Mark West's Blog, page 71

Only 4 copies left!

As reported today on the Spectral Press website! If you haven't already ordered a copy, you'd better get in quick!

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Alt-Fiction, Leicester, 14th April 2012

Although Alt-Fiction (an event run by Writing East Midlands) has been held in Derby for the past few years, I’ve never managed to attend. Since this year it was being held in Leicester (and organised by the indefatigable Adele Wearing and WEM’s Catherine Rogers, plus most of the Ubound crew), I went along.

I didn’t get there until 11, so I missed the first few panels but that was countered by

Nostalgia alert - An 80s comic, found!

As regular readers of this blog might have noticed, I am something of a nostalgic (for further evidence, why not check here, here or here) and even though I very much live in the present (my 6-year-old son sees to that), I do like looking back. With eBay, 2nd hand bookshops and some terrific retro-shops that are springing up, it's now easier than ever to put your hands on stuff you had through

Real-life locations - "The Mill"

Something I like to utilise a lot in my fiction is a sense of place - I believe that if you can make the location as realistic as possible, you can do pretty much whatever else you want and still keep the reader onside. To that end, most places in my stories are based extensively on real life.

Take "The Mill", as an example (because I have photographs to illustrate this point - my mother didn't

The writer, reading "Fog On The Old Coast Road"

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you might remember the Hauntings Event I attended on March 11th (and if you're not, you can get up to speed with the original post here).

Co-organised by the team at Un:bound (Vincent Holland-Keen, Adele Wearing & Kat Heubeck) and Newcon Press (Ian Whates), the event was in two parts. The first consisted of five writers reading their stories to an

Dear Me

I'm currently reading a book called "Dear Me", edited by Joseph Galliano. It's a collection of letters written by celebrities to their 16-year-old selves, which the website describes as being "for the teenager wondering what life is all about, someone looking back to their youth, or [someone] seeking homespun wisdom."

I'm enjoying it so far, it's amusing, poignant and life-affirming and since

Coming September 2012 (part 3)

A photocopied page of The Gaffney Evening Telegraph, relating to The Rainy Day Abductor...


(photo courtesy of The Gaffney Historical Society)

The Hauntings Event - 11th March 2012

Dear Discerning Reader

Picture the scene: an isolated country pub; it's a bitter (which is only fitting, this being a pub) and blustery night. Five weary travellers huddle before a crackling fire. Slowly, falteringly, one of them starts to tell a story - a chilling tale of dark spirits and tragedy. As the first narrator's (wholly original and never heard before) story reaches its dire

Coming September 2012 (part 2)

More vintage news on The Rainy Day Abductor...

Silent Voices trailer

A trailer, made by me, for Gary McMahon's forthcoming novel "Silent Voices".