Category Archives: opinion

Pointless list of wonderfulness 2

Posted on August 13, 2018 by Mark Hayes

To reiterate the original of these posts: Like most people who blog, I read a lot of blogs. I probably don’t read as many blogs as I should, as I am forever saving a link to my bookmarks and never quite … Continue reading →

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Kind words and thanks…

Posted on August 12, 2018 by Mark Hayes

This post is by way of a follow up to ‘The Waiting Room of the Psyche‘ which I posted back at the dying embers of June. To be specific, it relates to a particular part of that post which was … Continue reading →

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Valuing your craft… reprised…

Posted on July 31, 2018 by Mark Hayes

How do you value the results of your craft? It’s one of those questions that’s always hard to answer, and harder to answer as a writer than, for example, as a carpenter. You might want to bear with me here for … Continue reading →

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Steampunk and Alan Shaw…

Posted on July 18, 2018 by Mark Hayes

Steampunk is a broad, and occasionally elusive, church. You can, in point of fact, stick a top hat on a story, liberally sprinkle around a few cog-wheels, the odd bit of clockwork, a corset or two and voila, you have … Continue reading →

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Writers on reading…

Posted on July 9, 2018 by Mark Hayes

The old sage and great whit Stephen King says in ‘On Writing‘ “If you want to be a writer you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.” Occasionally I forget the former when … Continue reading →

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The waiting room of the psyche…

Posted on June 28, 2018 by Mark Hayes

I am a little bi-polar, though that is not unusual, almost everyone is to a degree. We all have highs and lows, and our moods swing between them. the truly bipolar are just those for whom the swing between extremes … Continue reading →

Posted in depression, goodnews, goodreads, Hannibal Smyth, insomnia, opinion, Passing Place, self-publishing, writes, writing | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Piano Player or Pianist…

Posted on June 15, 2018 by Mark Hayes

Sam, he who was famously, but never actually, asked to ‘Play it again,‘ was the piano player in Rick’s bar in Casablanca. To my mind, that is whom he is, ‘The Piano Player’, he has never been ‘The Pianist’. That … Continue reading →

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Rambling through a full edit…

Posted on June 14, 2018 by Mark Hayes

Stephen King explains in On Writing that his approach to second drafts and editing involves reducing the word count of a novel by a good ten per cent. Having read my fair share of Mr Kings novels, one hates to … Continue reading →

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The Call Of Cthulhu: TCL #47 Part 2 The Tale of Inspector Legrasse…

Posted on June 11, 2018 by Mark Hayes

“Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn.” “In his house at R’lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.” The above is from the second part of Call of Cthulhu, Lovecraft’s most well-known work, and one of his best. I’m not going to make … Continue reading →

Posted in amreading, cthulhu, goodreads, Lovecraft, mythos, Nyarlathotep, opinion, rites, sci-fi | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Rage against the reviews…

Posted on June 4, 2018 by Mark Hayes

It’s been a while since I had a really good rant. Which is probably a symptom of relative happiness, so the lack of me having a good old-fashioned rant about something is probably a good sign. All the same, there … Continue reading →

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