As days grow lighter… coming things

Posted on December 27, 2024 by Mark Hayes

We have past into winter, and the sun has begun its return and the writer within me is excited for the new year to come. My literary year of 2025 is going to begin early with a new Harvey Duckman Anthology due out on the 10th of January. It is an anthology of dark and urban fantasy which we have entitled Rum and Rosemary. Gillie ultimately came up with the title and left some debate on the ‘Rum ‘ part, as rum has more than one meaning. In this case it almost certainly mean ‘strange and uncanny’, but Gillie it has to be said, is a pirate at heart…

In any case, with a brief of ‘urban or dark fantasy’ I naturally chose to invent a new genre instead, because that just not broad enough. Thus I wrote ‘Euryale’ which would more correctly be described as a Suburban fantasy. Any classical scholars among you may recognize the name, but for those that do not Euryale is one of Medusa two half sisters. Unlike, medusa who was a mortal woman ravaged by one god then cursed by another for being ravaged (the moral compass of Greek gods was ever deeply questionable), the two other gorgons Euryale and Stheno were wholly divine in nature and thus immortal. Of course the real problem with immortality is what do you do with all the time?

It is partly for this reason that my version of Euryale is working in a charity shop in Cheam. The one with the odd name, next door to the Acropolis Kabab shop run by Mr Popodolpois, who like many a Greek father, made many sacrifices to put his not overly gifted soon through medical school. Just don’t ask him to elaborate on those sacrifices…

Aside from my own story Rum and Rosemary will contain another thirteen thought-provoking, edgy, atmospheric, oft times darkly funny and always entertaining short stories from Anna Atkinson-Dunn, Kate Baucherel, John Holmes-Carrington, Liz Tuckwell, Christine King, CK Roebuck, Laura Buckley, Keith Errington, Davia Sacks, Nimue Brown, Angela Smith, Ben Sawyer and JA Wood.

And is available for preorder on kindle, there will of course be hardback and paperback editions from the 10th of January.

The next Harvey anthology will be Science Fiction Which is another broad church of course. We are always looking for submissions, if you are interested in writing something for us click on the image below.

In 2025 we will also be doing three more Harvey collections, in order after Scifi they will be the expanded ‘Alterative history/steampunk’ then once more ‘Post apocalypse/Dystopian’ before we come back to ‘Urban/dark fantasy’. There is also always just generally weird stuff which we will find home for. And if we get several stories that fit together in ways we have not yet thought of then we might open another.

In other exciting news I can absolutely, positively confirm I will have a new novel out in 2025. The long awaited Lucifer Mandrake novel is finally with my editor and The Esoteric Cricket Ball will defiantly be out this coming year. Which will be the first new novel I have released since February 2022. Which seems a very long time between novels for a novelist. I did release The Strange and the Wonderful anthology , and The Complete Hannibal Smyth in the mean time and my book about HP Lovecraft, but 3 years between novels seems like an ice age. But finally the Mandrake novel is almost ready to be unleashed.

Exactly when is another matter, I have a self imposed deadline for all final edits, typesets et all by the ide’s of March for reasons of symmetry, but that really depends on how much redrafting it needs once I get it back from my editor. But still, exciting times afoot…

I did not spend all those three years have been spent in the company of Queen Victoria’s Personal Arcanist. There are other novels I am also working on , one of which is the second of the Maybe trilogy which is now four years over due.. I am hoping to have that written by autumn. there is also the urban fantasy with the working title ‘The Elf Kings Thingy’ which keeps dragging me back in. And a couple of other projects.

However I have one more project, which I will tempt fate by mentioning (the contract is not yet signed), which is that I have been asked to author a non-fiction book. If that happens, which I am reasonably sure at this point it will, it will have a very definite deadline. Thus Mandrake must be complete because if it isn’t, the non-fiction takes priority from the ide’s onwards. I will illuminated more on this subject when I am in a position to do so…

In any regard, a new year is dawning and I will will be writing for at least four anthologies, have at least one new novel coming out and hopefully more non-fiction and another new novel before the end of the year.

And finally, a happy new year to all my regular readers. the blogs stats for the year just eclipsed 2020 (lockdown was a busy year for blog posts) making this the most visited year in the blogs history. So I guess I will have to keep this going too

Much love

Mark

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Oceans of the mind

Posted on December 17, 2024 by Mark Hayes

Earlier this week the wisest of all muses asked a deep and meaningful question upon her blog to which I responded with somewhat frivolous delight or at least that was my intent.

This is the original post, by Nimue Brown, which is probably far more insightful than the rest of this one is going to be, so you should probably stop reading my inane waffling on and go read her deep insightfulness instead https://druidlife.wordpress.com/2024/12/13/considering-meditation-and-thoughts/

This is to say her question was both interesting and asked in seriousness on the subject of a thoughtful post on meditation and thoughts. Not least on how her own thought processes worked and asking if others experienced thoughts the same way. My response was written in an off the cuff manner expressing an idealized metaphor for how I think my own mind works. Of course this is me thinking about how my mind thinks.

Thinking about, and trying to understand, how you think is a bit like trying to understand the universe from within it standing on a small blue green planet on an unremarkable spiral arm of a not very remarkable galaxy only able to perceive the visible expanse of a universe, the mass of which our calculations show we can not detect 90% of.

Here is another analogy of which I am fond, when it comes to mankind’s understanding of divinity and the true extent of the cosmos is the ant in the rain forest. Which is to say an ant can not comprehend the truth of forest due to it been insignificantly tiny in comparison to the forest and only able to perceive the merest fraction of the branch of a single tree. Though when it comes to true understanding of the cosmos, we are but a microbe on the back of the ant trying to perceive the ant on which we reside, we have no concept of the forest, thus we can not comprehend in truth that this may be but one of many forests.

Thinking about how we think is both at the heart of the human condition and imposable to truly grasp at the same time. Not least because we are doing so from within our own thoughts. We can not stand outside the universe and look upon it, we can not truly understand the mind from within it. We do not even know what the mind is.

Before you point to the contents of your skull, yes, we know what the brain is. It is an incredibly complex organic interface that processes information fed to it both consciously and unconsciously. If it is damaged it becomes harder to interact with the world, process information, and express thoughts. But none of this means it is where you mind resides. It is merely the interface between mind and body. Science can not more point at the mind than it can the soul. The mind may lay within the chemical, hormonal soup of the brain. It may hover in an undetected dimension of existence a foot and a half in front and slightly to your left, connected to you by a silvery line of thought, unlikely? Possibly but the simple truth is we do not know where the mind resides, so unlikely doesn’t mean impossible and the hovering mind in another dimension theory wonderfully explains many a thing…

Also, when thinking about thinking, I have no idea how anyone else thinks, no one does. Literally on the most basic level none of us have any idea if how we experience the universe bares any true resemblance to how anyone else does. We do not know if everyone sees the colour blue the same way, or indeed if anyone sees the colour blue the same way you do. Our eyes may mostly see wave lengths of light the same way, but this doesn’t mean our brains interpret those wavelengths in the same fashion as anyone else. No one can say, how they think, just as no one can truly say where the mind is. And if we can not say how we think, then we can not know we thinkin similar ways to any one else.

My reply to the question posed by Nimue’s post was to compare my thoughts to the ocean. Some may consider that pretentious of me. But i was not trying to claim my thoughts are deep and mysterious. Often they are shallow and obvious. Show me a goth girl in a tight skirt, corset n boots and my thoughts will almost undoubtedly be shallow and obvious, for a moment at least or two. The metaphor of the ocean has little to do with depth. This though is what I said.

The ocean is never calm, even when the surface seems calm the currents beneath are ever moving changing and washing up against strange shores. So the ocean is never calm, even when it might seem so to others and to be calm is an athame to the ocean. The waters must move, ever change, be they the depths or the shallows, crashing upon the shore, or out passed all horizon. Fed by rivers and seas, pulled by the moon in tides of gravity, while in the deepest places the heat of the earth pushes through mountains.

Then the storms come. The wind, the rain, the great surges, the tempests of chaotic rage that churn and boil the waters, sending them crashing against the land. A deluge of uncontrolled ferocious nature, implacable, untamable, undeniable in its existence.

The ocean is never calm…

Occasionally I think of the ocean, mostly I think like it.

While I like the metaphor the truth is it is only that, a metaphor. In truth I am not sure it truly answers the question, but then I don’t know the answer, I merely know the experience of thinking and how my thoughts shape and turn.

At this moment ‘Hersham boys’ by Sham69 is bouncing around in my head, because its the last song my alarm music played this morning before I got out of bed. Its not really a favorite song of mine but until something dislodges it , it has taken up residence, with its ‘Lace up boots and corduroys’.

Also a this moment there is a conversation going on and leaning towards a conversation edging towards an argument between Kenton West, who sounds like Stephen Fry for some reason, and Eliza Tu-Pa-Ka , who doesn’t, over the qualifications of Captain Wilberforce to serve as Chief officer of the Air ship Maybe’s daughter. Kenton is carefully not answering questions by asking other questions and Eliza is on the verge of a tirade, just as Benjamin Kenton’s grandson, is running up the muddy field to intervene. That particular conversation has been going on for three days. And the word document it has not been written into is sat open on my desktop.

Also at the moment I am annoyed about the people who live next door whom’s teenage son need a clip round his ear to stop him throwing stuff into my back garden. This is low level anger that will explode at some point, or not.

Also, I am getting flashing of scenes from the web series I was watching last night, made by a bunch of New Zealanders 7 years ago, based on PUBG a game I have never played but have developed a deep understanding of. All hail pan man… And thinking I must message my adult son and mention it to him as he will love it.

Also Nimue just sent a message about her plans to do terrible things to me at Christmas, which I am assuming she means in her murder village novel in which I am cast as villain and victim. So I am thinking of replying.

Also at this moment thinking while writing this blog , and at work watching emails , trying to understand what the guy in the office on the sub-continent wants me to do with a server given his very vague instructions. Thinking about the face of my ex-wife for some reason, possibly because my son came to mind and thus my daughter.

Also I want coffee. While I contemplate the greater essence of human consciousness, and the contact I need to sign but am oddly scared to, to write a book about Lovecraft. the worry about the current edit of the Mandrake novel I am waiting back on. Why wearing lace up boots and corduroys would make people call you ‘the Cockney Cowboys?’. Is the second maybe book narrative two slow. Do I really need Kenton West in the novel at all. Why am I writing this blog post, what is it actually about. Is the universe finite. What colour is blue if its not blue. Why does WordPress insist on spell checking to American spellings. ‘Hersham boys’ ‘Hersham boys’ Cute goth girls in tight skirts n corsets. Is there a point to any of this? What point was I making again ? erm… oh yes…

The ocean is never calm…

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A semblance of Truth

Posted on December 9, 2024 by Mark Hayes

The Wonderful Nimue Brown has a new book out. one I originally reviewed when I was sent a first draft copy about three and a half years ago. I reposted that review in August this year expecting it to be out soon after and yet such are the strangeness of the fogbanks surrounding Hopeless Maine it finally was published… today. So here is my review, again, for anyone who missed it the first couple of times

Semblance of Truth : A Hopeless Maine Novella

Now as it is quite possible you are aware, I am a bit of a fan boy when it comes to the work of Nimue and the esoteric creation Hopeless Maine (and Nimue’s writing in general). So when I was given the chance to read a early copy of Semblance of Truth I jumped at the chance.

The narrative is in effect Frampton Jones journal, written by him, for him and him alone, as he tries to catalogue events on the island as a whole, as well as those events that only effect him personally. Things he could never put in the paper, because even in a place as strange as Hopeless Maine certain things would strain the credence of belief among his readers. The are are also somethings he just wants to keep to himself, like the worrying way his cutlery keeps disappearing and the notes someone keeps leaving him, that are written through the medium of fish…

As the islands journalist Frampton also keeps track of births, deaths, and has to report on (these attended with various levels of willingness) various civic events like founders day, the annual church picnic, the fossilized bones of one of the islanders ancestors walking around the shore. The grand enterprise of building a bridge to the mainland. The not so grand failure to build a bridge to the mainland…

Because the narrative is told in journal entries, some long, some short, some of significance Frampton is unaware of, some that seem unimportant yet which he worries at… the narrative slowly unwinds in the present tense in the respect of how he writes it, while it is all in a very immediate past tense. Things he has just done, or witness, or seen , or not seen, or at least he hoped he did not see, but has a horrible suspension he did see, and what’s making that noise in the kitchen? As well as important advise on the rearing and care of meeps, as well as the importance of not going mad and forgetting to harvest your meeps, and why you should not feed your meeps off cuts of meat.

It also means when he starts top go a little mad for a while his descent in to insanity, and climb back from the brink are equally chronicled… Unless of course in his mad periods he is actually seeing the world of Hopeless as it truly is, and why is no one reply to his fish writing? And what really happened at the O’Stoat house? Who’s that orphan who disappeared the night Miss Chambers was killed by…. by what killed her…? then turned up again! Oh why am I thinking about the orphan? She’s clearly not important… Now! Where did all the spoons come from? Should I ask Gerald? Is Gerald real…?

Poor Frampton, a minor character in a world where events are happening he isn’t equipped to understand. Yet he strives, with a certain ineptitude, to make the island a better place, or at least understand it better. As a journalist he is a man who seeks the truth and to illuminate that truth for the betterment of all.. (and there lay proof that Hopeless is a very strange place, me thinks.)

As you now have the chance, you should invest and read this delight, Also think well of Gerald … I went to order it myself and discovered I have pre-orded the paperback in august and forgotten I had done so. Yay! I now await its arrival

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What’s in a name

Posted on December 5, 2024 by Mark Hayes

As the old saying goes, don’t judge a book by its cover.

But, while that is good advice for life in general, when it actually comes to books then of course people do. I will not pretend I don’t. If a book cover doesn’t ‘speak to me’ I am unlikely to give it a second glance. I have long suspected the same applies to almost every reader, to one extent or another.

There are other factors. Is the author one I recognise and have read before? Because if its a book by Nimue Brown it could have a plain brown pager bag for a cover and I would buy it, read it, and undoubtably love it. The same applies to books by CG Hatton, Kate Baucherel and a whole host of authors you have possibly heard of.

Somewhere in the world there may be someone who feels this way about books with my name on them. Obviously they are dangerous people who should be reported to the authorities at once. But still, they may exist…

Then there is the title. Titles matter more than authors names, because you never by a book because of the authors name unless its a name you know. (This is except in the case of books by celebrities, which are sold almost entirely due to the name of the author, were seldom written by the named author, and interest me not at all…)

Titles matter, a good title will pull in a reader like a good cover and unlike a good cover a title is subjective to the artform inhabited by the writer. Getting the title right should matter more than anything else. A plain cover with a good title should be enough to sell a book (this has never been the case)

I do like a good title. For example ‘The Long Dark Tea Time of the soul’ is one of the finest titles ever devised, despite the fact its is my least favorite Douglas Adams book. Admittedly that is like saying a particular orgasm was your least favorite orgasm. Its still a fucking orgasm, ‘The Long Dark Tea Time of the soul’ is still a fabulous Douglas Adams novel. Its just not quite as brilliant as ‘The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy’…

In the past I have managed what I like to think of as some reasonably good titles. In particular I am fond of the titles of the Hannibal Smyth trilogy ‘A Spider in the Eye’ , ‘From Russia With Tassels’ and ‘A Squid on the Shoulder’ , some of the Hannibal short stories have titles I am rather pleased with too, The Cheesecake Dichotomy’ and ‘The Aspidistra of Social Inequality’ in particular. Yet the book that probably sells itself by title best is ‘Maybe’ because that singular word does a lot of heavy lifting. So titles matter, which is also why almost every novel I have written has started with a working title that has changed later down the line.

The working title for the Lucifer Mandrake novel has been ‘Lucifer Mandrake and the Hanovian Proxy’ since I first started working on the novel itself about three years ago, It has been a long road but mostly because I have run off and written other things a lot. The bulk of the first draft was written in three major bursts of creativity. The last one since early October this year.

The second draft took only three weeks because, because the first draft involved much redrafting as I went along, which is not normally how I write but has been on this project. Much about this project has been a tad obtuse in that way.

Lucifer Mandrake and the Hanovian Proxy’ remains a smart intelligent title in many ways, but it lacks for something. I like it because it is a very 19th century style title which fits the era of the novel, and it is very much what the book is about. Ergo a plot to replace Queen Victoria with her uncle Ernest of Hanover, which is not even remotely as far fetched as you might believe at first glance. Before she first took the crown Ernest had many who supported his claim.

If this had happened the Victorians would have been Ernestians, and the Victorian Era , the Ernest Era, which is an oddly delightful thought. As men in tall hats with beards are very earnest as a rule…

Early in her reign there were at least three separate assassination plots perpetrated with the expressed aim of placing the King of Hanover on the British throne. So the Hanovian Proxy is not even remotely far fetched as a plot… Of course the Newtonian Sorcery, necromancy, fae realms, undead Lords, and transcendent glamours that actively exists in novel may be slightly more far fetched and probably are not based on real events. Also this weird game call Cricket gets mentioned once or twice but that is almost certainly made up….

The problem is however while ‘Lucifer Mandrake and the Hanovian Proxy’ maybe a good title for many reasons, it just doesn’t pop, for want of a better word.. It also suggests nothing of the nature of the novel aside one major plot point, which is the most mundane plot point in the novel. So while I was focused on the second draft I also played about with titles. In the end I have gone with a subtitle that fits the novel better in my opinion and says something more about it.

Thus the none working, final title* will be ‘Lucifer Mandrake : The Esoteric Cricket Ball’ Hopefully that will inspire a few readers to pick up the book, but on that we must wait and see… But as I say, titles are important. The most important thing being that you as the author need to love the title you give your work. If others do, well that’s just a bonus.

I may have also finished the cover, after a lot of playing with the design aspects form the ‘first draft’ of the cover I posted bin a pervious blog post…. Or not as I am still fiddling with it (not sure about the authors name font, if it should be the same as the main title font , or the sub title font) Opinions on that may be helpful if anyone has one…

*unless it changes between now and publication

This novel started out as a short story and a lot of research in 2021 there is a post about it from, way back then HERE

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Necromantic Pontifications

Posted on November 30, 2024 by Mark Hayes

Necromancy, one has always considered, is a somewhat misnamed. In the first instance it has less to do with death than you might imagine. It is true the root of the word comes from the Greek ‘nekros’ for dead body and traditionally speaking it is considered the darkest of arts. Even the sagacious forefather of modern magic, Newton wrote ‘There is no art that blackens the arcane more grievously than that of the necromancer.’ But in essence the animation of a corpse, that most emblematic use of necromancy, is in actuality using magic to bring life to the lifeless.

That is necromancy at its most basic level. The manipulation of the essence of life. It is tapping into that which is the vital spark of existence and making use of it. As such in reality it is no darker than any other magic. It is merely a magic that can be put to dark uses, as can any other, for all the stigma attached to it.

That stigma alone is, however, enough to discourage the open study of necromancy as an art. Thus it remains the least understood of all disciplines. It also doesn’t help that its practitioners cloak necromancy in layers of secrecy behind arcane mutterings and rituals. The mystery that shrouds it attracts a certain kind of individual, as does its reputation as the darkest of arts, and like other ‘dark arts’ it remains a popular group activity. There remains that, oh so familiar, image of a coven gathered around its magus in cloaks of shadows. The acolytes wearing long Sigel embronzed robes, faces hidden beneath deep hoods, stood in circles of flickering candles and mouthing archaic chants. Strange dance like movements, benedictions and the odd profane act, or three, being performed before their leader. Their master. Their great magus. I am sure you can imagine such rituals, but like almost all such things, most of it is just for show. A sop to the credulous and of course the credulous compromise the majority of most any coven.

In truth, theatrics aside, a magus mostly makes use of his coven much like a leach makes use of a thigh. They tap into and take a little innate power from each member of their coven, or at least such innate power that the acolytes might possess. This requires little ritual in truth. Merely a strong enough willpower, desire and willingness to draw upon the vital aspects of others. Be what you draw from then be their innate arcane power or something else.

In the case of necromancy that something else most likely the essence of life itself.

All of this is of course unpalatable to any gentleman of moral fortitude. But moral fortitude is not a prerequisite among your average magus, unlike a degree of nihilism which almost certainly is. More than one magus, once they feel the bite of age upon them and see the first grey hairs among there ravenlike locks, will be tempted to use a little necromancy to ‘rejuvenate’ themselves.

‘What, when it comes down to it, is the point of having acolytes other than so they can lend aid to your designed. Lend you their power. Lend you a year or two of their life perhaps… Well, would they really miss it?’ as the thought process goes…

It is also, in point of fact, easier to draw life than to draw arcane power from the average acolyte. For one thing your average coven acolyte has next to no innate arcane power, but they all have life. Well, for a time at least…

And there we return to my point, necromancy is not about death, but about the manipulation of life. The name is therefore a misnomer.

I will grant however necromancy is still somewhat deplorable. As are those who make a study of it.

It is however, on occasion, quite useful.

The above is a passage may be from the not entirely named yet Lucifer Mandrake novel I’m currently working through the second draft of. It is, however, in of itself a self contained humorous monologue on Necromancy. In the novel it serves structural purpose, bookend a the cliff hanger from the previous chapter and making it hang a little longer. It may or may not be in the final edit, but as it is self contained humorous monologue of the kind I often write for this blog I thought I would post it here. MH

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How to kill a hero

Posted on November 28, 2024 by Mark Hayes

Electrophorus electricus, or to give it is none Latin name, the Electric Eel, is one of those things that keeps cropping up in pulp fiction’s. It’s what the hard up bond villain type puts in his shark tank, if he can’t afford sharks and doesn’t want to fork out the cost of piranha food.

Shark tanks, clearly the classy choice are of course ridiculous, as most sharks do not attack humans anyway, you need a very big pool and just keeping the tank correctly chlorinated would be a challenge. Frankly you need a whole aquarium rather than a tank.

If, as is likely, a shark tank aquarium with suitably vicious sharks is not possible, then of course a tank of Piranha’s is a perfectly good mid-budget choice your for average villains lair. Except of course, most breeds of piranha actually prefer to eat fruit. In fact all but one species of piranha are entirely harmless scavengers. Even if you do get the right kind of piranha (if your interested its the red bellied piranha) they still seldom actually attack large animals or go into a feeding frenzy. You’d have to keep them nigh on starved most of the time and just hope the hero doesn’t turn up within twenty four hours of the last feeding time…

So, what does an evil melomaniac intent on world domination chose for his principal defense against the interfering hero? Well a tank of electric eels would seem perfect, would it not. No tricky moral issues about keeping them on the edge of starvation just so they will dispense with the hero. Just a big tank beneath a fall away floor with a fry of electric eels and your all good. (that’s the right collective noun btw, though a bed of eels or a swarm is equally acceptable, a fry just sounds right for a collection of electric eels don’t you think).

Also,, side note, the collective pro-noun for a group of Emu’s is ‘a mob’. To any one old enough to remember Rod Hull this will sound correct… But back to electric eels.

There is however one slight problem with stocking for hero inhuming tank with electric eels. The first of which is unless your hero has a hereditary heart condition the chances of even multiple eel shocks killing them is limited. Usually deaths attributed to electric eels are actually drownings, as they can knock a person unconscious, but generally not your fit healthy hero types. Shocking they may be, but no more than the latest scandal involving the heir to the dutchy of Northumberland and the girl who works at Tesco’s…

Then of course there is the other problem, all be it a problem of semantics, you don’t actually get a fry of electric eel’s, or a swarm, or even a bed of them… Because electric eels while very much a thing are not actually eels. They are in fact a species of South American knifefish, breath air, are more closely related to cat fish than eels and don’t swarm…

In the end, as ever, the only correct way to deal with an annoying hero infiltrating your super villain lair is to shoot then in the head on sight, without it may be added, revealing your plans and defiantly without any monologuing…

Also, we advise you add regular opticians appointments to the evil henchmen’s health plan. While we are aware having your henchmen all wearing glasses ruins the ‘stone faced bastards’ look. But lasers are not just for world domination and shooting down government satellites to plunge the world into chaos. they can also be used for corrective eye surgery these days.

Todays blog was brought to you by Psychotic Billionaire Monthly, the magazine of choice for the would be Super Villain

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Fascinating Folklore, Taurus and the book pile

Posted on November 22, 2024 by Mark Hayes

In a desperate bid to avoid death by collapsing book pile*, I made a concerted effort yesterday to sort out the to read pile on the bedside cabinet. One of the issues with the great to read pile of doom was my inherently bad habit of adding books to it while never removing the ones I have acctually read. As happens if I leave this task long enough, it had gotten out of hand, and there was a real risk that ‘Hero with a thousand faces’ was going to brain me one night.

*There are worse ways to go

In any event this had led to me finding a bunch of books that need putting on book shelves, some of which I read, loved, planned to review, but they were forming the foundations and super structure of the dark tower of book doom so they were not so much forgotten about but irretrievable. For many reasons, if I review a book I like to have it sat on my desk while I am doing so…

Anyway, fascinating insight as that may be to the beside cabinet of a bibliophile, on to some reviews, starting, as a delightful Flemish research witch has me on a folklore kick at the moment with with Fascinating Folklore… A book that answers a question much on the lips of the zeitgeist these days. Did anything good ever come out of Twitter..?

Fascinating Folklore: A compendium of comics and essays

Back in the dim long forgotten past, when the world was bright and joy surpassed hate as the currency of short text based social media there was (and still is) a hashtag called #FolkloreThursday. With that hashtag in mind PJ Holden and John Reppion started a weekly comic which would be based on a different bit of folklore each week. These proved popular and fascinating, So it is perhaps no great surprised this book came out of those comic’s.

Within there are those original comics PJ drew and also short essays from John delving deeper into the folklore behind each of the stories he got PJ to draw. The result is this compendium, half folklore comics half short essays on folklore, all intriguing, delightful and enriching. I knew a lot of the subject matter to one extent or another, but there was plenty here that also was new to me. The pair did not restrict themselves to the British Isles for one thing, instead they span folklore from around the world, as well as a fair grounding in the myths and mythology from which it sprang.

The comics are a mix of dark and sinister to the uplifting and joyous. All beautifully drawn in different styles to suit each subject, they really exhibit Holdens full range of artistic skill and flair. The short essays by Reppion equally are skilled crafted words that explain and enlighten but are never dry and dusty. Together they bring each of they many talents to bare and the outcome is somewhat unique.

This book is perfect for someone interested in folklore but who needs a nice introduction to the broad suave of everything that falls under that banner. As well as old hacks who forget they don’t know everything… As such I can highly recommend it. It is also perfect for children, as its bloody, dark, and full of viscera, all those things children love… So they will not even notice the education they are getting while they read it.

As this book is only available in Hardback (and frankly its the only way to read it.) I do not have my customary kindle link. here however is a the link to amazon if you want to check this out. Which you do…

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fascinating-Folklore-Compendium-Comics-Essays/dp/1912634724

Several years ago I was selling books in a park with several other authors one of which was Stephen Palmer, a brilliant fiction writer and a fascinating writer of narrative non-fiction. We exchanged at least three sentences, one of which was, “I am nipping to the Tesco’s down the hill, do you want anything?” Which just goes to show what fascinating people we authors are, and the intellectual nature of our conversations. In my defence, I really wanted a sandwich.

In any regard I was later to read, and love, his steampunk/Victorian urban fantasy Conjuror Girl, which started with the splendid Monique Orphan.

For reasons best known to himself Stephen contacted me earlier ( much earlier) this year and asked if I would be interested in an ARC copy of his latest book, a narrative non-fiction work exploring the relationship between humanity, the constellation of Taurus and the sacredness of bulls. I said sure. Failed to find time to read the arc and ended up buying the book when it was released where it got placed in the to read pile of doom. Eventually I did read it over the course of a couple of months because it a book that lends itself to being read a chapter at a time, as each chapter is a separate entity. This is not me disparaging the book, or saying it was difficult to get into. There are some books, books that lend themself to been read in episodes between other books. That’s just how I like to read. Novels are all absorbing and need to be read beginning to end. Short fiction and books like this one which is a link series of short narratives, lend them selves to short reads between novels.

In any regard I finished I am Taurus months ago but like Fascinating Folklore it became lost in the foundations of the to read pile and the review I had written notes for got forgot about… So somewhat delayed…

I am Taurus

Spanning from the prehistory of the ice age as portrayed in the cave paintings of Lascaux of our ancestors hunting the now long extinct aurochs, the great wild bovines of northern Europe, right up to the running of the bulls in Pamplona. I am Taurus examines how human cultures have long been influences by and linked to the spiritualisation of bulls.

This is not however an arid intellectual book of anthropology or archology. Each epoch is examined form the point of view, as the title suggests, of the bull. A narrative from the scared beast, be it the hunted honoured by the hunter, the sacrifice offer to the gods, the sacred bulls that were the ‘dance partners’ of young Minoans, the golden calf of Canaan, or any of the other times the bull has featured heavily in human culture. Which is to say, often.

This is a unique and fascinating perspective, and one that Stephen crafts in such a way that it draws you in to each chapter. He is a master of narrative exploration. There is a beauty to the writing, a richness and a vibrancy about it that just makes each chapter its own unique joy. As a writer of fiction, I love narrative, so perhaps I am biased, but this is the way dure people in to thinking about our collective humanity. It is a joy.

Anyway, the to read pile is safer for now, and these books among others have found there true homes on my bookshelves, though I suspect I shall revisit them both over time. They are both books to delve into, and refresh your acquaintance with time and again.

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Terrifying Joy from the Forests of Flanders

Posted on November 20, 2024 by Mark Hayes

“Why would I eat your fingers?”

Folktales are ever a wonderous resource for a writer, for they tell us many things about stories we often forget. Things like ending do not need to be happy, the good and the virtuous don’t always win, and the forest is dark, old and full of terrors. Most importantly the remind us the soul of a good story is in the telling.

Folktales are not a written form of story telling, at least they were not in their original form. No one wrote the down, no one person invented them. Folktales grew on the tongues of those who told them, and grew again and again with each retelling. Folktales are in effect Chinese whispers across the generations, they change each time they are told. Twist this way and that. The origins of one tale bleed into another.

Bleed is the right analogy here, because folktales are alive and full of blood. The blood of a culture and a people. But they bleed into each other, they move around, and the stories change to reflect their surroundings, the country, and the people.

Folktales also tend to be full of blood.

But then they are campfire tales, fireside tales, tales to inspire fear on a dark night, and tales of warning. Tales told to children to keep them from wandering into the forest. Which of course they don’t because if you tell a child to fear the forest they are going to take that as a challenge. They are also tales that warn of devils and ghost and the price of straying from the church, because priests have never been above telling the odd folktale either.

Naturally, the majority of folktales in which my own soul is seeped are the folktales of Northern England as that’s from where I hail. Tales of the moorlands, and the tempestuous Yorkshire coast. Tales of huge black dogs. White ladies. Not a few pirates. Haunted castles and haunted hovels. The terrors of the sea, and haunted graveyards. And one or two witches. Most notably of course Mother Shipton the old witch who was born in a cave in Knaresborough where even after she died anything left there turned to stone.

This is of course entirely true… Anything left in the cave does indeed turn to stone Mother Shipton’s cave* is reputedly England’s oldest tourist trap, as the owners of the land have sold tickets to see the cave where England’s ‘most famous protheses and witch once lived and the dark magic she left that that still petrifies anything left in her home’ for the last 400 years or so.

Acctually this is because the extremely high mineral content of water dripping through the lime stone will coat anything with deposits that in a short time form an out shell of stone. But lets not let science get in the way of a good story…

Mother Shipton also has a moth named after her. May we all be so blessed…

But not to get side tracked… back to that opening quote, and the ‘Terrifying Joy from the Forests of Flanders’. The quote about eating fingers is from the very first line of the very first story in Signe Maene’s wonderful book, Flemish Folktales Retold. So lets just say it gets off to a great start.

Divided into sections, Signe, as the title suggests, retells the folktales of the Flanders region of northern Belgium. A region where ancient forests used to meet the sea. A region rich in tales of witches, shapeshifters, ghosts and lost souls. Lots of witches… As we are told more than once in the End Notes of each section, around half of all Flemish folk tales involve witchcraft. Shape shifting witches fond of taking on the form of cats, owls and magpies, and in one particular case, a toad…

The End Notes for each section are fascinating as they add perspective and academic rigor to the collected sections. Some of the tales Signe has crafted are combinations of different folktales that lend themself to a single tale. Folktales by there nature change and twist in the telling, there are always different telling’s of similar tales. Signe takes this premise and masterfully weaves stories together.

And, like all folk tales they are stories with a dark edge, but in the case of these stories oft told from the perspective of the witch, the ghost, or the monster. The tale behind the tale. The sympathy lays often with the witch, and so it should. After all they cursed the village for a reason, oft reasons beyond pure malice, but in response to malice done on to them. This sets these tales apart from a simple collection of folktales. These are dark from the perspective of the darkness. Haunting from the perspective of the haunt.

Terrifying joys, and glimpses into Europe’s collective cultural past. For while these are all Flemish tales, they are tales that are echoed throughout Europe. Which is only natural, as travels tell tales of their homelands and those tales get retold and made anew. A such this book is tales of the kind told around the camp fire, on the edge of the woods, with twilight all around. Told to frighten, and to warn. The woods are dark, the wise do not wander there.

But who wants to be wise…

The book is also quite quite beautiful. Aside Signe’s word there are black and white illustrations by Cate Zeederberg which are just beautiful. A dark haunting beauty perfectly complimenting the prose, which hopefully Cate will not mind me reproducing a snippet of here, just as a taste, because you can not talk about this book without talking about both schools of art within its covers.

part Illustration by Cate Zeederberg

If you have an interest in folklore, you should read this book. If you don’t have an interest in folklore (why not?) you should read this book. Afterwards you will. It is available on kindle but I urge you to buy the paperback, as you will return to it more than once, and frankly it is a beautiful book with beautiful dark sinister art that you need to see on paper…

I am also currently reading the companion book, ‘The Witches of Flemish Folklore’ which is an equally fascinating non-fiction work about the folklore of the region. and of course witches.

*You can still visit England’s oldest tourist trap Mother Shipton’s cave, which remains in previous hands. For a while in the 80’s it was owned by irritating stage magician Paul Danial’s… Almost every school child in Yorkshire visits it at least once.

Posted in amreading, book reviews, books, druidry, Europe, pagan, reads, rites, supernatural | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Lucifer Mandrake ~ Not a cover reveal…

Posted on November 14, 2024 by Mark Hayes

I made a decision recently not to make my own cover for my next novel but to pay Klaus the artist doing the new Harvey Duckman covers to do one for me. There are serval reasons for this, one of which this novel is being released as part of the Harvey Duckman stable, so I want the cover art work to be reflective of this. Getting Klaus to do the cover just makes sense in this case

The reason the novel is part of the Harvey Duckman stable is because the original short story that seeded this novel was written for one of the original Harvey Anthologies. That and I like the idea of it been part of a larger body of work. Mine is not the only novel that will be coming out under the Harvey banner next year, it probably will not even be the first, as Kate Baucherel is currently finishing her ‘Finch’ novel*. A pangalactic travel log, written by an avian backpacker of as yet undetermined sex as they ‘have not got their adult feathers yet’ Who is following much the same route their grand mother when she was a young avian. If it wasn’t for the pirates, kidnappings and occasional octopus barman… Finch also originally started out as a short story in the original Harvey run.

*my entire contribution to the Finch Ministries were the words ‘octopus catapult’ , I am ridiculously proud of this fact…

But anyway, back to the Lucifer mandrake cover. Up until now I have never had someone else do a cover for one of my books. So before going to Klaus for the art work I wanted to do a few mock up a few cover options of my own. Sound boarding ideas in effect. Of course, in this abhorrent age, there is an easy way to do this, but I don’t, won’t , and never will, use AI for anything to do with art. I would rather nail my scrotum to a table than use AI in fact. So instead I went on to Canva, with a large rum in hand, and played around with ideas the same way I always do. Which is far more creative than using AI , and involves rum.

So anyway, this is not a cover reveal… The final cover, and indeed possibly title as this is just the working title, will undoubtedly be different, probably very different. But I do kind of like the way it turned out anyway, so thought I would share it…

Also, making covers is something of a traditional piece of procrastination when I am on the last couple of chapters of a novel, and I need to procrastinate…

Opinions of the cover are most certainly welcome btw…

Posted in amwriting, books, Harvey Duckman, indie, indie novels, indie writers, reads, self-publishing, steampunk, writing | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Yer, so about the tower…

Posted on November 11, 2024 by Mark Hayes

I was recently asked if I would agree to do an interview for the Harvey Duckman website. Which is to say Gillie said to me ‘I am sending some questions to answer, is that okay?’ and looked at me with mild panic in her eyes. For some reason she always assumes I’ll say no, or be offended, or in some other way be less than happy with being asked to give an interview.

I don’t know why this is the case. Gillie has known me for several years. She should know me better than that. Getting me to talk is never difficult, getting me to shut up on the other hand…

The Harvey Duckman project, as regular readers will know, is something I have been involved in since its inception. Aside the quarterly anthologies and the monthly fast fictions, there is also a web site on which some content is open to all and some requires you to subscribe (free subscription being an option). But such a thing needs content and amongst the free content are monthly interviews with the many splendid and varied, Harvey authors. Some of these are fascinating insights into to the minds of writers…

It was apparently my turn to be fascinating…

I will leave opinions on such matters to the readers, but I think I managed interesting at least.

In any regard, Gillie sent me the questions , one of which was about a short story I wrote for the original Harvey Duckman anthologies called The Tower. I am rather fond of The Tower, it features now in my own ‘The Strange and the Wonderful’ anthology.

Behind the subscription wall of the Harvey Website (again its free to subscribe) you can also find stories, mostly picked from the original Harvey series. So this month there is one of mine there, which in this case is The Tower as Gillie is particularly fond of it and asked specifically for it when were originally planning the Harvey Website earlier in the year. So despite it being available in my own Anthology, because it was originally written for Harvey, I said yes. There were other reasons as well…

The Tower is one of those stories… A story that people tend to remember and ask about. It has a perfect ending in my opinion. Which is to say the ending is open to the readers imagination. This tends to generate the same question from almost every reader “What is the tower?”

This was entirely deliberate on my part. Answering all the questions is never a good idea as a writer. Some certainly, but never all. Which is why my answer to “What is the tower?” is “What do you think it is?”

Don’t get me wrong, I know the actual answer. I just see no reason to tell anyone. I will however confirm to anyone that they are right if they have figured it out themselves. All the clues are there in the story. Some of which hide behind big neon signs saying “this is a clue” that people often miss because they are big neon signs…

In any regard as i said one of the questions in my interview was about The Tower. (no not that question , a different one) I suspect Gillie already knew what my answer was going to be.

You can find the interview here. Its quite a good one …

https://harvey-duckman-is-alive.ghost.io/markhayes/

You can also find the Tower here, is you subscribe ( again there is a free option, so why would you not?)

https://harvey-duckman-is-alive.ghost.io/short-story-the-tower-by-mark-hayes/

And if you do read it and want to know what the tower is, well you were prewarmed to look for clues were you not?

What do you think it is ?

Posted in amreading, amwriting, books, fantasy, fiction, Harvey Duckman, indie writers, reads, writes, writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment