Andrew Hook's Blog, page 5

Buckle Up (Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle)

On the 15th October 2022 my short story collection, Candescent Blooms, is being published by Salt Publishing. I've previously posted here with regards to the background to the collection, and the fact that twelve Hollywood actors whose lives ended prematurely are the main characters in each of the twelve stories. As stated in that post, the intention in the run-up to publication is to focus on each actor with some snippets of information (both about them and the writing of their stories). These ...

Honeypot (Rudolph Valentino)

On the 15th October 2022 my short story collection, Candescent Blooms, is being published by Salt Publishing. I've previously posted here with regards to the background to the collection, and the fact that twelve Hollywood actors whose lives ended prematurely are the main characters in each of the twelve stories. As stated in that post, the intention in the run-up to publication is to focus on each actor with some snippets of information (both about them and the writing of their stories). These ...

Memories of Olive (Olive Thomas)

On the 15th October 2022 my short story collection, Candescent Blooms, is being published by Salt Publishing. I've previously posted here with regards to the background to the collection, and the fact that twelve Hollywood actors whose lives ended prematurely are the main characters in each of the twelve stories. As stated in that post, the intention in the run-up to publication is to focus on each actor with some snippets of information (both about them and the writing of their stories). These ...

H is for Hollywoodland (Peg Entwistle)

On the 15th October 2022 my short story collection, Candescent Blooms, is being published by Salt Publishing. I've previously posted here with regards to the background to the collection, and the fact that twelve Hollywood actors whose lives ended prematurely are the main characters in each of the twelve stories. As stated in that post, the intention in the run-up to publication is to focus on each actor with some snippets of information (both about them and the writing of their stories). These ...

Candescent Blooms

On the 15th October 2022, Candescent Blooms, my tenth short story collection, will be published by Salt. If you enter your email address in the space provided to the right of this web page then you'll receive notification when the book is available. Personally, I feel Candescent Blooms is my best collection. I'm normally a writer of ideas, with characters taking a back seat to odd scenarios, but in this collection characters are right in the foreground. And some of these characters you will alre...

Secondhand Daylight

I've previously written about how the writer Eugen Bacon came to know my fiction and vice versa in this blog post about a short story, "Messier 94", that we collaborated on which was published last year. Following the writing of that piece, Eugen had suggested we work together on something longer, a novel or a novella. I parked that idea for a moment - we were both busy - until one early morning cycling before work along Marriott's Way in Norwich the sunlight was channeled through the trees to t...

Something To Believe In

My short story titled "Something To Believe In" has just been published in Crossing The Tees (The Fifth Short Story Anthology). This is an anthology compiled of the shortlisted and winning entries to the annual Crossing The Tees competition. I rarely enter competitions, because there's normally a submission fee, however this one was free and I decided it was worth a go. And as usual I'm writing a few words discussing how the story came to be written. There may be spoilers within.

If you read my s...

The Best and Worst of 2021

Well, it's that time of the year when everyone is doing their 'best and worst of' lists, so here is mine. I'm going to list the books and movies and records I read/watched/listened to in 2021 and then pick my favourites. This isn't restricted to what was new in 2021, but what I actually watched and read and heard - some of these items might be very old indeed.

Books:

I read the following in 2021:

Alison Moore – The LighthouseJeff Noon – Within WithoutThomas M Disch – The PrisonerIra Levin – The Boy...

My Writing Year 2021

As has become annual I thought I'd write a quick blog post as to my literary achievements during 2021.

Last year the majority of my time was spent writing a non-fiction book, which this year was accepted for publication although I'm not yet in a position to reveal any details, nor am I sure exactly when it might be published. However, with that now put to bed, I've returned to writing short fiction again this year, and also turned towards a publishing project.

Starting with the short fiction, I wr...

Where Do Broken Dreams Go?

 My short story titled "Where Do Broken Dreams Go?" has just been published in the anthology, Professor Charlatan Bardot’s Travel Anthology to the Most (Fictional) Haunted Buildings in the Weird, Wild World, edited by Charlatan Bardot & Eric J. Guignard for Dark Moon Books, and as usual I'm writing a few words discussing how the story came to be written. There may be spoilers within.

Unlike most of my short fiction, the gestation period for this story is very long. I originally wrote it in March ...