I've written a lot since my last #AmWriting. In fact, though there's little to show for it, 2025 was a very productive year. Obviously I've been writing here in the Gyre: 8 posts last year. I don't write as much here as I used to, but that tends to mean I'm spending more of my … Continue reading #AmWriting, still
Earlier this year I happened across the 1980 Asterix annual in a charity shop; a book whose existence I was entirely unaware of. It was evidently a one-off, and provides an introduction to many of the long-running French comic series’ characters, along with heavily abridged versions of some of the stories, and the usual puzzles … Continue reading Asterix!
FEAR appeared at exactly the right time to fill a gap in the market. Although there were similarly-glossy genre magazines (Starburst, Fangoria, Samhain) their focus was on film whereas FEAR recognised there was demand for a magazine that covered horror fiction1. As an avid reader of ZZAP!64 in the mid-80s, for their publishers Newsfield to … Continue reading Horror Rewind #12 – ‘FEAR’ magazine # 2, Sep/Oct 1988
The book's subtitle puts it better: Ghost Movies. But even that's deceptive. In this 260-page anthology, editor Peter Haining (whose many other spooky collections were familiar to me as a teenager) traces the history of the ghost story onscreen through the works of fiction that inspired such classic films as Night of the Demon, Don't … Continue reading Horror Rewind #11 – “Classics of the Supernatural” (ed. Peter Haining) (1995)
Hello! In the six months or so since I last wrote about my writing, what have I actually written? Generally, if I'm writing fiction then I'm not writing here in the Gyre. The converse is also true: I've posted more in the last six weeks than in the previous six months and consequently have barely … Continue reading #AmWriting, April 2024
Hello! An unexpected burst of creativity. I'd finished the sixth, and longest, Engineer story (see previous #AmWriting post) and was taking a breather to build up the energy and ideas for the next one. Suddenly, I had an idea for a novella: almost the entire story came to me in a few minutes. I wrote … Continue reading #AmWriting…differently
Hello; it's been a while (again). The book reviewing has taken a back seat, largely because Horrified closed down at the end of last year, partly because I seem to have lost enthusiasm for reviewing (for now, at least), and partly because all my creative energies have been spent writing my own fiction, which is … Continue reading I still #AmWriting
Still here. Almost all of my writing this year has been my own fiction; I've written just one review (for Horrified). Some of you may have come across my cosmic technician The Engineer; well, I'm just finishing the fifth story to feature him. They're darkly comic urban fantasy, and there will be a few more … Continue reading #AmWriting. But what?
Hello! Sorry, it's been a while. It's six months since my last post, which is by far the longest break I've taken from the Gyre. Not only have I not written here, it's also a few months since I reviewed for Horrified (the last thing I covered there was the excellent debut novel by Ally … Continue reading #AmWriting. Honest.
STORGY have today published my story The Engineer. It's the first outing for the eponymous cosmic technician. I hope you enjoy it. The Engineer Will Return. Image By Jean-Paul Jandrain at Pixabay
Into the Gyre 