Ghosts, Spirits & Hauntings. I did an interview on that this morning with Barb Adams in Colorado.

Still finishing American Vampires and have got another section of A Haunted Mind almost completed which is the new book on Lovecraft. I've seen the cover for this which Ian Damiels hs done and it's terrific.

Anyway, I'm heading off to bed early as I'm really getting too old to be sitting up all night - though it never used to bother me when I was younger. I promise I will keep this blogsite better updated in future. Oh and buy the World's Creepiest Places - you'll not be disappointed unless you're looking for a book on quantum physics!

A Haunted Mind

I'm neglecting this site rather badly.

I keep meaning to add to the blog but somehow at the moment I can never find the time.

A lot of my community work has taken a step up and I'm working on new projects. These seem to be taking more and more time - or else I'm just getting older and they're taking me far longer - and whilst I say I'll write a bit of a blog I never really get round to it. I'm also trying to finish off American Vampires - almost done - as well as a couple of other writing projects which will appear in the fullness of time hopefully.

And I've been asked to do more tv work - I believe that I'm on television on the Ancient Aliens programme but we don't get it over here. I wouldn't watch it anyway as I hate seeing myself on tv. But it must be going down o.k. as they've asked me to do more,

And the big news is that The World's Creepiest Places has been printed - in fact I have a copy sitting in front of me - and should be available as from the 5th October, I think. I'm snowed under with requests for interviews and am trying to sort them out, so be prepared for me on radio stations everywhere. I've already done some of them and I think some are appearing as podcasts already.

Also the next book has been agreed with New Page. This is the Lovecraft book and it's called A Haunted Mind. I had suggested "Eldrich Worlds" but when I was doing up the scheme for the book, I called the Introduction, which is about Lovecraft himself and who he was "A Haunted Mind" and they loved it and decided to call the book that. Which means I've got to think up another title for the Introduction!

I've also started a new science-fiction novel which is about time travel and is set in the American Civil War. What if something had shifted the balance of history, which might be more fragile than we realise, and the South had won? Such an event in itself might not be ompletely shattering but what if it had ramifications further down the line And what if there were more timelines than our own? We'll see where this one goes.

By the way did anyone see Torchwood recently and more importantly did anyone understand it? My son and I sat through ten episodes of Miracle Day - my wife and daughter having given up after the third episode - and we were still no wiser. There were far too many unanswered questions and, dare I say it, the whole adventure was unnecessarily gay. I have absolutely nothing against gayness but did all the innuendo and reference add anything to the plot? Maybe it did and I missed it. Anyway I'll get back to my writing.

I promise not so leave it so long until the next post.

Time And Time Again

Well, the new book on Ghosts and Hauntings is out - and a good volume it is too - and ready to buy whilst The World's Creepiest Places is done and off to the printers. I think that New Page are releasing it a wee bit earlier than they had planned, as we're ahead of schedule.

Still working on the American Vampires book and the new book for New Page looks as if it will be on Lovecraft - the title is still to be worked out, although we do have a working title. So doing some specimen work for them on that.

At the moment my son is dragging me in to watch a boxed television set which I bought recently. It's the Time Tunnel from the 1960s and he's quite hooked. Can I admit that I was a big Irwin Allen fan? I truly loved his Lost In Space - it was the magnificent Jonathan Harris which made it for me as Dr. Smith and I have a full boxed set of all the series - and I enjoyed Richard Basehart in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea as well as Land of the Giants. I've always loved The Time Tunnel, even though it ran for only one series. So whilst it has been pouring with rain outside, he and I have watched episodes of it. I also had a look at the 2002 remake which looked interesting and deals with the changes in history which even the smallest alteration can make.

It made me haul out the basis for an old sci-fi series that I wrote once upon a time - well actually two or three years ago - about a time agency. Time travel and how it can change our own world has always fascinated me. This one deals with the American Civil War and how the timeline can be altered if the South had somehow won - what would a subsequent America be like if say Robert E. Lee had become president? I read through what part of it exists - almost half the book - and it's not all that bad. It can do with revisions but I might dust it down and have a look around for a publisher. I'm not all that well up in sci-fi publishers but Ill see what I can do.

I have a series somewhere in the back of my head. But the Creepiest Places should be out soon. Hope you like it and the places that I've chosen. I had a lot of fun writing it and Ian's artwork is stunning. More to come,e specially on time travel!