C.L. Raven's Blog, page 21

Gimpic Funland

This weekend, as an extended celebration of Ryan’s birthday, we went to stay with his mum in Pembrokeshire. She’d planned a weekend of fun and we had no idea what it was so dressed accordingly for anything. PVC and chains. You can’t go wrong with that. Well…the chains might not have been a great idea but nobody died so it worked out ok. Turned out, the fun was to take place in Heatherton Adventure Park, which will hereby be known as Gimpic Funland.  Yes they had most of the events we’d done for the Summer Gimpics – archery, shooting and as a substitute for sumo wrestling, they had body zorbing. So this summer, we will return with other Gimpians and take over the park.

note the oversized overalls

First up was go-karting. Ryan was at a distinct advantage, having watched F1 all his life so he knew about things like race line and cornering, and he plays a lot of racing games. We were going for fun, taking tight corners and using the corners to their maximum curvyness, trying to see if the karts would tip like our Renault 4s. They don’t. First up though – the overalls. We could’ve both fitted inside them and had room for cake. We were like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man after he’d been burst. Not cool. We had to have cut off ones that billowed like sails as we walked. Then we saw the carts. Every adult who used them had their knees bent right up. We estimated the gap between the pedal and the seat was our leg length fully extended. We were right. In fact, we had to sit forwards on the seat to be able to press the pedals down. But we refused to use children’s carts. It is demeaning enough being us. So Ryan lapped us and Cat came within inches of running him off the road as a result of this.

filthy land lubbers

The next event was Pirate pitch and putt. The course was amazing, with streams, cannons and a shipwrecked boat. We each got a hole in one, much to our surprise because we gave crap a bad name out there. And in keeping with the pirate theme, swore like sailors all the way around the course. Yes there were children there. No we’re not sorry. Pirates don’t apologise.

Following this was lunch then archery. We used the adult bows. Big mistake. They were bigger than us. We’re not kidding. We’re 5’1. The bows were 5’4 long. Pride refused to allow us to use the children’s bows. Though actually, the guy running it didn’t even suggest it.  And we didn’t have our glasses with us so focusing on the 30ft distance to the target was…challenging. There were 10ft targets but children and pussies used those. Lynx who was terrible in practise, won with 14 points. Cat who was good in practise lost with a crappy 3 points. Not only were the bows comically oversized, they were heavy, so by the time it came to the actual shooting, our arms were shaking with the effort. Clearly we needed more Red Bull.

The next event was body zorbing. This was the most dangerous, fun event of the day. Basically, the top half of your body is in a big inflatable ball, leaving your legs free to run. And the object is to slam into each other and knock each other over. One problem – he gave us adult zorbs. Everyone else’s zorbs came down to below their arses. Ours came down to our knees. So when we were down, we couldn’t get back up. And these things were heavy. We could barely walk in them. Imagine being trapped inside a big medicine ball. That was us. We bounced and rolled like pros. Kids were waiting to come in but the guy refused to let them in with us three, we were that dangerous.  It was like having our own special Gimpic ring. And we were the only 3 going around the go-kart track. It’s like they knew this was a preliminary Gimpics. Cat picked up injury to her bad knee, bruising the old operation scars but you can’t have the Gimpics without injury.

We then moved on to pistol shooting. The tiny targets at 20ft away proved impossible to see without our glasses. And no one told us how to aim the damn thing. For people who’ve never fired guns, we didn’t know you had to line the sight up with the gap at the back of the gun. Ryan only decided to tell us halfway through. So we were embarrassingly crap. Cat hit the target 11 times, scoring 23 points, Lynx hit it 16 times, scoring 38 points and Ryan hit it 23 times, scoring 52.

We’re going to have to get into training for the Summer Gimpics, maybe do more weight training to compensate for the heavy equipment. They also had water zorbing there but we ran out of credits, but we can see that being a fun Gimpic event. But they really need to have equipment designed for small adults. For a start, they need women’s overalls for the go-karting and they need slightly smaller bows for the archery. We’re too big for most kid stuff and frankly, as adults, having to use child equipment is demeaning. They need in between sizes, like for adolescents. Ryan’s mum is the same height as us so would have the same problem. There are tiny women out there people and we demand proper size equipment.

We spent the evening in Tenby – for those who don’t know about the fun time we spent in Tenby last time with chavs shouting out how appreciative they were of our uniqueness, you can read about it here. Last night they were just as welcoming. One guy muttered ‘Goths’ as we walked past. We were so grateful, all these years we couldn’t work out why we dress like we do and this guy has opened our eyes. Thank you, kind man, we’re no longer ignorant. Someone else said “are they going to a funeral?” No. We wear skirts and dress smart for funerals. The rest of the people just gawped. We got a smile from a young, good looking policeman but it was probably out of sympathetic pity for the welcome we were about to receive. We will make it our mission to avoid Tenby in future. They’re just not ready for us.

This summer, the Gimpics will be going to Heatherton. So lock away your kids. This is going to get dangerous.

Reading Festival

We had our first ever library on Saturday in Cathays Library. Yes, we should have blogged about this on Sunday, but we’ve been busy formatting and this is the first chance we’ve had to blog about it. We were incredibly nervous and part of us hoped the rain that day would cause a freak flash flood and the reading would be cancelled. Even though the library isn’t by the Taff, so that wouldn’t have happened. This was one day we wished we were back on the Propranolol.

As it was our first reading, we had no idea what to expect. We’d only started rehearsing the week before. We were memorising our bits between the readings because we didn’t want to read from a script. It never sounds natural doing it that way. Our sister, Sarah, made a lovely display of our books (the postcards were arranged neatly, but our niece had got to them by the time this photo was taken).

Luckily nobody noticed our shaking hands or the shaking Red Bull can whenever we took a drink. Ryan filmed the whole thing so as soon as it’s edited, we’ll put the link up so you can watch it for yourselves.

The reading itself seemed to go down well. People laughed when they were supposed to, nobody fell asleep and our grampy even put his hearing aid in so he could hear it. He never gets to see us in a professional capacity, so it was nice for him to see what we actually do all day. As we’re the only unemployed ones in the family, he’s got to see the rest of our family be successful with jobs, families etc., but we’re the ones who don’t have ‘a proper job’ and still live with our mum, so we were pleased he came and that he enjoyed it.

We read chapter 1 of Soul Asylum then a short extracts from chapters 2 and 26. After that, we read a short extract from all 10 stories in Disenchanted. We even played their trailers, though the lack of whiteboard & TV meant we had to hold our laptop up. We probably wouldn’t do this in the future, but we had an hour to fill.

So the reading was fine. There was only one problem – only our family and friends showed up. We are massively grateful for their support and know we can count on them to be our rent-a-crowd, but the whole point of this was to promote ourselves and our books, and possibly sell some if we’re lucky. But if the only people who come have already bought our books and know who we are, it defeats the object. We have another reading in June and part of us is tempted to cancel it. Not because we didn’t enjoy it, because we did, but because it’s a lot of effort and stress to go through if the only people who will turn up are our own people. We might as well hold a reading in our living room.

There was plenty of publicity surrounding the reading – Cathays Library made posters and flyers, the Cardiff Libraries Twitter and Facebook accounts were publicising it, we were publicising it, but still, nothing. This does seem to be a problem for us – it doesn’t matter how many blogs we guest on, or act on marketing advice, we still can’t sell books. Even winning the Get More Exposure book trailer competition only sold 4 copies and that was promoted to 30,000 people.

But there was definite highlight for us (apart from having our wonderful friends and family there) – we got to meet our Twitter friend, Cheyenne and her husband, Dugald, who travelled from Bristol to come to our reading.  We took them to a pub afterwards and hung out for a couple of hours, which we really enjoyed.

So would we do it again? Probably. But maybe we should wait until people actually know who we are. Or we could go to Plan B. Kidnapping people for a reading isn’t illegal, is it? Oh. Only if we let them go…

 

Out to lunch

Hello! We’re not in Ravens Retreat today, instead we’re hiding out at Linda Parkinson-Hardman’s blog, Woman on the Edge of Reality. Come over and say hi. We reveal what we wanted to be when we were younger (surprisingly, writers wasn’t our first choice), what inspires us, that no one ever wrote love songs about tea, and where exactly we would hide a dead body. Yes, we’ve thought this through. Yes you can borrow it

There’s also a giveaway of our books, so pick whichever one you want, be it print or ebook, we will ship anywhere.

http://womanontheedgeofreality.com/2013/04/11/welcoming-writing-duo-cl-raven-and-a-very-special-giveaway-for-readersecial-giveaway-for-readers/

Burn After Reading

We know we only blogged two days ago, so apologies for another bombardment, but we keep forgetting to mention we’ll be doing a library reading in Cathays Library in Cardiff, and as it is in a week, we thought we ought to announce it. Our terrible memories are legendary so PLEASE remind us to show up!

First, check out the cool poster Cathays Library made for us. Isn’t it lovely? As the poster says, we will be in Cathays Library next Saturday at 4 p.m. We will be reading from Soul Asylum and Disenchanted, plus talking about the books and taking questions. We’ll also bring along copies of our books for anyone who wants to buy a signed copy. They’ve scheduled us to talk for an hour so be prepared for awkward silences, uncomfortable coughing and maybe random dance routines to break the tension.

Weirdly, we do have an actual tie to Cathays. The library is next door to one of our favourite graveyards – Cathays Cemetery. It’s where we filmed the book launch video for Soul Asylum. For those of you who have a print copy, you’ll know there are gravestones on the back cover. Those photos (it’s more than one) were also taken at Cathays Cemetery. When our story, Field of Screams, won Writing Magazine’s ghost story competition, the author photo we sent them, was taken in Cathays Cemetery after we’d got horribly lost in it.

So if you’ve got nothing better to do on a Saturday, come along and say hi. And stay for the reading We would offer you a bribe, but we lack the skills to rob a bank and health and safety vetoed us bringing along shortbread. (N.B Health and safety have also vetoed the random dance routines). We can’t promise you good times, no wait, we CAN promise you good times and you’ll get to hang out in a beautiful library, right next to a Victorian cemetery.  And if it all goes horribly wrong, that’s where we will be hiding. It’s a BIG cemetery, so you’ll never find us But please keep heckling, booing and bottle throwing until AFTER we’ve finished reading the extracts. Joining in will just distract us

Thirteen Ghosts

In the aftermath of finishing Bleeding Empire, we had a couple of days of not writing then immediately got bored. We’d been planning our Bleeding Empire board game, beta reading and editing our Calamityville Horror episodes, but we weren’t working. Boredom does terrible things to us. If we’re lucky, we just feel frustrated. If we’re unlucky, the darkshines descend then we spiral into a pit of hating our work, feeling despondent, despair and utterly hopeless. So boredom is a bad thing. Ryan said to us “why don’t you relax? Read something, or watch TV?” Our response – “we’re like sharks. If we don’t keep moving, we’ll die.”

The idea of spending the day watching TV when we could be working fills us with horror. Actually, time spent not working, caring for the pets or exercising feels like time wasted. So we did the only thing that would keep the darkshines at bay – we wrote two new ghost stories. One is written for Writing Magazine and is about a woman who’s waiting for the ghost of a headless smuggler and the other is about two guys in a band who stumble across creepy wraiths in a graveyard. Then our mum reminded us of an idea she had a couple of months ago – to put all of our ghost stories into a collection. We liked the idea, but didn’t think we had enough for a collection. Turns out, we have 11. We’d like to have 13, so need to write a couple more. There’s only one problem – so far, all the stories only add up to about 30,000 words. Half the length of Disenchanted. As we’d like to bring this out in print, it needs an injection of words. We haven’t yet set a date for when it will be released, but it will probably be around June/July, which is when Disenchanted was released.

So this week we’ve been redrafting all the stories we’ve earmarked for the collection (which is going to be called Deadly Reflections). We’ve already added 1000 words to two stories and redrafted two more. One of them, Deadly Reflections, was published by Dark Fire Fiction two years ago. We’ve always liked that story. It’s one of our oldest and we thought it was as good as we could get it. We were wrong. Two years has taught us a lot more and when we read it, we were disappointed. It wasn’t as good as we remembered. There was too much telling rather than showing and it just didn’t feel right. So it’s been put under our surgical knife and had an overhaul. It’s not ready to have its bandages removed yet, but when it is, it will be completely transformed, whilst retaining enough of its original features that it will be recognisable.

Then we started to panic. In another two years’ time, we will have learned even more about writing. So will we look back at our collections and novel and think “how the hell could we let them go out looking like that?” Probably. But we can always rewrite them in two years. That’s the beauty of self-publishing.

Game On

We’ve been infected. No, not by the Z virus, but by a fever. Board game fever. It’s sweeping across the nation and nowhere is safe. Ok, that may be exaggerating. So far the fever has only hit two places – Cardiff and Pontypridd, but it is contagious and nobody is immune. We’re not talking of playing board games, oh no, we’re talking of MAKING them. This is our mate, Rich’s fault. He is Patient Zero.

It all started when we played Atmosfear for the first time. Somehow, we managed to miss out on this as kids and never even heard of it. But Ryan had found the original game in a charity shop a few years ago. It’s so old it comes with a VHS tape and guess who has a working VCR player? Yes, us. So we played it. And loved it. Then we bought the modern, DVD version. A couple of weeks later, Rich found Atmosfear The Harbingers in a charity shop in Ponty, so we went round his and his girlfriend, Hannah’s to play it and Key to the Kingdom. We’ve owned that game since we were kids and it’s still in great condition. Then we found out Atmosfear IV, the Elizabeth Bathory one, was in a charity shop in Ponty. Two days later, Rich and us went scouring the charity shops of Ponty. Yes we spent a couple of hours raiding every charity shop in Ponty town, when it was pissing down. We are dedicated hunters. We bought Atmosfear IV and it sparked off a need to find the others. Preferably in charity shops, as they’re nice and cheap.

That’s how we were all infected with board game fever. But then Rich’s developed into a more serious case – he started planning to make his own. He told Ryan, who instantly went down with a serious case of the fever. As soon as he read Rich’s text, he was infected. He has  a  very weak immune system. Then Ryan told us. Our first thought was – ‘Bleeding Empire – the board game!’ but we’re stronger than they are. We watched them get swept up in the fever, all the while feeling the infection, but not catching it. We’re used to Ryan becoming geekily obsessed with something for a few weeks, only to abandon it & move on to something else. We’ve seen it happen over and over, so we wait until the latest obsession dies down. But this time, he was geekily obsessed with something we wanted too.

Then Rich emailed us his game for us to print out. It’s called Twelve Dragons and in a word, it’s brilliant. As this is a prototype, there are a few bugs, but not enough to spoil the game. We loved it.

On Saturday, we went out to Hobby Craft so Ryan could buy things for his game – Death or Glory. Hobby Craft is filled with shinys. Expensive shinys. After being cleaned out by the opticians, we watched Ryan with the shinys, fighting the fever. By Sunday, we succumbed. We ordered beautiful pearlescent red dice (they come in a pack of 50, so we’re sharing them amongst our infected) and we planned our board game – Bleeding Empire. Based on our newest novel. There will be all 5 horsemen, plus Drew, the fallen angel and the objective will be to break the seals and end the world. The board will be double-sided, for if Drew stops the Apocalypse, the horsemen end up in Purgatory and have to fight their way through Heaven.

We have one problem – our talents never match our ideas. This is why we’re writers, not artists. We can only create with words. But we have a secret weapon that Rich and Ryan don’t have – our mate, Neen. She’s a set painter for TV and film and she’s fantastic at making little models. There are only two rules – it has to be cheap and it has to be awesome. 3D awesome with a city scene on one side, Purgatory and the treacherous path to Heaven on the other. Yesterday we went round Rich and Hannah’s and spent all evening playing board games. Some we played several times. We also played Rich’s game and it was even more awesome, especially as Cat and Hannah became a co-op team & kicked everyone’s arses. And we were all VERY excited about the new dice. Oh no! It appears…are we becoming…geeks?

This afternoon, as we were in the dentist’s, awaiting Cat’s wisdom tooth extraction, we took a notebook and planned our game, including character cards, and made notes on what needs to go into it. It’s not fully fleshed out yet, but it has a skeleton we can build on. But we are WAY behind. Rich’s game is complete, save for a few kinks. Ryan swears he’ll have a prototype by the weekend. Ours hasn’t even made it out of the notebook yet. But with an artist on board, we know ours will be stunning. The greatest board game ever! We think. We just hope the obsession hasn’t died by the time it’s made.

The fever is spreading.

Bleeding Empire

We won the book trailer contest! To prove it, click here. We’d like to thank everyone who took the time to vote us – we couldn’t have done it without you. We’d also like to thank Ryan Ashcroft of Fireclaw Films for making our fabulous trailer. Anyhoo, we promised you we would post the opening chapter of one of our novels if we won and the people have chosen Bleeding Empire.

We wrote this in November as part of NaNoWriMo and only finished its second draft yesterday. So it’s as raw as an open wound. It follows the offspring of the four horsemen of the Apocalpyse as they set out on their mission to end the world. Death screwed up the numbers and had twins – Morgan and Aeron, Conquest and War combined their DNA to form Marsden, Famine produced ultra-bitch Demi and Death donated his Pestilence to create Mac. Then there’s Drew – a disgraced angel kicked out of Heaven and forced to serve his time on Earth in a shitty pub. Oh and they’re based in Travelodge.

Here it is:

Chapter 1

 

Ash covered the desolate city in smoky kisses. Scarlet electricity pulsed through the clouds’ open veins. Thunder pounded like a desperate heart as night swept down on funereal wings to steal the light, and with it, all hope of redemption.

The ash spiralled faster, the city shaking as a delicate hand picked up the snow globe, running her black nails across its smooth surface. A smile crossed her violet lips then she hurled it. The glass shattered, the city exploding from its spherical prison as Hell arrived on earth.

 

***

     A black clad figure stood silhouetted on the roof of a car, the alarm wailing like a banshee foretelling a death. But no-one was listening. His hand held the black guitar neck, carved into a snake, its ruby eyes glinting in secret knowledge. The guitar body was a black skull, streaked with his own blood from when he carved it. The soundtrack to the city was silent, like it was waiting for him to hit Play. He raised his head then strummed the guitar. People stopped. He waited then played the note again. They moved forwards, a crowd surrounding the car.

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath then played their pain back to them, resurrecting the hidden desires they concealed from society’s judging eyes. He knew their inner turmoil better than their most intimate journal. His fingers moved faster, his plectrum plucking their nerves and playing them to the beats of their hearts. A fight erupted over some long ago misdemeanour involving a broken lawnmower and missing gnome. Two friends who’d been playfully shoving each other started kissing as the passion they’d been harbouring became too powerful to control. A long married couple began a war of words, their pent up frustrations becoming hollowpoint bullets that gunned down their marriage in the dismal street beneath the scattered ash that fell from the sky.

Raw emotions bled into the night. The figure watched his crowd, bringing the song to a final angry chorus. The married couple traded wounding words. The fighters wrestled on the floor, the attacker delivering one final blow to his friend’s bloodied face. The kissing friends’ clothes lay torn beneath them, bloodied scratches a souvenir on their backs as they lost themselves in ecstasy.

The song died.

The married couple stepped away from each other, swallowing the hurt that still burned inside. The attacker hugged his lifeless friend, his tears streaking through the blood and the damage he’d inflicted. The two friends shared one last lingering kiss then self-consciously dressed in their ripped clothes and went back to playfighting, smothering the fire that danced in their eyes. The rest of the crowd moved away, their gazes lost and empty.

“Marsden De’Ath. The one and only.”

The figure turned. “If you start singing that Chesney Hawkes tune, I’ll use your vocal chords to re-string my guitar.”

A man stood in the shadows. Stubble kissed his cheeks. A silver choker burdened his neck. He smiled, his face illuminating, like a beautiful statue beneath a Museum’s spotlights.

“Drew!” Mars leapt off the car. They hugged then winced as their bodies scorched. They pulled away, their skin healing.

“I was about to file a missing persons’ report for you.”

“I was lying low to avoid the pre-Christmas sales. Shoppers bring me out in a rash.”

“It happened then.” Drew nudged the fallen man with the toe of his boot.

“We all knew it would. It was just a matter of when.” Mars slung his guitar around his back. “There was nothing else pencilled in the diary for today.”

“Are the others here?”

“Somewhere. They’re probably trackable through GPS. Why are you here?”

“Damage control.”

“You can’t stop it.”

“No. But I can stop you.” They stared at each other, choking on every word they longed to say. “Or at least, try to change your playlist.” Drew grinned and poked Mars’ shoulder, grimacing when his fingertip burned.

“Sorry, I don’t do requests.”

“Yeah I didn’t think you were the Karaoke type.”

“That hurts. You haven’t heard my Gloria Gaynor.”

Drew laughed. “Promise me one thing – once a day you’ll play a happy song. Give them a chance of salvation.”

“I play what’s inside them.”

“Yes but you can control what surfaces.”

Mars wiped ash off Drew’s forehead, leaving behind a charcoal smear and line of blistered skin. “Put it in my suggestions box.”

“You don’t pick up phone messages, you’ll never empty your suggestions box.”

“People thrive on misery. That’s why Jerry Springer was so popular.”

“The world can’t exist on pain alone.”

 

***

     Demi moved through the packed club, Salvation. The music thrashed a heartbeat against her chest. Girls looked her up and down, their faces contorting as her supermodel frame slipped past them. They adjusted their clothes, holding in their stomachs until she disappeared then bitching behind her back. She climbed the stairs, her movements portraying the grace theirs lacked, her dress shimmering under the pulsating lights.

She moved onto a raised platform and danced. Other girls moved away from her, whispering together, their revealing outfits suddenly feeling too tight. They watched her then caught glimpses of themselves in reflective surfaces and looked away, their bodies which earlier had looked sexy to them, now looked two sizes too big.

Demi smiled down on them, her slim limbs matching the rhythm of the music as she sashayed her body.

“She looks like a skeleton,” one girl murmured to her friend.

“At least I don’t look like I was made with self-raising flour,” Demi retorted. She nodded at the girl. “Get a bigger top. The only place I want to see muffins, is in bakeries.”

The girl fled.

“You bitch!” Her friend tugged Demi’s hair.

Demi backhanded her, knocking her to the floor.

“Touch my hair again and you’ll lose your fingers. Some Romanian girl was paid adequate money to provide me with these extortionate extensions. She’d be devastated to learn you used her hair as a tug toy.” She adjusted her dress then moved to a different spot.

“Nice moves!” A guy approached her. “Fancy practising some with me?”

“The only move I want to do with you, is one that takes your head off your shoulders. Come back to me when you’ve lain off the pies and learned to take a bath.”

His mates whistled and shouted as she strolled to a group of girls who were dancing provocatively, trying to catch the attention of nearby men.

“No wonder they call it belly dancing – your bellies are big enough to dance by themselves.” Demi pushed her way into the centre of their circle and swayed her hips, the lights casting shadows under her sharp cheekbones. “It’s supposed look sensuous, not make them feel nauseous.”

“Skinny bitch,” one girl snapped.

“You say skinny like it’s a bad thing. I could get two of me in your clothes and still have room for that guy you’re eyeing up. He wouldn’t suffocate in my cleavage.”

“Only ‘cos you don’t have any.”

“At least guys want me for my personality – you’re just a pair of talking tits.”

In the corner, Mac watched Demi, his hood concealing most of his face. She caught his eye and smirked then gestured towards the opposite side of the club. He moved away from the wall and passed through the dancers to where a man lurked.

Mac grabbed him and pushed him through the fire exit into the dank alley behind the club. Stale urine, tobacco and the sickly sweet smell of marijuana assaulted his olfactory senses.

“Hey! What are you doing?” The man stumbled but saved himself.

“Putting you out of business.”

“Fuck off.” The man flicked out a knife.

“Sorry pal – a new corporation has moved into the area and we’re closing you down.”

Mac nodded at Mars, who leaned against a black wheelie bin then Mac disappeared into the club. He heard the first chords on Mars’s guitar before the door shut, drowning him out with the beat from the club.

He shoved his gloved hands into his hoody’s pockets and watched the dancers for three minutes. He backed out the fire exit and saw the man sprawled on the wet floor, a gaping wound in his throat, his bloodied knife lying beside him.

Mac rifled through his pockets, taking his mobile, cash and several sachets of pills before returning inside.

“You seen Vinny?” A man asked.

“He’s taken early retirement. What can I get you?”

“Two pills.”

Mac handed over the pills and took the cash with a handshake. He glanced at Demi, who winked then continued dancing. Mac worked his way through the dancers before getting lost in the throng.

 

***

     Morgan and Aeron crushed the broken glass they walked over as they headed into the street. Their PVC outfits were almost as identical as they were. They stopped by a car, where a bloodied man lay in the road, his battered face swollen beyond recognition.

“Do you want the honours?” Aeron asked.

“It’ll be my pleasure.”

Morgan crouched beside the man and produced a snow globe from his pocket. She rolled it around her fingers, the glass chinking against her Gothic rings then she gazed into the glass at the tiny graveyard beyond. She shook it, watching ash spiral around the peaceful scene. When the ash settled, a new headstone grew from the ground.

Morgan rose when she heard the beating of wings. She held her arm out to the raven and he hopped onto it. She squeezed the globe until it was the size of a marble then slipped into a black pouch that hung around the raven’s neck.

The raven took flight, a stark contrast to the crimson clouds that hovered above the earth like a blood stained cloth.

Aeron squatted by the gutter and picked up a broken guitar string. He held it out to Morgan.

“Someone’s been busy.”

“As least he’s doing his job and not being distracted by that bad influence.”

Aeron pocketed the string and they walked across the road. An ambulance raced past them, its blue lights turning their pale skin into a sickly death hue. They moved through different streets until they heard the beat from Salvation. Ignoring the club, they slipped into the alley, where a man lay surrounded by his own blood.

“My turn.” Aeron freed a snow globe from the corpse’s coat pocket and tossed it in the air. He caught it, watching the ash rest on a new grave.

 

Book Trailer Contest

Faithful followers, we need your help. We don’t ask for much from our dedicated followers – we’ve never asked you to take up arms and go into battle with us (yet) nor have we asked you to sign a pledge to support our world domination/steal Stephen King’s throne plots – though that time will come. So we’re just asking a tiny favour. There’s not much effort involved – certainly a lot less than having to train in swordmanship and archery – see above for why you’d need these skills. Our book trailer for Soul Asylum, done by the amazing Ryan Ashcroft of Fireclaw Films is in a contest for best book trailer. Unfortunately, the trailers aren’t judged by independent judges. They win on votes. Which means it’s basically a popularity contest and whoever has the biggest army of voters will win. We’ve never even come close to winning a popularity contest. We don’t have a huge army of people who are willing to do our bidding at our command (though we have a small band of loyal friends who are invaluable) so we don’t think we stand a chance of winning. Which is a shame, because we truly believe Soul Asylum’s trailer deserves to win. And we’re not just saying that because it’s ours. Hell, we didn’t make it. But we think Ryan is extremely talented and with all the hard work he put into this trailer, he deserves the accolade. He has to put up with us taking the piss out of him on a daily basis, but there’s not a reward for that

If you haven’t seen the trailer, you can watch it here. To vote for it click here then all you have to do is click on the VOTE HERE link, type your name, email and the name of the trailer you want to win – Soul Asylum. Ok, to make it fair, all the book trailers in the contest are on that link too so if you want to watch them then vote, go ahead.

Want a further incentive? *Cue sad music* this is our X-Factor sob story. Kidding! IF Soul Asylum’s trailer wins, we’ll put up the first chapter of one of our unpublished novels. It will either be Scott the Zombie, Bleeding Empire or maybe a totally random novel that you don’t even know about. Is that enough incentive? No? How about a place in our World Domination Government? Yeah, that’s what we thought…

The Ghost Hunters Return

We have another guest! Some of you may know her from her books and some of you may know her as the honorary member of C.A.T.S Calamityville Horror, as she has joined us many times, in Hell Fire Caves, Nottingham Galleries of Justice and Peterborough. But you know that anyone who visits Casa Raven is doomed to wander these gloomy corridors forever, so we tracked her down in one of the catacombs and brought her back up for some wine and biscuits. So we give you… L K Jay!

 

 

The Ghost Hunters Return by L K Jay

It’s been a while since I’ve been here but the sisters of darkness couldn’t keep me away for long!  I recently visited them at their home in Wales for their birthday party and it was great to be invited.  It was a really fun do, I paid homage to the gothic by dressing up as a middle-aged goth – I even put on black lace gloves.  They looked quite fetching with my rouge-noir nail varnish but they itched a bit – the price one has to pay for fashion.  Couldn’t do much about the hair though, blond highlights do not a goth make!  But C L Raven looked fabulous and they put on a really good spread, which I enjoyed munching my way through.  I wished I could have stayed longer but the stupid day job gets in the way …

Anyway, keeping in with the theme of the ‘fun-gothic’ – I think I’ve just invented a new genre – I wanted to tell you about my new novel that has just been released, and what it was like to write a sequel.  I wrote The Ghost Hunters Club over two years ago and life was quite different then.  I was living in Leeds, I had just been spectacularly let down by a man and it was not long after I had to change jobs and move back to the Fens.  There was a lot of my life at that point in that novel, including the ghost hunting and drinking!

However, a year later, I had the itch to continue Linda, Karen and Anna’s stories.  I was about as far removed from my previous situation but I woke up one morning and the plot to the sequel just came to me.  So while I was at work, when I probably should have been doing something else, I scribbled the basic plot down and the seeds had been sown.  It was two years after starting the first novel when I began The Ghost Hunters Return – cunning title eh? – but I wasn’t living in the home town of my main characters and two years had passed since I wrote the last one, when only two months had passed for them.  But this was the thing, it only took a few pages to dive back into their worlds.  It was like greeting old friends again and I had so much fun deciding what I was going to do with their lives.  After a while, I stopped writing the story, it wrote itself and the characters stopped relying on me to make decisions for them but they made them for themselves.

There’s a couple of new characters as well: one is good and one is bad, but which one, you’ll have to read to find out.  There’s more ghost hunting, more strange characters and definitely more ghosts!  And needless to say, Anna, has another of her moments …

Many thanks to Ryan Ashcroft for designing the covers: he came up with the concept, shot the pictures himself and then produced two beautiful matching covers for the Ghost Hunters books.  I love them, I hope you do too.

 

We’ve just bought The Ghost Hunters Return and can’t wait to get started on it. Buy your copy here.

 

We’ve read The Ghost Hunters Club and loved it. If you haven’t read it yet, download it now, here.

 

Opposites Attract

We’re thrilled to be able to welcome fabulous erotic author Lacey Wolfe back to Ravens Retreat. She has the proud accolade of being the first erotic author we’ve ever liked, which is no mean feat. Today’s doubly special because it’s also her birthday, so penblwydd hapus Lacey. Hope you’re getting spoiled rotten, maybe with some hunky guys bringing you cake. She’s here today to talk about writing a series. The fourth book in her sizzling Hot Bods series was released February 18th and if you haven’t got it yet, shame on you! So we’ll leave you in her capable hands while we bring her some birthday cake and champagne. Sadly we have no hunks on hand to wait on her.

 

First I want to say thank you so much for hosting me today. I have just completed my first series, The Hot Bods series.

To be honest, I’ve never been a big series reader. And now when I sit back and look at my writing, I’ve realized I’m a series writer. I have the Hot Bods series, the Brookfield series, and a new one coming soon, Love Strikes series. The Hot Bods series is the only complete series at this point.

So you may be wondering, is this a series you have to read in order? My answer is no however I think if you did, you’d enjoy it much better. Mainly because of one character, Francesca. You’ll meet her in the first book, Fool Me Once and chances are you’ll dislike her. She reappears in the second book More Than Useful as the hero’s sister, and in the third book Accidental Love, the reader will get to see a whole new side of Francesca and begin to wonder if she is as bad as they thought she was. And finally, Opposites Attract and Francesca gets her story.

Now Francesca isn’t the only character. We have Skylar who is a big part of all the books, as well as Amy and Jane. All four girls will appear in each book and of course if you read it in order, you’ll get little updates on how each of them is doing.

I have found writing series is fun. I get to keep my characters longer and revisit them. And so does the reader. Many times when you put a book down, it’s over. But not with a series.

Opposites Attract is the only story to include an epilogue and I think I tied the series up with a nice bow. Of course if someone has real all four they may still be left wanting to know more, and hey, who knows what the future holds. Another book could be in store.

To check out more on the Hot Bods series, check it out:

http://www.laceywolfe.com/hot-bods-series.html

Thank you so much for having me on today! I enjoyed being here.

 

As a special birthday present, Lacey has allowed us to give away one of the books in the Hot Bods series, so comment below if you’d like to win one and we’ll select the winner in a week’s time. So click on her link to check out all the books.