Author Archives: Mark Hayes

About Mark Hayes

Writer A messy, complicated sort of entity. Quantum Pagan. Occasional weregoth Knows where his spoon is, do you? #author #steampunk http://linktr.ee/mark_hayes

It…

Posted on August 3, 2023 by Mark Hayes

It watches…
It would be wrong to say it is waiting.
Waiting would imply it was waiting for something. That it desired something. Desire is an emotion, want is an emotion. Emotions are not something it experiences. To have emotions requires a frame of reference for emotion is a reaction.
It does not react.
It does not desire.
It does not want… Continue reading →

Posted in amreading, amwriting, big questions, fiction, Passing Place, reads, sci-fi, supernatural, writes, writing | Tagged amreading, books, fiction, Passing Place, reads, sciencefiction, writerslife, writing | Leave a comment

Hopeless Recordings

Posted on July 29, 2023 by Mark Hayes

Probably because there was no one competent available I was asked to record the Ominous Folk of Hopeless Maine performance at Rising Steam 2023. So I did… Continue reading →

Posted in music, pagan, steampunk | Tagged music, steampunk | 2 Comments

Strange wonders

Posted on July 25, 2023 by Mark Hayes

Tales of Sanctimonious cults, another of a strange tower that do not want to be seen. A story of madness and elder gods returning in the Tees valley, a tale of a magician appointed to the court of Victoria Sax-Coberg. The strange statement of a life repeating in waves of twenty-seven, a tale of a wyrd in the western deserts cira 1850, a story with Sigmond Freud in a rowing boat and finally Hannibal Smyth, who is his as reliably honest as ever, while carrying and aspidistra. Continue reading →

Posted in amreading, amwriting, books, cthulhu, fantasy, fiction, Hannibal Smyth, horror, indie, indie novels, indie writers, indiewriter, Passing Place, reads, sci-fi, steampunk, supernatural | Tagged books, fantasy, horror, newbook, Passing Place, reads, sciencefiction, steampunk | 1 Comment

Dear Edgar #11 The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall

Posted on July 24, 2023 by Mark Hayes

Edgar Allen Poe remains one to the most influential writers of the western cannon. His Horror stories inspired many writers, not least those of HP Lovecraft’s generation a hundred years later and by extension Steven King generation were inspired by both Poe and the previous generations he had inspired. Without Poe there may never have been a Cthulhu or a Pennywise the clown. Continue reading →

Posted in amreading, Dear Edgar, fiction, Poe, reads, sci-fi, steampunk | Tagged amreading, amreadingscifi, books, Dear Edgar, Edgar Alan Poe, Poe, reading, reads, sciencefiction | Leave a comment

Book reviews beyond the paradigm

Posted on July 23, 2023 by Mark Hayes

What it it was easy to change our lives? What if happiness wasn’t an impossible dream to chase after? What if we could have nice things?

or something like that Continue reading →

Posted in amreading, big questions, depression, fiction, indie writers, pagan, reads | Tagged amreading, books, pagan, reads, writerslife, writing | 3 Comments

Dear Edgar #10 Lionizing

Posted on July 11, 2023 by Mark Hayes

We are eight billion lost souls, seeking to be celebrated for our celebrity, rather than our achievements. All seeking to be lionised, to become the in thing, that which is, rather than that which never will be or never was… Continue reading →

Posted in amreading, Dear Edgar, goodreads, Goth, humour, opinion, Poe, rant | Tagged amreading, classic reads, Dear Edgar, Edgar Alan Poe, goodreads, humour, Poe, reads, satire | 1 Comment

Quote the darkness, Evermore

Posted on July 9, 2023 by Mark Hayes

We are in the midst of summer, darkness is hard to find when the nights are short and the days are long. Sleep is hard to come by, the rhythms of the body match the seasons. Now is not the time to sleep, now is the time to hunt, to gather, to partake of the rich bounty of the summer and prepare for the what will inevitably come once more.. This is not a time to think of darkness, this is the time to celebrate the light… So here are some quotes about darkness, in all its many forms. Continue reading →

Posted in 2020 quotes, amreading, humour, mental-health, opinion, quotes, reads | Tagged amreading, quotes, quoting, reads, writerslife | Leave a comment

Playwriting

Posted on July 8, 2023 by Mark Hayes

So this is me, a writer of novels and short stories who doesn’t perform…

Then for reasons I wrote a play and even more weirdly I performed in it. I’d deny everything, but it was filmed and someone put it on You tube. So enjoy the one and only time I will be caught performing, and my sole and last venture in to Play writing. Continue reading →

Posted in amwriting, Lovecraft, mental-health, rites, steampunk | Tagged humour, steampunk, writer, writerslife, writing | 2 Comments

Dear Edgar #9 Morella

Posted on July 6, 2023 by Mark Hayes

Our own Dear Edgar is, as you are probably aware, much beloved by those who favour clothing themselves in black, wearing dark eye-shadow and catching moon moths while they dance to ‘This Corrosion’. Some might say this is because he and his story’s have a reputation for more than a fleeting obsession with tragedy, love and death. That and his poetry, obsessed with tragedy, love and death…

This is of course an unfair summing up of Poe’s body of work, in some stories no one comes to a tragic appalling end… Continue reading →

Posted in amreading, Dear Edgar, Goth, horror, humour, Poe, reads | Tagged amreading, books, Dear Edgar, Edgar Alan Poe, horror, Poe, reading, reads, writing | 4 Comments

The Rabbit Hole

Posted on July 5, 2023 by Mark Hayes

So I am down the rabbit hole, admit The Matter of France, Italian Epic Poems, adrift in the pedalo of an idea, that may become a thing… Continue reading →