Category Archives: writing

Supporting your local itinerant author

Posted on October 31, 2024 by Mark Hayes

I throw words into the wind and what them swirl around me and hope to catch them again, I am a writer, writing is what I do, occasionally quite well, it defines me in many ways and I believe through my writing I add to the zeitgeist of humanity in positive ways.

But I don’t always believe any of that to be true… Continue reading →

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Redux: Beguiling darkness: Tethered

Posted on October 15, 2024 by Mark Hayes

This is a fabulous ride of a novel, through a dark gritty fantasy landscape, with strong characters, betrayals, surprises, shocks, a whole world of imagination to explore and wonder at. There will I am sure be more to come, and I was delighted to go back to it and see how much what had been a good book when I read the early draft four year ago has been revise and polished into something so much more than it was. Continue reading →

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After the end…

Posted on October 4, 2024 by Mark Hayes

One in two of us will be affected by dementia in our lifetime. Families living with the condition are often left feeling exhausted, overwhelmed and alone. With your support, together we can provide vital specialist dementia nursing services, so more families can access our life-changing support and live as well as possible, for as long as possible. Please donate today and help ensure no one faces dementia alone. Continue reading →

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The End of the world is not the Ragnarök

Posted on September 20, 2024 by Mark Hayes

My axe is cold, frost crisscross’s the handle and the fingers that hold it, but the blade is sharp still and blood still flows in he that would wield it.
The Ragnarök is over, we are what remain Continue reading →

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Prose poet

Posted on July 26, 2024 by Mark Hayes

I had one of those conversations the other day with another writer on the subject of poetry. The essence of which was they held the opinion all writers should write poetry, I disagreed as I don’t. Except of course when … Continue reading →

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Authors of Folly and Madness

Posted on July 8, 2024 by Mark Hayes

In a dimly lit basement. Beneath the grim streets of a post industrial city whence dark satanic mills long since ceased to pushing dense black smoke in to the air. On a wooden operating table, complete with ancient leather straps … Continue reading →

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A writers solstice

Posted on June 20, 2024 by Mark Hayes

I have always been fond of the above quote. It comes form Stephen King’s memoir/guide to the craft of writing, On Writing . A book I recommend to anyone looking to progress in the craft. It is also a quote … Continue reading →

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The Maggot of Salamanca

Posted on January 29, 2024 by Mark Hayes

Occasionally while happily writing away, you write yourself into unexpected corners. For example, in my current main work in progress ‘Lucifer Mandrake and the Hanoverian Proxy’, the plot requires a hole in the arcane wards protecting Queen Victoria’s court. As … Continue reading →

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Voices…

Posted on January 22, 2024 by Mark Hayes

“Did I? How exciting… I look forward to hearing it. I wonder if I already have?”     A female, exuberantly excited if slightly panicked voice in my head Every character I write, be they a main character, supporting case, or the … Continue reading →

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Larceny of Countenance

Posted on December 29, 2023 by Mark Hayes

I felt the sting of remorse. This face I had stollen for my own, now looked haunted and here I was to pay witness to its end. An end I had brought him to. Oh, I could rationalise it all … Continue reading →

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