To cut a longish story short, I moved publishers for my back catalogue of paperbacks last year. Admittedly I also didn’t move them at all, because I used to publish them from CreateSpace (Amazons old paperback publishing arm) to KDP (Amazons replacement paperback publishing arm). The migration, internal to the corporate mega-entity this is named after the famous South American river, went without a hitch. Or so I thought up until a day or so ago when I was sorting of ‘A Spider in the Eye’ my latest novel that I have not mentioned for almost a whole post…
Then I unexpectedly came across a problem while making a minor change to the paperback edition of one of my previous novels. The minor change being the adding of ‘A Spider in the Eye’ to the ‘Also by the same author’ list in ‘Passing Place’. The problem was not even with the minute change in text, that went fine, but with the cover of ‘Passing Place’ because when the changes were being reviewed by KDSP’s quality control they noticed that the subtitle on the back cover of ‘Passing Place’ had a typo. (this was not news to me, it’s had the typo from day one, and yes I always meant to fix it, but as I always intended to change the cover when I wrote the sequel I had not gotten around to it. It was also a weird little typo that actually suited the book, strange as that might sound. Sometimes a typo is not a typo, it’s a weird conjunction of strangeness that actually feels right. Which may be why no one has ever commented upon it, which given peoples propensity to point out all typos is a miracle. But as I say, weird though it may seem, it was the right typo… I told you it was an odd one…
But in this case, it also meant the book now fails quality control at KDP… Perhaps Amazon isn’t connected to the weirdness in the right way, who knows.
This left me with a problem, I could not update ‘Passing Place‘ without fixing the cover and the cover had originally been built via CreateSpace ( now defunct) and so all KDP had was a migrated PDF file. So I could not update the cover in the normal way to remove the solitary cosmically misplaced yet somehow right letter ‘a’. Indeed all I could do was start from scratch… Which admittedly I have always intended to do as the cover (fond of it as I am) was never the ‘right’ cover for the novel. (see Self-publishing: A Guidebook for the Tourist#4: Covers: a judgement call…) But now I was in cover limbo…
Luckily, as things tend to do I find, the universe already had a solution, because when I was designing a cover for ‘A Spider in the Eye’ having learned a lot of lessons since way back in 2016 when ‘Passing Place’ was published, I spent a lot of time messing with cover idea’s till I got to the one I finally used on the new novel (you knew the one out next Monday that I am not mentioning too much in this post). I also while doing so messed about with covers for my other books on a similar theme, and while I didn’t have a final design ready for Passing Place I did have a working design I was happy with, a full wrap layout I liked, and so I had somewhere to start when it came to fixing this weird little problem. Which is not to say it did not need work and there weren’t some moments of inspiration needed, but I at least had somewhere to start.
The inspiration came when I wanted to keep some elements of the original cover, which lead to me ditching the ‘Spider’ backdrop and replacing it with the piano from the original cover. Which fixed the biggest problem I had with the new cover that I hadn’t realised I had (it just had not felt right when I did the mock-up last year when I was messing with idea’s.) As soon as I reincorporated the piano suddenly everything fell neatly into place and an hour or so’s tweaking got it just how I wanted it. Hence Passing Place now has a new cover (or will once KDP sort themselves out which always takes a while), though the Kindle version of the new cover is now live. Some people may not like the new one, but I think it is a worthy successor and fits far more with the nature of the novel, in fact having been forced to do this, I am rather glad that I have. Even if the cosmic contrivance of a typo is no longer to be seen, there is a cosmic contrivance of a sort in how the new cover came about.
The new one is on the right, just in case you were wondering 🙂
For those who wish to know, I made the covers using the free tools at https://www.canva.com/ and some of the smaller art pieces came from https://www.kisspng.com/ who do a great range in royalty free clip art.
Anyway, that’s the story of why Passing Place has a new cover, and why I will have the joy of having to redo a who load of links and promotional stuff all over the place, on a week when I should have been focusing on A Spider in the Eye…
I never said the cosmos was fair, only that it was weird…
#edit Oh and as your reading this anyway I would be an utter idiot not to mention that my novella A Scar of Avarice is free right now wouldn’t I… Which is probably why I forgot to do so…
As A Spider In The Eye comes out in a couple of days, to celebrate what to me at least is a momentous event, I am giving away Kindle copies of my Novella and short stories book A Scar of Avarice. This is just a short post to let people know because it pointless doing a free book offer and not telling people there is a free book offer…
to take advantage of this click on the links below
UK LINK
US LINK (and anywhere else as it will redirect you to your local river through the rainforest)
Canadian link (because it is mean that every just assumes Canadians will use the US one, not to mention rude)
Please take advantage of this offer.
Mark
The word ‘Snowflakes’ has developed quite a reputation of late. Often used to describe those who get upset or angry about something, often for reasons of personal credo or political persuasion. Ironically, one has felt of late, it is often those most inclined to use the word ‘snowflake’ as a derogatory term who exhibit the most inclination to ‘snowflakeness’, which is not a word, but hey, you know what, it should be.
For example, the ardent member of the NRA complaining about ‘liberal snowflakes’ who want to take away their bump stocks, and getting upset about people using rational arguments about something that they clearly feel very emotive about. Damn those rational arguments…
But without slipping into a long side-track about the relative nature of snowflakeness, I am going to skip merrily along to what inspired this particular post. A friend of mine posted this question on their facebook earlier today. A fair and reasonable question, because clearly, the writer in question is worried about the possibility of upsetting some of her readers, and I applaud the fact that she thought it was important enough to get a wider view on the subject.
If a book contains a potentially upsetting scene, would you want to know beforehand?
This hypothetical character might have dementia and Parkinson’s and that might be upsetting for some who have family members or friends that have/had either/both of those conditions.
So the question is, would you want a warning at the start of the book or in the description on Amazon or would you rather not know?
So, here is my opinion, in its usual unadulterated form, on the subject.
I went into more detail than that in my reply to the question on Facebook, but that is the essence of it. Readers actually are often upset by things in books, to one degree or another. Readers care about characters, or should. Readers will occasionally feel a degree of emotional pain by something that happens in a book. I have had readers tell me that a certain scene in a book, or something that happens in a book ‘broken’ them, or otherwise caused them to take a moment or two. If something is well written, no matter if it is harrowing, or haunting or beautiful or torrid or whatever form of emotion inspiring event, the mere fact it causes a reader to react to it is a good sign that you’re doing something right somewhere, and I have written my fair share of torrid over the years. Richard in ‘Passing Place’ discovers his wife’s body after she commits suicide, Susanna in ‘Cider Lane‘ self-harms as a teenager in response to the fairly hellish bullying she has endured, and those are only the most immediate examples that spring to mind from my own novels.
But here is the thing, readers are not snowflakes. Reading is not a passive activity any more than writing is. A reader should respond to a tale well told, be it with a smile, a laugh or tears. But I have never had a single reader complain they were ‘triggered’ by something I have written because as I say, readers are not snowflakes. Readers are also by their nature open to a writers idea’s, and the view of the world the writer is expressing, they may well disagree with it, but it is an intellectual exchange of ideas. (yes okay I know that probably sounds a little much but in essence that what reading is, an invitation to open your imagination to the writers, and if the writing is good the reader will do just that.)
Reading is the intellectual exchange of idea’s, not the adamant adherence to the singular perspective that is so intrinsic to ‘snowflakeness’. A reader, by their very nature, is unlikely ever to get upset about something a writer had written in a triggering way because if they read something that upsets them in such a way, they will stop reading.
But more importantly, despite what twitter, facebook and a lot of reactionary ‘snowflakes’ on both side of the political spectrum may want you to believe, the vast majority of people are NOT ‘snowflakes’.
It says a lot about the writer of that Facebook question that they care enough to ask the question and to get the opinion of others, all of which is good. But my advice to her, as it would be to any writer asking me a similar question is simply this, people are not snowflakes, they don’t melt. So if it is part of the story, if there is a reason for it, if it isn’t merely something you write to fill a few pages then write it and worry not. No one is going to melt, no one is going to be upset. Indeed the opposite is probably true if its well written, well researched, and based on some of your own experience, then people living with that situation will probably thank you for doing so. At the very least it would let them know they are not alone, and that their experience is not unique.
As I say, people in general, and readers all the more so are not snowflakes. Don’t worry about upsetting them, focus on inspiring them, that what good writing should do. They won’t melt…
I have been known to throw the odd quote here and there. Followers of my itinerant wittering on here will be aware of that I am sure. I am something of a collector of quotes by the great and the good, and more than one post has been just a bunch of quotes from various authors around a central theme. They always seem reasonably popular as blog posts go, as everyone like a good quote. Occasionally it occurs to me that I will know I have finally made it as a writer when I see someone quoting back at me from my own novels. And sure, that’s nothing but vanity in my case, but who knows maybe someday someone will, my characters do occasionally manage the odd bit of profundity.
Case in somewhat shaky point, Hannibal Smyth, philandering bounder of the first order, former gunnery officer in Her Imperial Majesties Royal Air Navy, traitor, liar, smuggler, condemned murder and latterly agent of The Ministry, of all my characters, needed his own voice and his own linguistic mannerisms. Not least because his stories are all told in the first person, narrated by old Harry Smith himself. But perhaps there is an odd nugget of wisdom buried deep within his first outing which is due for publication on the 7th of January. Though that would be for readers to find not the author I suspect.
There is such a thing as being too close to your own work after all.
Regardless, here are a few ‘quotable’ Hannibalisums that made me smile when I was doing the final proofread, and will hopefully make others smile too. I should add they are all reprinted here entirely without context, but I’ll let Hannibal introduce himself on this occasion…
… a gentleman and an officer, despite my incarceration. Or at least that was how I preferred to present myself to the world. I am in actuality, a lying thieving swindler, who just happens to wear a uniform and hold pretensions to civility. Though truth be told I’ve always considered that to be the definition of an officer and a gentleman…
…something my old mum used to tell me when I was a lad. “If you’re going to lie, Harry, my son, then lie big…” Of course, mother was generally off her trolley on Gin most of the time, but in essence, it was still sound advice…
…Lady Justice in London’s courts wasn’t exactly for sale, but she could be rented for a sizeable contribution to someone’s retirement fund…
…There are workers and doers in this world, and then there are also those who do the paperwork…
…Privately I always suspected not bombing a few villages for a while might go a long way towards resolving the problems, but don’t quote me on that. Such opinions have never proved popular…
…even thugs love a tale of smiling children…
…A wringing of hands you could almost hear in his tone. Like a politician caught with his trousers round his ankles and a King’s Cross rent boy’s lips on his… well, you get the gist…
…There was something unpleasant about him. Like that itch on your scrotum that you can’t scratch in public…
A Spider In The Eye will be available in paperback and as an ebook from the 7th of January and the kindle version with be available for pre-order in the next day or so.
Clearly, it would be an act of wisdom for me to take the time to encourage people to visit my blog, as opposed to reading the blogs of others. I am, however, not wise, nor am I so calculating. Besides, if you’re already here, reading this, you’re already on my blog and reading it. So wisdom be damned… be damned I tell you…
(I actually write this post about 3 months ago, but never finished it off, and found it in my drafts, so thought I may as well get it published now, even though there are only a couple of blogs on this one rather than the usual 5)
Here is another of those sporadic lists of fun and interesting blogs more people should be reading ( even if those more people are already more people than probably read mine in the first place.) And as ever, remember….
https://meredithdebonnaire.wordpress.com/
Book reviews, personal insights, and ‘Tales from Tantamount’ which may be entirely fictional, or maybe the translated whispers, newspaper clippings, spy reports from another part of the multiverse that have slipped through a rip in space and time, form a part of the universe that makes perfect sense there but is incomprehensibly weird in a wonderful way to our more mundane eyes. (oh I so hope the latter is true, I mean I know it isn’t, but what is life without hope.) Oh and BEWARE: falling Alpaca’s, and the Magpies, definitely the Magpies…
https://craighallam.wordpress.com/
As I love his Alan Shaw novels, including Craig in this little list would seem obvious. I am however not including him for his books or his posts on Alan, or even the little insights into the life of a somewhat more successful scribbler of words than myself. It’s his post on everything else that make me bob over on to his blog now and again. His Tao of writers series is interesting and informative, he has guest posts from other writers whom I may not have heard of but look forward to discovering if I ever have the time. Craig is a writers writer. Warm and fuzzy he may be, but he is welcoming and encouraging and just nice. Irritatingly so at times…
Anyway, as before with the previous pointless list of wonderfulness, I am sure this is enough homework to give everyone for now. However, the previous post, complete with another five interesting and delightful blogs to look at can be found here.
The writing of blurbs is a bit of an art form. It is also an art form I’ve never come close to mastering. The blurb, that little smattering of text on the back of a book is supposed to do several things at once.
In a world of ebooks and internet purchasing the back of a book may not seem as important as it once was, but everything that goes into writing that blurb, every thought, consideration and nuance, are exactly the same as the ones that apply to the blurb for an E-books Amazon listing or any other ebook outlet. Writing a blurb, therefore, is its own dark art and one I have always suspected was best undertaken by someone other than the writer of the book itself. For authors are a precious bunch when it comes to there children.
Despite this, there is no such thing as a professional blurb writing service for indie writers. Or indeed a professional amazon blurb writing service. Which is odd, because normally people are queuing up to sell a writer their services, but then again the writing of blurbs is more dark art than science…
As I had to compile ‘A Spider in the Eye’ fully, cover et al, in order to get a proof copy I found myself needing to write a blurb. And yes before someone mentions it, I could have printed it myself on loose sheets of paper for a readthrough proofing, but there is something particularly satisfying and real about holding a book in your hand. So I am getting a load of tag post-it’s and a new highlighter pen and once the proof copy arrives (it’s due Friday) I will read it through properly on the sofa, with the fire on and a glass of something or other, and doing it in book form will stop me writing whole chapters by mistake… (the curse of editing is sometimes the urge to keep editing).
So back to blurbs… As I said I had to throw one together for the proof copy, though by the time I was happy with the compiling and read to set the proof I had written, and rewritten half a dozen of them before I finally committed myself to the one that adorns the back of the proof copy. Which will probably change again before publication, but will at least stop me fretting about it for the next week or so…
So, until it is entirely reworked, rewritten, scrapped and started over, shortened, lengthened, rethought, and completely redone… Which it will be.
This is the blurb on the back of ‘A Spider In The Eye.’
See, that’s why there should be a professional blurb writing service somewhere out there in the ether…
You’ll have to forgive me, or perhaps not as the case may be, but I have been rather taciturn on the blog of late. There have been few posts about writing because I have been busy writing. Few posts on Lovecraft’s stories because I have been busy reading things that are actually fun to read, and few random posts about random things because I have been busy being rather randomly busty between work and writing. (and a mild case of depression that reared its head a month or so ago.)
Among the randomness, I was playing with Giffy and made the Scar of Avarice gif below…
Because procrastination…
However, such mild randomness aside I have exciting news ( for me, not necessarily for you, but hey you know what, hope springs eternal…)
Today in a busy lunch hour I finished compiling, recompiling and generally frustratingly faffing about and ‘A spider in the Eye’ is now actually a book. Indeed I managed to get it to the point I was happy enough with it to order the final proof copy, which will arrive sometime after Friday. So after three years of work, (more or less on and off with other projects) the first full-length Hannibal Smyth Novel will be ready to unleash upon the expecting (probably uncaring) universe early next year.
I suspect I may mention it a few times once I get as far as having a release date…
The sequel, which is about 70% written will follow it before the end of next year and hopefully as soon as the summer.
So exciting times (for me) hopefully for the occasional reader of this blog who have also read one or more of my books previously and is looking forward to some more.
Normal blog services will resume shortly…
Randolph ‘bloody’ Carter, where have I read that name before… Or more to the point where will I read it again..
Way back in the dim dark days of February 2017, when the Lovecraftian parts of this blog were still just blooming, the 14th post is this increasingly disparate series was ‘The Statement of Randolph Carter’ and I had quite a lot of good things to say about it. Don’t get me wrong, it didn’t score high in the slithering tentacles stakes, a lowly two in fact, but it did have charm and it was (when written) groundbreaking in its own odd little way. Though that mostly positive little review was written by a less jaded reviewer of old tentacle huggers work, it has to be said.
Since then Randolph has popped back a few times, though only once by name, ironically that was in The Unnamable. Other works with unnamed narrators are often laid at Randolph’s door. Which is not surprising because old Randolph is often thought to be Lovecraft’s most autobiographical character.
But beyond that, he looms large on the horizon in the forthcoming (for me) The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath. Which I can’t claim to be looking forward to, as the stories I like the least in Lovecraft’s cannon tend to be the dreamlands tales, and Kadath is not just a short story, but a novella, which means it’s going to be a long wander through the wrong gates of horn and ivory when I get to it in a few blog posts time. This little prequel of that delight to come therefore has been sitting on my desk being roundly ignored for quite a while. Those who follow this series will probably have noticed this one year project of mine is fast approaching its third year and hit a traffic jam of sorts last spring…
There is a lot of Lovecraft I am looking forward to reading,, this and Kadath are not among them, however. But still, deep breath, onwards and upwards, I am doing these in order so in order they must be done…
Which would be better if they had been written is some kind of order, but that’s not entirely what happened. This little jaunt is set after the dream-quest. Indeed all the Randolf Carter take place after the dream-quest but unlike the others, this one directly alludes to that early tale, which Lovecraft hadn’t actually written when he scribbled down this one.
Confused… well you will be, here though, in an effort to be helpful, is the plot in full (borrowed from Wikipedia… because it was easier than explaining all this myself.)
Randolph Carter discovers, at the age of 30, that he has gradually “lost the key to the gate of dreams.” Randolph once believed life is made up of nothing but pictures in memory, whether they be from real life or dreams. He highly prefers his romantic nightly dreams of fantastic places and beings, as an antidote for the “prosiness of life”. He believes his dreams to reveal truths missing from man’s waking ideas, regarding the purpose of humans and the universe, primary among these being the truth of beauty as perceived and invented by humans in times past.
As he ages, though, he finds that his daily waking exposure to the more “practical”, scientific ideas of man, has eventually eroded his ability to dream as he once did, and has made him regretfully subscribe more and more to the mundane beliefs of everyday, waking “real life”. But still not certain which is truer, he sets out to determine whether the waking ideas of man are superior to his dreams, and in the process, he passes through several unsatisfying philosophical stances. Discouraged, he eventually withdraws from these lines of inquiry, and goes into seclusion.
After a time, a hint of the fantastic enters his dreams again, though he is still unable to dream of the strange cities of his youth, leaving him wanting more. During one of these dreams, his long-dead grandfather tells him of a silver key in his attic, inscribed with mysterious arabesque symbols, which he finds and takes with him on a visit to his boyhood home in the backwoods of northeastern Massachusetts (the setting for many of Lovecraft’s stories), where he enters a mysterious cave that he used to play in. The key somehow enables him to return to his childhood as a ten-year-old boy, and his adult self disappears from his normal time.
The story then relates how Randolph’s relatives had noted, beginning at the age of ten, that he had somehow gained the ability to glimpse events in his future. The narrator of the story then states that he expects to meet Randolph soon, in one of his own dreams, “in a certain dream-city we both used to haunt”, reigning there as a new king, where the narrator may look at Randolph’s key, whose symbols he hopes will tell him the mysteries of the cosmos.
And there you go, and there also is my problem with this whole story, and yes I know there will be people who find the idea behind this story interesting. Indeed I like the idea, a man returning to his youth and living his life again with the knowledge of his own future… So many possibilities and/or bad teen movies there. I like the idea that dream and reality are just two sides of the same coin, one no more real than the other. What is reality but perception after all… If you dream vividly enough, who is to say that the dream is not the real world? And the real world but a dream?
Oh, there are a great many great ideas here.
They just don’t work in this story, there is too much, too many layers hammered on top of each other, and it is dry as the empty quarter. So dry that lost cities could have been drowned in sand, forgotten to history and the dream world alike.
As a collection of ideas, this is astounding. As an execution, it is torrid.
I’m not saying don’t read it, really I’m not, but if you do read it, for the love of all thing scaley don’t blame me…
Which is a shame because the next Randolph Carter story chronologically is Through the gates of the silver key, and that one I actually like a lot, (though I have to go on a dream-quest first…)
Next up ‘The strange house in the mist’ which I sort of remember liking, so that’s something to look forward too, unless of course I only remember liking it from a dream…
Further Lovecraftian witterings as ever can be found here
I have an unfortunate habit…
Okay, I have lots of unfortunates habits, starting blog posts off with irrelevant tangents before I even get in the vague vicinity of the point being one of them. But if you’re not a regular read bear with me, and if you’re a regular reader, well you should be used to this by now…
As I was saying, I have an unfortunate habit, this particular unfortunate habit is I tend to happen upon, fall in love with, and utterly devour the wrong American TV shows. When I say the wrong American TV shows it isn’t because the TV shows are wrong, it just due to the irritating way American channels make tv shows only a few weeks ahead of broadcasts they have a habit of been cancelled mid-season, often with a big mid-season cliffhanger just to add insult to injury, and if there is a show that I discovered early, looks good and really gets me drawn in, you can put money on it getting cancelled on me mid-season. Apart from the obvious one, Firefly, there has in recent times been the excellent Constantine (which started a tad ropey but really got into it stride after a few episodes, slow burners that start to really hit their stride a few episodes in never seem to last) and a fair few others. And the reason I bring this up is due to another of those short-lived gems cancelled due to the travesties of American network executives lack of vision. This particular cancelled gem which partly inspired the post is The Dresden Files…
Based on Jim Butcher’s books, Harry Dresden was an itinerate Magician for hire in Chicago, a sort of noir style private detective with a supernatural twist. He uses an ice hockey stick for a magic staff, his best ‘friend’ or perhaps just closest ally is the ghost of a long-dead magician that lives in a skull, is perpetually broke, has a not entirely amicable relationship with the Chicago PD and an abrasive, confrontational relationship with the ‘powers’ that govern the unseen world. It was far from perfect and would have probably benefited from a quirky teenage sidekick in the eyes of TV executives. But it was fun and left you feeling there was a long going on in the background and much to explore.
The Butcher books, of which I have read a few, are far more fleshed out that the TV series ever got to be, but I never quite got the same vibe from them as I did from the TV series. All the same, they are well worth a read, and I always suspected from the books that if you came from Chicago, you would get more even more from them, because they use the Chicago landscape backdrop a lot. Unlike LA, Boston or New York, I don’t really know a great deal about the windy city. Boston, for example, I could probably find my way around easily, having walked those streets so often…
When I say walked those streets, it was the nuked to hell version of Boston in Fallout 4, but still, I know which side of the river to find Cambridge on and the direction to take from downtown to the port and so on…
Still, both the TV series and the books are entertaining, interesting and draw you in. But I have on occasion wondered if you could take the basic idea of a down at the heels supernatural investigator and transplant him to somewhere I am more familiar with than America. Why couldn’t he be based in Loughborough, or Bristol, or even Teeside? After all, while I was not born around the banks of the Tees (I’m from the heart of gods own county) I have lived here for a few years now, why not take that germ of a character idea and set him down in the industrial landscape of northern Britain? I even toyed with the idea of writing a teen vampire novel ( not my cup of tea but hey there is a market for teenage vampires, and I occasionally aspire to make my living with words so maybe it would be worth trying…) and setting the vampire down in North Yorkshire… I haven’t btw, it was merely a passing thought. But the noir style detective supernatural, well that’s such a fun idea to play with…
Like many a good idea, you’re often not the first to have it. If you don’t write the tale yourself, someone else will. At which point all you can hope is that they write a good tale and having beaten you to an idea they do it well. If they do, well all good and well. Sit back read the stories and admire the craft…
Enter Brennan and Rix. An unlikly pair, for a start one of them is a talking rat and the other is a down at the heels supernatural troubleshooter, private detective, problem solver, living out of his car at the moment as he is a bit light on funds and hoping the next job pays off, or for that matter just pays. And where is this car parked, what fabulously exotic location is this collection of tales set. Why yes, the smoggy banks of the Tees, cooling towers, industrial buildings, and the mean streets of Stockton.
Rix, the rodent side of this partnership, is, well, he’s a bit of an arsehole. Brennan, on the other hand, is long-suffering of his ‘friend’ and for the most part, is always trying to do the right thing in difficult circumstances. Be that by helping a not entirely unfriendly ghost move on, or trying to prevent the bad thing that lay in the darkness stepping into the light, and then eating the light… These tales follow a pattern you might be familiar with, particularly if you watch a few monsters of the week style tv series. Each tale has its own story, its own point of resolution, its own little moralities and each has its own bit of fall out. They don’t always get paid, they don’t always end up helping the person who hired them exactly, though Rix may complain about this as that’s generally when they don’t get paid, its generally because Brennan is trying to stay on the side of the angels and do what’s right, rather than what’s convenient at the time.
There are also other tv show tropes, there is much that is eluded to, a world beyond each individual tale, a larger tale happening around them, there are recurring guest stars who pop up on one story than come back a few stories later. (one of them is particularly fun, and a somewhat more competent supernatural investigator… who by about season 3 would be a love interest of the main character if this was actually a TV show… there are ‘powers that be’ who are hovering the in the background. And the main pair have their own backstories being gradually eluded to. Rix is more than just a talking rat, he is older than you would think and (this is a pure guess on my part) may not of always had a tale… Brennan childhood was not exactly happy, and some things have happened that, well, let’s just say there is a fair degree of darkness in his past…
If this was a TV show, I have no doubt it would get cancelled by the American TV executive hit squad around about episode 14. All those dark hints and little threads in the background of these tales that run as a connecting thread through them would remain forever unresolved. But luckily for us, it isn’t an American TV show. All those enticing little tidbits that draw you along may remain far from resolved, but there will be more adventures to come, and the stories will only grow. These are fun, funny (the interplay between the main characters never ceases to raise a smile, and does nothing but pull you into the strange world of a man and his rat, which has such a sense of place about it as it is set in the very real world around you. That’s not to say that if you’re not a resident of Teeside you’ll be missing out in anyway when you read these stories, the sense of the real world and the other world running parallel with it is still there. If you are from the Tees valley however you’ll just get a little bit more…
On the tentacle scale, it’s a very solid five ( unless your form Teeside when it’s a six (which if your unfamiliar with tentacles is as good as it gets) And if you need any more inducement here is the Amazon link and the usual preview pages, I encourage you to have a read…
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Strange-Tales-Brennan-Riz/dp/1729119190
As an aside, the weekend before I read the story set at Halloween in Preston Park museum I was at Preston Park walking the exact little path through the woods that is described in the book… So when I read that passage, I was just a little haunted by the whole thing. Which was frankly marvellous… and a testament to Peter’s writing as it managed to creep me out just a little bit, as he did not just make it feel real, but having been there so recently it was all the more real for it…
The Passing Place 