Duncan Thompson's Blog, page 2

2017 Update

Hello, and thanks for stopping by. I’m conscious I haven’t posted in a while, but with my new book being released this time next month (more on this later), I thought this would be a good time bring keep everyone up to date.

So, the last post I uploaded was back in February after I had been to Bradford Comic-Con, organised by Unleashed Events. It was the first event of this nature to be held in my home town and it was a roaring success for everyone involved.

I wanted to give a special mention to a fellow indie-writer I connected with last year via Twitter – Drew Forest. In February I read his second novel Reading the Palms of Dolls. Drew is a fantastic writer and I’m very much looking forward to reading more from him. Check out my review of Reading the Palms of Dolls. 

Another indie-writer I discovered in the last few months was K.T McQueen and her novel Whispers on the Hill. K.T’s writing will keep you on the edge of your seat.

I’m also looking forward to reading the debut novel by promising young writer named Rebecca Poppleton. I had the pleasure of meeting Rebecca at Bradford Comic-Con and I can’t wait to make a start on her book The Writer, which is released on 1st June.

Moving on to my own work… My debut novella Within the Dark Places was released nine months ago and sales are steadily growing each quarter with great reviews, so I’m super excited for the release of the follow-up Where the Darkness Hides on 30th June. The story opens with a scene which takes place only hours before the events of Within the Dark Places commenced and then immediately jumps in where we left off. I can’t wait to see what reception this will receive, especially if you have read the first instalment. You can currently pre-order the paperback edition through amazon.co.uk.

As I mentioned, Bradford Comic-Con was a great success. I will therefore be appearing at York Comic-Con (also organised by Unleashed Events) on 13th August. I’ll be selling and signing copies of Within the Dark Places and Where the Darkness Hides as well as having a general chit-chat with anyone who stops by to say hello.

The promoting of Where the Darkness Hides will probably keep me busy up to November when I am please to say by third novella will be released.

The book is called The Church of Freyr and is a new story I penned last summer. I will be releasing further updates and snippets as we head into the autumn. To give you a taste of what to expect, one of my beta-testers described it as Californication meets the Wicker Man. 

Obviously, it’s going to be a busy six months, but that doesn’t mean I have stopped writing. About three months ago I completed the first draft of the second sequel to Within the Dark Places. At present I am in the earlier stages of revision and rewrites, but I’m pleased with how its going so far. This will bring to a conclusion what I have dubbed the The Darkness Trilogy.  There is no planned release date as of yet, but I’m hoping for autumn 2018.

Well that’s all for now. Keep safe and keep reading.

D.T

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bradford Comic-Con 2017

Where else could you see Boba Fett, two pirates (with real live Macaws), numerous incarnations of Doctor Who, a dozen versions of Harley Quinn and the Joker, two transformers, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, numerous members of the Avengers and a four year old Stan Lee? That’s right, Bradford Comic Con.

I was there as a trader selling copies of my debut novella, Within the Dark Places and generating awareness of the follow up, Where the Darkness Hides. But despite being busy, on my feet four seven hours straight, working away, I still got to enjoy the event.

My stall was positioned in the best spot possible; directly in front of the special guest tables. Guests included Jeremy Bulloch – Boba Fett (Star Wars), Colin Baker – the sixth doctor (Doctor Who), and Mel Pickup – Athgar Heece (Star Wars 7).

Traders needed to be set up by 9.45 am ready for the early-bird ticket holders entering at 10 am.

While setting up an elderly gentleman came over to say hello. Now at this time the organizers were playing the background music extremely loud (it’s a good job I’m a Depeche Mode fan), so as a result I could not hear a word the chap was saying other than he either caught the plane or the train up to Bradford and he was shocked how cold it was. I smiled politely, then without trying to be rude, encouraged him to leave so I could finish setting up. The gentleman proceeded to make his way to the guest tables and sat behind the one labeled “Jeremy Bulloch”. I turned a lovely shade of red when I realized I had snubbed “The Fett”.

It was now 9.55 and in walked Colin Baker (who I did recognize on sight). He made his way to his table, and to my surprise, he began setting up on his own. I was expecting him to have a PA or the help from the event organizers. But no he did it all by himself. I must say, considering the doors opened to the public at 10am, the Time Lord’s time keeping  left something to be desired. But I am impressed that he (and the other guests) did not need an entourage and were happy to get stuck in like the rest of us.

In terms of my book sales, the event was a little slow to begin with. People took the time to browse over my stall, but mainly while they were waiting in line to have a selfie with Jeremy Bulloch or Colin Baker.

At 11 am none-ticket holders were now allowed entry and it wasn’t too long after this I sold my first book to a lovely young lady; although I did have to do the hard sell.Flustered at my first sale I stuck the money in my pocket instead of my lock-box then tore the paper bag to keep the book clean.

All quiet for another hour, until I saw a work colleague, who initially wanted to buy a copy for her young son. Any one who has read my book will know it isn’t child friendly. I explained this to Louise, who then insisted her husband buy a copy instead.

Soon after I was starting to feel peckish so I brought out my sandwiches. I must remember this trick, as as soon as the ham butties came out, the customers came flocking over.

A teenage boy approached holding a copy of my book, he explained his mum had just bought it. My first felt panic, as I hadn’t anticipated someone wanting to return it (surely it wasn’t that bad?) He then said his mum had sent him over to ask me to sign her copy. I was more than happy to oblige. Gail, if you’re reading this, I hope you enjoyed the book.

Sales for the rest for the day were steady and I even made friends with a couple who run a local comic book shop and they want to stock copies of Within the Dark Places.

At the end of the day, as the traders were packing up I saw Jeremy Bulloch stood waiting for his… I’m not too sure who he was with, she could have been his wife, maybe even his daughter. I walked over to him and asked how his day had been. We reprised our conversation from the start of day – he had flown up from Heathrow to Leeds/Braford airport. Now… I have met a few celebrities in my time (the most memorable being the conversation I had about the police with Bez from the Happy Mondays), but I must say Mr Bulloch AKA Boba Fett is a true gentleman. Some celebrities appear at these events and feel inconvenienced, like they want to be elsewhere, but Jeremy was genuinely pleased to be there and had enjoyed every minute speaking to the fans.

In this day and age where someone can be famous for no real reason at all, it is lovely to see how humble a celebrity can be and genuinely happy to give something back to the fans who helped make his career.

 

 

 

Where The Darkness Hides – Sample Chapter

Previously, I released a sneak peak of my forthcoming book Where the Darkness Hides, the follow-up to my debut novella, Within the Dark Places.

As there are six months remaining to the release of Where the Darkness Hides, I wanted to share with you another sample.

Enjoy.

Officer Campbell paused to catch his breath, removing his helmet and wiping his brow with the back of his hand. Although it was mid-October, the day was humid; the air thick and heavy and hiking through the woods in the middle of the afternoon wasn’t helping with the heat. ‘Which way now?’ he asked.
Officer Raimi, looking equally flushed, arched his back to be able to look his colleague in the eye. ‘That way, I think.’ He pointed to a trail that led in a north-easterly direction.
Campbell placed his helmet back on his head and gestured to Raimi to lead the way.
After several hundred yards they came to a wire fence, which ran as far as the eye could see in both directions of the valley.
‘Well, how do we get round this? Campbell asked.
Raimi scanned the fence and shrugged. ‘Forget it — let’s go back.’
‘Wilson will go ape if we return empty-handed. You can wave goodbye to that sergeant’s badge you’ve been chasing if you go back now.’
Raimi muttered to himself then spotted something hanging from the fence a few feet up the embankment. It was a tattered piece of denim. Raimi opened his toolkit and bagged it as evidence. He then noticed that the wires of the fence had been widened enough to allow someone to slip through.
Raimi tossed his kit over the fence and then clambered through the gap. Campbell followed, but his bulkier frame made it difficult to pass through as easily.
‘Now where?’ Campbell asked.
‘I suppose we keep following this path,’ Raimi said, and led on.
Farther ahead, just off the trail, lay a rustic shack. Upon closer inspection, Raimi saw that the surrounding undergrowth was broken and trampled. He pointed out the area to Campbell. ‘Someone passed through here — look.’
‘How do you know that?’
‘Look at how the ground has been disturbed.’
Campbell sighed. ‘It could have been an animal.’
Raimi raised his eyebrows. ‘An animal? It would take a pretty big animal to make this much mess.’          He jumped off the trail into the undergrowth. ‘You coming?’ he asked, looking back at Campbell.
A trail of dried blood led the officers to a metal object half-hidden amongst the foliage. They knelt down to find a closed bear trap. Clasped within its jaws, crawling with flies and other bugs, was a severed hand. Its skin was mottled and grey.
Raimi placed a hand over his mouth as he retched as the smell of decay hit him.
Campbell turned away in disgust. ‘You can bag that.’
‘I don’t even know how I’d get it out of the trap without losing my own hand,’ Raimi said, reviewing the scene. ‘We’ll let forensics take care of it.’ He reached in his kit bag and pulled out a plastic marker with the letter ‘A’ printed on it, which he placed next to the trap.
‘Look,’ he said, pointing, ‘the blood is thicker here and leads away from the scene.’
‘Yeah, and deeper into the woods.’
Beyond the blood trail the woods cleared slightly to reveal a man slumped against a tree with his back to the officers.
‘Excuse me, sir!’ Campbell called.
There was no response.
Campbell moved closer to see the man had been impaled by wooden pike, which was suspended from the treetops. The deceased man’s head bobbed lightly as the pike was gently rocked by the breeze.
Campbell turned to Raimi, his head spinning with dizziness and his stomach churning. ‘Get on the radio. Get Wilson to get up here — now!’
And then he threw up.

 

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Where the Darkness Hides – A Sneak Peak

My debut novella, Within the Dark Places, was released in August. If you have had the chance to read it, I hope you enjoyed it! Below is a sneak peak at the sequel, Where the Darkness Hides – due for release in June 2017. I also hope you enjoy this preview and that you will be eager to read more previews in the coming months.

“Oh my God! Oh my God!” Barons sat in the corner of the cell rocking back and forth as Gladwin and Carpenter entered; his knees clutched against his chest, his long straggly, straw-like hair covering his face. “Oh God, don’t let it hurt me! Oh God!”

Carpenter fumbled the lock of the cell door as he tried to work the keys with the same hand in which he held his torch. Gladwin scanned the cell, “Where’s Davey?”

The lock clicked and Carpenter pulled open the door, which screamed as the rusted hinges grinded against each other. He searched the cell with the torch light and saw the scorch marks on the bed. “Ma’am, look.”

Gladwin turned her head to the bed then crouched in front of Barons. “What happened? Where’s the man who was in here with you?”

“Oh God! Oh God” Barons continued to rock back and forth.

“Mr Barons, can you tell me what happened?”

“Oh God, don’t let them take me,”

“Barons, come on. Pull yourself together!”

“Oh God, Oh G…”

Gladwin smacked Barons across the cheek. The slap made Carpenter flinch with an empathetic sting.

Adam Barons stared at Gladwin in stunned silence; his hands shaking.

“What happened?” she asked again.

“H-h-he j-just burst, burst into, fla-flames. Oh God!”

Carpenter crouched next to Gladwin and whispered to her. “Just like Raimi.”

Gladwin ignored him, keeping her attention on Barons. “Then what happened?” The tone of her voice now lower, more soothing.

Barons sniffled. “Wh-what was left of him, God, what was left turned into a-a-a…”

“Go on. A what?”

“A demon!” 

If you haven’t had the chance to read Within the Dark Places yet, you can get your copy by clicking the image below!

Lullaby

Writing Prompt: Put your iPod or iTunes on shuffle. Write 250 words inspired by the first and last lines of the very next song that plays.

Song: Lullaby by The Cure


First line: On candy stripe legs the spiderman comes


Last line: And the spiderman is always hungry…

The press call me “The Spiderman” for the way I devour my victims.

Hidden in the shadows cast by the setting sun I will watch you; waiting for the perfect moment when the moon is full and fat to make my move.

Silently, I will climb in through the window making my way up the creaking stairs towards your room, while you lay shivering in your bed.

Without a sound I scuttle into your bedroom; the darkness cloaks me as I crawl to the foot of your bed.

I can feel your body wriggle and jiggle and squirm underneath my long spindly limbs as I run my salivating tongue over your cheek and into your eye. You try to break free to no avail. “Don’t struggle like that I will only want you more,” I whisper; hot breath against your ear.

You then feel the syringe break the skin of your neck like a mosquito bite – the last thing you will ever feel – as I release my venom into your bloodstream.  Your insides begin to boil and liquefy but you’re powerless to do anything about it as the paralysis sets in. The only thing you feel is the terror as you realise The Spiderman is having you for dinner tonight.

I take my time draining you, savouring every last drop of the soup I have made.

Satisfied for now I slink back into the shadows of the cold night. But the satisfaction will not last – The Spiderman is always hungry.

Why I Wanted to be an Author

I have been writing stories since the age of seven.

The teacher I had at the time was a huge fan of Roald Dahl and would always read his books to the class. There were three stories in particular which stuck with me; George’s Marvelous Medicine (which I hear now comes with a “Do Not Try This At Home” warning label), James and the Giant Peach, and of course, Charlie & the Chocolate Factory. Stories of extraordinary things happening to ordinary people and this really captured my imagination; remaining at the core of nearly everything I have written since.

I then started to write my own tales  – starting with parodies of Roald Dahl’s work (I remember I wrote a story of children were invited to look around a toy factory ran by an eccentric toy maker). Not only did I find that my friends liked the stories I wrote but the actual writing process was so much fun.  It is ultimately this combination of  doing something fun that lets your imagination run wild, while at the same time entertaining people which ultimately led me to want to be an author. And now, as an adult, I continue to want to be an author, having written stories for so long, I really don’t know how to do anything else.

A TV Show From My Childhood I Would Love to Bring Back

Those of you who were born in the early 80s, or have children of that age, may remember a short-lived T.V show called Eerie, Indiana. It was essentially The X-Files for kids, two years before The X-Files even aired.

The show ran for 18 episodes between September 1991 and April 1992 and followed the paranormal investigations of 13-year-old Marshall Teller (played by Omri Katz – Hocus Pocus) and his friend Simon.

Marshall moves to Eerie, Indiana with his family; a town he describes as “the center of weirdness for the entire planet”. But only the boy next door (Simon) shares his belief that not all is right with the small town.

It was this premise that inspired me to write the short stories as a teenager, which would later become my forthcoming Raven’s Peak series.

The first two episodes were directed by Joe Dante (famous for The Howling), which included the story of a woman who stayed forever young by sleeping in a giant Tupperware box and the story of a boy whose new dental retainer gave him the ability to read the minds of pet dogs. In a tribute to Sherlock Holmes, at the end of each episode, Marshal would keep a memento from his latest adventure, such as the dental retainer, which he would lock up in a cabinet, until the time came to show the world the truth about Eerie, Indiana.

Sadly, the show was never picked up for a second series. Although there was an even shorter lived revival in 1998. Set in a parallel universe with new actors, but it lacked the appeal of the original.

I would love to see a reboot of the show for today’s kids. It was a big influence on my writing and maybe it could influence future writers. Or perhaps a second series of the original show which follows the adventures of Marshall and Simon as adults (one for the bigger kids).

Story Ideas I’d love to Tackle in the Future

If you have read my debut book, Within the Dark Places, you will know this is set in the town of Raven’s Peak. However, we only see a glimpse of this setting, as the story mainly takes place in Druid Wood.

My forthcoming book, Where the Darkness Hides (due for release June 2017) moves from Druid Wood to Raven’s Peak police station and we are introduced to some of the officers who are on the force. But what about the other residents of Raven’s Peak? Or the history of this small, yet strange, town?

Well, I want to explore this in future books…

I am currently working on the first volume of shorter stories which take place in and around Raven’s Peak. While each story will stand alone, there will be an underlying story running throughout which will reach a conclusion in the final part. In many ways, I hope to replicate the same feel and story arch as a T.V show.

I have ideas for at least five volumes, which will feature Raven’s Peak in the title. The first is currently entitled Welcome to Raven’s Peak and follows a young police officer Rachel Cooper as she investigates the death of her father. The clues of her investigation have led her to Raven’s Peak.

My goal is to then tie the Raven’s Peak volumes to Within the Dark Places and Where the Darkness Hides, setting up their next installment, where we might just get to see characters from both series interact.

Story Ideas I Would Like to Tackle in the Future

Duncan Thompson

If you have read my debut book, Within the Dark Places, you will know this is set in the town of Raven's Peak. However, we only see a glimpse of this setting, as the story mainly takes place in Druid Wood.

My forthcoming book, Where the Darkness Hides (due for release June 2017) moves from Druid Wood to Raven's Peak police station and we are introduced to some of the officers who are on the force. But what about the other residents of Raven's Peak? Or the history of this small, yet strange, town?

Well, I want to explore this in future books...

I am currently working on the first volume of shorter stories which take place in and around Raven's Peak. While each story will stand alone, there will be an underlying story running throughout which will reach a conclusion in the final part. In many ways, I hope to replicate the same feel and story arch as a T.V show.

I have ideas for at least five volumes, which will feature Raven's Peak in the title. The first currently entitled Welcome to Raven's Peak, which follows young police officer Rachel Cooper as she investigates the death of her father. The clues of her investigation have led her to Raven's Peak.

My goal is to then tie the Raven's Peak volumes to Within the Dark Places and Where the Darkness Hides, setting up their next installment, where we might just get to see characters from both series interact.

Within the Dark Places

Editorial: Self-publishing > Traditional Publishing

Andrew Joyce

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This article is reprinted with permission from Fred Johnson of BubbleCow.com

Hi everyone.

The school holidays are almost upon us, and I wish those of you with kids good luck. May your family holidays avoid disaster and may you never hear the dreaded “I’m bored!” It might be a good time to lock yourself away and work on that novel.

And when you finish it, go ahead and self-publish. That’s right, I’m not even beating around the bush any more. Self-publishing is the way forward, and big publishers know it. They’re scared. They’re trying to shut us down, man.

Okay, so they’re not actually trying to shut us down, but they are panicking over things like digital rights acquisitions and trying to keep the prices of eBooks up. Self-publishing is becoming more and more prominent each year. Self-published writers are starting to worm their way into the limelight and…

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