Tag Archives: books

Genteel light vs Grim dark

Posted on July 24, 2024 by Mark Hayes

Just to avoid any confusion I like grim dark fiction. I like heroes and heroines with shades of grey. I have no problem with a two sided coins, villains with heroic traits and heroes who are half the villain. I … Continue reading →

Posted in amreading, book reviews, books, reads, steampunk | Tagged amreading, book-review, books, fantasy, fiction, steampunk | 2 Comments

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 →

Posted in amreading, amwriting, books, fiction, Harvey Duckman, indie writers, men in dark tweed, reads, sci-fi, steampunk, writing | Tagged amreading, books, fiction, reading, reads, steampunk, writerslife, writing | Leave a comment

Men in Dark Tweed #10

Posted on June 28, 2024 by Mark Hayes

The Men in Dark Tweed were created on a whim while I was working on my current WIP novel, a Victorian Urban Fantasy entitled ’Lucifer Mandrake and the Hanoverian Proxy’ The new, somewhat nefarious Home Secretary sets up a plain clothes … Continue reading →

Posted in books, fiction, Harvey Duckman, humour, indie writers, men in dark tweed, reads, sci-fi, steampunk, writes | Tagged amreading, art, books, men in dark tweed, photography, poetry, reads, sciencefiction, steampunk, travel, writerslife, writing | Leave a comment

Folly and Madness

Posted on June 25, 2024 by Mark Hayes

A month ago, in the early dawn light, on the banks of the river Tees a small group of writers, readers, and bibliophiles stood shivering in the mist as it rose off the water, into the fridge air. A profound … Continue reading →

Posted in amreading, amwriting, books, fantasy, fiction, Hannibal Smyth, Harvey Duckman, indie, indie writers, men in dark tweed, steampunk | Tagged amreading, books, fantasy, fiction, Hannibal Smyth, Harvey Duckman, steampunk, writers, writing | Leave a comment

Beguiling darkness: Tethered

Posted on June 21, 2024 by Mark Hayes

In the distant past before the lost years and the breaking of the world, in a younger less cynical time, I was sent a manuscript to read. This was about four years ( three atrocious prime ministers and one pandemic) … Continue reading →

Posted in amreading, book reviews, fantasy, indie novels, indie writers, steampunk | Tagged amreading, book reviews, book-review, books, fantasy, fiction, reads, sciencefiction, steampunk | 2 Comments

Harvey’s not dead/Men in Dark Tweed

Posted on April 9, 2024 by Mark Hayes

Over the last several years I have been involved in the Harvey Duckman Anthologies project. First as a writer, occasionally a mentor and then latterly as part of the editorial staff . I have spoken of it here more than … Continue reading →

Posted in #amwriting, amreading, amwriting, fiction, Hannibal Smyth, Harvey Duckman, indiewriter, men in dark tweed, steampunk | Tagged amreading, book reviews, books, fiction, reads, steampunk, writer, writers, writerslife, writing, writingtips | 1 Comment

Forgotten forests

Posted on March 28, 2024 by Mark Hayes

The nexus of my identity is not external to me. This was a hard lesson, long to be learned, over many years and to an extent still unlearned. Coming to the realisation that what makes you you, and understanding that … Continue reading →

Posted in amreading, books, reads | Tagged amreading, books, pagan, paganism, reads | 3 Comments

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 →

Posted in reads, Uncategorized, writes, writing | Tagged books, reads, steampunk, writerslife, writing | 4 Comments

Dear Edgar #17 Ligeia

Posted on January 15, 2024 by Mark Hayes

And the will therein lieth, which dieth not. Who knoweth the mysteries of the will, with its vigor? For God is but a great will pervading all things by nature of its intentness. Man doth not yield himself to the … Continue reading →

Posted in amreading, Dear Edgar | Tagged books, Dear Edgar, Edgar Alan Poe, edgar-allan-poe, gothic, horror, Poe, reads, writerslife, writing | 2 Comments

Pagan Books (of the year and otherwise)

Posted on December 21, 2023 by Mark Hayes

Fellow author, blogger, musician, poet, worshipper of trees, insightful guru, druid, and all round wonderful person,Nimue Brown started a Facebook group called Pagan Book News. If you are interested in paganism, belief structures, and humanities connection to the wider universe, … Continue reading →