Russell A. Smith's Blog, page 5
January 26, 2014
Primal Storm is GO!
It’s been another long, hard scrap, but the world can now get its hands on the second installment of the Grenshall Manor Chronicles! Primal Storm is now on sale, in paperback and e-book formats as linked below.
Even if you haven’t read Oblivion Storm, you should be able to hop on to the new story. It’s a different journey, for sure, but expect some familiar faces and a bunch of new ones. If you want to know a little more about the background behind it, I wrote a guest post for my publisher’s blog page just a few days ago.
I’ll be back with a lengthier post some time when I’m fully recovered from all the last minute work, but for now, I’m just sitting around, excited to see how you all get on. Until then, take care, and stay tuned! This is going to be a busy year.
See some reviews of Oblivion Storm for yourself!
Come find me on Goodreads if you haven’t already 
December 31, 2013
2013 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 700 times in 2013. If it were a cable car, it would take about 12 trips to carry that many people.
Click here to see the complete report.
December 17, 2013
MORE TROLLS THAN A MID-LEVEL DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS CAMPAIGN
Reblogged from chronicles of harriet:
MORE TROLLS THAN A MID-LEVEL DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS CAMPAIGN
I have been the victim of trolling.
Recently, a person tried to bait me into an argument, or get a rise out of me by insulting my latest book release, A Single Link, without reading it. When that didn’t work, they said they were purchasing another book that released the same day as…
A top post on trolls.
December 15, 2013
The Steady March of Time
Once again, I inevitably find myself apologising for the length of time between my previous post and now. There are many reasons, mostly the length of time it’s taking me to get my final edits together, but also the emergence of a new day job at the end of August. All good things, as it turns out, but they are proper time-eaters. And unfortunately, have turned out to be at the neglect of aspects of my social media.
Now, there have been some good things too. For a start, I’ve been getting out and seeing people buying my books live (and indeed signing some of them!) This, in turn, has generated some rather nice photo albums. If you’d like to have a look for yourself, I’ve put links on here and here, for example.
The other part of this has been a few bits of novel news that others may know about, but I haven’t put up here yet. So first of all, the fact there’s a second edition of Oblivion Storm now [for those interested in such things, it’s a different ISBN as well, of course]. Have a look for yourself on the links, and whilst you’re there, I’ve got a few reviews too. Maybe I’ll have a few more after this!
News the second: the follow-up to Oblivion Storm is currently on schedule for a JANUARY 24, 2014 release, so mark it in your diaries! It has the title, Primal Storm, and takes you on around a year after the first adventure. I’m busting a gut putting finishing touches on this, and hope you like what I’ve done with the place! Some familiar characters will be there, with new hobbies and fresh challenges. Parkour, for example. It’d be great to see you all on board.
Now, a goal for early next year is to ensure I have a website up and running for my writing work too. I’m very happy with initial talks getting it organised, so that’ll be something else to look forward to, on my part at least.
As I can’t guarantee I’ll get another post up before Christmas, I should also like to take this time out to wish all readers a merry Christmas, whatever they may be doing, and hope you all have a wonderful 2014. I’m certainly looking to make it another big one!
June 4, 2013
Back to School !
I was all set to just come back from my talk up in Durham and maybe tell you how well that went. Very, by the way. I had a pretty strong turnout and despite some early technical issues hopefully sent folk away with a couple of things to ponder. And memories of some images I had fun looking up.
Then I got home, unable to escape the fact that my feeds were being jammed with one piece of news: ‘Matt Smith announces he is quitting Dr Who’. So then I had a plan to jump on the big piece of news within the sci-fi community. I even got about halfway through writing a post, but hit a point where I thought everyone had said all the useful stuff already. So I’m going to give you a link to this D.A. Lascelles post instead, as he’s pretty much got me covered. Though I’d now add Zawe Ashton to that shortlist having read around and got to the Guardian’s post. Also, one thing *I’d* like to see is the show managing to keep the identity of the next Doctor hush-hush until the episode actually airs, for a proper ‘OMG’ moment. Now I realise this is damn-near impossible in this day and age, but you know – it’s kinda nice to have something genuinely surprising happen on screen these days.
Anyway, enough of that. Another reason this isn’t a full-blown post on that, or the recent Game of Thrones episode for that matter, is that something important came up on my side again. I have another interview through – this time, from my old university and one of the places this whole crazy idea to start writing began. You may find the link to the post here.
I really like the background painting for this picture. Works very well, I think! We actually spoke for a pretty long time, so I’m really impressed Jason managed to compress so much of what we ended up discussing into this space. Anyway, I’ll be taking questions on almost all of the above by way of comment of course. Except on the GoT thing
May 30, 2013
Nerd East 2013
This time, it’s personal.
Well, not really, but that always seems to be a good tagline, doesn’t it? Doesn’t it?
Anyhoo, following last year’s fun at the ever-growing Nerd East con, I’ve signed up to do it all again. This time, my writing talk is on the wide topic of characters, so I’m planning to focus on a couple of aspects and hope for the best.
I love the challenge that comes with the Nerd East talk; trying to combine gaming and writing and spotting the crossover. Also, I’m aware I’m still pretty new to this business, so even the research I’ve done from this has taught me a lot. I’m hoping it all comes across well, and am planning to bring some relevant visuals to the party this time.
I’m going to be bringing some freebies along, both from myself and one of my writing buddies D.A. Lascelles.
As an added surprise since I signed up (to me!), I’m going to be involved in another talk as well, as you can see from this here schedule. So come along, have a laugh, and optimistically on my part, bring along books for me to sign!
I look forward to seeing some of you there!
Interview with R.A. Smith, author of Oblivion Storm: The Grenshall Manor Chronicles
Oblivion Storm is the debut novel from R.A. Smith. It’s a fantastic mix of urban and dark fantasy, central to which are some extremely well realised, strong female characters. The narrative follows two central strands which take place across two-time periods. It combines lots of different elements and is part Victorian ghost story, part modern fairytale. I adore the dark fantasy of Clive Barker and the urban fantasy of Ben Aaronovitch and Neil Gaiman, and Oblivion Storm combines elements of all of them.
The interview I did for the Sticky Sounds Zine.
Author pic credit: Quattrofoto https://www.facebook.com/Quattrofoto?...
May 21, 2013
Hidden Manchester
Today, I have another guest post on my blog, as promised some days ago. The topic is wonderful when it comes to crossover between the theme I tend to have when I get guests here: locations, and also the fact that this particular location happens to be my base of operations at the moment.
Readers: I would like to proudly introduce Vicky Hartley, and the Sticky Sounds ‘zine . There is also of course a Sticky Sounds blog, as regular readers may know.
I will be back soon with details of my upcoming activities, but for now, take it away, Vicky!
“A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other. A solemn consideration, when I enter a great city by night, that every one of those darkly clustered houses encloses its own secret; that every room in every one of them encloses its own secret; that every beating heart in the hundreds of thousands of breasts there is, in some of its imaginings, a secret to the heart nearest it.” – Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
I was not born a native of Manchester, my family are from Liverpool and I was born in Plymouth on the South West coast of Devon. I moved to Manchester about thirteen years ago, at the age of 21, following my then boyfriend to the city. He later left but I stayed.
It may not be the city of my birth but is now my hometown, a fact that will remain true in the future, wherever I may come to live.
I feel a connection with Manchester, with its history, its canals, its backstreets, its beautiful red bricks, even with its rain. My favourite location is not simply the city itself, but the side of it that lies secret and is hidden to most residents, the side of the city that can be found in its underground tunnels, in its abandoned buildings, in its old mills and waterways. I spend much of my time seeking out and photographing these places in the hope that I might communicate this passion with others.
The history of this beautiful city lies all around us, like the rings of a tree, all you have to do is look for it.
“Very soon these same deserted sidewalks would be thronged with people. The city would go about its business in ignorance: never knowing what it was built upon, or what it owed its life to.” – Clive Barker, Midnight Meat Train
At the heart of every city is a monster that feeds on blood, and of no city is this more true than Manchester. Once known as “Cottonopolis” and the Warehouse City, Manchester led the world in industrialisation.
“What Manchester does today, the rest of the world does tomorrow.”
The Industrial Revolution brought great wealth to the city, but hand in hand with this came unparalleled poverty and squalor for a large part of the population. These people were nothing more than cattle for the greater good. A new underclass destined to live in a new kind of hell. The fires of this hell burned and smouldered in the red bricks as smoke billowed constantly from the dark satanic mills. The unbroken, monotonous rumbling of the looms filled the air and mingled with the heat of the steam. The city was a giant machine and its inhabitants reduced to units of labour, small expendable parts of the whole. Not so much a city as an assault on the senses. Overcrowding was chronic with whole families living in single rooms, and little or no sewage works for most of the nineteenth century. The only refuge that most of the poor would ever know from the hardships of their everyday life was found in alcohol. Their anger often expressed itself through violent crime, from domestic violence between husband and with to the youth gangs, or ‘scuttlers’ who ran amok on Manchester’s streets. When you look at these past extremes of the city it raises the question ‘what does it mean to have a life?’ These people remain in Manchester today, in its red bricks and the canals that run like veins through the city. As do all inhabitants who come afterwards, we are all Manchester, all serving the beast.
It’s called ‘urban exploring,’ when we go crawling or climbing into these old abandoned spaces, forgotten by people but not by nature. Old buildings that lie frozen at a point in time, and walking in these corridors it can feel as though the same thing has happened to you. Removed from the rest of the world and the reality of your life outside those damp and decaying walls, silence there becomes something that you can feel.
As we pass through rooms filled with remnants of the buildings former life it is as though we walk a path between the living and the dead. An abandoned building stands as an unintended mausoleum to a past world, until the present returns once more to sweep it all away.
“I find beauty in decay. I like to see nature conquering what man has left. I believe that old buildings have a soul, and when I photograph these places I try to capture a piece of that soul.”
Volume 5 of Sticky Sounds Zine is back from the printers and ready to post out. It includes an interview with R.A. Smith and a feature on urban legends, amongst other things. Should you like to request a copy then please get in touch: www.facebook.com/stickysoundszine
May 17, 2013
Volume 5
The fifth volume of the zine went to the printers this morning and so this is the now obligatory blog post that follows, explaining a bit about both the content and the thoughts and processes that went into putting it together.
Volume four was the first issue of the zine to contain a contributor other than my dull, self-obsessed self. Volume five has further followed along those lines by being the first issue to feature interviews that I’ve conducted over the last couple of months.
I shall have a guest post up from Vicky relating to this. Specifically, hidden Manchester. Do stop by!
April 22, 2013
World Book Night
Tomorrow early evening, I shall be around for a World Book Night giveaway along with a number of other authors. One of them, D.A. Lascelles, has already put all the details up here.
I shall mostly have bookmarks and readings on offer, though of course will be around for coffee and any strange questions you may have for me.
Meanwhile, apologies for being quiet for a while. Lots going on at the moment and it’s mostly good on the writing front. One related matter would be the most recent guest post I did for Xchyler Publishing, which I’ve linked here in case you didn’t catch it the first time. There are plenty more from other writers by now I can recommend reading too!
Right. More pictures. I hope to see some of you very soon!
