Tuesday 30 December 2008

Free PDF Taster from Murky Depths.

If you would like to download a free PDF taster from The House Of Murky Depths - which includes chapter 23 from Killing Kiss, my Demon Lover poem and lots of super goodies from the Murky Depths' quarterley magazine.

Just click on the link below!

www.murkydepths.com

Monday 29 December 2008

Christmas & New Year!

This year Christmas has been more about family than ever.

My partner bought me some fantastic stuff - history books, an asbo fairytale book - which is very funny! chocolates (OMG! I'm never going to shed the extra pounds!!!) Clothing (Ok nightwear!). I also got some great DVD's from him and some lovely ones from my daughter.

But as we know it's not about presents (although I'm really impressed with how much thought went into them!); it's about being with people you care about.

Hope you had a good one also!

Happy New Year! Let's hope it is a healthy one...

Wednesday 17 December 2008

Progress on Book 2 & 3

Illness and new job has slowed down the progress of my edit of book 2.

Fortunately my editor has allowed me over Christmas to finish it - and then of course he'll want to read and make suggests. Having said that, we're still on target for EasterCon Launch, Bradford in 2009.

I'm still feeling very satisfied with the progress and I'm already making notes and thinking about book 3 a lot; a trip to Stockholm (for research)and a closer look into the history of the Vikings is on the agenda.

I'm often asked where inspiration comes from. Sometimes I can't be more specific than say, a dream I had (the narrative for Book 2 was conceived that way) or occasionally it's the spoken word - a casual remark a friend makes to me. The main character of 'The King' in book 3 was born of such a comment.

So book 3 will feature King Harold of Sweden - but don't expect a safe and predictable vampire story. That's all I'm going to say on the matter.

The genre of 2 & 3 will probably be categorised Horror/Fantasy. Expect more gore, expect more shocks, twists and turns.


FURTHER PROJECTS ...

I now have three short stories to write for commissions as well as Book 3. So January is going to see me very busy indeed.

Monday 8 December 2008

Last week!

What a disasterous week!

Having spent the weekend in Wales, I drove back to London on Sunday and started to feel ill with a really sore throat about half way back. When driving for 4-5 hours, that's really not fun. We stopped at a services and I grabbed some medication from the shop which made me feel a bit better and I managed to make it all the way back to London.

Monday morning and I was supposed to be starting my new job - but I was too ill to go in! What a start to the week and to the job! My throat was dire for 3 days but by Wednesday evening, and several doses of anti-biotics, I was feeling much better. Thank goodness as there was some serious partying to be done on Wednesday evening with my partner at the SFX Magazine Christmas Party. What a great time that was ... I'll write more on that another time.

By Thursday morning, I was feeling much better and left home early to drive to work. This was a particularly bad move. On this morning the weather was awful and part way there I ended up in the mother of all traffic jams that I later learnt was caused by three separate accidents. I was stuck in a one mile stretch for over an hour. As a result of this my car over-heated and decided in its wisdom to drain the battery completely flat . I was in a middle lane - and so caused more obstruction and delays for the cars around and behind me ... and the battery was so empty that my emergency lights wouldn't even work!!

I got out of the car and stood in the rain looking blonde and helpless until a truck driver and a biker (thanks guys!!!) stopped and pushed my car over to the side of the road. There followed an hour and three quarters of waiting for the AA to arrive so I could get to work. My alternator had given up the ghost, and it cost more than I earned last week to put it right. Very annoying and inconvenient! I suspect that this day may go down in history as one of the worst travel stories in my repetoire.

But enough of disasters! Things have been going well since, and with Christmas now just around the corner - where does the time go?! - I'm now in frantic present-buying and preparing mode for the holidays.

Tuesday 2 December 2008

Sam Stone Interviewed by Sandy Auden - SF Site

Learn more about me and my novel Killing Kiss as you click on the link below to SF Site; this shows an interview with Sandy Auden, a summary of the plot of Killing Kiss and a discussion of the development of The Vampire Gene Trilogy.

SF Site